The Leading Part (And the Everything Sale!)
November 29, 2020
Design lessons, Supplies & other fun stuff, The Polymer Arts magazine news
Ronna Sarvas Weltman‘s Talisman necklace leads us on a simple but effective journey, starting with the large white bead that sweeps our eyes across the width of the piece, then down the vertical bead set that is unlike the others strung below it, dropping us into the dense collection of side view beads and right back up to take another circuit around it.
As mentioned last week, choosing a composition has as much to do with your intention as any other choice you make. However, there is another consideration that, although it is still steered by intention, is usually about holding onto your viewer’s attention so you have time to communicate your ideas, stories, and/or aesthetics.
What I am talking about is commonly referred to as “leading the eye”. This is the path that the viewer’s eye will take around your work. A visual journey around your piece, especially if it allows the viewer to take in all the elements you’ve created, adds to a sense of cohesiveness and intention in that it helps all the elements feel purposeful as well as showing your mastery and control of your design
As mentioned, two weeks ago, you can use a hierarchy of focal points and interest to lead a viewer around the different areas of your piece. A viewer will usually take things in from what is perceived as the most important element to the least, giving you a controllable path to lead them through. You can also use lines and shapes to make more literal paths as we like to follow lines and edges of shapes to see where they go.
Knowing this, you can determine where the viewer will first look (your focal point) and then create a path they will take from there. Not only does this allow you to ensure that they take in all of your hard work but it can also help fulfill your intention.
For instance, you can lead them smoothly from one point to another on a curve, communicating calm and ease. You could, alternately, have them energetically hopping around from one section to another to build on the idea of enthusiasm, fun, joy, etc. Or you can quickly shoot them from one side to the other on a straight line which can convey determination, strength, and/or force.
I will be feeding these ideas into your eager little minds as we delve through the upcoming lessons on Principles of Design. The principles will not only help you communicate your intention but they can be manipulated to assist you in leading a viewer’s eye through your piece.
Pretty cool, right?
Also … HUGE (nearly) EVERYTHING Sale!
[For those who ran into problems ordering digital yesterday, the glitch is fixed. Technology is such a grinch!]
I’ve never jumped in on the Black Friday/Cyber Monday thing but this year, I think we all need to get our shopping done early, destress, just spend some good quality time in our studio spaces! So, I figured this sale could help with both gifts and encouraging studio time, depending on who you buy for!
All Packages on Sale 30%-50% OFF
- The Polymer Arts magazine – 23 issues: $119 ($230 value)
- The Polymer Studio magazine – 3 issues: $15.95 ($24 value)
- All Christi Friesen publications- 8 books: $84.95 ($122 value)
- Christi Friesen Project booklets – 5 pack: $39 ($58 value)
- Polymer Journeys 2016+2019: $32 ($47 value)
- The Polymer Arts – ALL 29 issues: $99 ($173 value)
- The Polymer Studio – 3 issues: $12.50 ($18 value)
- Polymer Journeys 2016+2019: $20.95 ($32 value)
PLUS 20% OFF
ALL non-sale Publications and Design tools in your Cart*
Single issue magazines, any books (print or digital), CMY Color Wheel, Grayscale, Composition Grid tool … all at a discount!
Use promo code 202020
*20% off not good on sale packages or club memberships. Discounts ends December 5th, 2020.
The Big Picture … in Words
November 22, 2020
Design lessons
Micromosaic polymer and silver brooch by Cynthia Toops and Chuck Domitrovich. Do you see the Rule of Thirds in use here? Diagonals? Implied lines? These concepts and more come together to create an intriguing composition with a story.
Has composition creeped into your design time in the studio yet? Have you been stepping back and pondering just how your work is laid out?
If not, you might just be soaking up the composition basics (review the basics through the blog starting here if you are new to the club) waiting for that lightbulb to come on that tells you why and how to choose a compositional layout. Well, I am hoping, this week, I can click that lightbulb on for you!
The classic composition items I’ve introduced so far are just guidelines or starting points for planning the layout of your design elements. I just want you to keep that in mind as this is not a science—it’s art. That means that this is really about you, as the artistic mastermind, choosing how you want your work to look so no hard and fast rules here.
Now, how to choose compositions that you like and that fulfill your intention? Even though there is no formula for this, there are some basic concepts that you can turn to get you started.
One would be to try out a number of the classic composition such as the Golden Ratio, the Rule of Thirds, composing on a diagonal, or in any triangular formation and see if any of those hit home. That would be a visual approach.
I, personally, like to start with words. If you have been with me all year, you may recall that at a couple points I talked about coming up with particular adjectives, concepts, or a story to describe your intention and guide your choices. This works for composition as well.
So, for example, if the words, ideas, or story you are working with include movement, then something with diagonals, including triangular compositions, would be a good place to start. If your intentions involve calm, you might look to composing horizontally, probably rooted on a horizontal line in the Rule of Thirds grid (going evenly through the center can feel stagnant) could help project this. Or, if your intention involves strength, vertical and centered arrangements (verticals look grounded and commanding centered, unlike horizontal) might be just the thing.
Just get to know and understand how different arrangements feel and you can connect them to the words, concepts, or stories you attached to your design ideas.
