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In art schools and workshops, we learn (usually in this order) drawing, values, edges, and color temperature. If we’re lucky, we are given some exposure to composition or design principles…but it’s almost an afterthought.  The truth is that composition is probably the most important element in a painting.  A painting with wonderfully painted objects that are poorly placed will probably never sell, but a piece with killer design and mediocre rendering will still fly off the wall!

When I first went to art school at the University of Illinois, I had a design class but the textbook dealt with abstract concepts that weren’t pragmatic enough for me. Our paintings were supposed to have “unity and variety and balance”...without explaining how to achieve those. It took me YEARS to unearth what I believe are the foundational composition principles:

• Placement of centers of interest
• Designing using a dominant value
• Designing using a dominant color
• Common motifs
• Narrative

Where do you place your primary and secondary centers of interest (COI) on the picture plane? We’re told to avoid putting them in the exact center of the canvas. But where can you place them?

One (albeit a very simplistic) method is to divide the picture plane into thirds, like a tic-tac-toe board. The idea is that you can put a COI at any of the intersection points. However, if you’re not careful, this can lead to a painting that feels out of balance…like it’s tipping over to one side or the other.

A more interesting method is to use what Juliette Aristides calls “the armature of the rectangle”. If you connect the opposite corners of the rectangle, the centers of each side to each other, and center to corners you create a “cats cradle “ of lines and intersection points. The idea is that a center of interest can be placed at any of those intersection points (usually avoiding the exact center) or in an area bound by those lines. Hint: you don’t have to use them all.

Look at the famous painting, “Baking Bread," by Anders Zorn. You can see that the head of every figure touches one of the construction lines. The main figures’ heads are also bound by two or more of the lines. Although the painting looks very unposed it has a feeling of rightness to it. 

We see the same sort of approach in “Hylas and the Nymphs” by J.W. Waterhouse. These artists used conscious construction methods to place the subjects in these paintings. Masterworks don't happen by accident!

In my next blog I'll share Alphonse Mucha's core design theory. (If you don't know Mucha, Google him! He basically invented Art Nouveau!) If you would like to get a more in-depth look at these compositional ideas, please check out the preview for my latest video, Composition Secrets for Figure Painting by clicking here.  https://lilipubsorders.com/products/william-a-schneider-composition-secrets-for-figure-painting

I have received a number of questions about painting “backgrounds” specifically for portraits. Too many students spend their time rendering the subject and then try to paint the background at the last moment. The result is often a disaster; the figure looks pasted on or there is a formless envelope around the head. The problem is that the background is an afterthought rather than an integral part of the painting.

Don’t forget, someone looking at the painting sees the whole…not just the subject. In reality, the background is vitally important because it defines the center of interest. My pastel mentor, Harley Brown, told me “always work the background at the same time as the subject. The key is to give some thought to what you’re doing and why. Here’s a great quote from Quang Ho: “If you make a decision, it’s always right!” Think about it!

I think of three elements and three approaches when I make decisions about the background:

Elements:

1. Value – is the background darker (like a typical Rembrandt portrait), lighter  (like a more contemporary graphic piece) or the same value (used by some artists to lose the edges on the light side of the face).
2. Hue – A background that is the complement of the dominant color of your subject (either grayed or high-Chroma) automatically defines the subject as the center of interest. Furthermore, if you place equal amounts of the discords (two steps on either side of the subject’s hue on the Munsell color wheel) near the subject you reinforce the effect.
3. Shape – Rather than have a flat tone around the portrait (boring) you can create secondary points of interest…the three approaches listed below.

Approaches:

1. A specific scene or environment. Sargent did this in almost every portrait. He used columns, chairs and vases as secondary points of interest to create a mood.
2. A suggested environment. Abstract shapes still place the subject somewhere other than empty space. 
3. A vignette- although the picture plane is not completely filled, the shapes that are there fulfill a design purpose. (I was taught that it’s a good idea to have a vignette touch three sides of the picture plane. I often design the “background” to have a movement that opposes the thrust of the figure.) 

Here are some examples of all three approaches. By the way, I cover this (plus a lot more) in my workshops and DVD on Design / Composition Secrets of the Masters.

 "Circe's Potion" Oil

"Kelly by Moonlight" Pastel

"Persecuted" Pastel

As artists, we tend to follow a similar path to develop our skills: first we learn to draw (get accurate shapes), second, we start to understand values, then edges, then color temperature relationships. Those four skills give us the ability to render things. Too many artists stop there; the Masters figure out how to paint with emotion.

In the book Creative Illustration Andrew Loomis says “There is a dramatic way to depict any situation; it’s up to us to find it.” Painters like J.W. Waterhouse, Anders Zorn, and Nicolai Fechin made sketches, studies, and color “roughs” to work out the design of their most famous paintings.

It seems like there are six “tools” in the emotive toolkit:

1. Subject matter – probably the most obvious (and the “cheapest”).
2. Key – high key paintings may seem more energetic, airy, and happier.  Low-key paintings may evoke moodiness, mystery, and somberness.
3. Narrative – What story are we telling? Is it explicit or implicit? Are we summarizing the “entire movie” or just one scene?
4. Expression – If there is a model, what emotion is on his or her face?
5. Accessories– Think stage set. How do the props and costuming advance the narrative?
6. Composition (design) – This is the biggy! The way we direct the viewer’s eye controls all of the above.

This painting, Consulting the Oracle, by J. W. Waterhouse is the complete package! The artist was thinking like a modern filmmaker. The “set”, props, and costuming clearly establish the time, place, and narrative. The composition makes it a masterpiece. Note that the women are arranged in a semi-circle; the viewer completes the circle. (Waterhouse had a mystical reverence for the number seven…so there are seven women consulting the priestess). The models’ expressions become more and more dramatic as the viewer moves around the circle toward the priestess (in black, to emphasize her face and hands). Her upraised hand gesturing, “wait!” has the sharpest edge and is silhouetted against the lightest light in the painting. The woman with her head buried in her hands is in the exact center of the painting.

Masterful composition!