Answer: I think you mean this picture .This painting is called:
The Raft of the Medusa by Theodore Gericault.
The artist used his space effectively because every part of his painting is something important to the picture, like the waves in the background, the clouds, etc. In other words, there's no spot in this painting that doesn't mean anything/have a purpose.
You should look at the artists that painted during the romanticism movement, and impressionism such as Vincent van gogh
Leonardo da Vinci studied a wide variety of sciences but he was most passionate about anatomy.