“Practice, which some regard as a chore, should be approached as just about the most pleasant recreation ever devised.”
Regular, consistent practice is the only way to build any skill. That’s as true for design and composition as it is anything else.
That’s not news to musicians, who happily spend the majority of their time at their instrument practising. Most of what they produce, an audience never hears.
Why is that approach so rare for visual artists?
Perhaps you think that design is one of those skills that you’re just born with. If you do, then frankly, you may as well stop reading. I write for people who believe they can get better with practice, and who are willing to commit their time to that belief.
If that’s you, then I think I’ve got something for you. I’m about to go into more depth than I ever have before, with a series of video posts that will show in detail how I’m currently using practice exercises to develop my composition and design skills.
Today I’m posting the first two videos of the series.
I’m going to start with some studies from life. Then you’ll see me gradually distill the studies down and begin to create designs from them. Each exercise will have one, and only one goal: To develop design sensibility.
I’ve been using the method I’m about to show you for some months now. I’ve seen my sense of design improve and felt my compositional confidence growing. A long time ago, I used to believe that design was one of those natural “you have it or you don’t” aspects of art, mostly because I didn’t seem to have it.
I don’t believe that any more. If I possibly can, I want to prove to you that you can build your design skills too, with practice.
Designing Nature
If you’re reading here, you’re probably a realist artist, or at least start with the visual impression. So I’ll be starting where I always start, with studies from life.
This first video in the series shows the initial drawing out of the lilies. I don’t like time-lapse because it makes everything look much easier and quicker than it is. This work is slow. So I’ve cut together lots of different stages of the drawing but still kept the video short – just over two minutes.
You’ll notice that the drawing has already been simplified ready for use as part of the composition exercises. It’s only outline, with no value shading to confuse the issue.
In the first stage, I’m going to try to create a design using line only.
In this next video, I’ll take that initial drawing and try to make a design from it, an initial composition. First, I’ll trace the drawing. Then, having laid another sheet of tracing paper over it, I’ll crop it in a way I think makes a good design. This method of laying tracing paper over drawings to try out changes on them is really very useful, especially for design and composition practice like this.
Where this is going next:
The next post will see me making a notan composition of this drawing. From there, I’ll take more of my studies from life and produce tracings of them which can be combined in different ways as abstract design. I’ll be trying pot designs, repeat designs and rug designs.
Then the streams will cross again when I return to picture composition and produce some more notan designs based on the simplified elements, which will be worked up into full picture designs in three values.
What I won’t be doing, however, is trying to produce a finished piece at the end of all this practice. I’m not going to make a lily painting. If you’re hoping for a demonstration of some compositional tricks you can apply, like the rule of thirds or the golden section, then I’m afraid I’m going to have to disappoint you.
Because I firmly believe that if you haven’t practiced enough to develop your design sense, no amount of tricks or cheat sheet of composition rules is going to help you make good compositions.
But if there’s no finished drawing, what’s the point?
Throughout all of the videos you’ll see in upcoming posts, I’ll have a single goal in mind: to stretch and build my design muscles, just like an athlete does through repeat practice.
What I hope for more than anything else is that I can inspire you to try some similar exercises yourself. If you do harbour any doubts about whether design and composition can be learned (and I know many people do) then I hope I can go some way towards dispelling them.
What I hope for more than anything is to be a able to encourage you to prove to yourself that you can improve your compositions through regular, positive practice.
So where do you start?
Well, you could dive straight in with something like this. Or you could start a bit smaller, like I did, and gradually stretch your design muscles with time.
I’ve posted previously about some of the initial exercises I did along these lines. That might give you some ideas.
A great initial exercise to try is simply to divide space with horizontal and vertical lines. It sounds simple, I know. Too simple. But I do this very exercise myself every morning, and have been doing for months. It’s like an early morning meditation for me now.
And you’d be surprised what a difference very small steps can make when you add them up.
They quickly become yards, then before you know it, miles.
Posted: December 23rd 2012
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I love it Paul. I plan on giving this a try tomorrow when I do my morning Positive Habit. I’m always in a hurry so I will probably only do an accurate drawing tomorrow.
Your videos were great and share just how you go about getting started. I’m often disappointed when you are expected to guess at how the instructor did something.
Thank you Paul, I’m looking forward to trying this.
Nancy
Hi Paul. Great post.
Loved Zaharias’ quote and how you relate the necessty of an artists daily practice to a musicians practice.
Seeing how you do the exercises by video not only helps us understand, it also breaks down that barrier to getting started. It helps to make it look easier.
Hi Paul.
Thank you for sharing all your expeririences with me/us. I travel nearly the same way as you do. Trying to find out my own way and I love your posts. I wish you a mery Christmas and an happy New Artist Year.
(I hope my english is not to bad)
Why is it Paul, that you first trace the drawing from your sketch book on tracing paper, before laying another sheet of tracing paper over it,to crop it.
