Do you know how to design a painting?
You can use composition and design to help to make your artwork more more pleasing to the eye. This lens contains links to
- information and advice about composition and design for artists.
- various books concerned with composition and design.
It's also linked to various projects associated with my blog Making A Mark - and specifically with one concerned with Composition and Design.
New links are being added added on a regular basis. Use the icons in the right hand column to create a bookmark or link to be able to check back to this site and/or to e-mail it a friend who is interested in design and composition
You can find out about........
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- Making A Mark - The Composition and Design Project
- BOOKS: Composition - contemporary perspectives
- Composition and Design - some basic tips
- Elements and Principles of Design
- BOOKS: Composition - classic books
- Nancy Doyle on Design and Composition
- Value - an element of Composition
- Space - an element of composition and design
- BOOKS: Elements of Composition
- Creating a focal point
- The four most important lines
- The Golden Mean / Golden Section / 'Rule of thirds'
- The Golden Ratio on Wikipedia
- BOOKS: Art History and Composition
- Art History and composition and design
- Japanese Art - and composition and design
- What is Notan?
- Composition and Design - some quotations
- BOOKS: Applying the basics - books on composition and design
- Landscapes and Composition
- Still Life and Composition
- Lighting Design
- Lighting - a tutorial for traditional and digital artists
- Forums discussing design and composition
- Comments and Suggestions
Making A Mark - The Composition and Design Project
January - February 2008: blog posts connected to the project
- Making a Mark: Composition and Design - An Introduction
- In the next two months or so, I'm going to be investigating composition and design for artists and producing an overview of what I find out.
- Making a Mark: Composition - The Elements of Design
- An overview of the Elements of Design with reference to links to sources of further information on the Internet and in Books
- Making a Mark: Composition - Principles of Design
- This post forms part of an introduction to the elements and principles of composition and design and follows on from yesterday's post about the elements of design. It's an overview. More can be written about each and every principle - and has been!
- Making a Mark: Greg Albert - The Simple Secret to Better Painting
- The book I always recommend to people who want to learn more about composition and design is Greg Albert's "The simple secret to better painting",
- Making a Mark: Composition and Design - finding and creating a focal point
- This post is about how to create a focal point in a picture. It provides a synopsis of various approaches used by artists to find and create a focal point.
- Making a Mark: Composition and Design - A Digest #1
- This post lists and provides a synopsis of books about composition or books which have helpful sections about composition. This first 'digest' of book reviews focuses on those books which relate composition to art history or were written over a hundred years ago.
- Making a Mark: Composition - the four most important lines
- I have always been taught that the four most important lines in a painting are the edges of the paper or canvas which crop the image you are using as a subject.
There are various views about how to crop a subject and a lot that can and has been said on this topic. I've tried to touch on just a few of the issues to do with cropping below and have then suggested some tips at the end. I hope you find it food for thought! - Making a Mark: Composition - thinking in threes
- The 'rule of thirds' is an approximation of the 'golden ratio'. This post provides a diagram comparison - using algebra and numbers of
"the golden mean" and "the rule of thirds"
plus identification of the 'sweet spot' area and how this can be used for the focal point - Making a Mark: Composition - using PS Elements to help with design
- This post is about using tools in Adobe Photoshop or PS Elements to help with your composition.
- Making a Mark: Composition - why tonal values and contrast are important
- Time and time again when entering a gallery, the painting which stands out from the crowd is the one which has a strong design and value pattern.
Exactly the same thing happens when you sit viewing slides entered for a competition. Or if you visit an artist's website or shop/auction site and view thumbnail images in an online gallery.
What you see initially is the abstracted pattern . Everything else - including all the detail - is subordinate in terms of impact.
BOOKS: Composition - contemporary perspectives
books on Amazon
The Simple Secret to Better Painting: How to Immediately Improve Your Work with the One Rule of Composition
The book I always recommend to people who want to learn more about composition and design is Greg Albert's "The simple secret to better painting", first published by North Light Books in 2003.
This is a very accessible book. It makes complex topics very simple and provides one simple idea to keep at the front of your brain when working on a composition. I think it's more likely than any other book I've come across to both get the basics across and enable people to develop a grasp of quite sophisticated concepts - such as dynamic balance......
