Composition! Let's make it look pretty!

Composition in any form of art is hard to work with. It is one of the single most important aspects of art and almost decides whether the piece of work is of pure greatness or is a complete flop. Throughout centuries of art composition is something that is never looked over. It is one of the most important areas of art which needs a lot of TLC. Masters look very closely into the depths of composition and is almost the very essence of their work and what makes their pieces of art work so beautiful to admire.


“Composition - the act of putting together or making up by combining parts or ingredients” - Collins, English Dictionary.


With composition it isn't all about placing things here and there to create something that looks vaguely pleasing to look at. There are quite a few techniques out there that help significantly to create a very good compositional piece. Here are a few techniques in which many artists use within their work.


Rule Of Thirds:


Rule of thirds is one of the main rules used by many artists across the world. It stems from the theory that the human eye naturally gravitates to intersecting points that occur when an image is split into thirds. Within rule of thirds, (I’ll use photography as an example), a photo is split into thirds with two imaginary horizontal and vertically lines which creates 3 columns and rows with 9 sections of the image. Well placed composition using this rule is either placed on or near these imaginary lines and where they intersect each other.

Template for rule of thirds

A good example of using rule of thirds with landscapes is this: we naturally want to put the horizon line dead centre of our image. But as you can see in the example it looks more pleasing with the horizon motioned more towards the upper horizontal line. A good note to make is that if your focal point is land then this should be sectioned towards the upper horizontal line. If your focal point is something such as the sunset or the sunrises then the image should be motioned towards the lower horizontal line.

Rule of thirds for landscape

You can also use rule of thirds for portraits. In the image you can see the upper horizontal line is cutting through each eye and at both eyes the vertical lines are intersecting with the horizontal at each middle point of the eye.

Rule of thirds for portaits

Rule Of Odds:


Through visual arts, rule of thirds states that by framing the object of interest with an even number of surrounding objects it becomes more pleasing to the eyes. The rule of odds suggests that an odd number of subjects in an image appear more intriguing and exciting. It gives the image a bit of edge.

Based around photography the image should be captivating and exciting to the viewers. By using rule of odds it spices up the image and draws people to them. It is suggestive on that by using odds it puts the brain on edge because we are so used to even numbers e.g two eyes, two ears, two arms, two nostrils etc. To us this is relaxing and the brain almost ignores what is there as it is something we see everyday. By creating something odd it is something new and exciting. This can be applied to not just photography but also art traditional and digital.

There are also many other rules such as “Rule Of Space”, “Simplification” etc.


Although many talk about it in photography it is complete relevant to use it within traditional art. Many of the great artists do. Many artists use these “Rules” to do the dot, but many take bits and pieces from it. A lot of the time composition is also made up from things such as colour theory but that is not the main way to create composition. A lot of the time with a good artistic judgement, you can tell whether the image looks pleasing or not. Within creating a piece it is also worth spending concept time, not just to create something but to use your model or your focal point and play around with it on the page. This can be applied to many things, and I’ve noticed this a lot in websites. Or more specifically online portfolios. With online portfolios a lot of companies, can look at them and tell whether they like the person or not, just by looking at the composition of the page. If it's too cluttered or an image is too large, it just looks horrible and are less inclined to hire you. With good composition of your images and typography, it can be more please to the eye.


Composition isn't just based on paintings or taking photos. It's based around everyday life, and by having a good artistic judgement and understanding of rules, the work produced could look so much better. However it isn't something that just clicks when learning, it takes a long time to understand.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_(visual_arts)
http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/composition?showCookiePolicy=true
http://learnprophotography.com/rule-of-thirds

http://indiandigitalartists.com/photography-course-online/composition-in-photography-other-rules/