That’s the first half of my lesson on how to choose and plan compositions. We’ll get into what I think of as the key to cohesiveness in composition planning next week!
Getting Caught Up
Yes. we’ve gotten a bit shorter here this week, for a number of reasons but mostly because I poured all my work energy into a rather intensive MiniMag for the Club members. We not only talked about the above ideas of connecting words, concepts, and stories to composition choices but we also went through a very detailed step-by-step on how I plan a composition that still leaves plenty of room for creative play, followed up by a way to study and learn from the composition of others. No discounts, giveaways, or new products to offer, just a ton of really core composition skills to take in.
Unfortunately, I am no longer in a position to give the full lessons for free as I did all summer but, due to a number of requests, I have decided to put together the weekly MiniMags in monthly collections.
So, if you aren’t ready to commit to a club membership or what to check it out without signing up first, you can get the content, albiet quite a bit later than the club members and without timely access to the specials, discounts, and giveaways, but at least you can get the full lessons and further your design knowledge and creative skills.
Check out the MiniMag collections on the VAB page of the website.
Design Tools Back in Stock
If you missed out on the Gray Scale Finders or the custom ViewCatchers with Grids, I have them back in stock. Find those on the Design Tools page.
Stay Creative, Stay Safe, Stay the Course!
The news has not been wonderful from most corners of the world of late although wonderful glimmers of hope and the desperately wished for “light at the end of the tunnel” are appearing on the horizon for the craziness that has been 2020. We have just a little bit more to get through and I am earnestly praying we all get through this safely!
So, for my American readers, as we head into a big holiday week, please, please, please, do not let your guard down. You are creatives after all! You can come up with a wonderful, safe, socially distanced or remote version of Thanksgiving that will keep you and every loved one you want to see safe and healthy. (Zoom lifted its 40 minute limit for free accounts on Thanksgiving so take advantage of that!) And then, next year … watch out! We’ll go crazy big next year! I’d say I can’t wait, but I can. We can. It will be soooo worth it!
For all the rest of my dear readers around the globe, I am wishing all the best for you and yours. Stay safe, put on some fabulous, expressive, creative mask when you do have to head out and otherwise, put your energy into family and lots of studio time! Good? Good.
Care for yourselves like the precious people you are and I will see you next week with the second half of the lesson on how to plan out wonderful compositions.
Diagonals and Triagonals
November 15, 2020
Design lessons
Have you ever heard of a triagonal? No? Well, me neither. I just made it up. But, my silly linguistic mash up (triangular + diagonal) so well describes the concept of composition I want to talk about today as well as making it much more memorable. Let me explain.
On the Diagonal
If you read the April VAB you may remember our time contemplating line and the unique ability of diagonals to convey a sense of movement. The impression of movement creates energy and intrigue in art which is why they come up in so many discussions about design.
A diagonal composition would have you arranging the elements in your composition along one or more diagonal lines.
Single diagonal compositions are created by having all elements lean on or parallel to a single diagonal line which may be an actual line or may be implied. These can be quite dramatic since the line of the single diagonal moves the eye from one side to the other without interference.
In the piece opening this post, Jeffery Lloyd Dever used a single diagonal composition with this pin with everything arranged on an implied line.
You can also play with more than one diagonal. Intersecting diagonals which cross each other are a classic version of this. It is strong but may be less dramatic than the single diagonal since the lines that would draw your eye across gets disrupted.
Clayman’s Wolf and Raven journal cover uses intersecting diagonals in combination with a centered focal point. This is a great example of implied lines (the very straight lines from head to tail in both animals) that you don’t see as lines but recognize in its visual direction that diagonals are the structure for this composition.
Triangular Triagonals
Ok, onto my mythical new word. We’ll need to start by discussing why triangles also make such great compositional templates.
Triangular formats don’t necessarily follow the shape of a triangle, the way a diagonal composition might, but more commonly elements or subjects within the piece come together to form a triangular shape or sit at the corners of an implied triangle.
These compositional triangles can create a visual sense of stability and strength. If you remember from the posts on shape, triangles are the strongest forms in nature. Each side supports the other two so the shape will not collapse under pressure. But, not only that, but a triangle also has one or more diagonal sides. So, it has movement as well as strength and stability – that’s why I think triangles in composition would be best described as triagonal! It’s more than just that strong shape you are creating, you are creating diagonal movement.
Barbara Umbel’s Turban and Tusk Necklace has triangular arrangements all over it. The body of the necklace fills a triangular space but then related elements are arranged in triangles as noted by the lines I added in the second photo. The largest and most textured elements make a primary triangle with the swoops of metal make a secondary one. The interlocking triangles within a triangular space makes for a very dynamic piece but it still feels solidly cohesive and balanced.
So, this week, keep an eye out for diagonals and triagonals (or triangular composition if you want to be understood by others). See if you can identify compositions where elements or subject matter is arranged on diagonal lines or in a trio of three points, not in a line. Then try some in your own work!
What Else Did You Miss?
This past week in the club content, we delved a little deeper into diagonals and triagular compositions than I did as well as continuing the month-long series on ways to increase your focus and get work done in the studio alogn with a Design Refresh self-quiz that dug even deeper into grid composition ideas.
