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Florent Farges

The Steelyard Composition — How to Create Dynamic Balance in Painting - The Atelier Newsletter

Published about 1 month ago • 2 min read

A perfectly symmetrical composition feels calm, centered, and that’s great… but one might say “it’s also a little dull!”. When both sides of the canvas carry the same weight, the eye stops moving. There’s no tension, no curiosity.

So how do painters achieve a sense of harmony without falling into monotony? The answer lies in a beautiful and ancient idea: the Steelyard Composition.

It’s named after the Roman “steelyard” balance scale, a simple tool that weighed objects by balancing unequal masses at different distances. Painters later borrowed this principle to achieve asymmetrical balance—where the picture feels stable but alive.

The Steelyard Composition — How to Create Dynamic Balance in Painting

The Principle of Unequal Weights

Imagine a balance scale: a large weight sits close to the pivot, and a much smaller one hangs far from the center. Despite their size difference, the scale remains level.

The same thing happens in painting. A big, calm shape placed near the middle can be balanced by a small, detailed, or high-contrast element farther away.

In Miranda, Waterhouse creates the large weight with the seated figure. She dominates the right side of the composition, her pale dress forming a massive, luminous shape against the dark rocks. On the left, the vast expanse of sky and sea seems empty at first—but it holds the counterbalance. The horizon line, the light breaking through the clouds, and even the faint shape of a ship provide just enough visual interest to balance Miranda’s presence.

This is asymmetrical balance at its most poetic. The painting feels complete, but not predictable.

Why It Works

The Steelyard Composition works because it turns geometry into storytelling.

Draw an invisible vertical line through the center of Miranda. The figure is clearly off-center, yet the painting feels stable. Why? Because Waterhouse distributes visual weight through contrast and placement, not symmetry.

The eye first lands on Miranda, but then drifts across the painting, following her gaze toward the tiny boat on the horizon. The tension between the large mass (the figure) and the smaller focal interest (the distant sail) creates rhythm. It’s actually a case of extreme asymmetrical balance because, here the big subject is massive compared to the small one but you can find other cases in which this idea is used more subtly like this paintings by Leon Germain or Sanford Robinson.

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When you design your own compositions, try this simple experiment:

  • Draw a center line on a blank canvas.
  • Place a large, simple shape near it.
  • Then add a much smaller shape near the edge.

If the proportions and spacing are right, you’ll feel the balance instantly. It’s not about equality—it’s about harmony through difference.

The Steelyard and Perspective

The Steelyard Composition becomes even more powerful when combined with perspective.

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If you make your smaller mass appear distant, its size naturally shrinks, but its impact remains strong. The depth adds to the illusion of balance.

You can try this in your own paintings: place your main subject closer to the viewer and use elements in the distance—clouds, light patches, or background shapes—to counterbalance the weight.

The result is a composition that feels dynamic, natural, and full of narrative tension.

Final Thoughts:

The Steelyard Composition teaches one of the most valuable lessons in visual design: balance doesn’t mean symmetry.

When you start thinking like a painter who uses a scale, you realize every part of the canvas has weight—color, value, contrast, and placement all contribute.

More coming up this week on this topic...

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Florent Farges

The Atelier of Figurative Arts

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