Much of the effectiveness of your painting composition arises from how you divide the main spaces and how you link them together. You can use baselines (the line that defines the bottom of objects) to convey a three-dimensional feel to the spaces in your painting composition. Overlapping forms further help to create a three-dimensional feeling. You can use techniques such as having two lines meet at right angles to add strength to the painting composition and the principle of tie together to make the composition appear less disjointed. You also need to avoid the common problems that occur in work by less experienced painters such as tangents and equal space division. By avoiding these problems your paintings will look more professional. All these topics are covered in full in this unit.

In this course unit

This unit continues the exploration of the subject of space division to improve your painting composition. You will learn:

• the principles of baselines and ground contours that will help give your landscapes depth and make them more convincing
• how to use foregrounds and the concept of 'walk room'
• how to use overlapping forms to give your landscapes depth and help to clarify the forms in your painting
• common problems with overlapping forms
• how to use right angles to give strength and solidity to your painting compositions
• the importance of shape simplification to strengthen your design
• the problems of tangents and how to avoid them
• how to use the technique of 'tie together' to bring your painting composition into a more unified design
• the key principle of unequal space division

Total number of assignments: 5

Total number of pages: 16