These more extensive lessons and effortless ways to build on your design knowledge is only availble in the mid-week mini-mag. Don’t miss out on any more intriguing ideas and serendipitous info.
Join us for just $9/ month to get the full design lessons, specials, and member’s first offerings in your inbox every week!
Compositional Bones
November 8, 2020
Design lessons, Inspirational Art, Supplies & other fun stuff
This glass vase by Robert Coby is broken up into a rough but simple composition of thirds.
Composition is really an intriguing design aspect. It is how everything comes together because it is the structure of it. It’s the bones upon which all your elements and principles are placed. It’s a functional concept and an all-encompassing one.
The structure of our compositions use a number of anchoring concepts, all rooted in design principles. We could learn the principles first but since they are less concrete than the elements you have been learning, I think an overview of the possible compositional structures will allow you to immediately see how the principles of design we’ll get into later can play out in a composition. But in order to talk composition I need to at least touch upon a few of the principles.
Last week, I started your compositional knowledge with a brief discussion of focal points. As we dig into new compositional concepts this week, remember that focal points will be either an element we are strongly drawn to, will have tremendous contrast, will be a place where elements converge, a place where an element is isolated, or will simply strike us as unusual. In other words, they stand out more than anything else when taking in the whole piece.
So, that was a first introduction to that principle. Here are a couple more.
Hierarchy
In your piece there will be elements that stand out more than others and ones that are barely noticed. The one that stands out the most, as you are sure to surmise, should be your focal point or points but after those, all the other pieces will likely be vying for attention in a visual hierarchy. That order creates a perceived perception of each element’s importance.
Rebecca Thickbroom’s necklace elements almost always take up separate spaces with little or no overlapping. It makes them feel presented, like they are part of a story. She is also fond of including negative space beween parts in her designs which, with jewelry, make the body or clothes of the wearer part of the overall landscape of the piece. There is also a definite hierarchy of elements. Where does your eye goes first? Where does it go after that? And after that? Do you see how this hierarchy moves your view around the piece so it feels full and cohesive?
You can determine what elements are more important than others by giving them more space, making them bigger, having them high contrast, setting them where line or shapes converge, giving them a lot of energy through color, marks, lines, etc.
Hierarchy, knowing which items are most important, is needed for most standard compositional arrangements as their placement can be successfully arranged based on them.
Space
When we talk about space, we talk about positive and negative space. Positive space is usually the action, the focal point, or an area of primary interest. The negative space is usually a background or an area where the viewer can rest from analyzing the more active areas. It’s also all the empty space around sculptural object.
Yes, these principles can get kind of complex that’s why I’m going to take these things one at a time after you get this overview.
Easy Peasy Composition- The Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds provides an easy but very pleasing way to lay out your elements. It is also pretty dynamic while easily remaining balanced. Let me explain.
Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid laid over the primary view of your work, like it is in the opening image of this post. If you look at your work in terms of this 9 box grid, you end up with several choice positions for focal points and breaking up the space.
For instance, the points near where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect are great places to set a focal point as well as secondary focal points.
The grid can also be used to break up the space. If you want two background textures, instead of just splitting the “canvas” of your piece in half, you can put the stronger texture on just one third, covering 3 squares of your grid. The second texture would have more space but if not as visual strong as the other, that extra space would balance against the visual draw of the stronger texture. Again, that gives you balance.
Classic Composition – The Golden Ratio
Like the Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio is a kind of grid but this time, it is based on the ratio of the body and other natural occurrences—it’s a matter of proportions.
A Golden Ratio grid for composition is made up of Fibonacci squares which are a visual representation of a mathematical sequence of the same name. If you skip the math, you can just create the grid starting with any sized square then start adding squares that are as wide as the widest side of the shape you have at that step. The first time, it’s just the same size square but after that, it keeps doubling in width.
The Fibonacci sequence and this Golden Ratio are the basis of the natural world’s primary compositional method. The most often referenced example is the nautilus shell. The interior pattern is a Golden Spiral. Its shape will curve from corner to corner in every square in the GR grid. That’s because the widening of its spiral is based on the Fibonacci sequence. Cool, right?
My Ice plant brooch fits nicely in a Golden Ratio grid. I didn’t do this consciously but having studied the Golden Ratio quite a bit, it is very intuitive for me. It won’t take long for it to be intuitive for you either once you’ve worked with it a bit and start to recognize and feel the graceful balance of its compositions.
You can find these proportions (approximately 1.68 to 1) everywhere—in the proportion of your limbs (your upper arm to the rest of your arm, your whole arm to your body, etc.), the arrangement of flower petals, the way tree branches grow and split, even in the double helix of DNA. In other words, it’s everywhere and so we find order and comfort in it, even if we don’t recognize it consciously.
In art, focal points that land on that first tiny square turns out to be one of the most pleasing compositions to the eye. The grid can be oriented in any direction, flipped upside down or whatever. If the focal point lands there, you are pretty, well, golden!
Keep in mind that these compositional grids and standards I’m introducing are not used precisely. They are loose guides.
So, now you have two orderly, well balanced compositional arrangements you can use as go-to ideas for composition. These work best on groupings of elements like you might have on a brooch or pendant, single contained elements that will be part of something larger like the focal bead/element of a necklace, the primary view of decorative objects, and, of course, for wall art. They are also fantastic compositional arrangements for those photos you need of your art!
