Best discussion of composition I have heard. Clear and insightful. Love the idea of host and guest shifting back and forth. An expert thought process distilled for the rest of us. Thanks
thanks so much for your wonderful comments! So glad to know that my "brand" of thinking about composition is well received... cheers to your artistic practice!
Thank you Marianne for that insightful discussion on composition. Although I am a watercolor painter, I find your site to be of deep value, especially when you discuss something as basic and necessary as good composition. It is vital to create an ideal composition no matter your particular artistic field because without this your work will never be as good as you hoped. It is the most essential and important single factor in creating good art. Like you I have come up with a checklist for my artwork which I use before I start a final version of a painting. Of course, watercolor requires a lot more thought in advance due to the nature of saving the whites of the paper. I use this checklist along the way while developing the art and find it is essential. There are so many factors to assist in good composition it is difficult to keep all in my head and so the list helps, especially if you have taken a hiatus from painting for whatever reason. I ordered your list from your website and look forward to finding some elements that I have yet to consider. Thanks again for your thoughtful approach!! SARA PS: I also loved your squishy oilbar episode, and all that raw color that so instantly went down on the paper!
Thanks so much Sara for sharing your appreciation for this video, and for chiming in about the importance of composition! I love your analysis of how to approach composition with watercolor given the nature of the medium. I worked in watercolor for about 8 years in the 1980's. I was using a totally different method I think than yours, a combination of planning and surprise. Anyway, wishing you all the best with your artistic practice!
I'm just starting painting and drawing abstracts. Your discussion was very helpful to me. I have never gotten any kind of answer about how to see or understand composition in abstracts. Thank you very much! I look forward to other videos of yours.
So glad this video was helpful in terms of understanding composition in abstracts for you! Hope you enjoy other videos as well... Cheers to your artistic practice!
So clear, so precise, so well-thought through. Thank you for your first-rate instruction, no doubt borne from long practice and a willingness to conceptualize. Truly appreciate.
Hi Gray, thank you so much for your insightful recognition of my practice and approach to instructing artists on their respective artistic path. SO glad you found "me!"
Thank you. I took a class in abstract painting a year ago to challenge myself. I thought it would be easier than representational art. I thought: just throw the paint down quickly and don’t think. What I created was colorful chaos that pulled the eye in all directions. The instructor was kind. I was frustrated. This video satisfies my engineering brain with a clear list of compositional questions to consider. Again thank you.
Love hearing your story Tom! Glad this helped your understanding of how composition informs the making of abstract art. Cheers to your painting practice!
Hi Marianne, your discussion on composition is so helpful! I come from a photography background and am having to re-learn composition and how it's slightly different for painting. On the "doorstop checkpoint" - it wasn't clear to me in the video how a potential area where your eye might get stopped in a painting is different from a focal point. In photography this could be a good thing, but maybe it's not in abstract painting? Thanks so much - I love your teaching videos!
Hi Valerie, thanks for chiming in here! Good question about "focal point" versus "doorstop." For me, a focal point can live within a dynamic composition - meaning other compositional elements draw your eye away from the focal point (see my video titled "Understanding Composition: Think about the movies") A "doorstop" element keeps the eye focused on it because the composition is not dynamic enough to move you away from that point. Hope this helps! Cheers to your artistic practice...
I am going through the process of rewatching all your videos and at the same time doing oil pastel sketches “a la” your course. It’s complicated for me and takes practice but slowly I am changing. I know just by glancing…. Then really looking whether things are working or not. I now know that I never have an idea or a concept. It’s just not me. BUT I do have strong feelings which are not attached to words because the feelings are layered. I think this is how I understand my art. I have always felt inadequate because I don’t have ideas or concepts. That is why I am going through all the videos again. I am trying to understand what’s going on for me and that I have no plan except a colour and then that leads me to keep moving. Thank you.
Hi Cara, It's wonderful to know that the content I put out into the world is valuable to your learning process and offers validation for the way you make art. My best paintings come from beginning with no plan, no concept or idea, just my inner voice guiding me without words. And this helps me to "feel" the colors I start with. Cheers to the way YOU make art!
