Book Review: The Simple Secret to Better Painting: How to Immediately Improve Your Work with the One Rule of Composition

I was skeptical when I saw the title of the book which sounds rather gimmicky to me. How is there only one rule of composition? I've seen Ian Roberts' Mastering Composition and there are definitely more to composition.

It turns out that there's more to this book than the gimmicky title. The one rule of composition is just to make sure that you only have one rule to remember. All other techniques mentioned in the book build on that one rule which is to "never make any two intervals the same". Even though I have told you the secret, it is still worth while to get the book to see how that is applied. There are lots of examples included. They are all explained in clear and concise manner.

Compared to Ian Roberts' book, there's a lot of overlap in content since both are talking about the same subject. Basics are the same. It's just different artists' take on the subject. You can get either books.

The best thing about the book is it's written in an accessible manner. So while the title is gimmicky, the book does deliver on its promise.

The Simple Secret to Better Painting: How to Immediately Improve Your Work with the One Rule of Composition is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | ES | JP | CN)

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