Learning Activity: The Rule of Thirds - The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (2024)

FAQs

What is the rule of thirds in art activity? ›

On your sheet of paper, draw four equally spaced lines to create nine areas on your paper, as seen below. This breaks the space into three horizontal and three vertical sections. The four points where the lines meet are visual “hot spots”— good areas to position things you want the viewer to focus on.

Lesson Summary

The rule of thirds definition divides the frame with two evenly placed horizontal lines and two evenly placed vertical lines to create a grid of thirds. The idea is to use the grid to put the most important elements at the intersecting points on the grid, known as crash points.

The rule of thirds is a composition guideline that places your subject in the left or right third of an image, leaving the other two thirds more open. While there are other forms of composition, the rule of thirds generally leads to compelling and well-composed shots.

To start this Georgia O'Keeffe art activity with your students, provide them with pictures of flowers to look at and to use to draw their flowers. If your students use technology in your classroom, they could find their own images of flowers. They could use books or any cut-out pictures that you might have for them.

The Rule of Third splits an image into thirds vertically and horizontally, as shown in this grid. Artists will often separate the foreground and background content by using the horizontal lines. The overlapping areas indicated by the red circles are known as the focal points.

It's called the rule of thirds, but you can think of it as giving you four crosshairs with which to target a shot's important elements. This will help you balance your main subject with negative space in your shot to nail an effective photographic composition that will draw the viewer's eye.

To use the rule of thirds, start by imagining a 3×3 grid and place your subjects along those lines and intersections points. When you evaluate the result, you may find that you like it more than with your subject in the center.

Why It's Important. The rule of thirds is important because it creates a good balance between the elements in the frame. It helps you decide how much background and foreground are necessary for a visually appealing photograph. It also helps you manage the empty space, especially when your scene has plenty of it.

The photograph is divided into three unequal parts: the waterfall (the main subject), the pool (foreground), and the sky (background). The waterfall is well aligned with the vertical grid line on the left and flows into the frame towards the bottom right. This helps draw the viewer's attention to one part at a time.

Generally speaking, the rule of thirds works best when you are photographing a subject that is not centred in the frame. This could be a person, a landscape, or anything else that you want to emphasise in your photo. The off-centre placement creates a more dynamic and interesting image.

What is the rule of thirds in life? ›

A third of the time, you will feel good. A third of the time, you will feel OK (not good, but not bad). A third of the time, you will perform poorly. As long as you are within that ratio, you are in the correct zone, especially when training hard and focusing on achieving a goal.

The drawings demonstrate her process of distilling the natural world into abstract compositions of lines that form shapes and contours while eliminating distracting details, a process of identifying the very essence of a given location or subject.

The rule of thirds is a simple guideline that divides your frame into nine equal parts, using two horizontal and two vertical lines. The idea is to place the main subject or point of interest along one of these lines, or at one of the four intersections, also known as power points.

Generally speaking, the rule of thirds works best when you are photographing a subject that is not centred in the frame. This could be a person, a landscape, or anything else that you want to emphasise in your photo. The off-centre placement creates a more dynamic and interesting image.

The Fighting Temeraire, 1838 by J.M.W. Turner demonstrates the use of the Rule of Thirds. Not only does the horizon fall on the lower horizontal line, the ships intersect along the first vertical line.