Composition Tools

[AlexGarcia]

What if any composition tools do you use when planning a painting? (Golden Section, Pictorial Armature etc.)

[RobM]

Alex,
In the main I will use a series of photographs backed up by some physical aspects. That has mainly been the case for my stone paintings. Much of those were done by the number of stones I have as a collection. With some of the other 'new' work I have referenced some stuff on 'Google' images and have then manipulated a composition in Photoshop.....it then goes from there and may never end up looking like the image I've composed in Photoshop.
In the main, I prefer to work from a number of photos I have taken myself and then work up the painting in whatever way it goes from there...........
Yup.....1/3rds (Golden Section) are an important concept and always borne in mind..........

[jpohl]

I remember hearing canadian painter Christopher Pratt talk and he said that the golden means was central to every piece he did... he was very scientific about his approach.

I've often tended to just eyeball things, and work free form (i think my best piece was actually painted in the dark.. well okay by the light of one candle, although I know it was a roll of a dice).... but then composition has been far from my greatest strength... something I have to keep working on. (To be truthful I'm starting to look back at older work with an almost ariel perspective and seeing so much room for growth in many ways.) Now and then I've made composites from snapshots and tape. not very adept at photoshop. )

[cmunisso]

My method of composition requires several tools, I work mainly with a lot of drawings to treat ad develop the idea. The freehand drawings are composed usualy on a geometrical structure. This geometrical structure is sometimes very complex but have a reference to a modular elements (the greek "symmetria").
This conceptual method requires several phisical tools, like pencils, graphite stiks, a lot of sheets of paper, inks, watercolours, ruler, compass, set square, and last but not least, a big glass of home-made good mead. ;-)

[jpohl]

My method of composition requires several tools, I work mainly with a lot of drawings to treat ad develop the idea. The freehand drawings are composed usualy on a geometrical structure. This geometrical structure is sometimes very complex but have a reference to a modular elements (the greek "symmetria").
This conceptual method requires several phisical tools, like pencils, graphite stiks, a lot of sheets of paper, inks, watercolours, ruler, compass, set square, and last but not least, a big glass of home-made good mead. ;-)

we finished off our last bottle of home made mead many years ago. (-:

This is very interesting to me. Lately I've been very taken with Raphael's use of composition and inspired to try and understand his use of geometry. For me, it is the composition that enabled him to paint figures and poses that could seem staged and unnatural through modern eyes, but that even now are graceful and harmonious.

I've been planning to order a few books on the golden means to understand a little more.

cheers, jp.

[cmunisso]

we finished off our last bottle of home made mead many years ago. (-:

This is very interesting to me. Lately I've been very taken with Raphael's use of composition and inspired to try and understand his use of geometry. For me, it is the composition that enabled him to paint figures and poses that could seem staged and unnatural through modern eyes, but that even now are graceful and harmonious.

I've been planning to order a few books on the golden means to understand a little more.

cheers, jp.

It's a little hard to study geometry without mead. :-)

In the italian painting tradition there is an extensive use of geometry in composition, and mainly in 14th, 15th century. You can see about it: Paolo Uccello, Piero della Francesca, Sandro Botticelli, Raffaello Sanzio, Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea Mantegna, and many others.
The unnatural look, for the modern eyes used to see photographic images, depends on the meaning of the images. Those figures describes the inner spirit instead the body, so they seems "out of time". Like some portrait on the tombs shows the old king beautiful and quite young.

There is an interesting book aboout this subject:

The Painter's Secret Geometry: A Study of Composition in Art
by Charles Bouleau.

It's quite old (1963) and I don't know if it's easy to find, anyway you can read it at this address:

http://www.questia.com/library/book/the-painters-secret-geometry-a-study-of-composition-in-art-by-charles-bouleau.jsp

best wishes,
Claudio

[Dimitris C. Milionis]

this opens up a very big subject - to some known as the 4th Dimension who also practice it as part of the final tool of composition

its what seperates the master artist from the boys of the craft