A painting without a good composition can often give the
wrong feel or mood to the viewer. Without composition, the painting could become
quite chaotic and disorderly, or perhaps to mundane, leaving the painting
feeling empty. When considering what makes an interesting and good composition,
there are a few general points to take note of:
Line
Colour
Shape
Value
Form
Texture
Space
With Line, this doesn’t literally mean a line surrounding an
object, bringing it into focus just like in a line drawing but rather it can be
many things. It could be other forms in the painting that can create a line
within the composition; for example, it could be the curve of the mountains or
line of people that can draw the viewer’s gaze towards the main focus of the
image or to perhaps divert the eyes back to it when the eyes wander off to
other places of the painting.
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| Nicely focused on that vase and the pattern on it! |
Without the ‘lines’ an image can tend to become quite chaotic
and disorderly which could lead to the viewer not quite getting the feel that
the painter would have wanted.
Colour can also achieve line effects to draw the eye towards
the main subject matter, etc. through the use of colour clashes and other
various techniques. The use of complimentary colours can be much more pleasing
for the eyes to look at, adding onto the composition of the painting. Colours
can affect the painting in many other ways, such as the mood, temperature and
how friendly/uncanny the subject matter can be.
Shapes can be that of an organic creature or geometric. To visual
artists, there is an ‘alphabet’ to string together to create objects with
meaning. These are our primitive shapes. Understanding the primitives can lead
to us creating and object and understand how the object exists, such as the
space it takes up and perhaps why it takes the shape it does.
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| The gates guiding our eyes to the distance. |
Naturally following onto form, without form it can tend to
leave the viewer hanging without any sense of depth within the object and even
the painting. The form, just like every other element, can bring life to the
painting and can lead onto many other techniques within the image for example, casting shadows and bringing
in the contrast to define and associate ourselves with certain objects for
example.
Moving onto the values of the painting, it can give the
painting a sense of depth within the painting, creating that space within. With
correct use of value can show how dark an object is or how far away something
is for example, the background tends to fade into a lighter hue in a landscape
painting because the light slightly dissipates and desaturates the colours
whereas something closer to the foreground the colours would be much stronger
or darker.
Texture can utilised to create many natural illusions to the
eye. For example the brush stroke used on certain canvases can change the feel and
flow of a painting; some could be used to make foliage look more convincing or
perhaps rusted metal. Adding the grit and ‘teeth’ can help bring life to the
painting with that natural detail added in by the texture.
Spacing the composition is important so that the painting
doesn’t get cluttered or becomes lacking with bad spacing choices. An example
can be with still life or life drawing. Filling in the negative space sensibly
can help frame your subject giving your eye an easier time to look at the image
as it in a way puts your eyes on autopilot, directing your eyes comfortably.
The rule of thirds is also a technique that can help direct
and capture the composition, maximising the impact of the subject within the
composition. The rule of Thirds is where you divide your page into thirds
(horizontally and vertically) and then set up the focus within the intersected
lines. Though this sort of technique a little harder to balance on landscape
paintings.
Not to say all of these elements have a single purpose, as
they can all in their own right set moods and atmosphere, etc. within the
composition and depends on the actual painting itself. But all of the elements complement
each other and come together to achieve the outcome of the composition. They
all (usually) coexist with each other, helping to create the bigger picture within
their universe.
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| I've still got a lot to learn... but I'm getting there! |
Here is my own digi painting I did recently. I had tried to create a sense of distance and space and chose a photo study of Bradgate Park. I tried to frame the image with the use of colour and light and tried to bring the focus onto the river. I still have much to learn and practice, but within this piece I was experimenting with the types of default brushes Photoshop had as I haven't really tried them before and wanted to see what kind of texture I could ge from them. I added a slight tint of red to the grass patches to complement the green and softened the colours at the back to further that sense of distance between the viewer and the painting.
http://willkempartschool.com/the-secret-of-good-composition/
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