Diagnose / Causes / Composition
Composition mistakes
How shapes sit on the page.
- Figure floating with no cast shadowPencil. A fully rendered figure stands on bare white paper with no contact shadow under the shoes. Rescue
- Subject has no focal pointAny medium. The canvas contains equal amounts of detail, contrast, and sharp edges everywhere. Rescue
- Too many layers and details before the values workDigital. Small highlights, micro-textures, and fine line elements cover the canvas, yet the overall subject lacks solid mass and depth. Rescue
- Background painted last, covering edges messyAcrylic. Foreground subjects have thick, awkward painted halos where the background was cut in late. Rescue
- Building cropped with a dead-centre horizonPencil. The horizon line runs exactly across the horizontal centre of the page. Rescue
- Composition cut off at awkward placesAny medium. Limbs, joints, or primary objects hit the boundary of the page in an awkward manner. Partly
- Drawing too small on the page, crowded in a cornerPencil. The subject occupies only a fraction of the sheet, typically crammed near one edge or corner. Rescue
- Horizon line cutting the picture in halfPencil. The horizon runs straight through the exact vertical centre of the page, splitting the composition into equal halves of sky and land. Rescue
- Landscape with no foreground, middle or background planesPencil. The drawing lacks spatial depth because elements at different distances share the same size, detail, and contrast. Rescue
- Objects lined up like a shop display, all the same sizePencil. Every object sits side-by-side in a single row without overlapping. Start again
- Tangents: edges kissing awkwardlyAny medium. Two distinct edges in the picture touch exactly at their borders without clear overlap. Rescue
- Thick paint too early making corrections impossibleOil. Heavy ridges and sticky piles of impasto paint block further brushwork early in the painting. Rescue
- Value structure collapses: everything mid-tone and chalkyGouache. The painting has settled into a narrow band of pale, milky mid-tones. Rescue
- Wet-in-wet sky with muddy horizon bleedWatercolour. The clear separation between sky and distant land has dissolved into a murky, muddy line. Rescue
- Shapes all similar in sizeAny medium. The masses, light patches, or negative spaces across the work are all roughly the same dimensions. Rescue
Other causes
- ObservationDrawing what you think exists instead of what you see.
- MeasuringProportion, angle and placement errors that checking would catch.
- MaterialsPaper, paint, tools and how they behave.
- Drying and timeWaiting, layer order and drying behaviour.
- ColourMixing, temperature and saturation.
- EdgesHard, soft and lost edges.
- FinishingFinal stages, protection and presentation.