According to Carol Dweck (who’s book Mindset I heartily recommend), there are two basic mind sets with which people approach their lives: The fixed mind set and the growth mind set.
People with the fixed mind set think that you have a natural set of abilities that you start with, and you can’t do much about them either way.
People with the growth mind set believe that you can improve through applied effort. You can develop your skills in just about any area of life through practice.
When it comes to the visual arts, most people believe in the fixed mind set. You have to be born with talent.
Even people within the visual arts who believe you can build some skills with practice (drawing accuracy for example) believe that some areas require natural ability and can’t be learned.
Composition, for example.
I beg to differ. And I intend to prove it, over time, here on this site.
It’s going to take a little while of course. This post should go some way towards me beginning to make my case.
Pattern in composition
A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about Subordination, one of Arthur Wesley Dow‘s principles of composition.
At the end of that post, I offered a simple exercise, to be done over the course of two weeks, to work with this principle and build skill with it. I also committed to doing this exercise myself, and to post the results when I was done.
So here I am.
Subordination
Very briefly, subordination as Dow describes it is the relating of all the elements of a design to a unifying theme, idea or design element. A series of similar shapes with one dominating, for example. A melodic theme in a musical composition, or a central idea in a poem.
Through the demonstration of this exercise, I hope to show you not just that but something more too: an effective approach to practice.
The Exercise
Let’s get straight to the point.
Here’s the design I started with (a small oil sketch reduced down to it’s main lines)
And here’s what I finished with:
During the course of the two weeks, I missed four days so did ten days overall. Below is a breakdown of the drawings for each day.
Effective practice
Much of the development of the designs I came up with in this exercise was done through repeatedly tracing over my own drawings in brush and ink on tissue paper.
With each tracing, some small element is changed, or the shape of the border is changed, or perhaps just the quality of the line improves. It’s this repetition and variation which stretches composition muscles and leaves our design sense stronger for the next round.
The point of this exercise is not the final design, it’s the practice involved in getting there. As I work with pattern in my designs, I develop patterns in my brain, connections between neurons forming mental maps representing deepening skill with design and composition.
So the next time I come to a composition, I will have a more developed sense of balance in design that will naturally feed into it. The real benefit of this exercise, and all practice exercises, comes when they are done regularly.
It should be pretty obvious that I subscribe, by and large, to the growth mind set.
Here are the drawings.
Day One
First, the original oil sketch:
Traced and transposed to a line drawing:
The line drawing itself is traced again with brush and ink, simplified further.
Then a third tracing removes everything but the main subject:
For the last drawing of day one, I tried the same subject with a slightly different layout.
This is done by placing a sheet of tissue paper over the previous drawing, and drawing a new border, cropping the subject in a different way. It’s a highly effective way to try out arrangements of the same subject in different borders, with different crops. Once a layout has been settled on, the amount of the original drawing still within the border gets traced onto the same sheet, making a new drawing.
Here’s a video of this process in action:
And another, changing the shape of a previous composition study:
Day Two
Having decided I didn’t have enough raw material to work with, I got hold of some more freesias, drew those, and re-drew the little Japanese bottle.
Multiple tracings helped to refine the drawings and improve their line quality.
Day Three
The new studies are introduced, traced into new drawings:
Day Four
More pencil roughs to try and get a better balance:
Day Five
Having settled on a design, I try to improve it by repeating it with small variations:
Day Six
Things started to get interesting about this point.
I decided I didn’t like the cropped bottle, so made a new design:
But it struck me that no single element was dominating any more. This wasn’t really subordination, unless you count the fact that all the flower stems join together in the unifying element of the bottle.
Day Seven
So I got some more freesias, and drew a new study, intended to be the dominant element in the composition:
Day Eight
It gets integrated into the design:
Day Nine
Then refined…
Day Ten
Then refined again. My two weeks are up (with four days missed) and my exercise is complete.
I’m happy that I’ve made a much better design than the one I started with. But I’m much more happy about the fact that I’m better at designing balanced line drawings than I was two weeks ago.
Not significantly better perhaps, but enough to notice the difference. And after I’ve done this exercise and others like it multiple times, I will be significantly better.
That’s the beauty of effective practice. You might not be particularly good at design and composition. I’m not. But I don’t have to accept that state of affairs and neither do you. With enough practice, you can build your skill in any area you choose. You just need to take responsibility for your own skill level, and take charge of your own learning.
So what makes this an effective exercise?
