Painting Composition: Design Elements & Techniques

• Composition is intelligently and creatively combining painting tools to tell a story.
• Tools include line, shape, color, value, edges, S-Curve, Dynamic Symmetry, mass, and pattern.
• Understanding design techniques helps artists powerfully share their vision.
• Striking designs are artists' ingenious solutions to arrangement problems.
• Avoid thinking design ideas are mystical or absolute to prevent generic-looking paintings.
• Creatively use, manipulate, or discard design techniques to make paintings flow as desired.
• Composition unifies beat, rhythm, rhyme, timbre, melody, harmony, tempo, dynamics, subject, mood, light, and moment.
• Composition creates synergy, elevating art above mere expression.

Factors Influencing Composition

• Light and shadow, position, perspective, and the painting's focus affect composition.
• Design creates the illusion of movement and life on a 2-dimensional surface.
• Composition is a means to a spectacular end.

Design Elements

• Lines
• Shapes
• Color
• Value
• Form/mass
• Edges
• Texture
• Perspective/depth/space

Design Principles

• Pattern (physical and abstract)
• Dominance/emphasis/focus
• Unity/variety/harmony
• Balance
• Contrast
• Movement/rhythm
• Local Tone
• Equalization Effect

Composition Types

• Gestalt
• Figure-Ground Relationship
• Rule of Thirds
• Dynamic Symmetry
• Golden Mean and Fibonacci Numbers
• Creative intelligence or imagination is crucial for successful compositions.

Design Elements: Lines

• Lines contribute to expression, rhythm, and harmony.
• Actual and implied lines lead the viewer.

Design Elements: Shapes

• Effective grouping of colors, values, and lines into abstract shapes improves compositions.
• Squinting helps group values into shapes.
• Shapes help create pattern, unity, and movement without unnecessary detail.
• Spirals, zigzags, circles, triangles, curves, and diagonals each have unique effects on the viewer.
• Zigzags create energy and drama.
• Curves lead the viewer gracefully.
• Diagonals add tension and dynamic energy.

Design Elements: Color

• Color dynamics in nature provide a universal language.
• Color harmonizes, balances, creates movement, and generates emphasis.
• Stronger colors around the focal point draw the viewer's attention.
• Cooler colors recede, and warmer colors advance, creating distance.

Design Elements: Value

• Value is a tool for creating contrast and guiding the viewer.
• White represents the highest value, and black represents the lowest.
• Ultramarine blue and Alizarin Purple have darker values.
• Lemon Yellow and Cadmium Orange have lighter values.
• Shadow and light patterns are laid in first as large shapes.

Design Elements: Form/Mass

• Form applies to physical and abstract shapes, positive and negative shapes.
• Shadows are abstract shapes, while trees are physical objects.

Design Elements: Edges

• Hard and soft edges are essential for realism.
• Hard edges define the light side, and broken edges define the shadow side.
• Lost edges occur where shapes of the same value cross.

Design Elements: Texture

• Simulating texture on surfaces enhances paintings.

Design Elements: Perspective/Depth/Space

• Perspective accurately portrays depth.
• Lines create a feeling of distance.
• Strategies for depicting space include proportion, shading, overlapping, foreshortening, position, and clarity.

Design Principles: Pattern

• Pattern is the organizing structure of the image.
• Light and dark unifying shapes flow through a composition.
• Increase contrast to see how artist kept darks connected to one another
• Connected values create a visual harmony for the viewer.
• Separation of values creates a visual harmony for the viewer.
• Pattern in art generates flow or paths using physical and abstract elements.
• Physical patterns refer to actual objects.
• Abstract patterns refer to scale, shapes, shadows, and energy.
• Transitions can be more involved and subtle
• Negative spaces and shapes clarify and support the positive shapes.

Design Principles: Dominance/Emphasis/Focus

• A dominant theme strengthens a painting’s impact.
• Clarity and focus engage the viewer.
• If the sky becomes the dominant feature, use ¾ of the canvas (or panel) for the sky and ¼ of the canvas for the landscape – or even no landscape at all.
• Elements of design support the center of interest.
• A hard edge or lines can support the focal point.
• The painting became more compelling because one main focal point was emphasized and crafted everything else to support that primary theme.

Design Principles: Unity/Variety/Harmony

• Unity ties all elements, so they feel consistent.
• A harmonious painting feels complete.
• Variety adds textures, color temperature changes, and light and shadow contrasts.
• A pleasing balance of unity and variety contains areas that demand the viewer’s attention and other areas that allow the viewer’s eyes to rest.

Design Principles: Balance

• Balance is based on feeling rather than formula.

Design Principles: Contrast

• Contrast involves differences between visual elements.
• Red placed next to green boosts saturation.
• Contrasts draw attention and create points of interest.

Design Principles: Movement and Rhythm

• Movement in a painting is created using patterns that move the viewer's eyes.

Design Principles: Local Tone

• Focuses on local color without strong light influence.
• Involves light, medium, and dark values, with one dominating.

Design Principles: Equalization Effect

• Lacks a definite area of interest.
• Stimulates effect through textures and movement.
• Creates a feeling of energy and movement.
• Requires variety in color, value, or shape.

Composition Types: Gestalt

• Gestalt means "unified whole."
• Principles of Gestalt:
  • Proximity: Closer objects are seen as a group or entity.
  • Similarity: Similar objects create unity.
  • Closure: The brain fills in broken lines or shapes.
  • Continuity or Continuation: The viewer's eye follows a line of sight.

Composition Types: Figure-Ground Relationship

• Refers to the separation of the focal object and background.
• Clear distinction between figure and ground avoids confusion.

Composition Types: Rule of Thirds

• Divides the painting into nine rectangles using vertical and horizontal lines.
• Place the center of interest near intersecting points.
• It can lead to formulaic images.

Composition Types: Dynamic Symmetry

• Uses mathematical ratios for pleasing compositions.
• Baroque Diagonal: Major line goes bottom left to upper right.
• Sinister Diagonal: Runs right to left.
• Grids can be complex and impressive looking.
• Not all great art follows dynamic symmetry.

Composition Types: Golden Mean and Fibonacci Numbers

• The Golden Mean is a 1 to 1.618 ratio.
• Fibonacci Numbers : 1+1=2; 1+2=3; 2+3=5; 3+5=8; 8+5=13; 8+13=21.
• Fibonacci numbers and spirals are found in nature.
• They can provide a sense of dynamic placement.

Final Thoughts On Composition

• Once a grasp of design principles and elements is achieved we can move forward and follow instincts.
• Experiment, reflect, and play to discover unique designs.