Try these out next time you are laying out a design, sketching, or snapping pics of your pieces. Scroll down for apps and gadgets to help you find these compositions in your designs.
Changing the Composition of Our World
I was so going to just let this post slide without any commentary on the news here in the US but I just want to add whatever unifying voice I can out there but I ended up writing a whole article about it! Since this is so not about art, I am not posting this here, but if you are at all interested in our understanding each other, perhaps my words here can be a helpful start or an additional push. Go to my Facebook page here.
In other news, I do have Grayscale Value Finders back in stock for those of you who missed out on them last time. If you pop over to the Design Tool Supplies page, you might find another gadget, a compositional tool/ViewCatcher, available if it hasn’t sold out to the Art Boxer Club members yet.
Keep in mind that Art Boxer Members get a much more in depth article, exercises, and other articles on living an artistic life in the weekly mini-mag so if you like these posts, support this blog and your artistic endeavors by joining up here.
The Big Picture – Focals, Centered, Rule of Thirds
November 1, 2020
Design lessons
Chris Gryder, composition in ceramics tiles.
(For the next month or so, if you are in one of the clubs, you may notice that the blog is sounding familiar. That’s because these will be abbreviations of the full lessons found the week prior in the Club subscriptions. I am transitioning from the full design lessons being free in the blog back to them being in the subscription content so if you are serious about your education in design, do sign up for the Devotee Club and support your own growth as a knowledgeable creative and impassioned artist.)
Here we are. November 1st. What do you aim to accomplish in the last two months of this tumultuous year? May I suggest, stepping back at looking at the big picture for a time? We can get so close to our work that we can’t really see what’s going on. Stepping back can help. And that’s also what I am doing with the design lessons this month.
As outlined last week, the principles of design, those next logical steps in the growth of your design knowledge after learning all the elements (marks, line, shape, form, color, texture, and size), are the concepts that help rule your design choices. However, in the coming month, I want to give you the end goal first –your composition. This should give you some grounding for what the principles are used for as it encompasses the visual big picture of any piece.
So, what exactly is composition?
Composition is really the most important aspect of your work. It’s the convergence of all the elements and their characteristics. It’s the presentation of your design choices.
When we talk about the design of a piece, we are talking not just about the collective use of elements but about how you have arranged those elements into a single, cohesive piece. Those relationships are still rooted in the characteristics of the elements but it is how those elements are arranged that establish a relationship of the elements to the whole piece. That is composition.
The cool thing about composition is that there are a lot of standards, guides, and formulas you can use to develop useful arrangements. A lot of them we can identify intuitively even if we can’t name them or point out why the composition works. When things are arranged in a balanced and unified manner, we sense it even if we can’t identify why.
My goal, however, is to make you more aware of the “why”. As a creative, you want to be able to adjust your composition when it doesn’t feel right so being able to identify why it does or doesn’t’ work is a big part of that.
So, this week, let’s just dip our toes into the idea of composition and contemplate two rather fundamental but potentially powerful compositional considerations. To do so I do need to bring in at least one of the basic anchoring concepts for composition, that being focal points.
Focal Points
Focal points are where our eye goes to when we first look at a piece. Most artwork needs a focal point. I say most because you can have work that doesn’t seem to have a focal point but if the viewer doesn’t have a point where they naturally start the exploration of your piece, the viewer may feel lost or unsettled.
That said, let’s look at two compositional ideas that focus on focal points.
Carol Salisbury; sterling silver, brass. Photo by Dan Kvitka.
Centered
Placing your focal point smack dab in the center of your piece is a very valid method of composition. It’s not often considered the most exciting option but it can be the “right” one if it supports your intention. If you are trying to create something with calm strength, a very grounded feel, or a regal display, for instance, a centered composition can do this for you.
Unfortunately, there has, for too long, been a misconception that centered compositions are not sophisticated. Well, that’s only true when they are centered as a kind of default approach to composition rather than a choice to fulfill an intention. Centered compositions can be very powerful and terribly beautiful but there does need to be a specific reason to choose them.
The Rule of Odds
Anarina Anar, acrylic on polymer. As a whole the composition of this necklace is fine but if you took any one of those circle sets with dangles off and created pendants, which would be the most successful?
Anarina Anar, acrylic on polymer. As a whole the composition of this necklace is fine but if you took any one of those circle sets with dangles off and created pendants, which would be the most successful? The ones with one or three dangles feel more “right”. The one with two would feel undone. As a whole, with 3 sets having dangles and 7 beads chained together, the majority of the composition works on odds while the two dangles work to keep the piece from being too stagnantly centered.
The rule of odds suggests that an odd number of objects, elements, or, especially, images are more interesting than an even number. It’s considered part of composition because the arrangement of the number of elements is where this preference for odd numbers shows itself.
The bottom line is that we find an odd number of subjects more interesting than an even number and when it comes to focal points, this becomes particularly apparent.
There are quite a number of other compositional ideas I’ll be sharing with you but take those two and consider them. Take a look at your own work and see where you used these compositional concepts or where they might be used to strengthen the design.
What Else Did You Miss?
