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:
Exercise your creativity This SAL Challenge is a vocabulary based creative challenge every day for January. Materials are artist’s choice. You can draw, paint, sew, collage, sculpt your food, anything you want. See below for today’s creative challenge. Set the timer for 20 minutes and see what happens. UIVIGAR Derived from an old Scandinavian word …
After my post about Non-Toxic Oil Painting, I stopped by Artist & Craftsman to pick up a few new solvent free mediums. Of course there are far more oils and mediums on the shelf than I included here. Some mediums dry slower, some mediums are thicker, some mediums make unicorns appear. I didn’t get them …
With experience copying classical antique sculptures in Florence, Francis Harwood created this exceptional sculpture which combined the elements of classical sculpture with the subject of a more modern (1700s) Black individual – a subject we do not frequently have the privilege of seeing. In fact, this noble bust by Francis Harwood is one of the …
One year ago in March, to protect our students and teachers from a new coronavirus, the Seattle Artist League moved our classes online. The virus was declared a national emergency, and we went into quarantine. We have now been in quarantine for thirteen months. Through this year, we have met each other online to draw, …
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
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