2018 Pen Paintings (Gallery)

[D Akey]

DO - Re: composition

It is important. I have an opinion about it which is just my rule of thumb -- which is to design more immediate reads as used in illustration and commercial work. You're leading the eye and you can use everything to create a hierarchy of information. Balance you can kind of see. I think any elements can be arranged, whether abstract or subjective. There are elements that are going to naturally pull the eye because they're interesting elements as when people are in the picture, where they're looking etc.

But consider that some of the main ways to pull attention to a spot in the canvas is that the eye naturally sees the area of most contrast. So you can usually control that with lighting and color contrast etc. It's an interesting topic, but there are some 'go to' formulas you will probably adopt as your own and do variations of them.

I've never been one who uses the more elaborate classical tricks where you have all these soldiers and one spear is pointing to a particular guy whose arm is pointing to another etc as a way to control the clutter of some vast historical scene. But I think looking into basic design principles should take you where you want to go. Simple, primitive shapes is often stronger. And forcing a composition that isn't necessarily in the real world landscape for example is not necessarily a bad thing. But it's all dependent on you and what you're interested in showing and how. Improving on nature and modifying to taste is the artist's birthright. Some people are stuck following photos slavishly and they like that. But if you're thinking in terms of composition, that says you want more control. Lead us around your images like a storyteller and think like a designer.