This past week in the club content, I started a month-long series on ways to increase your focus and get work done in the studio. It is going to be a distracting month for many reasons. So, if you want help there, $9/ month will get you professional grade advice along with the full design lessons, specials, and member’s first offerings.
Ronna Sarvas Weltman‘s Talisman necklace leads us on a simple but effective journey, starting with the large white bead that sweeps our eyes across the width of the piece, then down the vertical bead set that is unlike the others strung below it, dropping us into the dense collection of side view beads and right back up to take another circuit around it.
As mentioned last week, choosing a composition has as much to do with your intention as any other choice you make. However, there is another consideration that, although it is still steered by intention, is usually about holding onto your viewer’s attention so you have time to communicate your ideas, stories, and/or aesthetics.
What I am talking about is commonly referred to as “leading the eye”. This is the path that the viewer’s eye will take around your work. A visual journey around your piece, especially if it allows the viewer to take in all the elements you’ve created, adds to a sense of cohesiveness and intention in that it helps all the elements feel purposeful as well as showing your mastery and control of your design
As mentioned, two weeks ago, you can use a hierarchy of focal points and interest to lead a viewer around the different areas of your piece. A viewer will usually take things in from what is perceived as the most important element to the least, giving you a controllable path to lead them through. You can also use lines and shapes to make more literal paths as we like to follow lines and edges of shapes to see where they go.
Knowing this, you can determine where the viewer will first look (your focal point) and then create a path they will take from there. Not only does this allow you to ensure that they take in all of your hard work but it can also help fulfill your intention.
For instance, you can lead them smoothly from one point to another on a curve, communicating calm and ease. You could, alternately, have them energetically hopping around from one section to another to build on the idea of enthusiasm, fun, joy, etc. Or you can quickly shoot them from one side to the other on a straight line which can convey determination, strength, and/or force.
I will be feeding these ideas into your eager little minds as we delve through the upcoming lessons on Principles of Design. The principles will not only help you communicate your intention but they can be manipulated to assist you in leading a viewer’s eye through your piece.
Pretty cool, right?
Also … HUGE (nearly) EVERYTHING Sale!
[For those who ran into problems ordering digital yesterday, the glitch is fixed. Technology is such a grinch!]
I’ve never jumped in on the Black Friday/Cyber Monday thing but this year, I think we all need to get our shopping done early, destress, just spend some good quality time in our studio spaces! So, I figured this sale could help with both gifts and encouraging studio time, depending on who you buy for!
All Packages on Sale 30%-50% OFF
- The Polymer Arts magazine – 23 issues: $119 ($230 value)
- The Polymer Studio magazine – 3 issues: $15.95 ($24 value)
- All Christi Friesen publications- 8 books: $84.95 ($122 value)
- Christi Friesen Project booklets – 5 pack: $39 ($58 value)
- Polymer Journeys 2016+2019: $32 ($47 value)
- The Polymer Arts – ALL 29 issues: $99 ($173 value)
- The Polymer Studio – 3 issues: $12.50 ($18 value)
- Polymer Journeys 2016+2019: $20.95 ($32 value)
PLUS 20% OFF
ALL non-sale Publications and Design tools in your Cart*
Single issue magazines, any books (print or digital), CMY Color Wheel, Grayscale, Composition Grid tool … all at a discount!
Use promo code 202020
*20% off not good on sale packages or club memberships. Discounts ends December 5th, 2020.
Read More
Micromosaic polymer and silver brooch by Cynthia Toops and Chuck Domitrovich. Do you see the Rule of Thirds in use here? Diagonals? Implied lines? These concepts and more come together to create an intriguing composition with a story.
Has composition creeped into your design time in the studio yet? Have you been stepping back and pondering just how your work is laid out?
If not, you might just be soaking up the composition basics (review the basics through the blog starting here if you are new to the club) waiting for that lightbulb to come on that tells you why and how to choose a compositional layout. Well, I am hoping, this week, I can click that lightbulb on for you!
The classic composition items I’ve introduced so far are just guidelines or starting points for planning the layout of your design elements. I just want you to keep that in mind as this is not a science—it’s art. That means that this is really about you, as the artistic mastermind, choosing how you want your work to look so no hard and fast rules here.
Now, how to choose compositions that you like and that fulfill your intention? Even though there is no formula for this, there are some basic concepts that you can turn to get you started.
One would be to try out a number of the classic composition such as the Golden Ratio, the Rule of Thirds, composing on a diagonal, or in any triangular formation and see if any of those hit home. That would be a visual approach.
I, personally, like to start with words. If you have been with me all year, you may recall that at a couple points I talked about coming up with particular adjectives, concepts, or a story to describe your intention and guide your choices. This works for composition as well.
So, for example, if the words, ideas, or story you are working with include movement, then something with diagonals, including triangular compositions, would be a good place to start. If your intentions involve calm, you might look to composing horizontally, probably rooted on a horizontal line in the Rule of Thirds grid (going evenly through the center can feel stagnant) could help project this. Or, if your intention involves strength, vertical and centered arrangements (verticals look grounded and commanding centered, unlike horizontal) might be just the thing.
Just get to know and understand how different arrangements feel and you can connect them to the words, concepts, or stories you attached to your design ideas.
