On Composition
by Anton Oxenuk
Recently I've felt a lot of people struggle with composition in their
artwork. I don't consider myself a master of it by any means but if you
are a beginner I feel like I could share a couple of tips & pointers for
future reference that might help.
And keep in mind that everything beyond this point
is strictly my opinion so don't seek me out to tell me
how wrong I am on everything ever. Plus I am writing
this article for those who are interested in hearing me
out specifically.
To me composition in art is an act of play where your aim is to
produce a visually appealing organization of elements on your canvas.
That's essay talk for "looks cool bruh". Play in this case means picking
up different tools at your disposal and having fun with them doing
whatever you can to entertain yourself (and others). How well you
"play" with these tools is what makes your compositions appear either
good or bad, interesting or boring etc.
Now, what are the tools that we have?
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Contrast!
Arguably the most important tool when talking about visual arts.
It creates interest for the eye and creates DRAMA. And that's exactly
what we need! Every artist is basically a professional wrestling
organization. But as you can expect contrast can be used in lots of
different ways. Let's talk about some of them
Detail / Complexity
Eyes are drawn to the busier areas in an image but if everything is
busy then it just becomes white noise. Too much visual
information bores you the same way you see a long chunk of text,
you just don't feel like reading it (the irony does not escape me
here). Simply having a lot of detail in one area and less of it in
other ones will create this contrast. Blurried edges of forms go
against more strong harsh edges the closer you get to your focal
points.
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by Skan Srisuwan
Clear contrast between busy mass of
abstractions and a simple render of a body
Values / Lighting
If you have ever seen great black & white photography you have
experienced this one. Just something simple like how dark an
object's base value is already enough to create visual interest and
that's before you start playing with lighting. Strong direct lighting
setup will do wonders to create a cool composition and you can
play with the silhouette of shadowed vs lit areas.
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by Steve Huston
you can see how effective the simple
juxtaposition of lit and shadowed areas is here.
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by Saskia Gutekunst
The whole composition is a play on different
base values and lighting
Color
Of course this would depend on every artist because the ways to
use color are near infinite and I imagine it greatly depends on
personal style (and taste). However there's still much to do with
it. You can play with your mood and juxtapose warm and cold
hues. You can take a couple of related neighboring hues on the
color wheel and put them against something opposing it. Simply
minimalist color fill in one area against a busier richer area of
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color. The better your grasp on color is the more you can do with
and create interesting plays on it.
by Sachin Teng
Distinction between different elements of the
composition done with color
Texture
What is the material of your subject matter? Everything has a
slightly different surface and reflects light differently. Imagine a
busy detail-rich texture of fur against plain matte cotton. A shiny
chrome surface next to leather. How you depict the textures is up
to your technique and style but this is definitely one of the ways
to create contrast.
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by Krenz Cushart
Diffent textures of hair, clothing, jewelry and
fur play nicely against each other
On a separate note I'd like to point out that it might
be a good idea to keep a healthy balance of it all.
Juggling different contrasts is great but if you
overcomplicate too much juxtaposition it will become
too much for the viewer (and maybe even too much
of an undertaking for you as an artist)
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Perspective!
I see perspective as a 2D equivalent of cinematography in film.
That might be an unecessary comparison but it helps me to wrap my
mind around it. Studying how camera operators frame shots is a good
way to start understanding perspective from a very different point of
view.
We are often taught perspective 101 with a horizon line, 2
vanishing points and some cubes. That is great to introduce the idea of
emulating 3D space on a 2D plane and create the illusion of depth and
space but in terms of composition that's not what really what it is about.
Different perspectives will tell different stories, emphasize
different narratives and moods. A zoomed out camera that shows the
whole scene and flattens the perspective is great for showing the whole
scene and all the elements. If you've ever read manga or western
superhero comics you have seen perspective that focuses on an object
close by and pushes everything else further back (a hero's fist going into
the viewer's eyeball with the feet seemingly disappearing into the outer
space) in an action shot great way to create a dynamic feel and
emphasize movement.
Next time you place your perspective think about how you can
use different perspectives to tell your story? What kind of feeling do
you want to show, how can you place your camera to achieve the goal?
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by Evan Lee
Dynamic camera angle promotes a sense of
action
by Jeremy Geddes
Tilted horizon line creates an unstable feeling
adding to the explosive theme of the narrative
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by Saturnino Herrn
Flattened perspective divides attention equally
to all the elements on the canvas
Leading Lines!
This is where things get tricky.
Every object, brush stroke, detail, ornament, whatever you can
think of to put on a canvas creates lines that your eye can follow.
Imagine a silhoutte of a creature the more broken down the
silhouette gets the harder it is for your eyes to interpret it as a line. But
at the same time, the more simple the silhouette gets, the more its side
can become an invisible arrow of sorts that your eyes can follow. If you
see an outstreched arm in an image your eyes will follow where that
arm is pointing even if the gesture isn't trying to specifically point to
something, same concept works for pretty much any object you can
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plase on your canvas.
If you have a good intuition from experience, practice and
experimentation you will arrange the objects in your image in such a
way to suggestively point towards where you want the viewer's eye to
go. What do we want the viewer to do? We want them to keep
looking! So point towards your focal points. Lead the eyes back into the
image, don't let them leave if you can.
Plus, if you start thinking about this you will start trying to think
of what can you put into the image that can help you direct the viewer.
This will stimulate your creativity and you will start thinking of new
elements to add into your image which is great if like me you ask
yourself what else to draw when you seemingly feel like you are out of
ideas ("What else can I put in it! Urgh!").
by Alphonse Mucha
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Elements of the composition lead the viewer's
eye with the edge of their silhouettes
by Haku Saku (aka H939)
All the elements directionally lead toward the
black circle, keeping your eye in the image
Leitmotifs / Repetition! (my favorite)
If you introduce a visual motif in your piece don't let it die alone,
unloved and forgotten. As Bob Ross would put it, give it a friend. Or
better yet, give it a whole squad (getting dangerously close to dating this
document here). Try to keep up whatever reocurring visual elements
you introduce across your piece. This could be anything as long as it can
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be seen as a srong enough visual to be recognizable. Specific
brushstroke shapes, elements that have a similar silhouette, similar
objects all of these should be used to populate your image and tie it
together with nice consistency of your visual motifs.
I understand this could be a bit hard to understand so I'm gonna
use music as an example: repetition is one of the most powerful tools in
arts and you can hear it constantly in your favorite music. Most people
don't listen to highly experimental contemporary academic music so
chances are the music you like has repitition of some sort. Think about
how same elements are repeated, how they can be modified slightly to
keep it interesting, how you might repeat something only partially to
spice it up. You can do the same with your visual art work! Establish,
repeat, create variations, even trick with misleading quasi-repetitions to
make your piece interesting. Look at your work and ask if you can take
some elements and play with them more this way to improve your
piece.
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by Tran Nguyen
Repetition of flowers across the canvas guides
the eye along the image, pulling closer to the
face (focal point)
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by James Jean
Repetition of elements (arrows, wavy
bandages) give the image consistency and
coherency of visual language.
That is everything I can think of right now when it comes to
composition. Maybe sometime soon I will try and make an example on
how to apply these guidelines to create an image with some kind of a
step by step thinking breakdown if I have the time.
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If you have any questions you can message me @aoxenuk
pretty much anywhere social media wise (or look up my
name alternatively) or email at aoxenuk@gmail.com
You can find my portfolio at http://antonoxenuk.com or
https://aoxenuk.artstation.com/
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