Cartoon vector illustration of stick man rocking and falling with chair from table.
Mondays are design/composition day in our 30 day challenge. You are 5 days from the finish!
Composition Types
There are multiple composition types. Here are two: static and dynamic.
Static Compositions
Static compositions are stable, peaceful, and tranquil. A static composition might have a focal point (centered), but it has no movement. Static compositions are often composed with mostly horizontal and vertical lines. To avoid vibration and movement, the colors are subdued and analogous, and the range of tones is compressed into medium values. Morandi’s bottles are an example of static compositions. See how even the subtle shifts in brush stroke and line slow us down and pull us in? Since people tend to gravitate to drawing horizontals and verticals, these compositions tend to be easy to draw, but harder to paint, because stabilizing lines come naturally, but the subdued tones are often inadvertently painted brighter and bolder.
Morandi, Giorgio; Still LifeThe Morandi objects combine to become one single centered stable object surrounded by space. Color and value contrast is low, with a subtle variance in brushstrokes.
Dynamic Compositions
In a dynamic composition, there is instability, movement, and tension. Dynamism can be built within a rectangle by implementing weight, contrast, and diagonals. High contrast values (skip the medium tones and put light next to dark) and high contrast colors (red against green) add to the intensity. George Bellows’ Stag at Sharkey’s is a great example of a dynamic composition. See how all of the shapes and faces point us back into the fight? And complimentary colors play off each other just like light and dark do. Look at how the red of the fighter’s faces bounces off of the little green shape in the upper left. The shorts are also green, which returns us again to the red in the faces. Dynamic compositions are often difficult to draw or paint, because of our natural tendency to stabilize shapes, and our hesitancy to be decisive and selective with dark areas.
George Bellows, Stag at Sharkey’sThe Bellows is high color and value contrast with a lot of diagonals. There are a few horizontals but they are broken up, and tend to lead us back into the action.
Today, use the SAME objects to make two compositions: one static, and the other dynamic. For example, a chair upright on level ground would be static, and a chair tipping over on uneven ground would be dynamic.
Post it
Post your work to social media with the tags #30sal & #seattleartistleague. To find more followers for your page, you can cut/paste these tags and add them to your post:
[image_with_animation image_url=”11565″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Her work looks to me like a modern Morandi. The composition is static, the colors are either quiet or repetitive and controlled, the objects are worn and common. The minimalist arrangements present the objects as flat abstracted forms. Notice the soft edges and surface detail. This painting is sitting …
[image_with_animation image_url=”9194″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] In the 1600’s, wood was a limited resource in the Dutch Republic (now the Netherlands), so artists either switched to canvas, or scavenged for wood panels. Rembrandt painted some of his works on mahogany panels from used shipping containers, still with the label and handles on the back. Info …
[image_with_animation image_url=”7035″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I prefer a perfect sheet of Rives BFK, baptized in a bath of holy water and dabbed by angels wings, printed with hesitant optimism and an aneurysm when an imperfection emerges, but William Kentridge, he throws it down. That man can work the paper. Torn pieces, inked, and carefully …
Stuart Shils in Conversation With Nikolai Fox April 6, 2012 By Larry 14 Comments Stuart Shils End of a Sumer Day, Last Blast of Warm Light, Looking Back, 30×42 inches click here for a larger view Stuart Shils in Conversation With Nikolai Fox March 2012, in advance of an exhibition at steven harvey fine …
30SAL Challenge: Static / Dynamic
Mondays are design/composition day in our 30 day challenge. You are 5 days from the finish!
Composition Types
There are multiple composition types. Here are two: static and dynamic.
Static Compositions
Static compositions are stable, peaceful, and tranquil. A static composition might have a focal point (centered), but it has no movement. Static compositions are often composed with mostly horizontal and vertical lines. To avoid vibration and movement, the colors are subdued and analogous, and the range of tones is compressed into medium values. Morandi’s bottles are an example of static compositions. See how even the subtle shifts in brush stroke and line slow us down and pull us in? Since people tend to gravitate to drawing horizontals and verticals, these compositions tend to be easy to draw, but harder to paint, because stabilizing lines come naturally, but the subdued tones are often inadvertently painted brighter and bolder.
Dynamic Compositions
In a dynamic composition, there is instability, movement, and tension. Dynamism can be built within a rectangle by implementing weight, contrast, and diagonals. High contrast values (skip the medium tones and put light next to dark) and high contrast colors (red against green) add to the intensity. George Bellows’ Stag at Sharkey’s is a great example of a dynamic composition. See how all of the shapes and faces point us back into the fight? And complimentary colors play off each other just like light and dark do. Look at how the red of the fighter’s faces bounces off of the little green shape in the upper left. The shorts are also green, which returns us again to the red in the faces. Dynamic compositions are often difficult to draw or paint, because of our natural tendency to stabilize shapes, and our hesitancy to be decisive and selective with dark areas.
Today, use the SAME objects to make two compositions: one static, and the other dynamic. For example, a chair upright on level ground would be static, and a chair tipping over on uneven ground would be dynamic.
Post it
Post your work to social media with the tags #30sal & #seattleartistleague. To find more followers for your page, you can cut/paste these tags and add them to your post:
#30sal #seattleartistleague #drawingchallenge #drawing #art #illustration #sketch #artchallenge #drawings #artist #draw #artistsoninstagram
#sketchbook #instaart #drawthisinyourstyle #artwork #drawingoftheday #dailydrawing #inkdrawing #drawingsketch #artoftheday #myart
#pencildrawing #drawthisinyourstylechallenge #creativity
#creativechallenge #composition
Padlet
Please post your work to Padlet so that we can admire your work, and award you nifty prizes.
PADLET JAN 23-30
https://seattleartistleague.padlet.org/SAL/snvqpkkjjv3dsuo2
Related Posts
Jude Rae, Contemporary Still Life
[image_with_animation image_url=”11565″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Her work looks to me like a modern Morandi. The composition is static, the colors are either quiet or repetitive and controlled, the objects are worn and common. The minimalist arrangements present the objects as flat abstracted forms. Notice the soft edges and surface detail. This painting is sitting …
Rembrandt’s panels: “This Way Up”
[image_with_animation image_url=”9194″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] In the 1600’s, wood was a limited resource in the Dutch Republic (now the Netherlands), so artists either switched to canvas, or scavenged for wood panels. Rembrandt painted some of his works on mahogany panels from used shipping containers, still with the label and handles on the back. Info …
William Kentridge Prints
[image_with_animation image_url=”7035″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I prefer a perfect sheet of Rives BFK, baptized in a bath of holy water and dabbed by angels wings, printed with hesitant optimism and an aneurysm when an imperfection emerges, but William Kentridge, he throws it down. That man can work the paper. Torn pieces, inked, and carefully …
Stuart Shils (Part 2)
Stuart Shils in Conversation With Nikolai Fox April 6, 2012 By Larry 14 Comments Stuart Shils End of a Sumer Day, Last Blast of Warm Light, Looking Back, 30×42 inches click here for a larger view Stuart Shils in Conversation With Nikolai Fox March 2012, in advance of an exhibition at steven harvey fine …