The Art of Composition

1. Hello: You will notice bad composition. But why is that, and how is it influencing the way we feel about a piece of art, how we interpret it, and how we interact with it? In this class, we'll explore just that. You will learn how to use the principles that govern composition to tell your story and to influence emotion and perception. We'll look at things like framing, grids, leading lines, use of contrast, depth, scale, focal point, how to show importance, how to set the hierarchy, how to achieve harmony and more. We'll do a fun exercise where we'll rearrange and re-frame the same four elements and see how the story, emotion, and overall vibe changes as we do that. The topic of composition is very versatile. Its principles apply to all visual mediums like illustration, graphic design, photography, film. If you're just starting your creative journey, I highly recommend investing time in learning these principles, as they will help you master composition and create polished, impactful pieces. If you're struggling to plan your layout, you will benefit from refining your understanding of composition, enabling you to produce engaging and effective pieces. Join me as we discover the tools and techniques used to create good composition and how to avoid some common mistakes. I'll be working in Affinity Designer, but I've got you covered. If your software of choice is different. Let's learn. 2. Class Project: Hi, I'm glad you joined me today. Our class project will be very easy to do. To get started, download the class assets from the download section, open in any graphic software, and create as many different scenes with it, following the composition guidelines in this class. After that, post your favorite scenes and share in a comment what is your personal interpretation of the compositions you chose? If you want to. If this class ends up giving you value, please consider leaving a review and sharing your experience with it. And don't forget, the discussion section is open to any questions or comments, so don't hesitate to reach out if you have any. Let's dive in. 3. Why Is It Important: Why is it so important? A good composition will engage with your audience, guide them, and help them interpret and experience your art in a straightforward and meaningful way. When done right, it will not be seen, only experienced. It's one of the main building blocks of visual mediums, such as art design or photography. I'll argue it's more important than style, or choice of colors, which are the more obvious aspects of the visual arts. But why do I say that? Think of art as a house. The foundation is formed by our mastery of shapes and forms, establishing the bound for everything else. Just like a well planned layout in a house ensures clarity and easy navigation, the composition principles guide how viewers interact with our artworks. It's all about crafting a space where viewers can easily find what they're looking for and feel a certain way. While the decorative elements, like art style, color, contrast, brushwork, textures, add visual appeal, they can't compensate for poor layout and organization. Just as beautiful furniture can't make up for confusing or overwhelming house layout. There's no denying that these elements contribute to the overall beauty and richness of an artwork. However, they are secondary to the underlying structure and composition. Join me in the next chapter where we'll start exploring framing and grids. 4. Elements of Composition: Composition is the purposeful arrangement of elements, aimed at communicating a message visually in a clear and focused way. Its task is to communicate, but how do we actually do it? Now if you're familiar with graphic design, you most likely already know some or all of these terms. That's how versatile composition is. Regardless of the end result, the structure of visual communication, and the way we perceive it, are the same. In this class, I'll talk about composition in terms of designing art and illustration. Let's start with what I believe is the first and foremost - focus. Focus, or focal point is the primary item in your painting or design that you want your viewers to see first. This is the primary carrier of information and the rest of the image is there to reinforce it. In other words, the focal point is the main storyteller. There are a few elements that support designing the focal point, and the first one is hierarchy. Hierarchy is the way we arrange elements on our canvas to indicate their importance. We can make something bold and bright to signal that's the focal point and make the secondary elements smaller and weaker. "If every part is equally important, then every part is equally unimportant" said and Nathan Fowkes. So, you don't want everything screaming for attention all at the same time. Scale is often used to draw attention to or away from an element, thus informing their hierarchy to the viewer. Scale can also inform of depth. If you thought of contrast, you are absolutely right, as scale naturally creates contrast. When I say contrast, I'm not only referring to the color or value contrast, but really any characteristics that differ from one another. This can be, as we said, value; hue/saturation; shape, like big and small, thick and thin or round and sharp. This can be texture and no texture; or edge - like a sharp edge versus a lost edge. As well as proximity - dense and sparse Negative space helps reinforce grouping. It either isolates or brings elements closer together. It gives space to breathe and is often very underrated and very underused. Groups that are not related to each other should be separated, to further signify that lack of relationship. Negative space can create a sense of depth and direction and reinforce our focal point. When combining different contrasting elements, we must always strive for harmony. While this may be a matter of personal interpretation, the main thing is to contain all elements within the same universe with similar aesthetics and style, and a common denominator. We need to be very purposeful about each and every choice we make. It needs to serve a specific goal. This is what harmony means, that the elements are different enough but still work effectively together. This brings me to rhythm. It may help to think of