Watch For Tangents in Your Compositions
As an entry into an art show a tangent is not a guaranteed eliminator but it is an annoyance that can easily be avoided. A tangent is when a line or a shape in the background just touches a line or a shape in the foreground.
While a tangent could possibly get your artwork eliminated from an art show – in commercial set design it could get you fired! I have designed sets for most every car company and, believe me, a tangent is a huge “NO-NO”! Easily fixed, however, you simply move the background or slightly move the camera.
A tangent in a piece of artwork is, likewise, easily fixed … Just move the offending background line or shape, up, down or sideways until the part that “just touches” is “in back of” the foreground lines or shapes.
Tangents are just unconscious errors that we all make as we are so much in the throes of creation that they just goes unnoticed. So check for tangents early on in the “layout” stage and you won’t have to deal with them in the “finishing” stage.
