[samdragon]

For this example I chose to use a painting by Tissot. The title of the painting is �London Visitors� Actual size is 63 x 45 inches. Done in oils. Date is 1874.
I�m not going into detail about the meaning behind the image or anything like that. I�m only going to point out some simple compositional skills that are present in this image and why they function the way they do. I have included a larger version of the painting here
I�m also not going to talk about color in compositions this time around.

First, lets look at the rule of thirds.(above) What is the rule of thirds? The idea is to break up the canvas (or screen) into thirds, both horizontal and vertical. The main elements of the image will lie along the lines or at the cross of these lines. This helps keep things from being center on the canvas(screen). Why is it so bad for things to be centered on the screen? For one, there is no visual interest; everything is just setting there right in front of you. Very little dynamic qualities to the image. I�ll go more into this with the third and final example.

When looking at this image, you can see right away that the main elements are not centered, but they are off center. Even though the woman is in the center of the image, she is more to the right than direct center.

Now we are gong to look at how the artist wants us to move through his image. Keep in mind, this image is very large, the original is almost 5 feet tall. Here we see very strong vertical and horizontal lines that move our eyes to the figures in the foreground. These lines are further accentuated by the grooves in the columns. Our eye is also directed to something off the canvas to the far right. We can see the boy looking off into the distance as well as the woman�s umbrella pointing in that direction. Another visual cue to tell us what is going on here. They are tourists, and the boys are guides showing them around.
As we look in the background we can that Tissot wants us to see the very large building in the background, a church. This movement into the background is done through the use of perspective as well as other lines moving our eyes in that direction, not to mention the woman�s looking directly at the building.
Another method of holding our attention is framing.
See how the church is held inside that frame of columns?
A good way to help you decide if your composition is working is to think of your main subject as silhouettes,

Do these image hold thierown as positive and negative shapes? Are they spaced accordingly to provide enough visual interest? You should be asking yourself all of this before you even think of adding in detail.
Just throwing paint around or pixels doesn�t make for a good image. Go back and look at your past works, do they have the same qualities as the images I�ve talked about? Do they need these qualities?
It�s so important that beginners get started on the right track, that�s why when you attend an art school; the first classes you �usually� take are basic design classes. And this is some of the stuff they teach you. It�s then up to you to continue practicing this idea until it becomes natural. A good way to explore composition is to take pictures. Yep, no drawing, just pictures. Take your camera and try to find interesting compositions that are around you. The good thing about the camera is, you can move around objects and do different angles, and you already have your frame there in front of you. Once your film is developed, you can go back over it with tracing paper to see if it fits some of the simple rules I�ve listed above.
Ok folks, next it�s Boris time, I�ve found some �good� examples of what not to do in compositions.
So stay tuned�.

[CapnPyro]

really cool, i enjoy your composition 'lectures', keep them up

[MidNite]

I got short-changed in my design class. I went in expecting to learn all this stuff, and I didn't learn a whit of it in there. Thanks for the tutorials on composition, I, for one, really need the help in that area.




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MidNite
http://www.thenexus.net

[ozenzo]

great stuff samdragon...........thanks again...looking forward to the next!!!

[Transcendence]

Like MidNite, I too need these tutorials on composition. I apriciate[sp?] all of these and I'm sure others do too. Right now I'm working on something involving this type of composition...

Thanks again. Can't wait till the next

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"Get rid of the ego, observe all your actions as if they were another's, and you will avoid ninety-nine percent of the troubles that await you" - Aleister Crowley

[craig]

samdragon,

outstanding info here! this forum
never ceases to amaze my poor little
pee-brain! super cool and thank you!

c

[Fred Flick Stone]

Let me add to the color part of it a bit. This image is broken down into a triad of color. Yellow foreground, red middle ground and blue back ground, with the foreground characters in a darker version of the blue to jump foreward in importance of center of interest. This is the work of a master, so the compositional, color, and value schemes to help guide your eye through the painting are fairly concealed, or, they aren't so blatant that it all jumps right off the canvas as formulaic.
The triad color scheme is a recession in value, with the hottest, or warmest color in the foreground. Cezanne found this theory, and artists since his discovery have been using it to balance out their compositions...
Yellow is the most intense color in the color wheel. Blue, one of the least intense. The value of the blue has also been desaturated, more white added to it, to draw even less attention to it. The average Joe would have put just as much emphasis on the blue value, as the yellow value, as the red, thus flattening the composition out completely. Value and color are synonymous with one another, but can be learned separately. And in most cases should be anyway, for both have such complex theories inner working within them.

