Composition

of the four key elements when it comes to composition composition is the number one the most important we already understand that composition is the placement of elements masses shapes lines and angles one of the easiest ways to start to get a basic understanding of certain areas that you want to avoid you want to avoid drawing people's attention to the center you want to avoid drawing people's attention out of the composition into corners these are things you don't want to do if you have let's say Hills going up you don't want to drop them down as they move out of the composition if you have let's say a table some sitting somewhere you don't want to have a person standing right next to it and draw a conflict have things touching you know in other words like a Hills of different perspectives when they come in and they cross over a lot of things to avoid but one of the basic rules and composition of things that you do want to do starting with some very basics is what's called the rule of thirds we have a composition area to work in divide it in thirds in both directions both vertical and horizontal this is real basic you could use this line for your skyline in other words you put some hills coming across them there or you could come if you have this situation you're going to say to the viewer to look at the landscape versus looking at the sky if you have your skyline down here and some hills way off in the distance and clouds up here things like there's this beautiful Sun zet or sunrise this is saying look at the sky and the eye is moved up working with the rule of thirds you could have a focal point off towards one of these areas Sun setting here moving to one of the thirds the intersection of the thirds trees if the trees going to be your focal point it could come up and move on this line you don't want to have it over here too close to the edge or too near center a group of trees with your main tree being on one of the vertical lines of the Third's another one to use it's very good it's called the golden section there's books there's tons of information on the internet about the golden section the golden rectangle and what it is is there a ratio of 1.618 approximately infinitum with zeros and that means in other words if this is your square without using a ruler here this side of the square times 1.618 would be the length of this side this is what's called a golden rectangle and you can use various different intersecting points take take this times 1.618 would be more like this okay and then here is another golden rectangle and you can continue to do that another golden rectangle and you develop what's called a golden curve this is something that has been in nature comets some Halley's Comet various comics take this type of curve the nautilus seashell and the thing about the golden sections we find it's one of the most pleasing curves to look at one of the most pleasing rectangles versus a way to long rectangle you know it's good for some things I'm not saying you can't break the rules or perfect square but the golden section is a wonderful way to compose your composition using various intersection points as your focal point and you can continue to have things move along to a certain degree along this the old masters you can you can take this math and just keep moving it on and on and on like I say books and all types of things about the golden section and so in your basic composition it's all about telling your story a horizontal rectangle it's going to be better for panoramic views left to right a horizontal or excuse me a vertical rectangle is better if you want to move the person up and as I said earlier the placement of the horizon tells the person to look up the placement of her horizon here might be great for a canyon telling the person to to look down and see what's what's inside the canyon or river you know so wherever you place your horizon begins to help move the viewer through the painting and saying look down what's in it or if it's down here you've got all the clouds moving up beautiful thunderheads and all then you decide your your focal point it's going to be right here you could have a tree that intersects there or some Heels come across here so we use our composition to move the person through the scene we tell a story so I want you to look at something that moving this way or that way you want to avoid dropping them out use your Hills if it's down here angles go up right at the last minute versus going down we also want to consider the placement of major shapes masses within the composition besides just movement of angles and lines and working on the basic rule of thirds your major masses draw attention in other words you could have a large shape close into this area whatever you know thinking of abstract some kind of shape but the shape is not just lines it's made up of the value a dark value let's say you're working with clouds and you have a very low eyeline you're saying look up here's one major shape and keep in mind that contrast draws attention you've got some very dark clouds here very dark shadows and this is become is going to become our focal point then as we move off let's say we want to move in a shape going around there so in the distance we have some additional clouds but they don't have nears dark of shadows the distant clouds don't have near the contrast they're very light the darks aren't very dark and the lights aren't as light is you're going to have on the clouds that are in the focal point and that draws attention contrast dark against light and as you move your way through with additional shapes keep in mind values darks and lights and we could have another big thunder head off in here but there again the darks artists dark is where you want to draw the attention the lights aren't as light as in contrast with this mask in shape so composition the placement of shapes and mass is controlled by movement darks and lights contrast to draw your attention generally shape also not shape generally size has a great deal to do with it but the size of the dark mass you could have other darks over in here but they're just not as big as this one you can have large areas of light but they're not as large so shape and size will also control the viewer through the composition

Channel: Paul Dinwiddie

Views: 68,008

Keywords: art, fine art, painting, oil painting, art education, art instruction, oil painting instruction, painting instruction

Id: LZ7BkxvPn4Q

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Fri May 03 2013