July 2, 2013 - Emphasis on Composition
I've decided that I would like to strengthen composition in my paintings so I pulled out my favorite book on the subject by Ian Roberts, called Mastering Composition. I like the way he organizes composition into 8 common armatures. His definition on page 13 is very complete, but my take on it is that it gives your painting a structure and a path for the eye. His idea that design engages the viewer is very persuasive and I need constant reminding.
Doing a composition a day for a year is one of his suggestions that will really help improve your paintings. I don't know if I can stick to that, but here is one. I should at least be able to do one for each armature and besides this is supposed to be a part of every painting, I am reminding myself again.
I'm going through the thousands of my disorganized photos, looking for possible designs, good ones that is, cropping photos, doing thumbnails.
I did a thumbnail (strongly suggested for every painting).
The "L" armature:
(I accidently deleted the original photo before cropping it).
cropped photo
(The greens look unnatural in this photo, the real painting is more grayed out greens)
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