1st term
Mare de DĂŠu del Carme
1
INDEX
3
1.Composition in ART Painting and drawing Canvas, shape, size and support Composition elements:
3
Unity, Balance, Movement
5 6 7
Rhythm, focus, variety Contrast, pattern, proportion
Art composition rules Rule of thirds, rule of odds
8 9
Rule of Space, visual balance
Three dimensions composition Techniques
11 12 13
Symbols and allegories in art
2.Technical drawing Graphic expression Tangency Tangent to a circle Tangent circles
13 14 15 16 17 18
Ellipse Ovoid
Resources index
2
1.Composition in ART Composition is the term used for the arrangements of the elements in or the subject matter of a painting. Done successfully, it draws in the viewer and pulls their eye across the whole painting so that everything is taken in and finally settles on the main subject of the painting.
In his Notes of a Painter, Henri Matisse defined it this way: "Composition is the art of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter's command to express his feelings."
Decorative Figure on an Ornamental Background, oil painting by Henri Matisse, 1925–26; in the National Museum for Modern Art, Paris.
Painting and drawing Canvas, shape, size and support Canvas has become the most common support medium for oil painting, replacing wooden panels. Shapes have two dimensions–height and width–and are usually defined by lines.
Vertical lines often communicate a sense of height because they are perpendicular to the earth, extending upwards toward the sky.
Pierre Auguste Renoir(1841-1919) La balançoire, oil painting 92cmX73cm. Musée d’Orsay
3
Horizontal lines suggest a feeling of rest or repose because objects parallel to the earth are at rest.
Berthe Morisot(1841-1895)Gennevilliers champs de blé, oil painting 46,5cmX69cm. Musée d’Orsay
Shaped canvases are paintings that depart from the normal flat, rectangular configuration. Canvases may be shaped by altering their outline, while retaining their flatness.
An ancient, traditional example is the tondo, a painting on a round panel or canvas: Raphael, as well as some other Renaissance painters, sometimes chose this format for madonna paintings.
Miquel Angelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). Tondo Doni, 1503-06.120 cm Galeria Uffizi, Florència
Alternatively, canvases may be altered by losing their flatness and assuming a three-dimensional surface. Or, they can do both. That is, they can assume shapes other than rectangles, and also have surface features that are three-dimensional. Arguably, changing the surface configuration of the painting transforms it into a sculpture. But shaped canvases are generally considered paintings.
Amanda Scarcía,1971. Volcano, oil on canvas 45cmX55cm.
4
Composition elements The Elements of Composition in art are used to arrange or organize the components in a way that is pleasing to the artist and, hopefully, the viewer. It helps give structure to the layout and the way the subject is presented. It also encourages or leads the viewer's eye to wander around the whole painting, taking in everything and ultimately coming back to rest on the focal point. In Western art they are generally considered to be:
Unity: All the parts of the composition feel as if they belong together, on the other hand it may be something awkwardly out of place.
Francisco Zurbaran,(1598-1664) la Virgen de las Cuevass, 1655, oil on canvas,267X320cm, Muse de Bellas Artes Sevilla.
Balance: Having a symmetrical arrangement adds a sense of calm, whereas an asymmetrical arrangement creates a sense of unease, imbalance.
Paolo Uncello, Crucifixion, 1465.
Movement:
There are many ways to give a sense of movement in a painting, such as the arrangement of objects, the position of figures, the flow of a river.
Theodore Gericault, (1791-1824) The prancing grey horse, canvas,1812.Burrell Collection ,Glasgow.
5
oil on
Rhythm: In much the same way music does, a piece of art can have a rhythm or underlying beat that leads and paces the eye as you look at it. Look for the large underlying shapes (squares, triangles, etc.) and repeated colour. Andy Warhol, Campbell's Soup Cans 1962,Synthetic polymer paint on thirty-two canvases Each canvas 50.8 x 40.6 cm.
Focus (or Emphasis): The viewer's eye ultimately wants to rest of the "most important" thing or focal point in the painting, otherwise the eye feels lost, wandering around in space.
El Greco, (1541-1614), El caballero de la mano en el pecho,1580, oil on canvas, 81,8X61,8 cm. Museu del Prado, Madrid.
Variety of sizes, shapes & textures Changing sizes and shapes along with colour, texture and placement of the elements of the composition IN BOTH NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE SPACE can stimulate more interest in the art work. This is subtle part of rhythm.
Luis Egidio Mel茅ndez (1716-1780) - Bodeg贸n con perdices, cebollas, ajos y recipientes XVIII Century. Oil painting., 41,6 x 62,3 cm. Museo Nacional del Prado
6
Contrast: Strong differences between light and dark, or minimal.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Nocturne in Black and Gold – The Falling Rocket, 1874
Pattern: An underlying structure, the basic lines and shapes in the composition.
Anonymous, Seu d'Urgell or Apostles frontis, XII Century, Gouache on wood, 102,5 × 151 cm. Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
Proportion: How things fit together, big and small, nearby and distant.
