Cruciform armature

20x24

I have been studying Ian Roberts book about compositions. I find that I always pick up ideas from reading- even if I have learned it time and time before- I guess I just need that extra beating over the head with information. Well, this book is entitled "Mastering Composition" and it is well written and I am enjoying it. I decided to not only just read the book but actually try to make it stick a little better by active participation. I took the cruciform composition and decided to apply it to a picture I had in my archives. The painting above is the result. Usually I find myself adding way too much information into the painting and I could have done the same with this , but I wanted to keep the bones of the armature without destroying it with lots of little distracting shapes. I took the saying "Keep it simple stupid" and applied to to this painting and liked the way it came out. I have a larger painting that I am currently working on and I am finding that I am having to delete shapes to make the composition stronger- too bad I just didn't put them there in the first place! Well, I am going to work through this book and only plan big masses for my painting compositions and see how it goes.