Composition help

[B_in_3D]

I am working on an Edward Hopper inspired digital painting, so I'm trying to go for contrast of man's home, and the natural world around. Below are two images. One of them places a lot of emphasis on the boundary (fence and its post), and the other does not. I want to know if one of them is more effective than the other before I go ahead and start painting. Also any critiques on general layout would be nice.

[Avvatar]

It's very horizontal and not very interesting. I'd suggest trying out a more dynamic perspective. We can't see a lot of either the house or the surroundings, so I don't think your current composition will be effective at representing your concept. I think a nice birds eye view with the camera pulled back quite a bit could work. This way you'll be able to provide a lot more information.

So my advice is to start it all again, it seems like you are in a rough stage so now is the time to do it. But if you want to pick one or the other go with the taller post, just move it from being in the middle. At least it will create a bit of a break up of all the horizontal lines.

[B_in_3D]

Avvatar, thanks for the critique. I wanted the camera close to give a feeling of claustrophobia, maybe you are right and I can pull the camera back more and reveal more of the house. Maybe I will tilt the view a bit as well to show some more perspective. I don't have enough time to start over as I need to present it in class tomorrow, I wish I would have given myself more time...

[SachiSachi]

Hey! It is a little horizontal and all, but maybe you could play that up and expend the length. Make it longer, and add more of the landscape in the background on the left. The sense of claustrophobia is definitely there, and I think it works really well. It's easy to have a gut reaction to it. As soon as I saw the house blocking the nice wide open mountain-scape behind it, i immediately wanted to see more of it.

Or, make it longer, and reverse the whole thing. So the man would be on the left, the landscape on the right. This was the viewer will start looking at it the way that's most innate, the way we read, left-to-right. And to keep their eye from going off the page, you could add that taller picket on the far right.

Just some suggestions. You are the artist and you get the final say!

[B_in_3D]

SachiSachi thank you very much for the critique

I flipped the image, and you are right it does make a huge difference. It is still kinda hard for me not to stare at the tallest post though. But, I do feel like the image would feel empty if something weren't over there, maybe I should take away the post and add something else?

[Nezumi Works]

Keep in mind at this point the tall post is larger and more detailed than the man in the midground, so naturally your eye will go that way. Although to have him that small compared to the post, there's got to be a fair distance from fence to house, maybe enlarge both a bit and move him in a little from the edge to compensate for the post's prominence?

[B_in_3D]

Thank you very much everyone for the help, below is a link to the finished project.

http://brandonmiles.blogspot.com/201...-painting.html