Nine Types Of Composition

Copy/Paste from comments on Gimpystick? here: http://www.skaarj.com/gimpystick/faileas/433

There are nine potential types of compositions. These are tools, just like anything else. You can use them or not, it doesn't matter.

1. One Dominant Point
2. Two Points
3. Three Points or "Pattern"
4. Letter Shapes
5. Geometric Shapes
6. Movement/Flow
7. Framing
8. Light/Dark
9. Perspective
10. Grid and Format Structure

You used Three Point/Pattern in this one. Had you done the sky and/or value differently, you could have done Light/Dark or Framing. This image could turn into Art if you added Light/Dark. Let me explain them.

Three Point/Pattern is what you did here. There are three points of interest. And you added flow to it, which is just perfect. Three point needs flow so people know what to look at.

Framing is when you put something around the picture to draw the eye to the attention spot. It's like creating a new border (which means the Rule of Thirds can be rewritten within the new frame). If the sky was jet black, and you put a dark tree/house slipping into the picture on one side or another or both, then the image would have been "Framed." You could probably pull some emotion out of it by framing it, but I think Light/Dark would be even better.

Light/Dark is where you alternate light and dark patterns.For example, the sky can be dark, the horizon can be gray from the rising drawn, the people can have huge highlights on them making another light, the ground can be dark, and you can have a light source off the bottom of the frame causing more light, and keep the gun dark. This creates alternating patterns of light and dark, and would bring much more emotion into the piece (not that you don't already have emotion, but this would be even better.)

Ignore composition type 10, since it's really hard to do. You can play with it later. And I'll explain perspective, since it's the only thing that isn't really self-explanatory.

When you do perspective, you have vanishing points. Using perspective as a compositional element means making it point to important things. For example, if you use one point perspective down a hallway, you can put your main character's eye right in the spot where all the lines converge at the end of the hallway, and BAM, you've got your focal point.

Taught by Rob Kmiec at DigiPen?.

The following is a copy/paste from: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/551994/#cid:3151445

Composition is how you put the elements of the picture together. The idea is that some shapes or patterns or arrangements are naturally more pleasing to the eye, and it's up to the artist to arrange things so people like them.

I was taught that there are nine types of compositions

-One Dominant Point -Two Points -Three Point or Pattern -Geometric Shapes -Letter Shapes -Movement/Flow -Framing -Light/Dark -Perspective -Grid/Format Structure

Yeah, that's 10. Grid/Format is rather in-depth and complicated (and I can recognize some of it, maybe, but not plan it out or teach it), so I won't be covering it.

Most of these should be rather self-explanatory, but I'll quickly go over them. In the examples that I use (cropped from your image) imagine them as thumbnails for a larger picture. Like for the hair one, you could use three figures instead of the hair.

-One dominant point means one place where your eye focuses on.

-The "Pattern" in three point refers to the three points making a visual pattern your eye can follow using dominant points. Lots of points lined up in a swirl (but not touching so they're separated visually), like connect the dots, is a good example.

-Geometric and letter shapes can sound really banal, but if you use them right (so the viewer doesn't even notice you used them) then they're very effective. For example, Mr. Cursed almost has the shape of a lower-case "g".

(Not the "g" I was thinking, but it does still works.)

-Movement or Flow are kind of like Pattern, except things aren't separated. You don't get a staccato of eye movement, you get a smooth motion.

-Framing involves using a compositional element (bridge, seaweed, whatever you feel like) to create a "frame" inside the picture around the subject.

-Light/Dark involves alternating patterns of light and dark.

-Perspective involves directing the eye to what's important by placing it where perspective lines converge.

Categories: Unfinished, Composition