[Steven Stahlberg]

Nothing I haven't written about before, just managed to organize my thoughts a little better this time... at least I think so. Comments?
http://www.optidigit.com/stevens/compotut.html

[Ian Jones]

It looks very interesting, I shall take a more serious look at it later. It looks promising!

[Ian Jones]

Looks very good so far. Perhaps you need to establish a little more strongly that this is your opinion, not necessarily text book fact, merely to save your own ass. I found that out recently the hard way. I also forgot the context of the ideas and discussion you put forward throughout, the fact that your basing it on the 'human visual system' could perhaps be emphasised in a conclusion.

"of exactly similar weight"

Just a suggestion: 'of exactly simlar visual weight' it could be a point of misunderstanding otherwise, although your terminology so far is not directed to the unitiated so your excused.

"As an image it fails to hold our attention for very long, partly due to its lack of meaning, but also because it soon becomes annoying, tiresome to look at."

I'd certainly agree with that. Very sound point. Interesting that you highlight the eyes movement to the corners. I'd agree it can draw focus, moreso subconciously. Its an obvious point at which the eye may focus to understand the limits of the pictures space. Simple exploration of its environment. As you go on to talk about the 'stickyness' of these areas, its reliant on the blank area imbetween but certainly a great point you've made. I'm really liking this so far!

The HTML formatting gets a little funky at this stage, the bracketed text breaks out left of the main paragraph.

I kind of get the feeling I'm being schooled in the next section, but it all falls into line when you say this:

"even though it's nothing but numbers it's easy to look at for a longer time"

Your point about relating the structure (or lack of) to nature is also an excellent punch line to the point. I got it totally, it really sunk in.

"so anything that resembles it more will make for easier viewing than something that resembles it less."

Hmm, I agree and disagree at the same time. Are mechanical things or man made environments like architecture not beautiful? or interesting to the eye? I see it as a bit of a sweeping statement, that tends to lead into a bit of a side discussion. It depends which way you slant the evidence, and I have to assume that when put in context of the 'human visual system' you mean the scientific evidence, not neccesarily aesthetics (although the essence of your article probably illlustrates them as inseperable). Once again, a conclusion would hopefully put the sentence back into the context of the essay a little better because as you can see my thoughts were led astray a bit.

The next pictures are fantastic visual examples. I'd say that you could have pushed the abstraction of the idea even further. By abstraction I dont mean 'random or chaotic' but rather 'to summarise'. I can see you have cleared the busyness of the background in the top right. Even the shapes and brushstrokes towards the back of the head could also be abstracted/summarised into simpler shapes. To the same means of reducing the visual weight of that area as your gradient has. I'm just being picky though, your examples are great. My idea of even further discussion on that point is beyond the neccessary means. Another time or day perhaps. haha.

"Of course there is more to composition than this, but the guidelines can be quite helpful as a starting point."

AHA! thats the kind of ass covering statement I've been searching for! Pity I didn't read it carefully the first time! sorry...

"changing the lighting in the scene a bit, if for some reason you don't want to move your objects."

Great point! Don't reinvent the wheel. Making such a logical and easier change like that could really make a huge difference. It's so obvious yet so easy to miss when your having trouble with a painting.

Those extra paragraphs about balance, colour and the golden mean really deserve an essay of their own! Oh, my you hvae got yourself into trouble there! I'll be expecting more now...

Really great essay IMO. I understood it and enjoyed the chance to stimulate my thoughts on composition. I hope that helps.

[Steven Stahlberg]

Wow, when you promise comments you really deliver..! Thanks, very helpful. I'm not really a good writer, just very very stubborn so I keep 'polishing' things. I'll polish some more.

About writing more on those last paragraphs, I'm not sure I have much more to say on that... The golden mean for instance, in it's fully developed form, to me seems a bit overly restrictive and perhaps arbitrary... is it really better to place a line there - perfectly in accordance with the golden mean theory - rather than a few millimeters to each side? I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it at all, but I thought it a good indicator that we like rectangles better than squares, that's all... Do you know any good links about it?

[Lunatique]

The only rule of composition I've come across that was simple to understand and easy to implement was this one:

Take a blank sheet and divide it in 4 equal quadrants(draw a cross on it). Your focus of interest should fall somewhere in one of the quadrants. That's it, very simple.

Pat posted one a while back when we had this same discussion. It was a different version where there's nine quadrants. I can't remember the details. Pat?

[Ian Jones]

Glad I could help. Your writing was fine, I struggle with it too... especially punctuation and sentence construction, which I was never really taught properly and somehow managed to avoid.

I know what you mean about the golden mean, or for that matter any rule that seems as you said 'a bit overly restrictive'. Perhaps some more exploration about balance and colour then? nudge..nudge.

Lunatique: Interesting, do you have a link or material I can read more about it?

I think I vaguely remember Pat's post about it. Something to do with where the lines intersect is where you should choose to place your main points of focus. Just a guess though.

[Lunatique]

Nope, sorry, I came across it by word of mouth.

[edraket]

Thanks!!! Thats really all I have to say.
or actually...
I generally tend to eyeball things more. I don't like looking at it so mechanically. As you might have guessed from my opinions on Mondriaan
But I'll just give this a place in my mind somewhere just below my conscious thoughts and I'm sure it will help me.