This course is the first of six master design and composition units. It does not matter how well you can draw or render, without a powerful underlying abstract design concept, your painting composition will be nothing more than illustration. Space division, or how you break up the space in your painting, is one of the key foundations of this abstract design. For those of you who rely on selling your work, good composition it is probably one of the most important factors in helping making your paintings sell.

For example, make effective use of the boundaries of a painting when planning a painting composition. Use the relationship of the boundary to the interior to support a line, create interesting negative shapes, and create a feeling of space. Note how the stern of the boat in this painting buttresses against the left border of the painting, giving solidity to the painting.

In these two paintings note how the canvas has been divided into specific shapes. The focal areas have been carefully planned in each of them using the principles described in this course.

In this course unit

This course covers many of the key ideas and principles of space division, including techniques such as the rabatment of the rectangle and golden section used by Degas, one of the masters of space division. In this course you will learn:

• how to use a viewfinder to limit your field of vision and give you more abstract design options
• what to do and what not to do when cropping your subject
• a creative way to subdivide a space when composing an image that ensures an interesting space division
• ideas for how to come up with creative designs and painting compositions
• why the edges of your painting are important to consider and what to look for
• the magic Golden Section and how to use it
• the rabatment of the rectangle: another magic principle of space division to improve your painting composition

Total number of assignments: 5

Total number of pages: 22