That’s the first half of my lesson on how to choose and plan compositions. We’ll get into what I think of as the key to cohesiveness in composition planning next week!
Getting Caught Up
Yes. we’ve gotten a bit shorter here this week, for a number of reasons but mostly because I poured all my work energy into a rather intensive MiniMag for the Club members. We not only talked about the above ideas of connecting words, concepts, and stories to composition choices but we also went through a very detailed step-by-step on how I plan a composition that still leaves plenty of room for creative play, followed up by a way to study and learn from the composition of others. No discounts, giveaways, or new products to offer, just a ton of really core composition skills to take in.
Unfortunately, I am no longer in a position to give the full lessons for free as I did all summer but, due to a number of requests, I have decided to put together the weekly MiniMags in monthly collections.
So, if you aren’t ready to commit to a club membership or what to check it out without signing up first, you can get the content, albiet quite a bit later than the club members and without timely access to the specials, discounts, and giveaways, but at least you can get the full lessons and further your design knowledge and creative skills.
Check out the MiniMag collections on the VAB page of the website.
Design Tools Back in Stock
If you missed out on the Gray Scale Finders or the custom ViewCatchers with Grids, I have them back in stock. Find those on the Design Tools page.
Stay Creative, Stay Safe, Stay the Course!
The news has not been wonderful from most corners of the world of late although wonderful glimmers of hope and the desperately wished for “light at the end of the tunnel” are appearing on the horizon for the craziness that has been 2020. We have just a little bit more to get through and I am earnestly praying we all get through this safely!
So, for my American readers, as we head into a big holiday week, please, please, please, do not let your guard down. You are creatives after all! You can come up with a wonderful, safe, socially distanced or remote version of Thanksgiving that will keep you and every loved one you want to see safe and healthy. (Zoom lifted its 40 minute limit for free accounts on Thanksgiving so take advantage of that!) And then, next year … watch out! We’ll go crazy big next year! I’d say I can’t wait, but I can. We can. It will be soooo worth it!
For all the rest of my dear readers around the globe, I am wishing all the best for you and yours. Stay safe, put on some fabulous, expressive, creative mask when you do have to head out and otherwise, put your energy into family and lots of studio time! Good? Good.
Care for yourselves like the precious people you are and I will see you next week with the second half of the lesson on how to plan out wonderful compositions.
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Have you ever heard of a triagonal? No? Well, me neither. I just made it up. But, my silly linguistic mash up (triangular + diagonal) so well describes the concept of composition I want to talk about today as well as making it much more memorable. Let me explain.
On the Diagonal
If you read the April VAB you may remember our time contemplating line and the unique ability of diagonals to convey a sense of movement. The impression of movement creates energy and intrigue in art which is why they come up in so many discussions about design.
A diagonal composition would have you arranging the elements in your composition along one or more diagonal lines.
Single diagonal compositions are created by having all elements lean on or parallel to a single diagonal line which may be an actual line or may be implied. These can be quite dramatic since the line of the single diagonal moves the eye from one side to the other without interference.
In the piece opening this post, Jeffery Lloyd Dever used a single diagonal composition with this pin with everything arranged on an implied line.
You can also play with more than one diagonal. Intersecting diagonals which cross each other are a classic version of this. It is strong but may be less dramatic than the single diagonal since the lines that would draw your eye across gets disrupted.
Clayman’s Wolf and Raven journal cover uses intersecting diagonals in combination with a centered focal point. This is a great example of implied lines (the very straight lines from head to tail in both animals) that you don’t see as lines but recognize in its visual direction that diagonals are the structure for this composition.
Triangular Triagonals
Ok, onto my mythical new word. We’ll need to start by discussing why triangles also make such great compositional templates.
Triangular formats don’t necessarily follow the shape of a triangle, the way a diagonal composition might, but more commonly elements or subjects within the piece come together to form a triangular shape or sit at the corners of an implied triangle.
These compositional triangles can create a visual sense of stability and strength. If you remember from the posts on shape, triangles are the strongest forms in nature. Each side supports the other two so the shape will not collapse under pressure. But, not only that, but a triangle also has one or more diagonal sides. So, it has movement as well as strength and stability – that’s why I think triangles in composition would be best described as triagonal! It’s more than just that strong shape you are creating, you are creating diagonal movement.
Barbara Umbel’s Turban and Tusk Necklace has triangular arrangements all over it. The body of the necklace fills a triangular space but then related elements are arranged in triangles as noted by the lines I added in the second photo. The largest and most textured elements make a primary triangle with the swoops of metal make a secondary one. The interlocking triangles within a triangular space makes for a very dynamic piece but it still feels solidly cohesive and balanced.
So, this week, keep an eye out for diagonals and triagonals (or triangular composition if you want to be understood by others). See if you can identify compositions where elements or subject matter is arranged on diagonal lines or in a trio of three points, not in a line. Then try some in your own work!
What Else Did You Miss?
This past week in the club content, we delved a little deeper into diagonals and triagular compositions than I did as well as continuing the month-long series on ways to increase your focus and get work done in the studio alogn with a Design Refresh self-quiz that dug even deeper into grid composition ideas.
