What is Composition? And Why You Should Study It
Sargent.
He’s very good at creating color contrasts and has a good busy/quiet balance.
Composition. Ah… scary stuff for a lot of people! Voodoo! :D But to me, it’s actually based on many intuitive principles that aren’t very hard to understand.
Composition is what I call “The Secret Language of Paintings.” Everyone knows how to read it, because when we look at a well-composed image, we know where to go without even thinking about it. We may not know why, but we know that voodoo is working. Have you ever been lost in a work of art, staring at it, moving through it from one space to the next, transfixed by its construction, its use of color and value? That’s composition at work. So we all know how to read it, but most people don’t know how to “write” it- how to create compositions that pull the eye this way or that on purpose! That skill is the domain of creators and aficionados. Us!! It’s our job, as artists, to control the variables inside the picture plane. To write the secret language. That’s composition. It’s the real signature of the artist, not technique!
“Yeah, yeah, but my paint is going everywhere! It’s a mess! Shouldn’t I learn technique first?” LOL!
Well, of course, you need to be able to control your tools, 100%, but oddly… once you can, nobody cares. That’s the honest truth, folks! We work at getting a stronger command of technique in my classes, because that’s the required nuts and bolts of painting, but in the end, what’s the value of an immaculately crafted work that’s technically adept but boring? I’m sure you’ve seen those sorts of paintings too.
Winslow homer. A lot of drama and story in this, definitely not boring!! but don’t worry- the composition is compelling and doing a lot of heavy lifting too.
Lots of leading lines here. Some are obvious (the ropes) and some more subtle (the waves), but they all lead you to the rescue. now let’s zoom in on….
...those subtle elements of red (fabric, hand, face) in a sea of grey pull our attention with its color contrast. Note too how the apparatus on the rope is a high value-contrast with strong leading lines, with many small pinholes inside of it to draw the eye even further.
The deeper work to be done, that which pays off the greatest dividends, is learning about composition. Technique is like the notes one plays on an instrument or the words one chooses when writing, but composition is the order in which you play them, the rise and fall of a crescendo, the structure of a sentence, the pacing of a chapter. It is, besides Story, all that really holds on to the interest of your viewer and keeps them cycling around the picture plane.
And relying too much on Story can be dangerous too! Sometimes, we’re so in love with the memory of a place, with what it means to us emotionally, that we don’t assess the bones of the painting critically. It’s exhausting to labor over a beloved subject and end up creating a faithful reproduction of a photo… that just doesn’t sing. I’ve been there. Composition is what helps you judge a photo or location objectively, to see if you can find an interesting arrangement in there before you start. Or to change what you need to, to make it so!
So What Exactly Is Composition?
The color contrasts here are very powerful and moody. Also, note how the shape of the clouds and the rows in the farmland lead us to the far left.
Composition is the art of arranging contrasts and dividing space. The concept is simple, but the permutations vast.
The goal is to capture our attention through the interplay of Yin and Yang (shapes). Dark and light (value). Soft and hard (edges). Grey and vibrant (color). How we compose an image— how we arrange these contrasts— leads the eye through a painting and creates points of interest. If we do our job right, people can’t stop staring! Their attention shifts and moves, and the eye remains active, engaged.
As I see it, there are 5 primary concepts we can use to build a composition, each with various sub-concepts. I call them—
1) Active Balance- How we create a tentative balance in a composition through creating shapes of unequal importance, value, size, color, etc. The Rule of 1/3s, Foreground/ Middleground/ Background, Competing Points of Interest, Randomness Through Choice
2) Paths of Transit- How we move from one shape to another. Diagonals, Leading Lines, Points of Entry, Funnels and Ladders
3) Broken Edges- How we open up shapes so we can create paths of transit
4) Woven Shapes- Shape-Welding to create larger areas of rest or activity
5) Integrate or Separate- How we can make a dot of red super-important by placing it in a sea of green, or conversely how we can repeat it in the rest of the composition to soften its individual effect
Sargent. What a master of brushstrokes!!
Check out the strong leading lines on this puppy!
Look how empty and restful the hull of the boat is, compared to the very active spaces of the water and the rigging. then inside that calmer space is the high-contrast entry point for the chain, like a bulls-eye, calling you to look at it.
The most important thing to learn are the first two concepts- Active Balance and Paths of Transit. Active Balance is why we move through the painting, and Paths of Transit is how we do so. The other principles flow from them.
Active Balance represents the idea of a “weighted”, unequal balance. A subject that is too balanced, too perfectly divided, becomes static and boring. So we need to shift things off-center. And yet, if it is too scattered, if there’s not a primary point of interest somewhere, around which other elements can orbit, then the painting is a jumble and a mess. Your canvas can’t be busy everywhere, or your eye has nowhere to rest, and yet an empty canvas has no energy. Yin and Yang. The porridge has to be just right.
As for Paths of Transit, if we want to move from one point of interest to another, we need ways to get there. Imagine a house full of rooms without doors. Not much of a house! No way in, no way out. This is why Paths of Transit are so important— the leading lines of tree trunks, the silvery thread of a river, the diagonal edge of a path… each pulling us into the distance. The edges of these shapes guide us through the picture plane, like veins of gold in stone.
Monet. Here we see the rule of 1/3’s used to create an active balance. Also note how he integrates the pale lavender into the ripples on the water and the sky holes in the trees. He’s weaving his shapes together with broken edges.