Seeing the pattern
As art students we seem to learn (in this order): shape, values, edges, color temperature, and finally composition. Composition or design deals with the distribution of light and dark shapes on the picture plane…the “pattern”. Of all the elements in representational painting, composition is the most enigmatic… It is also the most important! By the time we tackle composition we’re already fairly competent at rendering individual objects. Good design helps make the leap from mere rendering to art.
Here are a few overriding principles:
• There should be a dominant value (dark, middle or light).
• It’s a good idea to connect areas of like value. (I. e. the darks are connected and the lights are connected.) If they can’t actually connect, at least have them point to one another.
• Fewer large masses of value are stronger than many small masses.
Compositional principles are couched in fuzzy and often contradictory terms. We’re supposed to have “unity” and “variety”; “balance” and “dominance”; “rhythm” and “harmony”. In the late 1800s after students completed their basic training, they were sent to copy masterworks at the Louvre or the Prado. The goal? To learn how the masters applied compositional principles. It was felt that this was the fastest way for students to develop their own aesthetic sense of “beauty”.
In the 21st century we now have some wonderful tools to aid our study. Two tools that let us quickly see these patterns are:
1. Photoshop- Desaturate an image and then under “filters / artistic / cutout” chose 3 or 4 levels.
2. Value Viewer (a smartphone app available in the App Store) lets us quickly see an image reduced to two or three values.
These tools are real timesavers and, more importantly, speed up the development of our own aesthetic sense. Here are examples.
Saint Eulaila by J.W. Waterhouse Saint Eulaila as a cutout. Notice the connected masses.
Reference photo in four values
"Tresses" by William Schneider 30 x 30 Oil
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