I drew this still life this afternoon and it brought to my attention a very important principle in creating pictures – that being – Consider Everything.

Initially I never considered the very background nor the very foreground. What I found as i continued is that the image began to suffer because I did not consider these areas to begin with and as I drew continued to ignore them.

I eventually gave attention to both areas which revealed this principle of drawing (consider everything equally)  very nicely because once I gave attention to those areas I was not earlier, my eye then found itself resting upon the primary subject much longer than before. What I found is that the primary focus of the still life (central subject/boots) was entirely compromised because “the eye” kept being drawn away from the subject to those areas that I was attempting to ignore.

So I realized I must consider everything on the picture plane – if it is within the 4 corners of the composition than it is as equally important as the next part – even if it is not “the primary focus” of the picture – its as if  the mind/observer/eye does not care what you intend to be the primary subject – its simply, LOOKS.  And will pick up everything in the picture plane – essentially giving the entire plane an equal glance – thus if the eye sees the picture plane in this way(equally) than I would say its worth while to take this into consideration when going to make an image. To take Everything within the picture plane into consideration equally

Andrew Gable