How to Re-Compose a Landscape Painting with a Limited Focus or Cropping

As any of my students will tell you, when it comes to composition, I place a great deal of importance on working with the picture window. When we place a picture window around our subject — or “crop” it — we are applying a limited focus. This is the first act of composition. It defines what will be included in our composition and what will be left out. It also defines what we will place the greatest emphasis on.

Ideally, we want to firm up the composition at the outset, so as to avoid unnecessary backtracking later on. However, things change as we progress. We become more intimate with the subject and perhaps notice things we didn’t see at the start. In my own work, I sometimes find that the composition can be improved in the later stages if I am willing to apply an additional cropping. In this post, I will review three examples of this from my own collection.

Ballard Bridge, South Pier
Avoiding Excessive Horizontality

As part of my Azure & Asphalt series, I explored several compositions that placed a horizontal bridge span along the very bottom of the picture. My goal was to subtly imply the bridge span but still make the the glowing light of the sky the main event.

I wanted to try a version that included both piers of the bridge. To do this, I had to composite different photos (above). Unfortunately, my references for this subject were rather poor and certainly did not meet my own best practices for selecting good reference photos. On the right side, especially, there were piles of undifferentiated shapes and values around the bridge span. The only part I found useful was the light patterns of water surrounding the pier and bridge span.

Also see “The Landscape Format: Horizontal Movement” in The Landscape Painter’s Workbook: Essential Studies in Shape, Composition, and Color. 

Above, my first attempt at the two-pier composition (unfinished). The color strategy was shaping up nicely, but the bridge span was a problem. It was overly strong, especially in the middle, where the value contrast was greatest. This created a big horizontal split across the picture, so the span didn’t feel integrated with the rest of the composition. Here, I broke one of my own compositional tenets: avoid strong horizontals in horizontally formatted compositions. This leads to a double dose of horizontal movement, which can suppress movement in other directions. The revised composition (below) is taken from the far left side, where the bridge pier blends upward into the darker shapes behind the bridge. By cropping out two-thirds of the picture, the composition is radically altered — and much improved. 

1. The most problematic portion, the sharpness of the horizontal split from the bridge span, is simply eliminated.

2. Now the horizontal bridge span is complemented with vertical movement, provided by the upward thrust of the pier as it transitions into the blue-violet hill and sky behind the bridge.

3. The upward movement is further reinforced by a vertical format, which naturally creates an inward and upward movement.  

Also see “The Vertical Format: Inward and Upward” in The Landscape Painter’s Workbook: Essential Studies in Shape, Composition, and Color. 

Ascension, Winter
Choosing the Format That Best Suggests Depth

We’ve seen how the horizontal format can reinforce horizontal movement and how the vertical format suggests inward and upward movement. The square, by contrast, does neither. It exerts uniform pressure on all sides and so lends no directional energy of its own to the composition. To suggest movement, the painter must rely entirely on the placement of the shapes within the composition.

In a square format (left), this subject forms a gently circular composition, as the eye follows the patterns of light and dark around the periphery. There’s also some diagonal movement along the slope of the mountain. However, when I shaved a small amount off the right side, observe what happens to the space. In the vertically formatted version (right), the painting clearly suggests more upward movement — an appropriate sensation for a mountain scene.

See more from the Sunlight & Snow series. 

Also see “The Square Format: Intentional or Arbitrary?” in The Landscape Painter’s Workbook: Essential Studies in Shape, Composition, and Color. 

Late Afternoon, Petroia, Umbria
Leading with the Main Event

When students are choosing their subject, I often ask them, “What’s the picture about?” They often list several things: “I love the clouds. The mountains are gorgeous. And the trees, too.” I say, “Fine — choose one.” This isn’t to say that the picture can’t include multiple elements, but one element should lead. One should clearly be the main event.  

With this subject, I made the mistake of falling in love with the photo (left). It looked so lovely, I was moved to follow that composition. After I did the painting (right), I realized that there were two main events: the cloudscape and the glowing hillside. One might argue that these two elements are not in competition; however, when compared to the final version (below), in which the upper two thirds of the sky have been eliminated, the composition becomes much stronger. The sky and the hill play an essential role, but now the light on the hillside is the main event. The picture has greater focus. There is no question as to what I loved most about this scene. 

• The Landscape Painter’s Guide to Selecting Reference Photos
• Chapter 2: “The Picture Window and its Format” in The Landscape Painter’s Workbook: Essential Studies in Shape, Composition, and Color.