Rule of Thirds Explained in simple way

The Rule of Thirds is the most important rule followed in photography and painting. It is also the most important rule followed in cinematography,photography,painting,graphic design or any other design projects.

The Rule of Thirds is a technique that was developed to help to build perfect compositions. It bring life into piece. Composition is the most important part of design. Unless and until your piece has perfect composition it will look lifeless and boring. All the elements in design must be so placed so as to guide the viewer's eye. To help get the perfect composition Rule of thirds acts like magic.

So what exactly is this Rule of thirds?

It a technique wherein you divide your entire artwork into nine equal blocks. This is done by adding 2 horizontal lines intersecting 2 vertical lines at equal distance. Thereby you get 4 intersecting points. This 4 point are considered to be the focal points. All your important elements or the main subject should be placed on these lines or intersecting points. Place your subject on these lines helps guide the viewer eye. Many novice artist have the habit of centering everything. This is absolutely wrong. The idea here is that an off centered piece looks more pleasing to the eye that the dead center.

How to apply The Rule of Thirds?

This is a really simple part. Divide your entire artwork into equal nine parts. This is achieved by adding 2 horizontal lines and 2 vertical lines. For example if your artwork is of size 300px by 300px then add 2 horizonatl line one at 100px and second at 200px. Add Vertical lines at  100px and second at 200px.

The intersecting points are focal points.

These lines are the focal points place your point of interest on these lines or intersecting points. Let's see with an example. In this Image the main subject ie the girl is centered in the image. This does not looking appealing. Now lets apply the rule of thirds and see it transform.

Align the girl either to the right or left vertical line. This way the image is more covered and the eye knows where to look first. The eye goes first to the girl and then goes to the background. This way it becomes more appealing.

See the magic. The rule can be applies to all the images. Let's see another example. Here again the image is centered.

Now let's apply the rule of thirds to this image. Here the image is centered so lets scale it down a bit. Position it so that her eyes align with the top horizontal line.

See now the image looks much better.

This is the magic of rules of third. Keep in mind however that you don't necessarily have to stick to it. Many times rules are meant to broken. You can also achieve great results without it provided some other factors come into play.

Practice and play around with the Rule of thirds and 1 day you will be able to create awesome art with it in a professional manner and become a Really Creative Graphic Designer.

Don't forget to share your art with me and follow me on Twitter and Pinterest

If you like my tutorials and posts follow me on Twitter and Pinterest