You can also see value working here to bring the eye foreward. There are no extreme value separations in the back ground. All the values are relatively the same. As we move into the middle ground, the values start to separate a little further, or a slightly greater range of value is used. Then, when we look at the foreground, we have a full value range at work. Absolute light to absolute dark.



I have also included some more charting of the composition, because there are many things overlooked with this image...
The red lines are what create the golden triangle, or the big center of interest, consisting of three elements. Where these three lines overlap, they create a triangle, this is the area of interest, center of interest. But, the image is really focusing on one of these three elements more, the male figure. The green lines represent the off center location of the center of interest. The center of interest should never be in the center of the canvas, NEVER!!! Always 1/3 or 2/3 division to the canvas. This is very important to remember. One of the biggies you never want to forget.
The blue lines I placed are there to frame the figures, with one side open, to lead the eye and the subject off the canvas. These people are heading somewhere, right?
And finally, I added the purple lines. There are many more of these in the image, but I don't have time to pick them all out. But these lines help keep all the tertiary elements in the image working in harmony, and working to lead the eye to the center of interest. The people are the subject matter, all things lead to them in the image.

The two characters in the background are there to balance the image, cover them up and see how lopsided the painting looks? Those characters balance the image without competing with the center of interest.

If you look carefully, this image actually has three elements working in a larger triad. The bottom of the boy, his feet, the people in the background, and the mans head. This is are area of interest, including the secondary elements. A larger triangular shape. Triangles are key in composition. Three points, that help balance one another out on the picture plane.

The other idea that I will expand upon is the framing issue. Yes, a frame is a compositional devise, but the framing going on in the background of this image is really there to create an out in the image. An out is someplace in the picture that is not confined to a closed off area. Enclosed areas create a psychology of tension, unease, to make a picture like this one work so well, it needs that out, or a window of relief for the eye to go to. And also, it is a strong graphic element to help seal, or frame the subjects. Although this image has a multitude of frames...The division lines I have put in the image really connect from side to side of the canvas. No line just ends in the center of the picture. There will always be something else along this "line" that continues the line through the picture plane. Anything that just stops in the middle of the image becomes a point of interest. Continuing the lines of influence through the canvas negate any secondary element that might start competing with the center of interest. Anyway, gotta get back to work, enjoy the art...

[WildMyth]

samdragon I just wanted to express my appreciation; just like everyone else for the time and effort you have put into your tutorials on composition. Your visual aids really help.
I had a few questions though.

• Do you have more tutorials that you or someone else has posted that some of us new people might have missed?
  
• Is there a way To copy them with the images attached along with the text? That I may use them as reference.
  

Thank you again samdragon.




[This message has been edited by WildMyth (edited June 13, 2000).]

[samdragon]

I'm glad you like these. And thank you so much Fred for doing the color part.
I'm going to do another one using some of Boris's images and probably compare and contrast his images with someone else's, with in the same genre (fantasy). As far as color goes, Fred nailed it. So I'll do some really simple suggestions such as, what is contrast, type of stuff like that. I realize that alot of people may not know all these terms, so I'm going to stick with the very basics and If you (Fred) or anyone else wants to jump and add on to what I put in, please do so. If don't understand something speak up, there are plenty of knowledgeable and talented people to help you out.
WildMyth:
There are a couple of folks who are going to add these and other (tips/tutorials) to a web site for everyone to view. I'm sure the site will be posted in this forum when its all put together. The first part of this in this forum at http://www.sijun.com/dhabih/ubb/Forum2/HTML/002672.html
It covers some of the same things that this one did, but with a different artist.
I guess I should have stated in my post, that when someone says to study the masters, this is part of what they meant. Don't just look at the image and say "oh, how nice", learn how to backwards engineer it.
MidNite:
The ironic part is, I learned more about composition from Art History classes. I have been very fortunate to have some very talented Art History Instructors. But, without the basics of basic design, most of what they said, would not make much sense.
Did you know there are things such as "happy" and "sad" lines? Just like color, lines can effect (in theory) the mood of an image.
I'm always learning, and I'm sure Fred will agree with me on this..you can learn a whole lot by teaching or sharing what you know. So while I'm giving out all this information I've picked up along the way, I'm also learning new things. So it's a big plus for me as well

