The No.1 reason paintings fail

(and how to make sure yours don’t!)

What is the number 1 priority for a good painting? Is it to do with colour? Or subject matter, or the way the picture is painted? I used to think that the number one consideration was tonal value and if I got that right, then I’d have a great painting. (Actually that is still true, but it has now been relegated by me to the No. 2 position.)

Now, all these things are good, and all are necessary. But recently I have become totally convinced that Composition is the king of all. Without a good composition from the very start, the painting is already doomed to mediocrity.

Why do I say this? Because the composition provides the bones on which we build the body. If the composition is weak, then the underlying structure of the painting is weak, and then, no matter what we do, we will never get a successful painting. We can fiddle and twiddle and tweak the painting as much as we like, but it will never resolve the underlying problem.

Some examples of powerful compositions

Night Sleeper

Portrait of Henriette

Teel’s Island

Above are three paintings by the famous American painter Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009). For me he was a master of strong composition. Almost every painting he made shows a powerful design which undergirds the picture. It is the first thing you see. His paintings are strong and powerful and have an immediate impact on the viewer. And this is all down to the strength of the composition. His colours are muted, his tonal value range is often limited, but yet the paintings draw you in by the design.

Wyeth often based his designs on vertical and horizontal lines which give his pictures solidity, and then he introduced a few diagonals to bring in variety. His pictures may seem static, but the diagonals bring a sense of movement or light.

A similar technique is used by Ian Roberts, a contemporary artist, YouTuber and writer. Here below are three of his paintings.

Ian Roberts

Ian Roberts

Again you can see the strong horizontal and vertical lines used in the compositions, making them stable and solid.

Finally, here are three of my own paintings which were sort of inspired by this idea of the strong horizontal/vertical composition.

Asleep in the Saddle

White Heat

Tithe Barn

I hope you have found this helpful. I certainly plan out my composition much more before beginning a painting, and this has helped to create a few more successes. I now truly believe that a strong composition can really help with creating a strong painting. Give it a go!

Happy composing!

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