How Jurors Judge Your Work
- Principles of Arrangement
- Elements of Composition
We felt it important to discuss what jurors look for when evaluating your work. This information may aid you in improving your craft in the trade.
There are five principles of arrangement and five elements of composition which are closely examined by those judging your art.
Principles of Arrangement
- Emphasis
- If you set the vase near the right side of the window where the sill leads to the flowers, the focus would be the flowers;
- If the vase were positioned such that the sill was in the middle of the vase, the vase would be prone to having the emphasis;
- If the curtain on the right of the window dropped near the flowers, emphasis would be there.
- Balance
- Mountains in the background;
- A cloud in the sky;
- A stream that leads to the tree;
- A group of rocks and a bush in the foreground.
- Proportion
- Rhythm
- Repetition
- Color
- Line
- Form
- Texture
Emphasis is a fascinating element of the principles of arrangement. Not only does it stand for the main focal point of your piece, but it also stands for how you use the elements of composition to further accentuate that focal point, drawing in the viewer's eye.
Take as an example a painting having a vase of flowers as the focal point and surrounding elements of the table on which the vase rests, a window in the background, and the curtains in the window. The placement can make all the difference to the emphasis.
Now consider if the curtain were to drop further down to the table: there would be a struggle for emphasis between the table and flowers. If it drops to both table and flowers, emphasis would tend to remain on the flowers with the curtain and table now framing the vase.
The wall and what is seen outside the window pose as the negative space. This can be used to paint a picture of what kind of house it is and where it might be located. If the vase is placed too far right of the window, the outside scenery could draw emphasis in that direction.
How balance is used creates the whole mood of the piece. If your placement of the objects is clumsy or cluttered, an unsettled feel will be the result. If the balance is too perfect and precise, unnaturally so, an uncomfortable feel can occur, especially if the principles of rhythm are not in place to relax a stringent arrangement.
Balance works closely with proportion and emphasis. Think about the main focus of any piece and its surrounding elements; between the focus and elements is an area known as negative space. Use a landscape with emphasis on a beautiful oak tree as an example. The surrounding elements could be:
The work described has one emphasis and four surrounding elements. If you were to cut and paste those surrounding elements to different locations on the canvas, there would still be all that space between elements and emphasis. This is known as negative space.
By just working with the surrounding elements, you could make your piece top heavy or bottom heavy, or lean to the right or left. It is important to place the surrounding elements in such a manner to create balance and accentuate the focus or emphasis of your piece, the beautiful oak tree. This is accomplished by gauging the size of the negative space between all surrounding elements and the emphasis.
If the tree were just below and to the left of the center of the canvas, placing the rocks or bush in the lower left corner and the cloud in the upper right would balance the negative space. This opens the canvas on the lower right and upper left to use the stream and the mountains to create depth. All surrounding elements are now framing your tree, creating the emphasis. Now in the negative space you would paint supporting colors, tones, lines and curves to act as vectors, drawing the eye to the emphasis.
Proportion refers not only to the size of an object from closest to farthest dimensions but also to the actual form of an object relative to itself and its surroundings.
Take an example of the figure of a woman sitting outdoors on a park bench. Most viewers already have in mind the size of the typical park bench, so predicated upon how large the woman is painted, she could be regarded as petite or large, or of mythological elf or fairy size. Proportion is the object relative to itself and to surrounding objects. The woman's arms in relation to her torso and the woman as an object relative to the park bench define how successfully proportion has been observed in the work.
Proportion also refers to the division of levels or layers to your piece. If you paint a landscape, for example, you want to use 1/3 for the land and 2/3 for the sky, or vice versa.
Using line and curve is the best way to start using rhythm. Tone and color can then further accentuate the creation of rhythm, repeating the tones and colors as part of a theme. This is achieved by using lighter, less distinct tones and colors in the most distant objects in your piece and gradually building heavy tones of the same colors the closer the object is to the fore.
Texture can be used in the same manner. Lighter textures for distant objects, heavier for near. Repeating forms works the same way, changing not only the shade and color but size and proportion as well.
The Rule of Threes often applies to repetition.
To repeat the use of a color in three different places varying the shade creates distance and depth.
The use of a line repeated in threes creates rhythm; adjusting the length of the line creates distance and depth. Longer lines are often used to blur or feather, while shorter lines are often used in the foreground where objects are more defined.
Repetition of form, like same-species trees in a landscape, creates depth. Form is less distinct in the distance, more defined closer to the foreground.
