Best Information About Design

[Carol Norton]

If one book could be purchased about design, what would your recommendations be? I am looking for the best resources in creating effective design in my paintings. Since artists seem to be great readers, I am hoping to find a clear, concise resource for this topic. Thank you for any help you can give on this subject.

[Mike McCarty]

Carol,

I don't know of a book to recommend, however, I can point you to a resource that I often draw upon: the pages of the SOG site.

I don't know of any other single resource that has so many examples of good imaginative design. Particularly, I would recommend the site of Daniel Greene for many wonderful design examples.

Good design is a difficult subject to tie down. There is enough subjectivity to keep it simultaneously confusing and interesting. Personally, I learn by seeing not reading. This is why all those great pictures all lumped together in one place are so valuable to me.

Additionally, I see design to be seperated into two somewhat different components. The first being how the subject(s) relate to each other and to the edge of the canvas. Next, the way the light falls on these subjects. Each being vitally important to the success of the overall design.

Good luck in your search for a book, no doubt there are good ones out there.

[Mari DeRuntz]

You've opened a fascinating topic, and one that I hope generates a tsunami effect....

Here's an exercise that continues to enlighten: and something you can do in one or two sessions based on black and white printouts of favorite examples from the history of art:

Tape your black and white reproduction to a board, draw a box around it, and with an opaque medium like goauche, execute a value study of that painting on a piece of scrap toned canvas taped right next to it. In color, this was an exercise in the tradition of the French Academy - one of the last rigorous national training grounds for painters.

To study the grand, agile compositons of the past, there is no better guide. Just remember to keep everything very abstract - even turn the image upside down so your brain does not tempt you to paint "precious" details - which are always secondary to the effect of a picture.

You might also want to delve into the world of ornament. If you attempt such an exercise, we'd all benefit from you posting your studies.

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Carol, as Mari said this is a very important issue.
As a portrait painter for me the difficulty lies in the fact that you don't really start from scratch, but work with some given items.
There is a place on your canvas, for example, where the head should be, and mostly, working on commission, where your client expects the head should be...
The many rules of composition to me are often contradictory and I would love to find someone to put them in a "top ten" order!

Ilaria

[Carol Norton]

Thank you Mike, Mari and IIaria, for your very valuable input and ideas. Sounds like a book- in -the -writing to me. I will follow all of your suggestions, slowly, as it sounds like a great warm-up for the day as well as the way to begin every painting. The idea of abstract value studies with paintings from Daniel Greene's site could be a start.

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Mari DeRuntz

To study the grand, agile compositons of the past, there is no better guide. Just remember to keep everything very abstract - even turn the image upside down so your brain does not tempt you to paint "precious" details - which are always secondary to the effect of a picture.
.

I have read that Rubens made some research of the values in paintings that he admired.
He would hatch down the simplified value masses to see how much of the composition was occupied of the different value steps.
He found that the most pleasing balance was, not including the lightest highlights and the darkest dark, a division of 4/4 in 4 different values.

On a scale with 9 different steps you would have 25% of the canvas covered with value 2, 25% covered with value 4, 25% with value 6 and the last 25% with value 8.
This means that the painting would have an average value of 5 - neither light , nor dark.

When looking at Sargents paintings, they seem darker than that.
Many portraits do that, I think, but it looks reasonably because of the higher intensity, or quality, of the relatively small light area of the head, the balance is maintained by the psychological compensation.

Allan

[Julie Deane]

HI Carol -

Look as hard as you can for books by David Friend. They're out of print, but oh my are they good! His book "Composition - A Painter's Guide to Basic Problems and Solutions" analyzes compositions by great masters, but does even more. He takes the reader through a series of exercises, giving a problem to solve, and then shows how a "master" solved it. Among the artists used as examples in his book are Rembrandt, Gainsborough, Winslow Homer, Daumier, Goya, Whistler.

Another excellent, easier to obtain books is Henry Rankin Poore's book "Composition in Art".

I find these two books are my basic course in composition, to which I refer frequently. Either one is a good primer. Poore's book would probably be the best one with which to start, as it gives a general overview of important considerations.

Another David Friend book, "The Creative Way to Paint" is chock-full of more analysis of composition in great paintings.

[Carol Norton]

Oh my, THANK YOU, Julie and Allan.
I will go after that like a ... heat seeking miss..... What can I say that would be appropriate? What a wonderful resource this place is! Gratitude is my new middle name.

[Vianna Szabo]

Hi Carol,

One of the quintessential books on design is by Edgar Payne and is called "Composition of Outdoor Painting". Even though it is on landscape it deals very effectively with placement of the masses and using line to move the viewer thoughout the compositon. What I really enjoy are his use of thumbnail sketches to explain the different concepts. I always do a thumbnail drawing to see if the composition will work correctly. I find if it looks good in a two by three inch format it will look good at twenty inches. As a teacher I have my students practice thumbnail sketches by first doing them with whatever shapes they find pleasing, then I have them add value to the shapes. During this exercise we discuss balance and movement and rythym, all these topics are covered in detail in Payne's book. After umpteen little abstracts we apply thumbnails to the model or still life by looking for the big value masses and lines that carry the eye through.

Unfortunately it is a real "Payne" (sorry) to find this book. I bought it as a birthday gift for myself a few years back. I think I got it on Amazon for around $40.00. Original copies are around but they are very pricey.
Hope this helps.

Vianna

[Carol Norton]

Vianna, thank you for the suggestions. I will certainly check this out!