Tuesday Class

There are three components in a good painting they are "Technique, Design and Mood"

The Artists Board
Good Design in Paintings
July 13th 1999
Good design and composition in art can be a natural talent in some artists.

Where as others have to learn either through instruction, or by trial and error.

For the beginner artist who has this problem I would like to offer a few suggestions. You will find that artist who has this natural ability may not even know they instinctively obey the elements of good composition. These elements are knowing that the main centre of interest must be placed in such a manner that the viewer as no trouble in looking at the painting, and feels there is no sense of conflict within the picture other than what the artist intended. To avoid this it is best that the main elements be placed on the golden mean or sweet spot.

Although I no longer need to work out the golden mean or sweet spot as I learned this method when young and do it instinctively.

The method below bottom right is easy to use, and beginners should make it a practise to use in the early stage of their learning.

I would like to point out before we progress to far, that for the experience artist there are no rules in art and I have often seen them ignored with great success but they have been aware of what they was doing because they had the knowledge.

The diagram on the left

The Golden Means of a horizontal rectangle.

These are found by taking each of the sides

of the rectangle and determining its Golden Mean, as shown

The diagram on the Right

Shows the most popular and easiest way to create

a sweet spot.

Devide your picture into thirds and one of the four spots

is where you place the centre of interest.

Try not to skip this small section

Harmonious proportion

Artists have always looked for both an ideal shape on which to work, and ideal proportions for that shape and several theories have evolved, one of which we will look at.

The method of establishing fine proportion we will look at, was developed from the discovery of the Golden Mean, a direct result of the widespread interest in geometry and classical art in the Renaissance. The Golden Mean is also called the 'divine' proportion because while it is provable and demonstrable geometrically it cannot be resolved fraction, .618 recurring arithmetically, since it always results in an irrational recurring.

The Diagram A below.

c a g b

Demonstrates how-to discover the ideal proportion of a line AB (which could be the base or upright of a rectangle). Produce the line to C, so that CA is half the length of AB. From A draw a 90° vertical line AD the same length as AB. With the point of a pair of compasses at C describe an arc from 0 to intersect AB. The point of inter section G marks the Golden Mean of AB.

Thee other diagram show how a golden mean can be constructed within the rectangle

It is interesting to look at how this works in the the picture making process

DiagramA	DiagramB

When the most important part of the painting is placed in the centre of the picture it tends to create a static and boring subject and also restricts the ability to place supporting eye paths to the centre of interest. Equally, to have them too near the borders sets up what is known as spatial relativity, which is when the eye links the subject to the border and creates a sense of imbalance. However, when the subject matter is so predominant it occupies most of the picture plane, it becomes a super graphic and due to it's size and the area it covers, the eye no longer links it to the border. Super graphics should be placed in such away that part of it touches the border or goes beyond, bringing it closer to the viewer.

When you look at work by other artist, you should spend time critiquing them and trying to determine why they have worked or why they have not worked as a painting.

Make your self aware of the composition and the colour and whether the picture as feeling or mood. You will soon find yourself incorporating this into your own work.