[Fred Flick Stone]

excellent-music to my ears...

[This message has been edited by Fred Flick Stone (edited June 13, 2000).]

[Frost]

I'd like to know what is 'positive' and 'negative' space, how it works, and how to use it to your advantage. I'm sure it's simple enough, but I just want to know how it all works and counts.

thanks.

[Transcendence]

are you making reference to my other post or are you talking about the happy and sad lines?

[samdragon]

Transcendence,
When some lines slant in different directions they are labled as happy or sad. I'll have to dig up the image, but the artist who came up with the idea slips my mind. I know he was a 19th century artists, I wanna say manet, but I'm not sure.
Frost,
Good suggestion, I'll post some examples of postitive and negative and how they react with each other in terms of space and function. When most people hear the words "postive, negative" they imidiatly think of black and white. That's not always true. The image posted in this thread has postive and negative space, many examples of it. But I'll try to find something not as complex to explain that one.

[Transcendence]

sam: I have a post ["Art books"..I think] involving pos/neg and I thought he was talking about that thread. I haven't heard of happy or sad lines though - hope to learn about them

[Fred Flick Stone]

transcend and samdragon, there is a whole bit on line, and the emotional content of it. If I can find the book, I will post a chapter on the effects of line, and their emotional content. There is far more than a happy and sad line, a whole lot more...

[Transcendence]

Sounds good to me. Can't wait to learn more about it

[Fred Flick Stone]

I opened Creative Illustration right to this page...I also found two other pages all within the same chapter on some of the things we have touched upon here...I maight start a new thread with these 3 images if no one shows up here for them...enjoy them...they are invaluable

[osk]

Wow ...I am amazed by the amount of time Samdragon and Fred take with this posts . I am so amazed I want to drop to my knees and cry. Everytime I look through posts like these I feel like I am going to a "Prestigious" Art School with excellent teachers that pay extra attention to everyone and to every question. I know people have said this many times but ..thank you. Thank you very much.

[Rinaldo]

This is great stuff I have always had the belife that good composition will gold up a badly rendered drawing while the reverse is not true.

I am a bit in the dark as to what all the lines mean. Through my studies (am currently doing Advertising + Graphic Design) I have done a fair bit of compositional stuff but not much of it has revolved around paintings, most being dedicated to typograpy etc. However the complexity of lines is something I have not encountered. I usuialy view composition as eye flow and balance.
Also something I feel should be metiond is human preconditioning, something that must be taken into consideration when composing. For instance western society is predisposed to starting at the top left hand and tends to the sweep around in an ark ending at the bottom left (this definitly applies in typograph and would have to have some impact in a painting). In Addition the Human eye is drawn to particular objects such as eyes and hands and will treat them differently to any other object. Figures in a landscape will always dramaticaly alter eye flow acting as a magnet for attention.

I hope this thread is kept alive as Composition is something often lacking in self instructed art, and people whom are attracted by digital art in particular seem to be most interested in technique of rendering (yes that's a very big stereotype and is based purely on my subjective observations).

I am eagarly awaiting more....

[Muzman]

Ya, good stuff lads. But it is worth keeping in mind that there's some really 19th century psychology behind all this.
Anyway, I guess the point is that dealing with a static, framed image has its limitations. So when trying to be "realist" an artist needs to offer cues and such.

I tried digging up a lot of this theory once; the rule of thirds for example is (or was) named after someone, but I can't remember who. Does anyone know?