HI Jan, thanks so much for your comments. This painting's journey to resolution took a very long time, which means that I forgot to circle back to this discussion and share it's completion! Here is the link to my website where you can see the finished piece titled "Immeasurability" www.mariannemitchell.com/paintings-oils Thank you for your interest... cheers to you!
Thank you Marianne. The checkpoints are very useful as a means to know if a painting is finished. But I don't understand the host/guest metaphor as it applies to the work.
You never mentioned anything about the intuitive aspect of painting. I love the quadrant vocabulary. It does make a lot of sense. When I am painting I am in the flow of creativity and all of what you just talked about may or may not happen. The more I paint the more naturally I create these challenges in my paintings and intuitively solve them. For me too many things to watch for will “ kill “ my process. This seems more like an end of picture checkpoint.
Thank you for sharing these valuable explainations. I am just discovering this world of art, espacially modern art. It is the first time i eard about compostion. However, when i look at paintings from Jean Michel Basquiat I do not " see" relatiinship or composition in his art. Do I oversee something? Thank you so much.
Hi Oliver, Welcome to the limitless wonders of looking at and making art! Composition can be constructed and experienced in limitless ways so Basquiat’s use of composition is there, and you can interpret it however you want. Cheers to your artistic practice!
Best discussion of composition I have heard. Clear and insightful. Love the idea of host and guest shifting back and forth. An expert thought process distilled for the rest of us. Thanks
thanks so much for your wonderful comments! So glad to know that my "brand" of thinking about composition is well received... cheers to your artistic practice!
This is so helpful! Thank you 😊
So glad! Thanks for saying so, Maria ☺🙏
Thank you Marianne for that insightful discussion on composition. Although I am a watercolor painter, I find your site to be of deep value, especially when you discuss something as basic and necessary as good composition. It is vital to create an ideal composition no matter your particular artistic field because without this your work will never be as good as you hoped. It is the most essential and important single factor in creating good art.
Like you I have come up with a checklist for my artwork which I use before I start a final version of a painting. Of course, watercolor requires a lot more thought in advance due to the nature of saving the whites of the paper. I use this checklist along the way while developing the art and find it is essential. There are so many factors to assist in good composition it is difficult to keep all in my head and so the list helps, especially if you have taken a hiatus from painting for whatever reason.
I ordered your list from your website and look forward to finding some elements that I have yet to consider.
Thanks again for your thoughtful approach!!
SARA
PS: I also loved your squishy oilbar episode, and all that raw color that so instantly went down on the paper!
Thanks so much Sara for sharing your appreciation for this video, and for chiming in about the importance of composition! I love your analysis of how to approach composition with watercolor given the nature of the medium. I worked in watercolor for about 8 years in the 1980's. I was using a totally different method I think than yours, a combination of planning and surprise. Anyway, wishing you all the best with your artistic practice!
Wonderful explanation, Marianne! Will come in very handy, I'm sure. Thank you
Glad you've found this helpful. Cheers to your artistic practice!
This is the most valuable discussion of composition in abstract art I have encountered. Thank you!
Thanks so much for saying so! Glad you are "here" 😊
I'm just starting painting and drawing abstracts. Your discussion was very helpful to me. I have never gotten any kind of answer about how to see or understand composition in abstracts. Thank you very much! I look forward to other videos of yours.
So glad this video was helpful in terms of understanding composition in abstracts for you! Hope you enjoy other videos as well... Cheers to your artistic practice!
So clear, so precise, so well-thought through. Thank you for your first-rate instruction, no doubt borne from long practice and a willingness to conceptualize. Truly appreciate.
Hi Gray, thank you so much for your insightful recognition of my practice and approach to instructing artists on their respective artistic path. SO glad you found "me!"
Thank you for turning up the volume. Your videos are good.
Thanks! Sound is still a mystery as to why it wasn't good before... glad you can hear me more effectively!
Thank you. I took a class in abstract painting a year ago to challenge myself. I thought it would be easier than representational art. I thought: just throw the paint down quickly and don’t think. What I created was colorful chaos that pulled the eye in all directions. The instructor was kind. I was frustrated. This video satisfies my engineering brain with a clear list of compositional questions to consider. Again thank you.
