Sorry, not much of a fan. I'm not really judging on your idea, just the artist components. It is actually kinda in violations of a few artist rules. Improper use of rule of thirds (Looks too 2Dish, I cant tell what is in front, middle, and where the background is), lake of shading creating no values or good contrast, bad use of space (too much empty space) and positioning of subject (never put subject in middle of paper), bad angling of box, needs more lines to draw your attention to subject, and the first thing I noticed was the subject is pointing in a negative direction (Downward, not upward. In advertising you'll notice how they are usually pointing in a positive upward movement. y=x on a graph instaid of y=-x, if that makes more sense. Bad movement tends to make the viewers eyes drop off the painting, and loose interest) I'm an artist, and I usually focus on drawings, and I occasionally do oil painting. GTA_dude
Yeah...I don't like the stuff either, but you're like, reading off a checklist of "rules". On some of those things, you've explained why the PICTURE doesn't work. But on others, you're just sort of talking about the fact that he broke a "rule" in the first place.
It's okay to violate the "rule of thirds"...if it results in a better drawing. Following the "rule of thirds" is a bad idea when it results in a WORSE drawing.
A lot of empty space can be very good...when it works for the drawing. Minimizing empty space is bad if it HURTS the drawing.
Center-positioned subjects work when they work. They don't work when they don't work.
You know, that kind of stuff. All I'm saying is...those kinds of "rules" don't really provide any perspective into WHY a drawing/painting/photograph works or doesn't work. By presenting it as "this sucks because you didn't follow that rule", you're (albeit certainly unintentionally) coming WAY to close to saying that he MUST follow the "rules", and that following the "rules" makes for better art.
And...that's not the case.
The number 1 thing he needs to work on is technical proficiency. Use of the tools, be it a camera, a paintbrush, or pencil and charcoal. He needs to start with that, being able to actually better use the tools of the medium.
Once he's at a certain level in that aspect and then starts focusing on composition, then he doesn't need to follow "rules". He needs to THINK, and to do RESEARCH, and to learn WHY something is working or isn't working. Blindly following the rules is guaranteed to lead to consistently bad art. Because once you're following rules BECAUSE they are rules, that's the second that most people stop THINKING about what they're doing. They simply get into the habit of following "the rules", and then keep on doing that even when following "the rules" doesn't work for that piece.
But I don't think he's there yet. He first needs to get better at working with the tools of the craft. At that point, the hell with composition. He needs to start with the basics, which is simply getting better at using the tools. Once he's gotten some improvement with that, THEN he needs to start thinking about composition and framing. But once he's at that point, he'd do well to avoid stuff like "the rule of thirds" entirely. Subjects don't need to be placed anywhere other than where they need to be. At that point, research helps. It helps for him to identify drawings that he likes, drawings that he hates, and it helps for him to identify WHY he likes or hates them, instead of just following rules for the sake of following rules.
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