Design and composition in painting

by Tissa Hewavitarane

How the parts of the painting are arranged on the paper is called design or composition. And how the painting is put together is a matter of personal taste and desire of the artist. But there are certain elements which, if put together correctly, will produce a beautiful design.

What the artist has to work with are called the elements of art design; The ways to put them together are called the principles of design. The elements of design include (the list is different with almost every artist) line, colour, shape, value, texture, space and form. The parts of design include (this list varies even more) balance, rhythm, emphasis, unity, variety, proportion and movement.

These principles are concerned with how the art elements relate to each other - line to line, shape to line and so on. What we should really be concerned about is this relationship of parts. These parts must work together and be satisfying then the composition will be good.

What is composition?

Composition is simply the means of arranging the parts of your picture so that they add up to a harmonious whole. A badly composed picture will look a bit disjointed and faintly irritating, but a well composed picture fits together in a satisfying way even though we may not be able to explain exactly why.

When planning the composition of a painting always ask yourself 'what do I want to emphasise and how should I emphasise and how should I emphasise it?"

Firstly you must provide away into the picture, usually at the bottom, the eye is then led over the foreground to the main part of the painting, resting at the centre of interest and exciting in the distance or out of the side.

Secondly, the division of space is important that is the way a picture is organised. There are a lot of ways of doing this with triangular, circular radiating and rectangular divisions to mention a few.

Exciting

There are much more exciting visually if they are asymmetrical. Third always provide a centre of interest (focal point).

It is very important that the centre or focal point should be placed correctly in the picture where everything can lead the eye to it. There are many ways to draw attention to the focal point, but they involve the use of contracts to generate excitement in that area. Choosing the focal point of your painting and planning ways to accentuate it are the keys to good design.

Just a play or film, often has one main character and supporting cast, so a painting should have one focal point that is, one spot that draws the eye and which carries the main theme of the painting should have one focal point that is one spot that draws the eye and which carries the main theme of the painting, supported by shapes and colours of secondary interest.

This is what gives balance and unity to the painting. You could observe the painting done, related to this article. The painting depicts a village scene done on a bright sunny day. First the focal point the hut is placed just off centre. The main object of interest should never be the exact centre of your painting, move it to the left or right.

Plenty of varieties

Only a focal point on a painting is liable to look monotonous. So compliment it with plenty of varieties.

Note what I have have introduced to make a live painting. The group of trees, the human figures standing. Figures can make a landscape fall of life and gives depth to a picture.

Observe the clouds on a sunny day. There is a lot of light around and blue violet light rays are often reflected. Trees are massed into groups of light and dark tones so that each one registers strongly against the other. Variety causes the composition to be alive to help from being monotonous.

All the elements of nature can be brought to make a bright coloured and graceful painting. Do not allow any part of the painting to become dull because of lack of variety. As you, have just learned, nature is always changing and we as painters.

You must observe and paint each colour carefully. The earth depends on the value and colours of the sky. A successful painting of nature's vista depends on our knowledge and the role of the sky plays in this spectacular drama.

We must always be aware of the effect that light has on our painting.

An oil painter places his warm light colours on the canvas and then mixes very carefully the cool light of the atmosphere. The colour must match the value of the light colour and should be painted in such away as not to mix these two colours, laying gingerly over the other.

Value

For the watercolour painter it is different because we must keep the light colour a lighter value so as not to make the second wash look green. We are working with a transparent medium.

The number of elements that make up a painting is too numerous for us to consider simultaneously while in the process of painting. Rather we must decide on one or two elements that will be of concern in a piece of work, and allow all other elements to take care of themselves.

Avoid thinking of yourself as a watercolourist. Your objective is not to become the best technician of the medium of watercolour, but to be the best painter you can be. As an artist practise the craft of painting, the actual laying on of paint and see the beauty and truth of what's around you.