1. COMPOSITION DISCUSSION What is it? Why does it matter? How do I do it well?

2. What is composition?

3. Why does composition matter?  Does it matter where you place notes in a piece of music?

4. What makes an effective composition?  Does it convey the feelings, ideas, and emotions the artist wants the viewer to understand?  Does the viewer see what the artist wants them to see?  Are there things that distract from the message and meaning of the artwork?

5. Artists often make multiple sketches in order to get the most effective composition possible.

6. Good art requires careful planning.

7. We create equilibrium by balancing the “visual weight” Why is balance important? Is it ever appropriate not to have balance?

8. What is “visual weight?  Visual weight is the ability to “draw the eye”. Something that is more noticeable has more “visual weight”. The more we want to look at something the more “visual weight” it has.

9. “Mass” can cause visual weight.

10. Unusual or bright colors can cause “visual weight”.

11. Unusual or isolated shapes can cause “visual weight”.  What do you notice first?

12. Eye gaze or direction of gesture can create visual weight

13. Placement causes “visual weight”.  Things placed right in the center attract our eye.  Anything that touches the edge attract our eye.

14. Subject matter also creates “visual weight”. Humans usually prefer to look at:  …other humans!  … animals next

15. A GOOD ART WORK NEEDS “FOCAL POINT”! WHAT IS IT? ANSWER: The area that “draws the eye” first.

16. Make sure the viewer sees what you want them to see. You can do this by:  1. Creating the “greatest value contrast” at the focal point.  2. Blur (or do not detail) everything else.

17. Use the “RULE OF THE THIRDS”! Things that are placed on the line of the “thirds” or the intersecting points tend to be good places to put “focal points”.

18. Why wouldn’t you want to place a focal point in the center??? Answer: That’s all anyone will ever see!

19. “EYE PATH”IS THE GUIDED TOUR THROUGH YOUR ART WORK!

20. Notice how the eye flows from the focal point to other areas of interest and stays in the art work.

21. THING TO THINK ABOUT:  Avoid too much negative space. Fill the picture!

22.  But don’t overwhelm the viewer with too much stuff.

23.  Match your composition to the mood of your art. Horizontal give restful feeling, verticals give static or stately feel and diagonals show action.

24.  Don’t be boring with your compositions. Change it up, try something new with your compositions.

25.  Don’t have objects sit on the bottom of your paper or canvas – it looks very “2 nd gradish”!

26.  Avoid going right to the edge and touching – it will draw the eye to the edge. Going off the page is fine but just touching the edge is not.

27.  If you go off the page on one side you need to balance by going off he page on the opposite side.

28.  Try a composition that goes off the edge on three sides. Artists use it all the time and it almost always works.

29.  DON’T float your subject matter in a sea of empty space it is a sure sign of a beginning artist.

30.  Change your mind set from “drawing something” to “creating an art work”.

31.  Avoid creating a “bouncing” eye path. Use overlapping and irregular spacing to get around a bouncing eye path.

32.  Avoid inconsistencies in perspective if you are trying for realism.

33. LASTLY: Is there anything distracting in your composition?