COMPOSITION — 3 RULES I Wish I Knew When I Started Painting
Yes, it’s important to paint well, but if you paint a wonderful portrait in the bottom left corner, it doesn’t really matter how well the face was painted, the painting will always look weird. That’s why composition is so important. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today.
If we can compare making a painting to building a cathedral, drawing the block-in is like placing the foundations, scumbles and impastos are like the sculpting the ornaments and techniques like glazing, which happen near the end are like finishing with the stained glass in the rose window. But even before any of this can happen, there is something even more fundamental than drawing, something so primordial that it defines the entire idea of the painting : composition. Think of it as the floor plan or the design of the cathedral. Everything has to be meticulously thought out so that there is harmony between all the parts and so that it conveys the vision of the artist with great intensity.
The composition can truly make or break a painting, that’s why today, I’m going to share with you 3 fundamental principles to make your paintings exciting, dynamic and eye-catching.
Rules, the better you know them, the more exciting it is to break them. Composition is always about thinking outside the box. In this spirit, for each rule, I’ll show you an interesting way to break it.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:43 Rule number 1 «Dead Center is dead»
06:07 How to break rule number 1
06:52 Rule number 2 «Use the Thirds»
09:33 How to break rule number 2
12:28 Rule number 3 «Balance and symmetry»
14:40 How to break rule number 3
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About me (bio) :
Website :
https://www.florentfarges.com
I am an artist living and working in France. I learned the techniques of the Atelier of the Nineteenth century and now I try to share some of my knowledge with the rest of the world, because I think that beauty still has an important role to play in artistic creation. I do mostly drawing and oil painting, and my goal is always to provide techniques, thoughts and explanations that can be useful to anyone, from beginners to more advanced artists.
The material I use most of the time (not necessarily in this video) :
Drawing
Equipement
✓ Kneaded eraser
✓ Plumb line
✓ Small mirror
✓ An old synthetic brush
✓ Masking tape
✓ Cutter
✓ Sandpaper or sanding block
✓ Mahlstick or Hand rest (DIY)
✓ Level ruler
Graphite
✓ Pencils 2H, HB and 2B
Charcoal
✓ If available: Nitram charcoals (H, HB and B)
✓ Square charcoals
✓ Natural charcoal box
Black and white chalk
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
✓ Square Conté noir : HB and 2B
✓ Chalk or pencil holder
✓ Pencil sketch Conté Pierre noire : H and HB
Sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté : Blood and blood Medici
✓ Crayon Polychromos Faber-Castel : sanguine
✓ Sketch pencil Conté white
Oil painting
Palette
(Extra-fine paint, recommended brands depending on availability: Lefranc Bourgeois, Winsor and Newton, Royal Talens Rembrandt)
✓ Titanium white PW6
✓ Yellow ochre PY42
✓ Burnt Sienna PR101 or PBr7
✓ Venetian red or English red PR101
✓ Permanent Alizarin crimson (Attention: do not use the traditional pigment, which is not very light-fast) PV19 or PR177 or Quinacridone Rose PV19
✓ Cobalt teal blue PG50
✓ French ultramarine blue PB29
✓ Raw umber PBr7
✓ Burnt umber PBr7
✓ Ivory Black PBk9
Brushes
✓ About ten filbert hog bristle brushes sizes n° 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12
✓ Some flat brushes
✓ Round sable brush or round Kolinsky sable n° 4, 8, 10, 12 (from the size of the nail (about one inch) or synthetic imitation
Medium
✓ Linseed stand oil
✓ Odourless mineral spirits
✓ Safflower oil
Surface
✓ Linen canvas, fine grain universal coating
✓ For studies : Canson oil-acrylic oil paper Figueras
Others
✓ Palette
✓ Foam and spalter brushes
✓ Palette knife in the shape of a water drop, no souldering
✓ A few small pots, containers, jars…
✓ Paper towels
