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Tuesday, 29 October 2019

A look at Leading Lines

Leading Lines are important in a painting, although they may not be obvious. They tell the viewer where the focal point is and draw the viewers eye around the painting.  Not a new invention, the old masters used leading lines in their works and we still do today.

Here's my reference photo taken on a recent holiday in Cornwall

Veryan Beach


I do a quick sketch to get an idea of layout


in the next image I've added notes to show where the leading lines are

- also you will see a barely perceptible grid of thirds,
that's why I made a note about moving the building over to it
                                      ⤵︎


This was enough information for me to set out the drawing onto a

6" x 4" board for this oil painting

(small and quite fiddly to paint in detail, but nonetheless I enjoyed this little piece)












8 comments:

Marie Smith said...

Love seeing the technical details. The piece is a beauty.

robin cox walsh said...

That sky!!!! ♥♥♥♥♥ (I like the rest of it too.....lol!)

Eileen H said...

Thanks for explaining about leading lines, I just know that your paintings are wonderful to my untrained eye.

ann @ studiohyde said...

Oh my, I feel humbled....THANK YOU ALL, such lovely comments, especially as this little painting was VERY fiddly in the details. I kept going though :)

Marie....Yes, I think it's nice to show the techy side of painting. All very well showing a Finished piece, but I think folks like to know how it got there :)

Laurie....I'm so sorry that you're not able to do the oil paintings nowadays. Could you go towards Abstracts perhaps? Maybe they aren't your thing though. One thing I like, even though I paint, is to Watch others paint! There are some Very good artists on Youtube and the like, so perhaps I could suggest one or two for you to look out for and Enjoy painting via them, even if you can't actually do the painting yourself? Let me know in a comment and I will list, hopefully with links, some artists for you.

Thanks Robin....You always say the nicest things about my paintings, I appreciate it. You are my ego booster, lol.

Aww Thanks Eileen....again, like everyone here, you say the nicest things. And I think you have highlighted a good point about paintings in general - they are about how the viewer feels about them :)



Shammickite said...

I have taken a number of art courses over the past few years and it's surprising how many "rules" of good composition there are when it comes to creating a piece of art that will appeal to other people. Sometimes I try to follow the "rules" and sometimes it's just a happy accident!

ann @ studiohyde said...

Shammickite....and Rules can be broken! Makes creating a lot more fun :)

Judy said...

Absolutely gorgeous! And great to learn how you changed reality into beauty!

ann @ studiohyde said...

Thanks Judy......We can manipulate nature when it comes to a painting :)