Monday, December 29, 2014

Studying Composition from Old Masters

Around Thanksgiving, I began a series of warmup exercises with the purpose of improving my compositions. Illustrators almost always start a painting with small, rough thumbnail sketches to quickly think through the composition of a piece. These can range from the simplest abstract lines, to basic value sketches of big shapes. 
I decided to take a tried & true concept of learning, the master study, and simplify it. In a formal master study, a student paints a copy of an old master's painting, trying to discern their color palette, painting techniques, and composition. But in order to focus on just composition, I began to do abstract linear thumbnails & value thumbnails as studies of compositions I admire. With this simple exercise, after only a few days I saw results creeping into my own work.

Every aspect of composition can be broken down into a value problem. Framing, movement, balance, all of it, comes down to values. N.C. Wyeth is one of my favorite illustrators, and his compositions are always simple and powerful.

N.C. Wyeth, Robin Hood
N.C. Wyeth























On the left, Wyeth shifts the value of the sky & water as needed to keep the viewer's attention on the main ship. The values in the clouds also shift as needed to serve as a frame for the ships. The angles of the sails & light areas of the main cloud forms create a dynamic movement.
In the Robin Hood illustration, the figures are only small silhouettes, but read crystal clear because they are surrounded by the brightest brights of the entire painting. The bright shape exists as a sort of kidney bean, and accentuate the curved diagonal separating the foreground and background. This piece also is a great example of how throwing the top and bottom of a piece in shadow serves to frame the main event, and keeps our eyes from escaping the piece.

N.C. Wyeth

Here Wyeth gives us a complex scene, but by throwing most of it into mid tone and shadow, leaving the focal point as a silhouette surrounded by a bright cloud, we know exactly where to look. What struck me about this painting was the dynamic movements throughout his cloud formations. I tackled these movements in my abstract linear sketches. We can see "S" curves stacked on "S" curves, perpendicular angles, and large ellipses.

N.C. Wyeth, Robin Hood


Again we see Wyeth employing some similar techniques. He frames his focal point by making it the brightest area of the illustration, while keeping our eyes within the image with dark & middle values along the sides of the piece. In this particular instance, his "frame" creates a wonderful "S" curve in the negative space that he left bright.

N.C. Wyeth, "The Opium Smoker"



Our last Wyeth for today, and a powerful image. Wyeth is doing a few things here. He is creating a triangle with his light values against a mid/dark background, the lights being the figure on the left, the dragon decor on the wall, and the head & hand of the figure on the right. Of course, the dragon is subdued compared to our main characters. Wyeth is also letting the smoker's suit disappear into the shadow, simplifying the shapes and allowing the bright skin tone really stand out here. A very simple, strong composition.

Edward Robert Hughes



Here is a painting by Edward Robert Hughes which features a single figure as the main event. Here, body language is the key to creating emotion and movement. Hughes is leaving his lights for only the skin on the woman's arm and face, with everything else in the painting significantly darker (save for an accent along the horizon). He is framing her face with her garments, and the shape it creates is mimicked by the trees in the background. The far trees and our figure are creating dynamic angles, as denoted by the red lines in my abstract, and the piece is stabilized by the level horizon and tree closest to us. Hughes is using the tree on the right as a framing device to keep us within the painting, as well as darkening the bottom third of the piece. It is similar to some of what we saw with N.C. Wyeth.

William Adolphe Bouguereau

My favorite figure painter of all time has to be Bouguereau. He is doing something similar to Hughes here, by framing his figure with her garments. He creates a striking contrast by keeping her such a light element and her drapery the darkest element of the painting. The movement of her drapery echoes and accentuates the twists of her torso, and the throw of her hip. She creates an "S" curve, and it looks more organic thanks to the perpendicular angles formed by the large shapes of the drapery.

Bouguereau also throws in the stones on the bottom left, which stop us from exiting the image, and also serves as a dark accent to her garments. The negative space between the stone and the figure create yet another "S" curve to mimic the figure. He is also creating movement in the background, by dividing it into quarters that bounce between light and dark.


Maxfield Parrish



Here we have an example by Maxfield Parrish. Another simple image, yet a wonderful composition that we can learn a lot from. The shape of the tree is an extension of the shape of the figure, creating an arch that cuts the painting in half. The rest of the piece is a play of perpendicular angles echoing the various angles within the figure, which we can see in the rocks she's seated on as well as in the mountains behind her. The value composition is a fairly simple one here and can be stated in three pieces from left to right. Dark (tree & rocks), light (figure), and middle values (background mountains).



Norman Rockwell



Finally, another one of my favorites, Norman Rockwell. From this richly detailed and busy painting, Rockwell teaches us the art of balance. When I first broke the piece down into values, it quickly became convoluted. But by looking at the abstract shapes, we see that Rockwell is creating an ellipse with the heads of his figures, surrounded by straight angles that keep our attention within the ellipse. He is balancing the composition with a few select brights; the white of the police officer's shirt, the highlight on the soldier's arm, and the two windows in the back. These key brights allow our eye to bounce around within a fairly stable shape (see the red shape over my value thumbnail). Furthermore, beyond values, Rockwell has arranged all his figures to be looking at the soldier, and he has also painted the flag in his hands as the highest chroma color in the entire piece. Both of these elements establish a clear focal point in an otherwise busy piece.



“Composition is the mortar of the wall, as drawing and color are its rocks of defense. Without it the stones are of little value, and are but separate integrals having no unity.” -Henry Rankin Poore


The quote above is from Henry Rankin Poore in Pictorial Composition and the Critical Judgment of Pictures. This is one of the better books on composition out there, and luckily it's in public domain. You can grab a free PDF copy here. However, composition is a complex concept, and a "good" composition can take on many forms. Of course, there are certain optical tendencies that are universal, different techniques to direct a viewer to a painting's focal point, and considerations for balance and movement. James Gurney's books, Imaginative Realism and Color & Light, are authorities on composition (among all things illustration), and are must haves for any artist's library. But in the end, composition often comes down to a personal preference, so study & practice from compositions that you enjoy!

The best way to learn composition, is to just do it, just as the best way to improve draftsmanship is to simply draw. Studying the compositions of our forebears is like drawing from life, there is simple no substitute for the knowledge you gain from that experience. 

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

Here We Go!

Hello everyone!

This is my first blog post, and I'm very excited to finally start it!
First, I'll tell you a little bit about myself & what you can expect to see here.

I'm Nicholas Elias, an illustrator based in Long Island, New York. I'm currently finishing my senior year in the illustration program at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, and I'll be graduating this May. I have a project that I'm about to begin for my senior thesis that I'm very excited about, and I'll be able to say more about that soon!

As I approach graduation, I've decided to take my first steps of establishing myself online with a brand new website, Facebook page, deviantART account, and this blog!

Please check out my portfolio on any of those pages, feel free to follow me on Facebook and deviantART, and be sure to subscribe to this blog via RSS feed or by email.

As far as content goes, I intend to deliver quality, weekly posts in regards to my illustration process, plein air studies, pencil studies, imaginative sketches, and studio practices. So look out for new posts every Monday morning! The first weekly post will be up on Monday, December 29th, so be sure to check back here then!

If there is one thing I know for certain, it's that an artist never stops growing. Every day I learn something new, and every drawing or painting is a journey from beginning to end. I hope to share what I learn with all of you. Follow me on my artistic journey, join me in my experiences and discoveries, and learn with me along the way.


Nick