This is my first post in a series called Life Defined by Art. If you would like the introductory page, click here.
Composition helps set the mood of your work. It gives the viewer a "feel" for the artist and even lets the viewer learn a little about the artist as well.
As I teach composition in art class, I use a tried and true graphic to help students understand how to place things on the page. Yes, it is formulaic, but until you understand how and why something is done, you don't understand how to break free from it in a positive way. Below is my graphic. It's not my original thought. It's a lot of different people's theories rolled into one usable handout.
Many people understand the idea of breaking a photograph into a grid, but they don't consider the grid placement for other art forms. What is really nice about using the grid is that it gives a place for the artist to mentally focus. It helps the artist define one key area, an impact area for the best color, the best contrast, special edge work or great detail. This allows the artist to spend time developing that one area without feeling like he/she has to give that much attention to the whole.
In the above painting, you can see that I chose to make area 2 my impact zone. Yes, I bled into part of area 1, but not too much :) I went with the expected and made the faces the impact zone, but I could have changed things up and made the hands realistic and detailed, making the impact zone 4.
As the artist, the important thing is to focus on one area. And by placing the detail and best highlights and so forth within the blue areas, the viewers eye remains inside the painting. If you place the impact area on the edge of the plane, the viewer will look at your impact zone and move right off your piece onto the next thing. And that would be a bummer.
OKAY... I'm moving on. sorry, I get a little too "teachy" sometimes.
So how does this relate to life?
Well, when was the last time you have felt like you are worn out, pulled in too many directions and have no focus? Yeah. That's how it relates.
Let's take another look at the composition grid.
If I break down my life into the grids and I place my job, my family, my community responsibilities, my church responsibilities and everything else into a grid, my first question would be how many sections can I have. But truly, if I have 12 sections and my immediate family takes up four, I need to figure out what makes it on the grid. Obviously, my job is one.Then do my sisters/parents/mother-in-law all share one box? That's a lot of people and expectations for such a small box. You get the idea.
Very quickly my grid is full. Did I make time for myself? Did I leave a box for exercise or scrapbooking? If I didn't, what am I going to cut? Am I going to dump my work for the public library? Ouch.
Now that I've filled my 12 boxes, I'm ready to move to the focus area. Just having to put my life in a concrete black and white format helps me see why I am always struggling to "get things done!" So, here is where things get tricky. Obviously, my children need me a lot. So does my husband, even though he gets forgotten often. Thankfully there are four boxes that make up the larger impact area. It goes without saying that my family should be in my impact area.
Is yours? Nope, it's not to make you feel guilty. You notice that I said that my family SHOULD be. There are times when my impact area moves off my family. This is why I like putting things down on paper. Cause really, does doing my job mean more than my children? If not, why am I spending more time working than playing with them? No, I'm not giving up my job. I can't. So, I have to make sure that my work is not in an impact area. Yes, it gets a box, but not my best box!
In the end, I have to remind myself that in my life, as in a composition, I have to be deliberate as to where I put all of my best color, my best detail, my best everything. Everything doesn't get the same weight visually in a composition. If it does, the viewer's eye has no place to rest. This is just like life. Everything in life can't be the focus. You have to have an impact zone. If not, you will have no place to rest.
Buried in the list of Principles of Design is a concept called Composition.
Composition is not the single most important concept on the list, but in my humble opinion, it is the make or break concept! You see, it doesn’t matter how great your line work is if the viewer quickly glances at your work and moves on cause it doesn’t capture their interest.
Composition helps set the mood of your work. It gives the viewer a "feel" for the artist and even lets the viewer learn a little about the artist as well.
As I teach composition in art class, I use a tried and true graphic to help students understand how to place things on the page. Yes, it is formulaic, but until you understand how and why something is done, you don't understand how to break free from it in a positive way. Below is my graphic. It's not my original thought. It's a lot of different people's theories rolled into one usable handout.
As the artist, the important thing is to focus on one area. And by placing the detail and best highlights and so forth within the blue areas, the viewers eye remains inside the painting. If you place the impact area on the edge of the plane, the viewer will look at your impact zone and move right off your piece onto the next thing. And that would be a bummer.
OKAY... I'm moving on. sorry, I get a little too "teachy" sometimes.
So how does this relate to life?
Well, when was the last time you have felt like you are worn out, pulled in too many directions and have no focus? Yeah. That's how it relates.
Let's take another look at the composition grid.
Very quickly my grid is full. Did I make time for myself? Did I leave a box for exercise or scrapbooking? If I didn't, what am I going to cut? Am I going to dump my work for the public library? Ouch.
Now that I've filled my 12 boxes, I'm ready to move to the focus area. Just having to put my life in a concrete black and white format helps me see why I am always struggling to "get things done!" So, here is where things get tricky. Obviously, my children need me a lot. So does my husband, even though he gets forgotten often. Thankfully there are four boxes that make up the larger impact area. It goes without saying that my family should be in my impact area.
Is yours? Nope, it's not to make you feel guilty. You notice that I said that my family SHOULD be. There are times when my impact area moves off my family. This is why I like putting things down on paper. Cause really, does doing my job mean more than my children? If not, why am I spending more time working than playing with them? No, I'm not giving up my job. I can't. So, I have to make sure that my work is not in an impact area. Yes, it gets a box, but not my best box!
In the end, I have to remind myself that in my life, as in a composition, I have to be deliberate as to where I put all of my best color, my best detail, my best everything. Everything doesn't get the same weight visually in a composition. If it does, the viewer's eye has no place to rest. This is just like life. Everything in life can't be the focus. You have to have an impact zone. If not, you will have no place to rest.
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