Composition (Visual arts)

You may have heard the word "Composition". Or you haven't. Composition in visual arts is important if you want to catch the attention of the viewer. In this article, we'll briefly look at what this means as well as look at some examples of different compositions.

"The term composition means "putting together". It can be thought of as the organization of the elements of art according to the principles of art. Composition can apply to any work of art, from music through writing and into photography, that is arranged using conscious thought."
Wikipedia

You want the picture to catch the eye. Preferably, you want the eyes to be automatically drawn to the motive. Repeating patterns, different lines, colours and perspectives can create sort of a rythm within the art piece. Your already amazing pieces can become more interesting if you apply different techniques of composition. I am now going to give you a couple of example of different kinds of visual composition.

Triangle Composition

You normally want the tip of the triangle to point uppwards in order to create stability. But if you're seeking an unstable feeling you can have the triangle be upsidedown.

Circle Composition

The circle is in the middle and is the natural focus, it catches your attention. Everything around it is creating a nice frame even if the circle isn't too obvious.

Cross komposition

The points of focus is creating a cross

Diagonal composition

The pictures is diagonal

Symmetry

Our eyes likes everything that is symmetrical. The butterfly has symnetrical wings.

Asymmetry

The opposite of symmetry. It isn't as even and it is very unbalanced. The motive in this instance is placed on only one side of the picture. This can make the picture more interesting than it would have been if the motive had been in the center.

Horisontal composition

A horisontal parting of the picture. You get a photograph because I am a bit tired of drawing right now

The golden ratio

It sort of feels like the golden ratio is somehow holy. Everyone who is into visual composition is inlove with the golden ratio. There has been claims about it being the perfect recipy for beauty and how plants minicks it and whatnot. I have a bit of difficulty understanding it myself. What I do know is that you have an area, dublicate the area and make it half the size, take that area, dublicate it, make half the size and so on. Until you get this spiral.

The Golden Ratio has always confused me. Hopefully you'll make more sence out of it than I have and hopefully you'll get some use out of that knowledge.

This was my brief summary of an article regarding the composition of visual art. There are many more resources out there if you are interested in learning more. I hope you enjoyed this article. Have a nice day!