Matt gave a really interesting talk about composition. He showed us some great examples and explained the different ‘rules’ about composition that are useful to keep in mind. Some of them I had come across before but some were completely new to me. Some of the approaches he suggested that I thought were interesting:
This is a compositional technique I have heard of before, in which you divide your page in to grid in order to work out the composition. With the intention to lead your eye across the page feasibly. Mike also touched on the idea of your eye being drawn across the page, as he suggested your composition should make and ‘S’ , leading your eye across the page. A technique that was prolific in Renaissance painting.
This technique involves making a square out of a rectangle, which divides the space in a way that is pleasing to look at. This technique when used properly helps reduce the hostile white space.
Dividing the image using the approximate ratio: 1:1.618
Matt mentioned that this approach can be used to add depth to an illustration, and that in the conventions of western picture making, if there is plausible space in an image it is believable. He also mentioned that a figure in an image is automatically about that character, whereas cropping in interesting way dehumanizes the image, therefore the perspective has been shifted.
When making pictorial images I always try to consider composition, as I hate something being in the middle of the page, I always remember a piece of advice Jon gave us last year; that you design the space not the image. In particular I tried to create interesting compositions in my ReNarrative project, as the images themselves where quite simple, so I tried to make the compositions as interesting as possible.