Texture is also used to create repetition. If you are having a difficult time creating depth, try looking to your texture. Use the outer edges of your canvas as the nearest point, then pick out the most distant point on your canvas, right around the center. Now vary your texture, along with your tone and color.
Remember that heaviest, deepest and brightest aspects are used for the closest points while distant points are more subdued. This technique aids in the creation of emphasis, balance, proportion and rhythm all at once.
Elements of Composition
- Line
- Form
- Color
- Red - Green
- Blue - Orange
- Yellow - Purple
- Tone
- Texture
Line and curve go hand in hand. Line can identify the edge of a building, table, or horizon; curve can set off the edge of a stream, mountain, or other form from the negative space that surrounds it.
There is what is known a "lost and found" line. An example is the edge of a city building obstructed by a street sign. The line of the building stops when it hits the street sign and continues on the other side of the sign.
Line and curve also usually appear longer in the distance, like a rolling hill, and shorter nearest us as we see rocks and other objects breaking the line, which resumes on the other side.
Line works with form, like in the side view of a man's face defining the form and shape of his chin, brow, nose and mouth. The line gets heavier the closer the element is and lighter the farther it retreats. Its use can create repetition and rhythm like waves on the sea. By identifying our lines in a piece, we can gauge balance and proportion, and create emphasis.
Line also creates layering. In an outdoor scene, the sky is obstructed by the mountains in the background. These are then obstructed by a foothill, which is obstructed by a tree under which a dog lies. The tree further obstructs the mountains and sky, pulling the layers together to unify the piece.
Lines that run vertically build suspense to the piece, while lines that run horizontally serve to relax and calm the piece.
Form defines what something is and what it is not, based on the viewer's knowledge of what he sees. Form is strongly tied to proportion. For example, if you were to draw a fox jumping and made its ears too long and its tail indistinct, a viewer may wonder if the animal were a rabbit. Studying anatomy is very helpful to successfully define form in a human or animal. If ever you are stuck on from, visit a sculptor (form is the sculptor's specialty).
Form changes as we change our perspective. One of the tools that best helps with form is a slide holder. Extend your arm out fully while holding a slide holder and look at your subject, noting the negative space. Draw or paint the negative space to help you define the form of your object, then fill in the details of the object itself.
A good rule to follow is that if you are going to use a primary color in your piece, you should also have one of its complementary colors as well. For example:
Lack of complementary colors can give a piece the look and feel of being incomplete. Bear in mind too that were you to mix complementary colors, you would get an achromatic result – some form of brown, black or gray.
Of course, how you vary the tone will create the feel of where you are going with your piece. The technique of establishing distances is to lighten the tone of the color for distant objects and darken tones for near.
As described in more detail in Tone, how well you use the colors depends upon how well you use the grays. An example of this would be a painting featuring a shadow that a tree cast upon the grass. Though it would appear to be a dark gray, look more closely. It is not the shadow that has been painted, but the grass in a darker shade of green. There are also what are known as cool colors, which are blues, greens and purples, and warm colors, which are reds, yellows and oranges. By looking at ways to balance the warms and the cools, you will have a better view of and control over the mood you are trying to create.
Where color refers to the chromatic scale, tone is determined by the achromatic scale. It has been said to be a good painter, you first must learn to be a good sketch artist in pencil or pen. The achromatic scale is comprised of black and white with various stages of grays in between. A key to being a good painter is control of the group.
If you know what you want as your lightest highlight color and have an idea of what you want as your darkest shadow color, you then need to identify your various stages of gray. One tool that could help is a small piece of cardboard, about 4x4, with a small hole the size of a three-ring binder hole. Look at your subject's highlights or shadows by positioning the hole over them. You can now easily see the tone of the color.
This refers to the texture you give to the look of an object in your piece. Does the velvet dress look like it is velvet? Does the jagged rock look sharp and hard?
Texture also applies to the thickness of the paint. Does the paint look layered like the bark of a tree?
Many jurors know of and look for certain expected techniques of the medium used.
I started painting in watercolors as a child because I couldn't afford oils. After years of watercolors I adapted my watercolor technique to oils. I believe the lack of texture to my oils kept me out of museums for years. So I adapted my oil techniques to what the jurors expected from oils. Then I got into a museum juried show. All the pieces I saw that received awards were well-versed in the techniques of their media; non others received any awards.– K Dommer, Curator, Enchanted SouthWest Artists
