Advancing with Watercolor Composition The Fascinator COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 1
Composition Composition: Is the way in which something is put together or arranged : the combination of parts or elements that make up the whole Imagine that someone just gave you some flowers as a gift. How thoughtful and how deserved you think. You find a vase that suits them and you put the flowers into the vase. Then what? Do you walk away?? No, usually we stand over the vase adjusting and moving the flowers until it is more or less interesting. We search for variation, rhythm, balance,and unity all in these moments. The artists, When we are building our pictures, we are often doing the same thing - but we start with an idea and attempt to bring that idea out onto the paper for ourselves, and for others to enjoy. At our disposal are shapes, lines, tonal values, color and edges,, and we use them under our knowledge of the principles of balance, variation, rhythm, harmony, contrast, and unity. All of these elements and principles have been presented in previous weeks. In this lesson I am opening the door to composition just a little bit, but enough that I hope you are intrigued and moved to go through that door Lets start with some basic ideas in composition that will be determined by your subject or idea. Orientation: We often use rectangle sheets of paper, sometimes squares Answer this question before anything else What suits my idea best Landscape or Portrait? Horizon: Where to put the Horizon? It sounds like a overly simple question but in landscape the position of the horizon is the first line we make and with that line we say many things. If we put the Horizon high in the painting we bring more attention to the road and foreground, If on the other hand, we put the horizon low in the painting we place more emphasis on the sky. COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 2
One place that you should not put the horizon is right in the middle. This divides the painting into 2 equal halves and results in a boring composition. Center of Interest: The Center of interest for landscapes is best reserved for the mid-ground, between the foreground and background. Of course you can be more specific and place the center of interest in a smaller section of the painting. In fact there is a formula for that too! A good place for the center of interest is at a point a different distance from each edge of the paper. The center or area of interest has an important function in the painting. At the center of interest we give a little more information, or the story You can also think of the center of interest as a resting place that the eye can return to after roaming the painting. For my work today I will use the mid ground of the painting for my area of interest. Try to avoid is the exact middle. Again this creates a static foundation for your painting. Leads and traps There are a number of ways the artist can move the audience through the painting. Leads are created by the lines formed in shape meeting shape - the edges of the near rocks, the slope of a mountain, the arrow shaped wedge in the sky or in this case the arrows made by the awnings and shadow shapes. We can use diagonal lines straight lines and long curved lines in a similar fashion that converge on a particular point. These are strong directors. Any object with a point, such as a shadow, a roof top acts as an arrow helps direct the eye to the center of interest, if it points either toward it or towards something else and it intern points to it. Notice that all of my leads and directionals move towards the interior or mid ground in COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 3
BACKGROUND the painting. Try to avoid directionals which point out of the painting - our eyes will follow those right out of the painting!! Even my figure looks towards the center. Again, here is a device used in the theater; when one actors speaks out all the others turned to face it, so the audience will too. Foreground The foreground often gives us problems. The reason is we try to include too much in the foreground. The foreground should be kept simple and supportive, much like the background. It should function as a smooth entry into the painting and free from too many details. In the case of my painting after time to think I realized the reflected triangular shape presented a distraction in the foreground and did not use it it in the next painting. FOREGROUND Depth Creating the illusion of depth is at the heart of traditional painting. We are working with 2 dimensions but trying to effectively portray 3 dimensions. There are some compositional tools at our disposal that will help us. Size of Shapes Placing larger shapes in the foreground, mid size shapes in the middle ground, and smaller shapes in the background is a very reliable way to help create the illusion of depth in our painting. Another is diminishing size. As things recede they grow smaller in size. In my painting I repeat the shapes of stones in the foreground as large, in the mid-ground as medium, and in the background as small The pines are repeated in this fashion as well Edges and Texture COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 4
Broken Rough Edges Another way of creating depth is the use of hard edges against soft edges. When we are painting we can use hard edges to make an object feel closer and soft edges feel further away. Rough edges also suggest detail and should be used more in the mid and foreground. See the example for a use of soft edges in the distance and hard and rough texture in the mid and foreground Color Soft Edge to the Dark Shadow Subdued Color and Less Contrast in the Background When we use color if we think warm and cool colors we use our cooler colors to recede and create distance, and we use warmer colors to advance and come forward. This is especially true when working with grays. Grays usually have a warmth or a coolness about them that can be used effectively with values to create depth. Look at my painting especially the wash made in the lake. The far shore starts out cooler and as the wash comes towards us it grows warmer with the addition of burnt sienna Value Objects tend to be larger and darker in the foreground and grow smaller and paler as they recede in the distance. Think of a fog. As objects retreat into the fog they become paler and paler until they disappear. Bright Eye Catching Color and Tonal Values through the Mid-Ground COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 5
Themes Angled Brush strokes depict the awnings and the shadows set the theme in this painting In music theme is a melody reoccurring throughout the composition, giving it a measure of unity. The same may be applied to painting, for the same purpose. Rather than notes, the recurring theme might be a combination of colors or other elements. It could be a combination of similar lines and shapes such as curved lines with curved shape. Anything recognizable that recur throughout the painting creates a theme. Themes can be used to create the mood; angular shapes and lines tend to a feeling of movement or action, and greatly enhance the mood of action painting, such as an athletic event or construction site. Horizontal straight lines with horizontal rectangular shapes fit a quiet mood such as one might choose the painting for a wake. The theme of curves shapes with curved lines would fit the scene depicting slow movement such as the sailboat plowing through a rolling sea COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 6
Compositional stems Over thousands of years of painting, certain compositional stems have emerged which can give any painting a measure of stability and readability., You can think of these stems as a sort of armature that supports the mountains, fields, trees that are painted over it. The sculpture creates the armature and then adds material to hide it, but it is always there at the foundation of the work. So too are compositional stems. These stems are completely flexible and have been used through the ages in countless ways. They are reliable and help in simplifying the motif into a few connected passages.. I think we can think of them as poetic forms, haiku, sonnet, limerick, or musical forms barcarolle, tango, nocturne They present a certain guidelines to follow which help in giving the finished poem or music a sense of flow and rhythm, as well as stability. Here I present excerpts from Edgar Payne s book Composition and Landscape in which he illustrates most of these stems. COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 7
COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 8
COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 9
A study and practice of Composition will, in time, simplify and strengthen your approach to working on location. Pause some minutes in front of your subject and look for a compositional stem that may be derived from the motif. Sometimes its obvious sometimes it must be fashioned. As always experience reveals all things - your goal is to experience through the activity of painting and reflect on these experiences. Lets look at the Fascinator one more time - can you see a compositional stem supporting the image? I thought of the Cross as the image came together COMPOSITION WORKING WITH WATERCOLOR 10