Like all effective exercises, it’s tailored around a few main features:
- It’s enjoyable. The more we enjoy something the faster we learn. The enjoyable part of this practice for me is trying out lots of variations on a theme. I also find the process of working with brush and ink quite meditative.
- It’s regular. This is really key. I set aside some time every day for my composition practice. I do miss the odd day at times as I did with this exercise. I don’t worry about that too much though. Usually a session is about an hour although it varies and often overshoots when I’m enjoying myself.
- It’s focused. If I can, I make sure I have no other distractions. No TV (actually we don’t have one, you should try it) and preferably no-one around to interrupt me. This is practice time, and it is sacred. I try to do it at quieter times of the day, very early in the morning or in the evening before bed. Focus is a skill in itself that takes time to develop.
- It’s deliberate and specific. I have a specific goal in mind – producing the best version I can of a pure line design of my theme – and any extraneous considerations are put aside. I’m not thinking about value. I’m not thinking about colour. All my concentration is bent on improving the design.
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Thank you for sharing these excercises
Interesting how important the boundaries of the picture become
Hi Annemieke, glad you like them. Le me know if you have a go at this one.
Hi Tom,
It really is. Changing the bounding box changes everything. Which makes sense really since as soon as you place a box around an image you have a box which is being subdivided in a specific way. the lines of the subject then are felt in relation to the border.
I find it endlessly fascination. Putting a composition into a circle completely changes it again.
I did the opposition section exercises in the book, dividing a space into parts, and found that using this exercised to divide a space before drawing in my sketchbook improves my page layout. I have a book called Decorative Plant Studies for Artists, Dover Books–I love the plates in this, and I’m sure now he studied Dow. I will keep doing these exercises.
Thank you Paul, as usual.
Judy
http://debbiebowen.com/botanicals/art-nouveau/
I found his floral designs on line–these are colored, the ones in the book are b and w.
Bonjour et merci pour le partage de cette travaille,j’aimerait voir un cocher do soleil!
A bientot
Lucia
Paul, i wonder if also creating a series of ‘notan’ sketches would have driven you to a different, but equally arresting composition. Incidentally, I have been digesting everything I can from a website ‘for the serious artist’ that you may enjoy http://studioproducts.com/ Didn’t Michelangelo retort to some admirer of his ‘artistic gifts’ that his art was the result of damn hard work?
Hi Judy,
I spent a lot of time on the opposition exercises too, particularly dividing rectangles and squares with verticals and horizontals, as you’ve done.
There were times I wondered what I was doing it for to be honest. But like you, after many hours with it I have the impression that it strengthened by sense of design. I think that practice informs what I’m doing now.
Thanks for the mention of the Dover book on plant designs. I’ve never heard of Foord before but those pieces really are stunning examples of design I think.
One of the best things about running this site hearing about new artists that I might never have found otherwise. Thanks very much Judy.
Hi Lucia,
I’m afraid y French isn’t good enough to understand the second part of your comment, but thank you!
Hi Guy,
> i wonder if also creating a series of ‘notan’ sketches would have driven you to a different, but equally arresting composition.
Quite possibly! I intend to find out at some point because I have it in mind to look at this design again when I do more notan practice.
I think you’re right about Michelangelo. What what I’ve read he did work very hard!
Paul,
I found this post and your privious one very exciting! I’ve been in a deep, dark place when it comes to painting lately and these exercises, I believe, could be just the ‘ladder’ I need to see the light again!
I think you are right on about this kind of practice – the kind that exercises our design sense and mark making- that it is cumulative and will become more available and open up more solid composition possibilities when faced with that blank canvas. The whole trick is to actually do the practice and not just read about others doing it!!!
I really enjoy your videos! Thanks for all you do and for passing on your nuggets of wisdom – warts and all!
>The whole trick is to actually do the practice and not just read about others doing it!!!
Absolutely Marsha. It seems so obvious but so few people do it – I mean really do it.
I’m sorry to hear that painting has been a bit of a struggle for you lately. I do think that those times, as hard as they are, can be a signal of impending growth and be an opportunity for learning and development.
I hope there’s a period of expansion into new areas just around the corner for you.
It’s really wonderful to hear from you again. Please drop me a line of you have time, and let me know what you’ve been up to.
By the way I’m getting a new camera soon so hopefully the quality of the videos is about to improve considerably. Woot!
Paul, I am continuing to follow your Dow adventures; thanks for posting you thoughts and experiences.
