Composition

Composition

What is composition?

Composition plays a very important in art. The definition of composition is:

“In the visual arts—in particular painting, graphic design, photography, and sculpture—composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art, as distinct from the subject of a work.”

Definition sourced from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Composition_%28visual_arts%29

Composition is comprised of several types of composition:

Divine Proportions

Rules of Thirds

“L”

Cross

Iconic

Divine Proportions

Divine proportions, sometimes referred to as the 'Golden Ratio', was formulated by Marcus Virtuvis Pollio.

To which he states that: “The height of a well proportioned man is equal to his out stretched arms”

This rule can be seen within Da Vinci's vitruvian man

What is it about?

The golden ration itself is 1:1.618. It's a magical number, all nature is affected by it. It is also found everywhere in day to day life from credit cards, phone, magazines etc.

This rule can also go it what is called the “Fibonacci Spiral”. This spiral will lead the viewers eye around the image, which get them to really look at the image. All of the squares, underneath the spiral, because of the ration are equally proportional.

Rules of thirds

This rule is not as confusing as Divine Proportion. The concept of Rules of Thirds is quite simple: The canvas is divided into thirds (A tad obvious there) both vertically and horizontally.

Where the lines intersect, these will be the focal points of the painting. Though this composition technique is more common in photography, it is also found in paintings.

Example of this being used:

Take this concept art piece from Alice: Madness Returns, with the rules of third grid on top of it, you can clearly see the focal points. i.e. the teapot in the top left corner. The use of this help guide the viewer's eyes around the image.

The 'L'

The L form of composition is simply a frame within a frame.

It's quite literately a L. This is used to distinguish sections and the focal points in the painting. The L isn't always easy to spot as more often or not there are changes in shape. However, this'll make it more interesting for the viewer.

The Cross Though The Cross looks quite simple, it's actually one of the hardest forms of composition. As it's the easiest to get wrong, which'll make the image look sterile. Which isn't what you want. 

Example: Take this piece of concept art from Dragon Age: Origins 

This image demonstrates The Cross quite well. The use of The Cross creates good dynamic contrast within the image. This shows 'opposing force'.

The top section of the cross is generally lighter, and the focal point is much darker, (or visa versa in other images). This makes the image 'pop' out. 

The Iconic

This form of composition is quite simple and basic. The entire idea of it symmetry