For ages, artists have been using a triangular directional movement to compose their paintings.
Directional movement is any visual movement in an art work created by a line or by the alignment of shapes or color or value contrast. It creates a visual path that gives order to the composition. The triangular path is one of the easiest of these to work with and to understand.
THREE EXAMPLES CROSSING FOUR CENTURIES
A classic reason artists choose the triangular directional is that it gives both balance and dynamics to
their work. From before Rembrandt to after Norman Rockwell, today's art collections are filled with paintings whose composition structure is some variation of this visual path. Some are more strongly based on line while others depend upon the alignment of shapes or colors. Some combine these.
In this Rembrandt painting, the upper diagonal of the triangle is created by line, but the lower two are created
by the alignment of shapes.
Norman Rockwell's "Fishing" creates the lower side of the triangle with line and the other two sides with the
alignment of shapes.
This contemporary Qiang Huang still life depends upon the alignment of shapes altogether. Notice the careful placement of the
orange closest to the edge on the right, the arrangement of the grapes on the left, and the location of the top of that bottle in the upper portion.
Look at any landscape, whether plein air or a photograph. Is there some way you can use this reference to create a triangular
direction composition by shifting and/or editing shapes while retaining clarity of meaning? Why not explore this idea elsewhere, too.
You can access the archive of all my newsletters at anytime by going HERE. |
|
|
|