Love hearing your story Tom! Glad this helped your understanding of how composition informs the making of abstract art. Cheers to your painting practice!
Hi Marianne, your discussion on composition is so helpful!
I come from a photography background and am having to re-learn composition and how it's slightly different for painting.
On the "doorstop checkpoint" - it wasn't clear to me in the video how a potential area where your eye might get stopped in a painting is different from a focal point. In photography this could be a good thing, but maybe it's not in abstract painting?
Thanks so much - I love your teaching videos!
Hi Valerie, thanks for chiming in here! Good question about "focal point" versus "doorstop." For me, a focal point can live within a dynamic composition - meaning other compositional elements draw your eye away from the focal point (see my video titled "Understanding Composition: Think about the movies") A "doorstop" element keeps the eye focused on it because the composition is not dynamic enough to move you away from that point. Hope this helps! Cheers to your artistic practice...
Amazingly helpful!!!!!! Ty so much !
So glad i found you - or TH-cam connected us
Whatever
I am thrilled ❤❤❤❤
So helpful!!!
Ty Ty ty
And I am thrilled that my "lens" on being an artist and making art is helpful for you! Cheers to your artistic journey...
Very insightful…thanks, Marianne, looking forward to the March lessons at Wayne Art Center
Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to having you in in the workshop!
So very helpful. So well presented. Thanks. I'll be watching this again.
Thank so much! Your comments are so appreciated 🙏😊
I am going through the process of rewatching all your videos and at the same time doing oil pastel sketches “a la” your course. It’s complicated for me and takes practice but slowly I am changing. I know just by glancing…. Then really looking whether things are working or not. I now know that I never have an idea or a concept. It’s just not me. BUT I do have strong feelings which are not attached to words because the feelings are layered. I think this is how I understand my art. I have always felt inadequate because I don’t have ideas or concepts. That is why I am going through all the videos again. I am trying to understand what’s going on for me and that I have no plan except a colour and then that leads me to keep moving. Thank you.
Hi Cara, It's wonderful to know that the content I put out into the world is valuable to your learning process and offers validation for the way you make art. My best paintings come from beginning with no plan, no concept or idea, just my inner voice guiding me without words. And this helps me to "feel" the colors I start with. Cheers to the way YOU make art!
Thanks very much! The best explanation of composition I have ever heard.
You are so welcome! Thanks for your kind words and interest in the WAM YT channel!
So well done! Might’ve been helpful to have seen what you did with that painting to bring it to resolution.
HI Jan, thanks so much for your comments. This painting's journey to resolution took a very long time, which means that I forgot to circle back to this discussion and share it's completion!
Here is the link to my website where you can see the finished piece titled "Immeasurability"
www.mariannemitchell.com/paintings-oils
Thank you for your interest... cheers to you!
Thank you Marianne. The checkpoints are very useful as a means to know if a painting is finished. But I don't understand the host/guest metaphor as it applies to the work.
So glad you included the last checkpoint!! Thanks for another great tutorial 👍
Yes it's the most important one! Thanks Carrie...
You never mentioned anything about the intuitive aspect of painting. I love the quadrant vocabulary. It does make a lot of sense. When I am painting I am in the flow of creativity and all of what you just talked about may or may not happen. The more I paint the more naturally I create these challenges in my paintings and intuitively solve them. For me too many things to watch for will “ kill “ my process. This seems more like an end of picture checkpoint.
Many thanks for sharing your perspective here!
Thank you for sharing these valuable explainations.
I am just discovering this world of art, espacially modern art. It is the first time i eard about compostion.
However, when i look at paintings from Jean Michel Basquiat I do not " see" relatiinship or composition in his art.
Do I oversee something?
Thank you so much.
Hi Oliver, Welcome to the limitless wonders of looking at and making art! Composition can be constructed and experienced in limitless ways so Basquiat’s use of composition is there, and you can interpret it however you want. Cheers to your artistic practice!
@mariannemitchellwholeart thank you so much