Selection and Composition – Perspectives from The Artist’s Road

Selection and Composition

Perspectives from The Artist’s Road

 Zoomed-In

Mid-Ground

Zoomed-Out

   Whenever we are studying a subject for painting, we give great consideration to the compositional design of scene, whether it is a still life, landscape, portrait and so on. There can be no rush to this process. If a painting is to be successful and meet or exceed our imaginings, then it must start with a thoughtful, well-considered design. We refer to this activity as Imagineering—I think Walt Disney may have coined that term. Those students who try to skip this step usually wind up making big changes later on their wet canvas—a mess to fix at that point!

   Working from life is always the best way to learn to see. The process usually requires creating black and white thumbnail sketches with at least 3 values indicated. If working from life is not possible, one can also begin with photo reference images. In that case, we recommend that you always shoot your subject in three different compositions at minimum—zoomed-in, like a portrait; half-way back, to stage a mid-ground subject with some surrounding environment; and, zoomed out to give a larger context, perhaps including the sky. These images illustrate the practice. From any of these, further cropping and edits can easily be made in drawn thumbnails. For instance, one might want to bring that green tractor over closer to the barn to add context and story to the barn. When we get back to our studios, we can use those field shots to create our hand-drawn thumbnails and select from those, not our photos. The fact is, if one draws a subject, it embeds in our memories—our visual library—and will be called upon while we paint.

   It is also wise to edit our photo images at the time they are taken to restore the images to what you actually see, rather than accept the defaults of the standard algorithm the phone uses. That algorithm, designed by engineers, not necessarily artists, prioritizes human faces, which is not generally what we want for landscape or still life. Get to know your editing software. Edit images as you take them and compare the results. Edits are non-destructive, which means you can always restore the original exposure, or simply make a duplicate and edit that. All of this prep work helps us as we paint. When painting, we need to be focusing on mass-tones and color relationships, brushstrokes, edges, feeling, light and myriad other details then—not on compositional problems!

   Remember, in painting, if one wants to achieve a great finish, always begin with a great start.