These more extensive lessons and effortless ways to build on your design knowledge is only availble in the mid-week mini-mag. Don’t miss out on any more intriguing ideas and serendipitous info.
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This glass vase by Robert Coby is broken up into a rough but simple composition of thirds.
Composition is really an intriguing design aspect. It is how everything comes together because it is the structure of it. It’s the bones upon which all your elements and principles are placed. It’s a functional concept and an all-encompassing one.
The structure of our compositions use a number of anchoring concepts, all rooted in design principles. We could learn the principles first but since they are less concrete than the elements you have been learning, I think an overview of the possible compositional structures will allow you to immediately see how the principles of design we’ll get into later can play out in a composition. But in order to talk composition I need to at least touch upon a few of the principles.
Last week, I started your compositional knowledge with a brief discussion of focal points. As we dig into new compositional concepts this week, remember that focal points will be either an element we are strongly drawn to, will have tremendous contrast, will be a place where elements converge, a place where an element is isolated, or will simply strike us as unusual. In other words, they stand out more than anything else when taking in the whole piece.
So, that was a first introduction to that principle. Here are a couple more.
Hierarchy
In your piece there will be elements that stand out more than others and ones that are barely noticed. The one that stands out the most, as you are sure to surmise, should be your focal point or points but after those, all the other pieces will likely be vying for attention in a visual hierarchy. That order creates a perceived perception of each element’s importance.
Rebecca Thickbroom’s necklace elements almost always take up separate spaces with little or no overlapping. It makes them feel presented, like they are part of a story. She is also fond of including negative space beween parts in her designs which, with jewelry, make the body or clothes of the wearer part of the overall landscape of the piece. There is also a definite hierarchy of elements. Where does your eye goes first? Where does it go after that? And after that? Do you see how this hierarchy moves your view around the piece so it feels full and cohesive?
You can determine what elements are more important than others by giving them more space, making them bigger, having them high contrast, setting them where line or shapes converge, giving them a lot of energy through color, marks, lines, etc.
Hierarchy, knowing which items are most important, is needed for most standard compositional arrangements as their placement can be successfully arranged based on them.
Space
When we talk about space, we talk about positive and negative space. Positive space is usually the action, the focal point, or an area of primary interest. The negative space is usually a background or an area where the viewer can rest from analyzing the more active areas. It’s also all the empty space around sculptural object.
Yes, these principles can get kind of complex that’s why I’m going to take these things one at a time after you get this overview.
Easy Peasy Composition- The Rule of Thirds
The Rule of Thirds provides an easy but very pleasing way to lay out your elements. It is also pretty dynamic while easily remaining balanced. Let me explain.
Imagine a tic-tac-toe grid laid over the primary view of your work, like it is in the opening image of this post. If you look at your work in terms of this 9 box grid, you end up with several choice positions for focal points and breaking up the space.
For instance, the points near where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect are great places to set a focal point as well as secondary focal points.
The grid can also be used to break up the space. If you want two background textures, instead of just splitting the “canvas” of your piece in half, you can put the stronger texture on just one third, covering 3 squares of your grid. The second texture would have more space but if not as visual strong as the other, that extra space would balance against the visual draw of the stronger texture. Again, that gives you balance.
Classic Composition – The Golden Ratio
Like the Rule of Thirds, the Golden Ratio is a kind of grid but this time, it is based on the ratio of the body and other natural occurrences—it’s a matter of proportions.
A Golden Ratio grid for composition is made up of Fibonacci squares which are a visual representation of a mathematical sequence of the same name. If you skip the math, you can just create the grid starting with any sized square then start adding squares that are as wide as the widest side of the shape you have at that step. The first time, it’s just the same size square but after that, it keeps doubling in width.
The Fibonacci sequence and this Golden Ratio are the basis of the natural world’s primary compositional method. The most often referenced example is the nautilus shell. The interior pattern is a Golden Spiral. Its shape will curve from corner to corner in every square in the GR grid. That’s because the widening of its spiral is based on the Fibonacci sequence. Cool, right?
My Ice plant brooch fits nicely in a Golden Ratio grid. I didn’t do this consciously but having studied the Golden Ratio quite a bit, it is very intuitive for me. It won’t take long for it to be intuitive for you either once you’ve worked with it a bit and start to recognize and feel the graceful balance of its compositions.
You can find these proportions (approximately 1.68 to 1) everywhere—in the proportion of your limbs (your upper arm to the rest of your arm, your whole arm to your body, etc.), the arrangement of flower petals, the way tree branches grow and split, even in the double helix of DNA. In other words, it’s everywhere and so we find order and comfort in it, even if we don’t recognize it consciously.
In art, focal points that land on that first tiny square turns out to be one of the most pleasing compositions to the eye. The grid can be oriented in any direction, flipped upside down or whatever. If the focal point lands there, you are pretty, well, golden!
Keep in mind that these compositional grids and standards I’m introducing are not used precisely. They are loose guides.
So, now you have two orderly, well balanced compositional arrangements you can use as go-to ideas for composition. These work best on groupings of elements like you might have on a brooch or pendant, single contained elements that will be part of something larger like the focal bead/element of a necklace, the primary view of decorative objects, and, of course, for wall art. They are also fantastic compositional arrangements for those photos you need of your art!
