Monday, April 6, 2009

Composition notes

Hello everyone,
I am revamping "Pastel Lessons" because when I first created it, I designed the images section incorrectly which makes adding new information impossible and keep the images properly aligned. I will be adding new images soon.

I hope these compositional notes are helpful. A good composition is like building a house, build it strong and everything else will fall into place.

Composition
"putting together of a whole by the combination of parts. Arrangement of the parts of a work or art so as to form a unified, harmonious whole" -Websters Dictionary

When arranging those elements the artist can add to, change, or discard some of the items. There are endless possibilities when changing line, shape, and color to create a new composition.
Elements of good compositions

1) Balance-think of the weight of objects in the painting and then find the balance as you would on a teeter-totter (remember those things?) Large shapes can be balanced off with small shapes by careful placement in the picture plan of both.

2) Unity - oneness - fitting all the parts together in some kind of order. This can be achieved by repeating color, texture, lines, shapes, or groups. 

3) Rhythm 
Repetition of color and form (like in music) to create a sensation of movement. Repetition and variation are elements of rhythm. Repeat shapes and colors throughout the piece but change things to avoid boredom. 

4) Focal Point and Focus
The focal point of a picture is the essence of your subject. It is the spot where the eye and mind register the reason for the piece. What's the purpose of creating the painting? What "rings you bell", gets your attention? For landscape painters, what are you excited about when looking at the scene. To translate these questions into your painting is to create a focus or point of interest. If the focal point is placed too close to an edge the viewer's eye may wander out of the picture plane. Shapes, colors, and line should direct the viewer's attention into the picture plane towards the point of interest and then throughout the elements. The point of interest is like the "Star" of the play and the other elements are the supporting actors.

5) Overlapping
Overlap elements to relate objects and create groups to one another.

6) Lead- in
Lead-ins are elements that help the viewers eye to enter the picture plane and advance toward the point of interest. For example, in a landspace painting this may be path or sunshine spots leading up to the point of interest.

7) Contrast
Create contrast within your picture plane having one element dominant. 
Example: 1 large shape dominates the design and contrast with many smaller objects. Or, the majority of your painting is dark with one small very bright/light area that controls the point of interest.
warm colors/cool colors   large shapes/small shapes   light tones/dark tones   high key/low key
You would not want these paired elements to be equally represented in your composition.

Some of the rules that I keep in mind (but remember rules are meant to be broken, but know why your are breaking them)

1) Don't cut your painting in half. Example: having the horizon line exactly half way in the picture plane
2) Have an odd number of elements. Example: three trees in a group are more interesting than two
3) Have something dominate -warm/cool large/small light/dark and high key/low key






Sunday, April 5, 2009

Getting Started

Welcome to my teaching blog.

I teach group classes to adults on how to create landscapes using soft pastels. This blog will contain information to help my students or anyone else who is interested in exploring pastels.

Class Supply List

NuPastels - set of  48
Sennelier  Soft Pastels - set of 40 or 80 half sticks in Plein Air Landscape set
A drawing board to tape down your paper is helpful but not essential.

Each of these art supply catalog websites has pastels but each also has different prices. I personally like Dick Blick and Dakota's customer service, but you should compare prices.
DickBlick.com
Jerrysartarama.com
Dakotapastels.com

For the first layer I use Nupastels. NuPastel is harder than most pastels and does not fill up the tooth of the paper too quickly. 
A set of 48 is great but 24 will work fine also.
For next layers of color I use Sennelier and prefer the Landscape set as the colors are more closely aligned to the colors you will need in the landscape class. Senneliers come in a convenient half stick size assortment which will give you a large assortment of colors are a very reasonable price.

Papers 
I prefer a sanded pastel paper and UArt is my favorite because it's so versatile. With UArt you can use watercolor or very thin oil washes for the underpainting. Also a thin layer of NuPastel and then paint on alcohol will create an underpainting. PastelMat is also a good sanded pastel paper. I'm always looking for a sanded paper to replace Wallis sanded paper which is no longer produced.

Getting Started

1) Start with a toned surface with a "tooth" texture
2) Lightly sketch in basic shapes - step back and consider the design. Make changes if needed
3) Block in the shapes. I like to use prussian blue to show the shadowed areas in the composition and orange to show where the sunlight will fall. This gives you a good look at the basic design of your piece.
4) Work using dark colors first and then for the next layers use lighter colors. Work in large shapes first before going to smaller more detailed areas. Block in using the side of the pastel not the tip.
5) Always keep your point of interest foremost in your design considerations. Do the shapes and color choices enhance or detract from the point of interest?
6) Color can be descriptive or expressive. Paint what your eyes see or paint what your heart feels. There are many approaches and color theories. I will talk more about color in another entry.