Compositional Choices

Hello! Ever wonder why something looks so good or why you can't take your eyes off something? The answer might be about its composition. At Speakeasy Tattoo in Los Angeles California, the composition of our tattoo designs are very important to us. 

There are many ways to compose an image, here are some standard ones you can use in your everyday life when taking pictures of family or friends, arranging decorations, or anything else you might be doing. 

We’ll start with the classic rule of thirds. The rule or thirds allows you to arrange objects by splitting your chosen space into thirds left to right and top to bottom. You then align your subject or subjects along the lines of thirds. You especially want to align your subjects to the points where the lines intersect. This will give you cinematic appearances.

Framing is another form of composition. Used in photography this can look like a tree trunk lining the edge of your photo with your main subject in the middle. Or you could use framing while creating a tattoo design and use the natural curves and muscles of the body to frame your design. 

Symmetry is one of the obvious ones but it is worth stating this one in our list today. You can use symmetry in several aspects of your life like making a table setting or taking a photo of a river's reflection. For tattoos symmetry is a way to make a design pleasing to the eye and also make the body placement of that tattoo pleasing to the entire body composition. 

In contrast with symmetry there is also asymmetrical balance. The most obvious example being the “Starry Night” painting by Van Gogh. Asymmetrical balance is the method of composition where you have different sized objects on different sides of the compositional space. This could also be something very up close on one side and far in the distance on the other. This method is often used in tandem with the rule of thirds and makes for great photography. 

You can use composition in many daily life aspects like building an outfit and accessorizing, or making your bed, or plating your breakfast. The possibilities are endless. I hope this helps bring some novelty to your daily life.