One of the most important decisions an artist makes when planning a painting is the composition.  I frequently consider several different ideas before settling on the one that moves me the most.  With my subject of choice, cows, I might have a reference photo I've taken that has several cows in it, but I decide to only paint one of them, or just a portrait of one.

 

If I have a portrait, I have to decide also whether to include all of the ears, for instance, or to crop them.  This decision is based on several things, not limited to first how it looks, because let's face it, they are cows, they are adorable no matter what, but what is it I'm wanting to show?

Take the example of the two portraits below, one includes the ears, but the ear color contrasts with the face and I like that, so including the ears was the decision I made for that one.  

 

The black calf on the other hand had no difference in color, but had the most amazingly sweet eyes, which are my focus for that paining.  You can see how, by cropping part of the ears off, even though these two paintings are the same size, 12x12, the face is larger and the eyes more prominent by cropping part of the ears off.

 

Each has it's own feel, mood and charm.  Which one do you respond to the most?