UNDERSTANDING THE ARTS

By: Mary Vinnedge 940-222-1958
Proper Composition Is Essential to Compelling Visual Art
This has probably happened at least once to everyone. You’re walking along,
minding your business, you glance at a storefront, a billboard, a painting in a shop
window, a calendar, and you just have to have it or take a photo of it or stand and
look at it. It’s difficult to say what makes a work of art—painting, photograph, statue,
quilt—suddenly seem so compelling. Probably a huge factor is the artwork’s
composition, the placement of the elements within it that ratchet up the viewer’s
interest. And here’s the good news for artists: Composition techniques can be
learned, and one opportunity to do so is at a Galveston Art League workshop on
May 26 in Galveston (more details at the end of this article).
The first thing that an artist must recognize is that the purpose of the
visual arts is to somehow communicate with the viewer. A work does not have to
be professionally executed or well-composed in order to communicate, but it will
be much more compelling if the artist is aware of some rudimentary principles of
composition.
First of all, we in the Western world read and write from the left to the right
and from the top of the page to the bottom. As a result, we tend to look at visual
things in the same way, left to right, top to bottom. If the center of interest is on the
left side of the work, there should be something that draws the eye from the left to
the right hand side. If the center of interest is on the right hand side, there should
be something on the left that pulls the viewer’s eye toward the right. Try looking
at a photo or painting that you like and carefully think about where your eyes go.
Where do they first land? How do they move around the work? Do they return to
the center of interest?
Second, viewers’ eyes should never slide off the work without having
something in the composition that will bring their gaze back in. So be careful with
parts of the composition that direct their gaze outward.
And last, make sure the finished work is unified, that it all fits together
nicely, not only in terms of the subject, but also the colors. Do you have a solitary
dab of turquoise in one corner that seems to dominate the work? Is there somewhere
else you could put another small drop of turquoise to keep it company?
You’re the artist. You can do that!
By: Pat Jacobi
The arrows on this photo indicate
how the eye moves around when examining
an image, going from left to
right as well as out of the frame and
then back into it.
Composition workshop: Pat Jakobi,
an award-winning photographer
who exhibits and sells her work at
Galveston Art League galleries in
Texas City, 611 6th St., and Galveston,
2117A Postoffice St., will lead a
workshop from 10 a.m. to noon on
Saturday, May 26, at the Art League’s
Galveston location. She will teach
what to leave in, what to leave out,
and when to break the rules in creating
two-dimensional art in any medium.
Cost: $20. Details and registration:
GalvestonArtLeague.com and
gallery2117@gmail.com.