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John Guy
•
4yr
added comment inHow Do You Do A Good Compositional Study?
I've been trying to figure out how to study composition and how to teach it in my classes. It's a tough one because it is so subjective. I don't want to tell my students that there are 'right' and 'wrong' ways to compose an image.
I like to start with a goal then work backwards. What does mastery of composition look like? What can an artist do when they've mastered composition that they could not do without that knowledge and skills? Unfortunately I don't have an answer for those questions yet. I still have much research and thinking to do.
What I have been doing is taking a logical approach and trying to come up with a mental framework for understanding composition. The first step is defining composition. I've defined it as: "The arrangement of visual elements of art in order to communicate in a clear and satisfying way." The next question that follows logically from that is 'what are the elements of visual art.' For that I'm using line, shape, value, color and proportion. How can I arrange them in order to communicate in a clear and satisfying way? Clarity and satisfaction are both very subjective, so there is no easy answer there. What are my options for how to arrange them? They are pretty much infinite so I need some sort of principles or categories to organize how to organize them. Based on my research and thinking on the subject, I've come up with the principles of emphasis, contrast vs harmony, repetition, rhythm, balance, and unity. Now I can look at how each element can be arranged by each principle. I did this a couple months ago and wrote out this whole logical framework. It's about 40 pages with small illustrations to test out each point. I think it's helped me but its just the beginning. I need to understand how to put it into practice to make my art better and how to teach it in a way my students can apply it. I'd be happy to share this writing with anybody who's interested. I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts on this idea.
Dario Mekler
4yr
As I see it, composition is not that subjective. For example the principle of contrast is pretty much universal. We evolved to perceive it. The greater part of humanity will know where to look at if they see a black dot in a white piece of paper. You can control that. Contrast of shapes and sizes works in the same way.
@afeegorr
•
4yr
Asked for help
Hi Jon and hi everyone, totally excited about this art community thing. I really struggle with color, value and rendering to a specific level. Any advice, Tipp, Tutorial or whatever are totally welcome, please help, kiss kiss and much love!
You should pay attention not to the values in itself but to the relationship between them. This is called Contrast. An image is a map of contrasts where each shape has an asigned value. The eye of the seer will go where the sharper contrasts are first and then notice the softer ones in declining order. In narrative imagemaking the rule is that the main contrast should be in the center of narration because thats where the eye will go first. In the coffeemaker illustration your main contrast should be in her hands preparing the machine, no other contrast should overpower that one. In the second image your main contrast should be wherever you want to center attention. My guess would be his face, but it could also be his shirt for example. It depends on your intention.
Edit: I added the overpainted image. I softened contrasts in the whole image and enhanced the relation between her face, the border of her shirt and the coffee.
