The principles of composition can be distilled into one sentence:
Amounts and distances should always vary somewhat.
This
is a confusing phrase, not always easy to understand at first.
Even if you do understand its implications, it is not always the
case, and it IS possible to make a strong artwork that violates this in
some way, but generally this rule will make an art piece stand on its
own better. To clarify how this works in practice, let's look at
a few examples.
LIGHTNESS - If we divide brightness into
light, dark, and midtones, there should be a different amount of each.
Say, 20% dark, 40% midtones, and 50% light. If
the amounts of each are the same, this is complete symmetry and is
boring. If it's entirely dark or light or midtone, that's even
worse as no contrast exists at all.
HUE - Likewise, warm,
neutral, and cool colors should vary in amount. No two of these
should cover equal amounts of the artwork surface. Note that the
area around an artwork can be cosidered in some cases - contrast with
the wall the artwork is mounted on can allow less contrast in the work
itself. For example - a work that is overwhelmingly warm and
neutral with few or no cool tones may stand out against a cool-colored
surface. Context does have an effect on the perception of an
image.
SATURATION - vivid, moderately vivid, and dull colors again follow the same principle. No two amounts the same.
FOCAL
POINTS - These are usually important objects in the image you want the
viewer to notice. People and peoples' faces inherently draw
attention, as do objects that contrast with the majority of the image
in some way. Lines converging towards the object (formed by the
scene around it) will also direct attention towards the focal points.
How, you're probably asking, do focal points follow the
one-sentence rule? They do - in their placement. The RULE
OF THIRDS is a well-worn concept in art, in which a canvas is divided
into a 3x3 grid, and the focal point is placed on or near one of the
four intersections. The rule of thirds is really a shortcut to
follow the sentence described above; the grid forms intersections at
places that are not in the center or the edge of the canvas, either
horizontally or vertically. In other words, you're positioning
focal points such that in both axes, the distances to the edge of the
canvas vary. They aren't the same, and they're not drastically
different either. (After all, placing a focal point such as a
face at the edge or dead center of an image is visually awkward.
If you've ever seen a horribly framed photo with a face poking
out of the bottom of frame, or the top part of the face extending out
of the top of the frame, you know what I mean.) Note further that
most images will contain a mix of multiple focal points, and all of
them should follow this rule.
BALANCE OF MULTIPLE SIMILAR FOCAL
POINTS - We've stated that distances should vary somewhat, not
drastically. This means that there's a sweet spot or at least a
range of positions, somewhere between total symmetry and total
asymmetry, which often is argued to be centered around the golden
ratio. The golden ratio, which is defined as half of one plus the
square root of five, or approximately 1:1.62, appears throughout
nature, and seems to be somehow subconsciously appealing to the human
mind. Most photographs, sheets of paper, electronic screens, and art
canvases are not too far off from this height/width ratio. Often
it makes sense to break up areas of similar brightness, hue,
saturation, etc, such that the 'big bright red object' (or equivalent
item that stands out) off on one side of the canvas is conterbalanced
by a smaller or several much smaller similar patches of a similar color
on the other. These counterbalances are usually of similar but
not the same size or intensity. In other words, the relative
strength of multiple focal points also generally adheres to the rule
outlined above.
|
