BLOCKING: STRUZAN CIRCLE

The Struzan studies continue! I wanted to dig deeper into some of my favorite Struzan posters. From studying Edgar Payne and reading his book on composition, I noticed more how Struzan uses the circle… but it was rarely an exact circle the eye was meant to follow. The circle is shaped more like an “A”, thus I’m calling this shape the Sturzan circle. Struzan keeps the eye roaming around in the circle, but keeps the center of the circle with a center of interest and leaves the bottom of the circle empty to keep the weight of the center of interest stronger.

Examples:

To drive this home, Guillermo del Toro drew the composition on the left for Struzan. It shows a circular composition. Struzan’s final piece on the right shows his adjustment to the Struzan Circle: