Series 16:  Selecting & Placing

S16 L1 Magic of Rabatment- Download

Images we select and the way we place them creates the underlying balance of our work. Since we work mostly in rectangles of varying proportions, both rabatment and the rule of thirds are excellent guides for placement because both are related to the golden mean.

[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”24″ size_format=”px”]In this lesson, S16L1  Magic of Rabatment of the SELECTING & PLACING series, using as her subject a shepherd herding sheep, Dianne demonstrates how to use the rabatment principle for placing balanced images.

On each long side of a rectangle there is an implied square, the height of the rectangle and extending that same measure along the longer side of the rectangle.  The imagined line going through the rectangle to form that square is the rabatment.  Naturally, every rectangle has two rabatments.
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[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”24″ size_format=”px”]  Selecting and placing are our first acts of creating. Selecting comes first and begins when something captures our attention and calls to be made a subject of painting. Some call this inspiration. For others, it’s called noticing or paying attention.
Placing comes next when we begin to make decisions about how to align images for the most pleasing balance. This series addresses creative ways to make selections and place them.

Among Dianne’s passions about painting and teaching painting is how composing principles can expand creative freedom if the artist transcends the “rule” idea and instead, transforms the principle into a tool that opens creative doors.  Selecting and placing according to rabatment and “rule” of thirds are among other portals towards this goal.

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[typography font=”Cantarell” size=”24″ size_format=”px”] You can find Dianne’s Quick Tip on how to build a “rule of thirds” grid HERE.  Her Quick Tip showing how to build a rabatment viewfinder is HERE.  Read Dianne’s Empty Easel article  HERE. [/typography]