rhythm in music for this one. We have repetition, we have different tempos, different shapes, size, contrast, and how they all play together. This will determine how easy it is for the eye to move through the illustration and interpret the aesthetics and emotion of the piece. Balance is another thing that we need to consider. It can be two types: symmetrical or asymmetrical. Symmetrical is just what it sounds like - mirror repetition in two planes, left and right, or top and bottom. Asymmetrical balance is more common in real life and in art, and can introduce dynamics and a sense of movement and energy. A well balanced asymmetrical design will have a sense of harmony and purpose and will draw the viewer closer. An unbalanced composition, on the other hand, may bring a sense of anxiety or dread to the viewer and may push them away. How to ensure we do it right? Well, we think of each element in terms of its visual weight. And strive to counterbalance every heavier element with multiple smaller, lighter elements on the opposite direction. What gives more weight to an element well, in short, everything that is high in contrast, and not just color. Those would be the dimensions, how much space it takes on the canvas, the bright colors, saturation, the rich texture, et cetera. Let's see how these elements play together in a single picture plane. 5. Framing, Grids (Guides) and Leading lines: Framing deals with the arrangement of elements within the picture plane. When deciding what will be our frame size and in what aspect ratio, step one is to consider where it will be used and what do we need to fit into it. For example, I've created my assets for this class in 16 x 9 ratio, because this is equal to the video frame size ratio. If you are creating art for your walls, the frame size or canvas size will dictate the size. If you are designing for a client, they will provide the dimensions. If you want to post on social media, you may opt for a square or 4 x 5 ratio. Now that we have the canvas size, it's time to fill it. We call this staging. Staging is more than mere arrangement. It's about carefully choosing subjects, props and environmental elements, and orchestrating their interactions and relationships to evoke a particular response from the viewer. Starting with the horizon line. If we're looking from above the horizon, we create a sense of superiority. It can also be menacing and overpowering. Everything directly on the horizon line is more subdued and tranquil and looking upwards gives us a sense of being small, defeated, or dominated over. Mastering this requires knowledge and practice in perspective, which is really fun, in my opinion, but it's a topic that needs its own class. So we'll be diving in simple on the horizon, on eye level composition with this one. A protip here would be to avoid putting your horizon line in the middle of the page, unless you are designed for a symmetrical piece. Opt for slightly above or below to get a more dynamic and engaging composition. The human mind is great at connecting things that don't necessarily go together. We are going to derive linear movement from the way things are arranged on the page. This is where leading lines come into the scene. Pun intended. We use them to guide the viewer's eye to the point of interest and make it less confusing as to what they should be paying attention to. They are also great in creating depth and reinforcing the main object. Leading lines can work in tandem, starting from multiple points of origin and converging in one single point, which is our focal point. The rule of thirds can be applied to pretty much any subject to improve the composition and balance. It's one of the most useful composition techniques, acting as a guideline that helps us determine where to place an object on the page. And I know it's titled a rule, but it's actually just a guideline helping you to better plan your composition. Imagine if everything in the world was always placed in the same spot on the canvas. Boring, right? When it comes to the rule of thirds, in general, the first point, which is the top left, takes the most attention. The bottom left is the next one, then the top right, and the last one is the last one. Golden Ratio, also known as the Divine Proportion, is a mathematical relationship that yields the number 1.618. It's often found in nature and commonly used in art, design and architecture, creating harmonious and naturally looking compositions. It's also just a guideline, not a rule. You can use this ratio of 1.6 to create naturally looking and highly appealing proportions. You may also find this proportion in golden rectangles, circles, triangles, golden mean, and more. You'll also find some other grids like radial, resembling the letter V, S, C ... Pretty much anything dynamic that makes the eyes move across the canvas, can be a guideline. Let's look at some examples, as I'd like to demonstrate how powerful and how direct or indirect this may be. 6. Paintings studies: The first thing that catches my eye is the woman, and let's see why. She's leaning against a terrace that has similar tones and values. The terrace has these two columns to the left and right. There's also a carpet leading to where she stands. So this out right curves space for her. The straight lines are contrasted by the curved bay where the woman's gaze is leading us. And we're left to wonder whether she's waiting for someone or she's just enjoying the view. To her right, there's a tall tree that further separates the canvas and pretty much everything to the right of the painting is of no interest. The exception here is the small table with the flowers on top, which balances the overall composition. The composition uses the rule of thirds, and if we switch the view to grayscale, we can very easily see how the contrast separates the image between home and nature, but also how it makes the woman stand out. Our second example is of this bay. We have leading lines that make our gaze move from right to left. The interesting part is that we have the houses on top of the hill that make our eyes stop and rest. Then we have movement again, followed by rest, etc. When we reach the end of the rocks, we have these bright spots of blue pointing downwards and the masts of the ships pointing upwards. And as