I mean, why not cropping directly from your sketch book with the sheet of tracing paper? Not to be visually disturbed perhaps, by the ringbinder?
Thank you Paul for your time and effort.
Again, it’s good to know that the road we have taken is not a one man’s journey…
All the best for the New Year.
Thank you Paul for this. I’ve been reading your posts for years now and love this new aspect with the videos. You are so generous with your time and talents and I thank you for that! Wishing you and yours all the best this season and for the upcoming year.
Really good of you Paul to take the time and share with everybody your appreciation of compositional exercises in video format. I am looking forward to seeing more.
I like the initial composition a lot and although the cropped version is also very nice, has it really improved it? If it has can you explain how? It will be interesting to see what you come up with next and it will also be interesting to compare the various compositions side by side (if that’s possible).
The kids are in bed now and I have just had another look at the two videos without interruption. I see more clearly what you are trying to show us now and I can see the value of using tracing paper in working out a variety of compositions. I can appreciate that trying out a number of designs and not settling for the first design that comes along will inevitably improve one’s design sense.
having said that I still think the initial outline drawing in the sketch book is delightful and I think it stands on it’s own merits as a splendidly composed drawing.
Wonderful Christmas!For one months,I’ve been doing DRAWING ACCURACY (your advice) with exercices of Betty Edwards, outline, blind line.Now, I’ve been doing too, regular and irregular line, with exercice of book Dow.Loved the breathing line:help us.Thanks for “Let’s all work together to become better artists”.I follow you.Thanks for useful post.
I just started to read your lessons on the day before Christmas but had to go to the hospital for my cancer stageIV to get chemo. I wanted to say something before I forget, to much showing on how to can create a lazy mind and influence the creative part of the brain. Good topics drawing what you think you see, seeing the real color and the influence around it. Trying not to block the primitive side of the creative mind, which later becomes helps your masterpiece. More to say later after i read the the rest.
Sorry for the late replies all – I unplugged for a much needed break over Christmas and am just coming back online now. Please find replies to each of your comments below:
Hi Nancy
Thanks very much for the feedback, I’m glad you find the videos useful. Expect a lot more this year! I know you have this hurrying thing 🙂 so do bear in mind that each of these stages takes a long time to do – the initial drawing was probably around two hours.
Hi Liz,
I find it deeply odd that artists expect to produce a finished piece every time they sit down. I think it’s one of the more destructive sides of the pervasive belief that visual art ‘just happens’ and requires no practice or training. If only that were true!
I’m really glad you found the videos useful too.
Hi Gerrit (Jan?) Your English is fine. I wish you a very productive and joyful 2013 too!
Anke, Hi. That’s a very good question. I do it mostly because it’s easier for me to then work over it when it’s on a separate sheet. I like to work flat on my drawing board, which I have on a desk easel sitting on the floor. That’s the only reason really. You’re quite right, there’s really no need for that stage if you don’t want to do it.
Hi George, thanks for the thought. You know, I think we all have a lot more in common than we might think, we tend to come across the same obstacles and experience much the same hang-ups and difficulties when we’re at the easel.
One of the privileges of running this site is hearing from so many people and seeing how common our struggles are.
All the best to you in 2013 too.
Hi Darrel, I’m really glad you like the videos thanks for taking the time to let me know. All the best to you and your loved ones too.
Hi Glyn,
I’m glad you like the initial drawing (for the record, I do too) but you’re right, none of these drawings is meant to be seen as a finished piece.
I return to the point I made at the beginning of the post – try to think of these as unimportant as individual drawings. The bit that matters is what happens in my brain as I draw them.
I’m building my sense of composition and design with each drawing, and that’s the whole and only point of doing each one.
I could as easily do them in water only and be unconcerned when they dried and disappeared for good. Except that I can’t draw that fast of course!
Have a look at this:
There’s something really beautiful about the fact that his calligraphy disappears as fast as he writes it. The point is clear – it’s the practice, the meditation that is the point of the exercise.
This really gets to the heart of the point I’m trying to get across with this post – that as visual artists, we rarely practice simply to build our skills. Always we look for a finished piece to show. I think that approach slows our progress.
Hi Maria, lovely to hear from you again! Breathing Line is my favourite exercise I think 🙂 It seems utterly pointless but always leaves me feeling relaxed and calm.
Hi Michael,
I’m really sorry to hear that your Christmas was marred by your illness.
I’m not sure I agree with you about clear how-to information making people lazy. These exercises are designed to help enhance creativity. But I’ll wait to hear more about your thoughts on this before commenting more, it’s an interesting position to take.
I hope everything goes OK. My thoughts are with you for 2013.
your to close to your work, step away at arms length. go for the overall design first detail latter. go to the master, study there overall composition and relate it to your subject matter. do a still life from a masters composition coping the the overall felling.