Try these out next time you are laying out a design, sketching, or snapping pics of your pieces. Scroll down for apps and gadgets to help you find these compositions in your designs.
Changing the Composition of Our World
I was so going to just let this post slide without any commentary on the news here in the US but I just want to add whatever unifying voice I can out there but I ended up writing a whole article about it! Since this is so not about art, I am not posting this here, but if you are at all interested in our understanding each other, perhaps my words here can be a helpful start or an additional push. Go to my Facebook page here.
In other news, I do have Grayscale Value Finders back in stock for those of you who missed out on them last time. If you pop over to the Design Tool Supplies page, you might find another gadget, a compositional tool/ViewCatcher, available if it hasn’t sold out to the Art Boxer Club members yet.
Keep in mind that Art Boxer Members get a much more in depth article, exercises, and other articles on living an artistic life in the weekly mini-mag so if you like these posts, support this blog and your artistic endeavors by joining up here.
Read MoreChris Gryder, composition in ceramics tiles.
(For the next month or so, if you are in one of the clubs, you may notice that the blog is sounding familiar. That’s because these will be abbreviations of the full lessons found the week prior in the Club subscriptions. I am transitioning from the full design lessons being free in the blog back to them being in the subscription content so if you are serious about your education in design, do sign up for the Devotee Club and support your own growth as a knowledgeable creative and impassioned artist.)
Here we are. November 1st. What do you aim to accomplish in the last two months of this tumultuous year? May I suggest, stepping back at looking at the big picture for a time? We can get so close to our work that we can’t really see what’s going on. Stepping back can help. And that’s also what I am doing with the design lessons this month.
As outlined last week, the principles of design, those next logical steps in the growth of your design knowledge after learning all the elements (marks, line, shape, form, color, texture, and size), are the concepts that help rule your design choices. However, in the coming month, I want to give you the end goal first –your composition. This should give you some grounding for what the principles are used for as it encompasses the visual big picture of any piece.
So, what exactly is composition?
Composition is really the most important aspect of your work. It’s the convergence of all the elements and their characteristics. It’s the presentation of your design choices.
When we talk about the design of a piece, we are talking not just about the collective use of elements but about how you have arranged those elements into a single, cohesive piece. Those relationships are still rooted in the characteristics of the elements but it is how those elements are arranged that establish a relationship of the elements to the whole piece. That is composition.
The cool thing about composition is that there are a lot of standards, guides, and formulas you can use to develop useful arrangements. A lot of them we can identify intuitively even if we can’t name them or point out why the composition works. When things are arranged in a balanced and unified manner, we sense it even if we can’t identify why.
My goal, however, is to make you more aware of the “why”. As a creative, you want to be able to adjust your composition when it doesn’t feel right so being able to identify why it does or doesn’t’ work is a big part of that.
So, this week, let’s just dip our toes into the idea of composition and contemplate two rather fundamental but potentially powerful compositional considerations. To do so I do need to bring in at least one of the basic anchoring concepts for composition, that being focal points.
Focal Points
Focal points are where our eye goes to when we first look at a piece. Most artwork needs a focal point. I say most because you can have work that doesn’t seem to have a focal point but if the viewer doesn’t have a point where they naturally start the exploration of your piece, the viewer may feel lost or unsettled.
That said, let’s look at two compositional ideas that focus on focal points.
Carol Salisbury; sterling silver, brass. Photo by Dan Kvitka.
Centered
Placing your focal point smack dab in the center of your piece is a very valid method of composition. It’s not often considered the most exciting option but it can be the “right” one if it supports your intention. If you are trying to create something with calm strength, a very grounded feel, or a regal display, for instance, a centered composition can do this for you.
Unfortunately, there has, for too long, been a misconception that centered compositions are not sophisticated. Well, that’s only true when they are centered as a kind of default approach to composition rather than a choice to fulfill an intention. Centered compositions can be very powerful and terribly beautiful but there does need to be a specific reason to choose them.
The Rule of Odds
Anarina Anar, acrylic on polymer. As a whole the composition of this necklace is fine but if you took any one of those circle sets with dangles off and created pendants, which would be the most successful?
Anarina Anar, acrylic on polymer. As a whole the composition of this necklace is fine but if you took any one of those circle sets with dangles off and created pendants, which would be the most successful? The ones with one or three dangles feel more “right”. The one with two would feel undone. As a whole, with 3 sets having dangles and 7 beads chained together, the majority of the composition works on odds while the two dangles work to keep the piece from being too stagnantly centered.
The rule of odds suggests that an odd number of objects, elements, or, especially, images are more interesting than an even number. It’s considered part of composition because the arrangement of the number of elements is where this preference for odd numbers shows itself.
The bottom line is that we find an odd number of subjects more interesting than an even number and when it comes to focal points, this becomes particularly apparent.
There are quite a number of other compositional ideas I’ll be sharing with you but take those two and consider them. Take a look at your own work and see where you used these compositional concepts or where they might be used to strengthen the design.
What Else Did You Miss?
This past week in the club content, I started a month-long series on ways to increase your focus and get work done in the studio. It is going to be a distracting month for many reasons. So, if you want help there, $9/ month will get you professional grade advice along with the full design lessons, specials, and member’s first offerings.
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