A Geometry Lesson

Image by Martin Gommell

I have been using the "Rule of Thirds" for decades--ever since I took photography lessons as a college student. What, you may ask, is the "Rule of Thirds"? Explained simply on the PhotographyMad website, "The rule of thirds involves mentally dividing up your image using two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. You then position the important elements in your scene along those lines, or at the points where they meet."

There is a lot of research on this, but the bottom line (ha!, pun intended) is that the "thirds" distribution of shapes is believed by many to be the most pleasing to the human eye.

(c) Anne Blair Brown

Anne Blair Brown recently wrote an interesting post for the Oil Painters of America blog, talking about the Rule of Thirds. She gave an illustration(above) using one of her

own paintings (above). Notice how the flowers are precisely at the intersection of two lines. And the bottom of the table corresponds closely to the bottom line. The eye follows that strong diagonal line from the lower left to upper right, moving the viewer through the painting. Good work!

"Pont Saint-Michel, Morning"
Oil on Board
(c) Lesley Powell 2016

Anne mentioned that the Rule of Thirds often becomes intuitive to people who have been using it for a long time. I thought I would test it against a couple of my recent paintings that were done without any intentional drawing of lines to divide the canvas. Surprise--my paintings too matched up pretty well against the lines from the Rule of Thirds. In my first painting, immediately above, notice how the bridge corresponds closely to the bottom line, and the roofline of the building corresponds to the top line. The detail on the bridge span is right on one of the intersection points. This happened without any conscious intent on my part. Maybe there is hope!

"Under the Bridge"
Oil on Paper
(c) Lesley Powell 2016

In the next painting, the correspondence is not quite as close, but still I was satisfied. The focal point of the bright red navigational sign is very close to the top right intersection point, and the strongest points of contrast (bright white against dark brown follow the lines as well. This painting was a small study for a larger one, and in the larger version I moved things slightly to get closer to the ideals of the Rule of Thirds. Stay tuned for the finished product...