Composition

Blog #5   Composition Wing It or Plan It?

It can be argued that a planned composition kills creativity. If we think about this, the artist who wings it, goes straight in and paints. These artists don't think through or plan their composition. Some people call this fluking it, others call it amazing or a true artistry.

Consciously they don’t, subconsciously they do think about planning the composition. The ability, the knack of getting a painting balanced and looking right belongs to both an artist who plans, as much as it belongs to a ‘fluked’ result for any other artist.

As artists we have a tendency to see, feel, know, what looks right. It is an innate skill. When we take photos we compose through the camera lens. This isn’t a conscious or deliberately thought most of the time, we are not voicing that we are ‘composing that shot’. In saying this, there are some who do, who deliberately do just this. They plan and compose the  shot ready for a painting reference. 

That photo reference is usually copied exactly how it was taken, into a painting.  Why?  It looks right, and its got all the info needed for a painting. The answer to composition here is to wing it, go with what’s up front, ready to use.

Artists with perhaps more experience will take that reference photo and pull it apart.  They will do some thumbnails sketches to find the best composition, that tells the story, that shows the viewer what they saw and felt at the moment the photo was taken. The structure of the painting is designed to be balanced, it is composed. Usually small thumbnail size sketches are the method for this sorting out of the design. They are quick and too small to include details.  This is planning it. 

So do you wing it or plan it? 

How do you go about planning for your painting? There are aids available for composition in the form of apps to use on the camera phone but first of all the artist needs to understand the rules of composition and how they can work.
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​Are you going to do something toward learning more about composition? 
Best wishes in your painting endeavours, Karol