Not all sections of a surface are equal. Movement, space, and placement can be used to suggest time. Within the composition we can infer a sequence, a past, and a future. In part, this is due to how we read. Generally, we read top to bottom, and left to right. Within a scene in a painting we often interpret things happening at the top or left side as beginning, and as they move towards the lower and the right side, they are perceived as ending. Things happening in the lower right side tend to be perceived as happening later in time. Spacing and placement can also can suggest how much future or past there is outside of the immediate scene of the painting. This isn’t true for all paintings, but it does happen in some, and you can use it in yours.
For example, the painting Christina’s World by Wyeth suggests a moment of time in the subject’s future. We connect the figure (left) to the house (right), and the tension is in the suggested attempted movement from the figure through the blank space, as the figure pulls towards the house.
In the painting below by Harry Franklin Waltman, the action has mostly already happened (represented by the figure on the left), and the figure on the right is at his end. Both Christina and the fencer are in peril, but Christina, the figure on the left side, will extend into prolonged suffering, while the fencer, the figure on the right edge of the canvas, suggests the story is at its end.
Take a class with SAL – anywhere! Recently I posted about The Language of Color, in which I relate pinking shears to pink, the color. Please allow me to clarify. According to WordHistories.net, the noun “pink” is first recorded in 1566, but not as the name for a color. “Pink” was the name for a flower, …
Isn’t this a lovely colored pencil drawing? Klimt made more drawings, but they deserve their own room. They’re mostly nude women with their crotches on display. Take your colored pencils anywhere!
Demos Master sumi-e painter Angie Dixon demonstrates the bamboo joint, bone, and leaf brush strokes. Dixon says a great sumi-e painting combines a variety of wet and dry, light and dark, thick and thin brush strokes. She says you can’t fix a brush stroke, but you can enhance it. Beginning Sumi-e Student Work [gallery …
Take a class with SAL – anywhere! See those little horns at the top of Moses’ head? It’s a bit of a misunderstanding. In the old Latin Vulgate Bible, they used the term “cornuta facies” which can be translated either as “horned face” or “radiant face” to describe how Moses’ looked after he chatted with …
Left vs Right: sense of time in composition
Not all sections of a surface are equal. Movement, space, and placement can be used to suggest time. Within the composition we can infer a sequence, a past, and a future. In part, this is due to how we read. Generally, we read top to bottom, and left to right. Within a scene in a painting we often interpret things happening at the top or left side as beginning, and as they move towards the lower and the right side, they are perceived as ending. Things happening in the lower right side tend to be perceived as happening later in time. Spacing and placement can also can suggest how much future or past there is outside of the immediate scene of the painting. This isn’t true for all paintings, but it does happen in some, and you can use it in yours.
For example, the painting Christina’s World by Wyeth suggests a moment of time in the subject’s future. We connect the figure (left) to the house (right), and the tension is in the suggested attempted movement from the figure through the blank space, as the figure pulls towards the house.
In the painting below by Harry Franklin Waltman, the action has mostly already happened (represented by the figure on the left), and the figure on the right is at his end. Both Christina and the fencer are in peril, but Christina, the figure on the left side, will extend into prolonged suffering, while the fencer, the figure on the right edge of the canvas, suggests the story is at its end.
Related Posts
Origin of the word “Pink”
Take a class with SAL – anywhere! Recently I posted about The Language of Color, in which I relate pinking shears to pink, the color. Please allow me to clarify. According to WordHistories.net, the noun “pink” is first recorded in 1566, but not as the name for a color. “Pink” was the name for a flower, …
Colored Pencil Drawings by Klimt
Isn’t this a lovely colored pencil drawing? Klimt made more drawings, but they deserve their own room. They’re mostly nude women with their crotches on display. Take your colored pencils anywhere!
Beginning Sumi-e Painting Workshop with Angie Dixon
Demos Master sumi-e painter Angie Dixon demonstrates the bamboo joint, bone, and leaf brush strokes. Dixon says a great sumi-e painting combines a variety of wet and dry, light and dark, thick and thin brush strokes. She says you can’t fix a brush stroke, but you can enhance it. Beginning Sumi-e Student Work [gallery …
A Cringe Worthy Mistake
Take a class with SAL – anywhere! See those little horns at the top of Moses’ head? It’s a bit of a misunderstanding. In the old Latin Vulgate Bible, they used the term “cornuta facies” which can be translated either as “horned face” or “radiant face” to describe how Moses’ looked after he chatted with …