Salvador Dali, "Leda Atomica" (1949) Teatro-Museo Dalí ,61 cm x 45 cm, oil on canvas,
7
The Elements of Composition are not the same as the Elements of Art, though composition is one of the latter.
Art Composition Rules Art composition rules provide a starting point for deciding on a composition for a painting, for deciding where to put things. Rule of Thirds The Rule of Thirds is the easiest art composition rule to follow in a painting. It's a basic rule popular among photographers, but equally applicable to the composition of paintings. Applying the rule of thirds to a painting means you'll never have a painting that's split in half, either vertically or horizontally, nor one with the main focus right in the centre like a bull's-eye.
What is the Rule of Thirds? Quite simply, divide a canvas in thirds both horizontally and vertically, and place the focus of the painting either one third across or one third up or down the picture, or where the lines intersect (the orange circles on the diagram).
Ram贸n Masats, (1931-), Madrid, 1959
Rule of Odds One of the simplest ways to make a composition more dynamic is to have an odd number in the composition.
Having an odd number of things in a composition means your eye and brain can't pair them up or group them easily. There's somehow always one thing left over, which keeps your eyes moving across the composition.
Edvard Munch, Anxiety, 1894,Oil on canvas,94 x 73 cm Munch Museum Oslo
8
Rule of space When looking at a visual work that portrays a subject that is moving, or has an intention to move the eye will involuntary follow that movement expecting to find a continuation or a reason for the action. Because of this, the subject has to have negative or positive space in the direction of the implied or active movement, on the contrary the composition will be perceived as incomplete and impeded.
Johannes Vermeer, A Woman Holding a Balance, 1662–1663. Oil on canvas, 42.5 cm × 38 c m.National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Visual Balance Balance refers to distributing the elements on space in such a way that the viewer doesn’t perceive the main focus of the piece as grasping attention in such an exaggerated manner that the rest of the elements are put to spare. Imagine your work space as if it was a three dimensional plane, set on a thin, fragile centre pivot. Elements must be arranged in such a way, that the plane should stay on balance and should not fall. Visual balance refers to a feeling of optical equilibrium between all parts of a composition. Horizontal Balance Imagine your composition as a scale. Horizontal balance refers to positioning elements at the right and left of the axis in such a manner that the scale doesn’t fall to either side. Still life with Jars and Cups, Francisco de Zurbarán, 1635. Museo Nacional del Prado.
Vertical Balance Vertical balance refers to positioning objects up and down in such a way that neither gives the perception of giving in to the other. Proper balance gives the spectator the feeling that the piece is not about to pull itself over.
Anthony van Dyck, Portraits of the Three Eldest Children of Charles I, King of England Oil on canvas 17th Century, 59.7 x 71.2 cm
9
Radial Balance When elements of a composition grow from a central line or are aligned around a central point, it is referred as radial balance.
M.C. Escher,Snakes, 1969, woodcut in orange, green, and black, printed from three blocks Cornelius Van S. Roosevelt Collection.
Symmetrical Balance When you have the weight equally distributed at both sides of a central axis. Symmetrical balance gives the sensation of solidity to a piece, but can also feel dull and uninteresting if not used appropriately. You can achieve symmetry in two ways, pure and approximated. In pure symmetry, both elements at each side of the axis are identical, one half like a mirror reflection or the other .Approximate symmetry happens when the two elements at each side of the axis have the same weight, but are not identical clones.
Paul Cezanne,(1839-1906), Els jugadors de cartes,(1890-95), oli sobre tela, Courtauld Institute, London
Asymmetrical Balance
Asymmetrical balance happens when both sides of the central axis are not identical, but nevertheless appear to have same visual weight.
Gabriele Mßnter(1877-1962), Meditation, 1917, oli sobre llenç, Lenbachhaus Gallery, Munich.
10
Three dimensions composition Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions and one of the plastic arts.
Durable sculptural processes originally used carving (the removal of material) and modelling (the addition of material), as clay, in stone, metal, ceramics, wood and other materials but, since modernism, shifts in sculptural process led to an almost complete freedom of materials and process. A wide variety of materials may be worked by removal such as carving, assembled by welding or modelling, or moulded, or cast.
Sculpture in the round or free-standing sculpture
it was viewed as an art of solid form. Any empty spaces involved were essentially secondary to its bulk or mass. Moreover, as a solid form it had no movement.
Eduardo Chillida ( 1924-2002) Harri I 1991,stone, Chillida Leku.Zabalaga.
Relief
Relief sculpture is any work which projects from but which belongs to the wall, or other type of background surface, on which it is carved. Reliefs are traditionally classified according to how high the figures project from the background.
Fidias (490 a. C. – 431 a. C ) Parthenon, 443-438 aC. Marble, British Museum.
11
Constructions Combining disparate objects and materials into one constructed piece of sculpture; the sculptural equivalent of the collage in twodimensional art.
Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) ,Art proletari nº 3,1989 Varis materials,90 cm. Particular collection
Mobile
Mobile is a construction that moves and is intended to be seen in motion. Mobiles utilize a wide variety of materials and techniques (see also stabile). Contemporary practice emphasizes the beauty of materials and the expression of their nature in the work.
Alexander Calder, Shouthern cross(maquette) 1963, sheet metal, wire, and paint. 32”x 31”x17” Calder foundation NY.
Symbols and allegories in Art From antiquity, when the gods and goddesses were commonly featured in works of art, through to the twentieth century, when Surrealists drew on archetypes from the unconscious, artists have embedded symbols in their works. Nowadays we need to know the tools to read the hidden meanings in works of art.
12
2 Technical Drawing Graphic expression Human beings have always expressed ideas through graphic representation, from cave paintings to computergenerated plans. Technical drawing, also known as drafting is the act and discipline of composing plans that visually communicate how something functions or is to be constructed. Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering. To make the drawings easier to understand, people use familiar symbols, perspectives, units of measurement, notation systems, visual styles, and page layout. Together, such conventions constitute a visual language, and help to ensure that the drawing is unambiguous and relatively easy to understand. This need for precise communication in the preparation of a functional document distinguishes technical drawing from the expressive drawing of the visual arts. Technical drawings are understood to have one intended meaning.
Tangency
A tangent is a line in the plane of a circle that intersects (passes through) the surface of a circle.
The line may be a secant, cutting the circles at two points. The line may be a tangent, touching the circle at just one point.
13
The point where the line passes through the surface of the circle is called the "point of tangency". The line is called the "tangent line" but is referred to mainly as the "tangent".
The point of tangency is on the radius of the circle, and the tangent line is perpendicular to it.
This shows how to construct the tangent to a circle at a given point on the circle with compass and straightedge or ruler.
It works by using the fact that a tangent to a circle is perpendicular to the radius at the point of contact. It first creates a radius of the circle, then constructs a perpendicular to the radius at the given point.
http://www.mathopenref.com/tangentline.html
Tangent from a point outside a circle construction
1. M was constructed as the midpoint of OP, J,k was constructed with compass width set from MO. 2. JP is a tangent to O because it touches the circle at J and is at right angles to a radius at the contact point. As above but using point K instead of J.
http://www.mathopenref.com/consttangents.html
14
External tangents to two given circles Steps: The circle OJS is constructed so its radius is the difference between the radii of the two given circles. This means that OL-PF= O J. We construct the tangent PJ from the point P to the circle OJS. This is done using the method described in Tangents through an external point.
The desired tangent FL is parallel to PJ and offset from it by JL. Since PJLF is a rectangle, we need the best way to construct this rectangle. The method used here is to construct PF parallel to OL using the "angle copy" method as shown in constructing a parallel through a point. http://www.mathopenref.com/consttangentsext.html
Tangent circles Tangent circles are two circles that are tangent to the same line at the same point.
Two circles are externally tangent if each of the tangent circles lies outside the other.
The point of contact (tangent point) lies on the line which passes through the centres of the two circles.
Two circles are internally tangent if one of the tangent circles lies inside the other.
15
Ellipse (oval shape) An ellipse is the locus of all points of the plane whose distances to two fixed points add to the same constant. Major axis is the longest diameter of the ellipse. It also equals the sum of the two distances of any point on the ellipse from the two focus points. An ellipse is always symmetrical about its major axis.
Minor axis :The shortest diameter of the ellipse is called as the minor axis. The length of the minor axis =2b where b is the distance of the endpoint of a minor axis from the center of the ellipse.
Drawing an ellipse with two circles:
Step 1 Draw a line that represents the length of the oval and divide it into 3 equal parts and name it A, B. C and D.
Thales’sTheorem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnciz0yZH0U
Step 2: Open the compass as long as one third of the line, say A to B. and draw 2 circles using B and C as centres. These 2 circles will be crossed each other in 2 points name them as E1 and E2.
16
Step 3: Create new 2 points on each circle by using the compass, without any change, and by using A and D as centres. Name them as F1, F2, F3 and F4.
Step 4: Adjust the compass as the length between F1 and E2 and run it from F1 to F2 using E2 as centre. Repeat this step and draw the line from F3 to F4 by using E1 as centre.
Ovoid The ovoid is a closed and plane curve, composed for two circular arc equal and other two unequal, it have a single axis of symmetry.
This ovoid can be constructed with a compass by joining together arcs of different radii such that the centres of the arcs lie on a line passing through the join point
17
Resources index
Unit 1
http://painting.about.com/ http://www.webdesignshock.com/art-vs-desig http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/entertainment/sculpture-techniques-materials http://www.immaculateheartacademy.org/
Unit 2
http://www.mathopenref.com/ http://www.thelearningpoint.net/home/mathematics/geometry http://www.mathcaptain.com/
18
19