Art Unboxed Composition

I was watching an old episode of Sky Arts Landscape Artist Of The Year recently, and the selected artists were assigned the challenge of painting a specific lighthouse. Each took a different approach, the above sketch was my version, which touches on the topic for this week’s Art Unboxed, Composition.

Composition in art boils down simply to what I described above, how are you going to display an image. Whether it’s a portrait, landscape, or concept, the way you arrange it speaks to it’s composition. It is why each of the lighthouse paintings on the episode I described, were different, none were the same.

When you consider how many times lighthouses have been painted, and that each artist was assigned the exact same scene, it’s extraordinary. It’s also a reminder that God has blessed us all with individuality, which leads to seeing things differently. Seeing things differently is important at eighteen, but it’s also much easier. The challenge can be seeing things differently, when it comes to composing art, at sixty five than you did at eighteen.

I should clarify I am speaking of when you draw or paint something, as another example consider Abraham Lincoln. Each time I sketch or paint the sixteenth President, one is different. It’s important as an artist to keep growing, the same is true as a writer. When I’m seventy five, I don’t want to have painted the exact same picture for forty years.

I don’t revisiting the same subject, as I do this regularly, but I want to bring something new each time that I do. Whether you’re painting a painting, or writing a book, you’re telling a story, and composition is a huge part of this. One way to see differently is an age old trick, the viewfinder.

It’s basically a square you look through, but what makes it amazing is that you can move the square. The palm tree, or the sitter if a portrait, doesn’t have to be in the center of the painting. They can be in the lower left hand corner. The viewfinder is a wonderful tool to help you look at some things differently.

Another tool artists use is to squint. Looking at a scene and squinting blurs just enough to allow you to eliminate distractions. It helps you see colors, and shapes, which help when you paint the picture. This doesn’t mean you have to paint an abstract art piece, it will merely help you see unique components which can help with your painting. This can work for realism painters as well as abstract impressionists.

One more tool that helps you see things differently, is a visual database of what you’ve already drawn or painted. Looking back regularly on what you’ve already completed, will help you to know how not to frame something again. This doesn’t mean you can’t paint the same setting and do something new, Van Gough’s Hay Bails come to mind, but it does help you avoid retreading old tires.

Composition is a wonderful tool that all of us have, the ability to see something new, and to apply it. This concept works well in life as well as art. I have a friend who likes to find a different route to go home with, to keep from developing a rut. Staying engaged, seeing differently, and looking for new ideas not only helps you paint a better painting, it will help to keep you young.