Breaking THE Rules

Stage 1 (Turpentine value study) Plus a start on the sky.

Probably since the first cave drawing, there have been RULES of painting. (no, paint the sabertooth tiger chasing the antelope, not the other way around!)

Some of our current rules: Never cut a painting in half with the horizon line. Put the main focus in one of the corner intersections of thirds, and under no circumstance, lead the viewer's attention out of the painting.

Well, I want to challenge that last in a painting. In reviewing the photos I have taken of cougars, there were a lot which were exceptional but which didn't speak to me. Maybe because they didn't say anything new. Except one. It just grabbed me. Perhaps because this big male mountain lion was looking at something out of the field of view and rather than being on the right side of the image and looking to the left side, he was on the left looking to the left. His gaze felt intense.

My reference photo had a really dark background of trees behind him with no sky and the snow was high next to his back. What if I made an exit (showed background with sky) weighting the upper right to balance his gaze to the lower left? Then, drop the snow line next to the cat.

The next issue was I wanted to address was cropping. A long horizontal painting will create a peaceful scene ......which can be interupted by the cat whose intensity throws everything off balance.

That is my initial thinking. Break a rule, keep things off balance, and drama will follow.