Composition

'On High Dartmoor' Acrylic Watercolour

Composition seems a scary topic for beginning artists but all it means is design – the way your subject is made to fit the chosen support.

There are a few basic rules but as with all things to do with painting, they may be broken. There can be no absolute hard and fast rules. The choices are yours and you may paint your subject however you like.

Having said that, let’s have a quick look at those design basics. The simplest way to do that is with the aid of a simple diagram.

The diagram represents the area of your support. This area is divided roughly into thirds both horizontally and vertically. The small circles at the crossing points of the dividing lines show the four strong points within the picture area. It is at one of these points that the centre of interest of your picture should be positioned.

As I paint landscape I will use this to illustrate a further point. The horizon within a landscape should be set close to one of the horizontal thirds. If the sky is important then the horizon should be positioned at or close to the lower of the two horizontal lines. If the foreground is more important than the sky the upper horizontal line is probably the better one to use.

It is not necessary to stick rigidly to these rules but they should be used as a guide to positioning your subject. As always experiment – see what works for you. Look at examples of work by established artists and analyse their designs – see how they use the principle of thirds. Where have they placed their principle subject? How have they placed the supporting features in relation to this? You can learn a great deal by studying other people’s work but as I have said previously don’t copy too slavishly.

If you wish to discover more about composition and design there are a number of good books available. Try your local library or if you would like me to recommend one, post a comment, or send me an email.

That’s it for today, tomorrow we will have a look at drawing.

Till then, take care.

Tony