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.
Most League artists are busy people. You’re not the only one! I want to make these projects challenging but still accessible. If you miss a day, no biggie. If you miss two, join the club. If you can only do one out of 30, you still did one! Last I checked, one is way better …
Only two more days in this 30 Day Creative Challenge! Today, let’s see what you’ve been working with. Show us your brain. Share your brain on Instagram with these tags: #30sal, #brain Or post to this Padlet. – Recent Padlet links: Day 24: The Big SneezeDay 25: Cezanne’s FigureDay 26: Pentimento (see 24)Day 27: Infanta Margarita …
I’m sending this stuff because I’m watching this stuff, and I’m watching this stuff because I want to do this stuff. I’m gonna make some heads in clay! Sounds like fun, and if they work, they’ll be good subjects for drawings and paintings when live models aren’t available. The wonderful secondary benefit is that studying …
I met Keith Pfeiffer when he took my recent Thursday class “Drawing and Painting the Effects of Light.” I love the paintings he made with the ideas presented in class. I spotted this painting on his Instagram page during the class. I asked him what his strategies were. This is a teacherly way of saying …
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.
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I’m sending this stuff because I’m watching this stuff, and I’m watching this stuff because I want to do this stuff. I’m gonna make some heads in clay! Sounds like fun, and if they work, they’ll be good subjects for drawings and paintings when live models aren’t available. The wonderful secondary benefit is that studying …
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