Lesson 25
1. Thought
"I find when teaching workshops that people tend to jump
into painting before working out the bugs through drawing, and
their problems become apparent as they continue working."
Brad Faegre, Pastel artist. From interview in American Artist,
July 1992 p. 24
2. Words:
Composition: Arrangement of forms, lines, values, and other pictorial
elements into a picture design. North Light Dictionary of Art
Terms
Composition: n. 1. Act of composing; esp., arranging of words
to form sentences, paragraphs, verses, etc.; the art or practice
of writing. 2. Manner of being composed, as to style or elements;
as, a picture excelling in composition; also, constitution, formerly
of the body, now esp. of the mind; -- of persons. 3. State or
quality of being put together, or composed; conjunction; combination.
4. That which is composed or has been composed, as: a. A mutual
agreement. b. A mass or body formed by combining two or more elements
or ingredients; as, a composition of several acids. 5. A literary,.
musical, or artistic product; -- often, used of an essay done
as an educational exercise. 6. Fine Arts. The art or practice
of so combining the parts of a work of art as to produce a harmonious
whole. 7. Print. The setting up of type. (The word "composer"
derives as follows: F. composer, fr. com- + poser to place). Webster's
New Collegiate Dictionary.
3. Practice: "Learning bears fruit when it is applied."
Note that drawing, value, color, dimension all are compositional
elements. For your homework exercise (should you agree to undertake
it) undertake to do several different interpretations of a
theme -- focusing once, for instance, on value as the prime
organizing factor, perhaps another time on drawing, and a third
on color as the organizing factor. (In other words, using the
same subject, do two or more interpretations of it).
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