Composition # 8

July 11, 2011

Our internet had a breakdown so I've not been able to add any posts for a few days.  I'm still studying composition and could probably keep doing that for quite awhile.  What got me going on this was my own frustration in doing a painting a day and keeping them interesting and worthwhile.  I realized that I needed to do more planning for each one.  I've been consistently adding to the Daily Paintworks Website and reached 180 paintings listed.  My goal is 250 for the year.   I was happy with the one I did yesterday.  

6 x 6 - Available at Daily Paintworks

The composition for this one was about having the darks create an armature and a gestural path into the painting.  This time I used the VALUE FINDER app from my iPhone to see the pattern that the darks created.  It is a really valuable tool in looking at the pattern of lights and darks.  I think it was worth the $4.99 that I spent.  You take a photo of your set-up and the value finder creates a number of different value patterns.  The most helpful to me is the NOTAN, a pure black and white version of your photo.  

The Art Tutorials at the Daily Paintworks are also worth investigating.  Carol Marine does a really good one on composition.  She recommends a book called The Simple Secret to Better Painting.

Here's a link to the tutorials:

Daily Paintworks Tutorials