we're looking at the ships, something dark brings our gaze back right where we start again. If we switch to gray scale, we'll see that the sky is pretty much non-eventful and it's there to reinforce our time spent looking at the hills and the ships. And I'd say this painting is based on the Golden ratio. With our final example for today, my eyes are immediately drawn towards the center of the painting because there's a face looking at us. But when we look closer, we see his gaze is actually to the right, towards his wife. The wife's gaze is at the child, who is facing her father. A little black dot is grabbing my attention to the left and hey, a sheep is also looking at us. If we continue to the left, we'll be seeing the dog's head, which is actually turned up, towards its human, and the old shepherd is bringing us back to the young family. The trees are creating a frame, separating light and shadow. The old shepherds' colors and values are closer to the tree and the family with their bright colors have the greatest contrast. Oh, and by the way, I bet you didn't even pay attention to these guys. Why? Well, because we have a loop of leading lines, which holds us in the left to the mid part of the painting. And while they all appear to be there for the sheep, the sheep are merely a part of the setting, not our focal point. If we look at grouping and negative space, we have the old man and his dog, the sheep, and the young family in three separate groups. When you group elements like that, you create secondary stories with pockets of new meaning within them. No wonder a picture is worth a 1,000 words. This painting is also using the rule of thirds. But because of clever use of contrast and leading lines, the young family becomes our main focal point and storyteller. It's fascinating to see how this example breaks the rules and builds upon them. But if you're trying to do that, remember to always reinforce with leading lines and contrast, otherwise, it may not be as impactful as it can be. 7. Composition exercise: Now in affinity designer and I'll create a quick mask by drawing a rectangle over my image. Drag the image in in the layers panel. This will mask everything to the rectangle. I've already created a quick composition of our hero walking down the road, nearing a crumbling rock arch. But let's see what other scenes we can create. Press control or command and drag to duplicate, then backslash on the keyboard if you have clip to Canvas enabled. My hero is the focal point, and I want to play around with scale, make it feel like he's so much smaller than the rocks. I want to hide the vanishing point on the road, and now we know he's walking, but we don't know where to. This gives me a new idea. I want to play around with the horizon line next. So control command, click and track to duplicate. Select the ground layer, and let's pull that up. I'll match the road to it. And I like how it feels we've switched the point of view, looking from above. So I'll make this the hero's point of view, like he climbed on top of a mountain and is gazing in the distance. Let's see what else we can do. I'll keep the rock close to us. Maybe flip it to add a bit more weight to the left side of the canvas. If I move the hero slightly behind the rock like so, we'll know he's already walked past it. If I make the rock even bigger, the arch is framing the hero and we naturally follow the road because of the leading line. I'm zooming out to see what I've done, and this gives me another idea. Click and drag to duplicate, and let's make the rock a mountain. But it's not contributing to the story. Maybe I can make it super small and put it in the vanishing point, this is the hero's destination. I'll flip it horizontally again. And let's play with the symmetry. Move some weight to the left. To be fair, the rocks need a bit less detail if they're going to be that far away. And that's why this composition looks a bit off. I can continue playing around with placement and scale, but I'm curious to see how the same ideas would look if they are in a nine by 16 frame. I'm enabling lock children, so I only rotates the rectangle mask, hold shift, and rotated 90 degrees. I'm resizing the layers to fill the empty top and bottom. In this specific ratio, we have a lot of state in the height, not so much in width, which makes the focus very narrow. And you know what? I'll actually grab a copy of all four scenes real quick so I have them ready just to speed things up a bit. The lock children feature in affinity is global. So when I enable it, I can only manipulate the masks. The layers that are clipped to them will stay unaffected. I'm stretching the sky and ground layers to fill the canvas, and I'll try to use the rock arch as a frame again. The sky and the ground are pretty forgiving to re sizing without observing the aspect ratio. The rock is not so much, but let's pretend they're perfect. This next one needs to be of our hero standing on top of the rock, looking at the roadhad this looks all right. But let's see what else can do. I'll try switching things up. I'm struggling a bit, and I believe it's important to show this is a searching moment. We don't always know everything ahead of time. So I'm just playing around and exploring how the elements interact with each other until I feel like I can get a good composition. Now, this one should be easy, I suppose. It does look like the first one that I've made with slight difference in proportions. And the last one looks easy too. I hope you've had a few ideas of your own. This presentation is by no means exhaustive of all the possible scenarios. Download and drop the PDF in your graphic software and have some fun with it. If you have questions, I'll be in the discussions. 8. Thank you: I hope you liked this class and learned something new today. If you've enjoyed it, rate and review it and click Follow, so you don't miss any future classes on the topic of drawing and graphic design. I'm looking forward to seeing your compositions, so go play around with the four elements and share your top picks in the projects below. If you have any questions, the discussion section is opened. You can ask me absolutely anything and I'll be sure to answer as soon as I can. Thank you for spending your time with me today. See soon in the next class.