Skip to main content

Composition in Visual Arts

In visual arts, composition is the placement or arrangement of the visual elements, such as figures, trees, and so on in a work of art, as distinct from the subject or the style with which it was depicted. It can also be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art.

The composition of a picture is different from its subject, which is depicted, whether a moment from a story, a person, or a place. Many subjects, for example Saint George and the Dragon, are often portrayed in art, but using a great range of compositions even though the two figures are typically the only ones shown.

The term composition means "putting together" and can apply to any work of art, from music, to writing, to photography, that is arranged through conscious thought. In the visual arts, composition is often used interchangeably with various terms such as design, form, visual ordering, or formal structure, depending on the context. In graphic design for press and desktop publishing, composition is referred to as page layout.

The central visual element known as element of design, formal element, or element of art, constitute the vocabulary with which the visual artist compose. These elements in the overall design usually relate to each other and to the whole art work.


The elements of design are:
  • Line - the visual path that enables the eye to move within the piece
  • Shape - areas defined by edges within the piece, whether geometric or organic
  • Color - hues with their various values and intensities 
  • Texture - surface qualities which translate into tactile illusions
  • Value - shading used to emphasize form
  • Form - 3-D length, width, or depth
  • Space - the space taken up by (positive) or in between (negative) objects
The artist determines what the center of interest (focus in photography) of the art work will be, and composes the elements accordingly. The gaze of the viewer will then tend to linger over these points of interest, elements are arranged with consideration of several factors (known variously as principles of organization or principles of design) into a harmonious whole which works together to produce the desired statement - a phenomenon commonly referred to as unity. Such factors in composition should not be confused with the elements of art (or elements of design) themselves. For example, shape is an element; the usage of shape is characterized by various principles.

Some principles of organization include:
  • Shape and proportion
  • Positioning / orientation / balance / harmony among elements
  • The area within the field of view used for the picture ("cropping")
  • The path or direction followed by the viewer's eye when they observe the image
  • Negative space
  • Color
  • Contrast: the value, or degree of lightness and darkness, used within the picture
  • Arrangement: for example, use of the golden mean or the rule of thirds
  • Lines
  • Rhythm
  • Illumination or lighting
  • Repetition
  • Perspective
  • Breaking the rules can create tension or unease, yet it can add interest to the picture if used carefully
x----x

This post is sponsored by Ayala Malls.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Create a Richly Imagined World

For someone who likes fantasy and sci-fi fiction, most of the time, a lot of people ask me about how to create a richly imagined world. Fantasy and sci-fi elements rest heavily on how an author weave the setting and the world in which the heroes dwell in, and it helps to make the novel to be imagined vividly in the readers' minds. A convincing world should be relatable, something that we can associate ourselves with. For us to be associated with a world an author created in his mind, and wrote on the pages of a book, this world has to be close to the real thing. It has to be systematic, real and alive, and very convincing. A real world has certain elements, and an author must consider them in writing a vividly imagined world: Cartography - a fantasy or sci-fi world depend heavily on geography and maps, especially if the plot requires war and the belligerents occupy so much space in the plot. A convincing world has the world separated in territories, and every part of the...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Roman Empire

 The Roman Empire was the post-Rupublican period of ancient Rome. As a polity it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterranean Sea in Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia ruled by emperors. From the accession of Caesar Augustus to the military anarchy of the third century, it was a principate with Italy as metropole of the provinces and the city of Rome as sole capital (27 BC - 286 AD). After the military crisis, the empire was ruled by military emperors who shared rule over the Western Roman Empire (based in Milan and later in Ravenna) and over the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire; centered on Nicomedia and Antioch, later based in Constantinopole). Rome remained the nominal capital of both parts until 476 AD, when the imperial insignia were sent to Constantinopole, following the capture of Ravenna by the barbarians of Odoacer and the subsequent deposition of Romulus Augustulus. The fall of the Western Roman Empire to Germanic Kings, alon...
Post a Comment
Read more

Theodicy

Theodicy means vindication of God. It is to answer the question why a good God permits the manifestation of evil, thus resolving the issue of the problem of evil. Some theodicies also address the evidential problem of evil by attempting "to make the existence of an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good or omnibenevolent God consistent with the existence of evil or suffering in this world." Unlike a defense, which tries to demonstrate that God's existence is logically possible in the light of evil, a theodicy attempts to provide a framework where God's existence is also plausible. The German philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Leibniz coined the term "theodicy" in 1710 in his work Théodecée, through various responses to the problem of evil that had been previously proposed. The British philosopher John Hick traced the history of moral theodicy in his 1966 work, Evil and the Love of God, identifying three major traditions: the Plotinian theodicy, named a...
Post a Comment
Read more