Pro tip: stopped centering my subject in every piece and it made a huge difference

I used to always put my main character right in the middle of the canvas for every digital painting. Then last month I tried the rule of thirds on a fantasy landscape piece and it looked way more dynamic. Has anyone else had better luck with off-center compositions?

3 comments

3 Comments

rowanw918d ago

Off-center changed everything for me too. It felt wrong at first but now portraits look way more natural with the subject shifted to one side. The empty space on the other side actually tells its own story in the piece. Definitely a game changer once you get used to it.

caleb_bell58d ago

Gotta disagree hard here. I spent years trying to make off-center work and my portraits always looked like the subject was about to walk out of the frame. @charlie198 mentioned eyeline on the third line but honestly I think that makes an already awkward composition even more distracting. Center framing forces you to really think about the background and how every element relates to the subject. The empty space just becomes dead weight most of the time, not a story. What kind of portraits have you shot where off-center actually improved the storytelling?

charlie1988d ago

The actual trick is putting the subject's eyeline right on that third line, not just their face.