The fundamental principles of composition are actually all negative, rather than positive.

Most of us are unaware of the psychological factors we take for granted, compositional attributes that suggest size, loneliness, approaching/receding, flying and sinking, and so on.

I would be the last person to tell you what to do, your art is yours, do it your way. I would never say that you had to follow some list of rules and regulations in order to get a great painting instead of a good one, but I can easily tell you what NOT to do. These are all things that are not found in the works of the great masters.

Here are twenty tried and true philosophies of composition that have not really changed in thousands of years, and are not likely to change any time soon.

Understand, of course, that what is to follow is a basic guideline, a set of, if not rules, then recipe suggestions instead. You will notice that many are complimentary, opposing sides of the same coin. Once you understand them and their purpose, feel free to break them, transcending mere Craft and delving into real Art.

1. Don’t make the subject of the painting too small, unless you have a particular reason to do so, like painting a dwarf, or a ladybug.

2. Don’t make the subject too large either, unless you are depicting a giant, or an extreme closeup.

3. Don’t place the subject matter too high on the canvas / drawing frame, leaving a lot of empty space below. Balance is key.

4. Likewise, too low on the canvas and the imbalance would be at the top.

5. Do not place the subject so that it top is cut off by the canvas frame, giving the impression that is it flying out of the picture, psychologically speaking.

6. Putting the subject too low on the frame would suggest that the subject is sinking, drowning, or falling.

7. Do not place the subject halfway inside one edge of the frame, looking as if it were entering the picture, unless this is exactly the effect you are aiming at.

8. Same thing with walking out of the frame.

9. Do not place you subject on a slope, sliding inward. This give an impression of failure.

10. Do not place the subject in a corner. Such a composition invariably looks absurd.

11. Do not let your subject touch all four corners, or even two or three corners. Such a composition gives the impression of being hemmed in.

12. Do not make your subject half and half, vertically or horizontally, having just about the same mirror ring of object in one half as the other. Compositions like this remind us of playing cards.

13. Don’t place narrow forms parallel to the edge – any edge – of the canvas; such a composition error makes the frame look wider on the side where the parallel form is.

14. Do not make the picture a sort of over-all design by carrying the subject practically to the edges all around.

15. Do not forget to balance dense space with white, and white space with density.

16. Do not distribute your forms in an exactly symmetrical manner, even if you do use symmetry, there must be some variety.

17. Do not place too much subject matter into one half, leaving the other side unbalanced.

18. Do not place a main item standing all by itself. That suggests loneliness, abandonment, whether the subject is a man, a building, a tree, or a rock.

19. Do not repeat the same forms mechanically, there must always be some organic variation.

20. Do not cut off little corners of objects just because you’ve left no room for them, they will look exactly like what they are: accidents.

Following these tried and true ‘Don’ts’, you can be sure that whatever ills your painting may suffer, poor composition is not likely to be among them.