I thought you might like to take a quick peek at this book, available free on archive.org, related to drawing plants similar to what you are doing here. It has an emphasis on this type of composition/design. Amazing to think the book was for teaching school children to draw. Times have changed! The book is called “Nature Drawing”, and the URL for it is http://archive.org/details/cu31924014453157.
Cheers
What a find Chris! That’s a really beautiful book, with much wider relevance to us than just plant drawing.
The three value landscape compositions are particularly useful I think.
>Amazing to think the book was for teaching school children to draw. Times have changed!
Indeed. It’s frightening how much the general level of artistic skill – and by extension appreciation of it – has atrophied. I do believe the times they are a-changing though, there are positive signs.
That was a wonderful contribution Chris, one I can see I’ll be working with a lot. Thanks very much.
Here’s a link in case anyone else wants to grab it:
Nature Drawing – Henry Turner Bailey
Glad you like the book, Paul – Mr Dow even gets a mention, ch13 if I remember correctly.
Cheers
Hi Paul,
This book is great !I can continue the practice with this too!
Thank you Chris for sharing!
It is wonderful. I’m very excited – I’ve got a long weekend with two extra days off work so I can spend some time with it.
I’ll get back to you this weekend too Kiran, your practice drawings are looking really good. I see real progress in them.
Great post.
I was curious though, how do you balance the design with the reality of your arrangement? After you arrive at your composition do you try to arrange nature after it?
I guess my question is, now that you reworked your color sketch, do you arrange a vase with flowers in the manner of your new compostion?
Hi Romo,
That’s a very good question. Firstly, I must say that exercises like this are about gaining skills, not about a specific finished piece.
I want to see progression and I want to produce a good result of course. But what I’m trying to do here is to stretch and develop my skill at and appreciation of design.
That said, I can see a number of ways you could use an exercise like this as part of the process of making a finished piece.
Without wanting to dodge the issue, I think the answer to your question will depend on the individual artist’s approach.
I can tell you how I would – and probably will – proceed with this one from here:
Firstly I’d do a simple value study based on the line design, probably using only three values. Then I’d make any adjustments I might think the composition needs.
Finally, I’d do a colour version based on the value composition, keeping the values balance I’ve designed. Possibly, I’ll do multiple colour versions and choose the best one to call the finished piece, I won’t really know till I get to that point.
So for me, I’ll be taking the original visual impression and then constructing a picture based on it, and on my sketches of it. By the time I’m done with this composition I expect it to have moved quite a long way from what I saw in the first place.
I’m interested in using the subject as a starting to point from which to construct a picture. That said, it will still be recognisable as a bunch of freesias in a little sake bottle.
I could equally imagine putting together a new set-up based on the composition sketches though, as you suggest, and then painting that in one sweep from life (it would have to be fast since freesias don’t last!)
That’s what I mean when I say that the approach will depend on the artist. I think there are many possible ways to approach this.
The point of all this practice is to deepen my appreciation of composition and design. With enough practice, that more fully developed appreciation and composition skill should make itself felt even in a quick sketch. My decisions on placement and design should be different: More balanced and hopefully more beautiful.
But this is a practice exercise first and foremost. Rather than just thinking about it as a process towards a finished piece, think about it as a way of gaining skills which will then be applied to every future piece.
Hi, I teach a life drawing group and give homework. The homework for this week is drawing your hands. First one and then the other. I wanted to send the group examples of drawn hands and found your site, which had what I was looking for. Being of the curious mindset–who knows where one thing will lead, I poked around in it and found a lot of stuff here I was actually taught a thousand years ago (I’m an old folk, now). You have many good examples of composition progression, which I’m pleased to see.
Hi Sonni, I’m very glad you found some useful stuff for your students here.
composition doesn’t seem to be given much priority now – or at least it doesn’t seem to be taught systematically very often that I’ve come across.
I’d be very interested to hear some more about how you were taught it a thousand years years ago 🙂
Every time I type some drawing problem into Google, your site comes up. So I decided it’s time to say that you are very inspirational and encouraging!
We don’t have a TV either – much rather spend time reading and drawing!!
Thanks Jane, that’s really nice of you to take the time to let me know. And I’m glad to hear that Google has such good taste!
Hey Paul – excellent write up! Really easy to follow and I for one love how you refer to design aesthetics when approaching your illustration. It can be a little difficult at times distinguishing illustration from design but I think you did a great job with this post. Thanks for this!
You may start with the affirmation that it’s possible to develop your skills instead of can’t. I have learned that practice makes the master.
Warm regards
Gabriela
Well, yes, I did. That was exactly my point!