Read more from my book review Greg Albert - The Simple Secret to Better Painting
Amazon Price: $16.49 (as of 07/06/2009) 
List Price: $24.99
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Design & Composition Secrets of Professional Artists: 16 Successful Painters Show How They Create Prize-Winning Work
Great range of different perspectives on how 16 different artists approach the design and composition of their paintings
* Covers all mediums
* Shows exactly what goes on in the artist's mind when they compose a painting
* Illustrates the 10 essential composition elements
* Analyzes color, space, shape values and volumes as design tactics
Amazon Price: (as of 07/06/2009)
List Price: $24.99
A Painter's Guide to Design and Composition
Recommended by Linda Blondheim
This book shows painters how to create great artwork through great composition -- using advice and examples from 27 of the world's best living painters. Readers will find:
-Paintings and inspirational advice from such renowned artists as Albert Handel, Daniel Greene, Bill James, and Clark Mitchell
-Sketches, diagrams, line drawings, and schematics that break down the basics of composition and show how artists think as they create
-Nine demonstrations, by nine different artists, that encompass a variety of subject matter and mediums
Amazon Price: $19.13 (as of 07/06/2009)
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Mastering Composition: Techniques and Principles to Dramatically Improve Your Painting (Mastering (North Light Books))
Mastering Composition is an excellent book by Ian Roberts for all those who want to learn more about helpful principles and techniques for composition and design. It's all about understanding the structure and dynamics of the picture plane and planning your artwork. In my opinion it has something useful to say to both experienced painters and those starting out - and I've already got it tagged as one of those books I won't be lending out! I highly recommend this book to all those seeking to improve their skills in design and composition.
Read the rest of my book review on my Blog - Mastering Composition - a recommended read
Amazon Price: $19.79 (as of 07/06/2009)
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Composition and Design - some basic tips
- ArtLex on Composition
- Composition, especially in art production and history, defined with illustrations, great quotations, and links to other resources.
- Inkscape tutorial: Elements
- Inkscape tutorial:
This tutorial will demonstrate the elements and principles of design which are normally taught to early art students in order to understand various properties used in art making. - Tutorial on Composition - by Peter Saw
- Basic overview of the elements of composition by a self-taught artist
Very accessible - Compositional Models: Art Studio Chalkboard
- A good basic composition will often either be asymetrical or will lead the viewer's eye around the work. This link discusses some standard compositional layouts.
- Gurney Journey: Composition
- Gurney Journey: a daily weblog by James Gurney for illustrators, comic artists, plein-air painters, sketchers, animators, art students, and writers.
This is the link to his set of posts about composition. - Top 10 Tips for Painting Composition
- Use these composition tips to create stronger paintings.
- elements of compositional painting
- compositional elements in oil paintings: a practical guide to painting in oils with guidance from internet resources
- Composition and the Elements of Visual Design
- COMPOSITION & the ELEMENTS of VISUAL DESIGN
R. Berdan 20/01/2004
This is actually intended for photographers - but the design and composition principles he identifies are essentially those conventions which apply to painting as well - A Composition Check List - WetCanvas!
- The Wet Canvas Composition and Design Forum has a "sticky" thread for a Composition Check List Composition & Design. This has been running for some time....
- Photography Tips - Composition Refresher
- Composition Refresher by Theresa A. Husarik
- Tutorial on Composition - by Peter Saw
- A basic tutorial about Composition by Artist, Peter Saw of Leicestershire, UK
- Compose: Lists and "Thanks, Making a Mark"
- A Brief Outline of How the Visual Language Works
(A Think Chart for Visual Composing)
"We construct images, we compose art work." - Robert Genn - Compositional keys
- Composition is often the 'make-or-break' of a successful painting. Eleven valuable but breakable keys to successful compositions give pause and understanding to the art.
Elements and Principles of Design
- ArtLex's E-Em page
- elements of art or elements of design
The basic components used by the artist when producing works of art. Those elements are color, value, line, shape, form, texture, and space. The elements of art are among the literal qualities found in any artwork. - ArtLex's Pr-Pz page
- principles of design or principles of art
Certain qualities inherent in the choice and arrangement of elements of art in the production of a work of art. Artists "design" their works to varying degrees by controlling and ordering the elements of art. Considering the principles is especially useful in analyzing ways in which a work is pleasing in formal ways. How any work exhibits applications of these principles can further or modify other characteristics of a work as well. - graphic DESIGN basics - Elements of design
- These are the ingredients to any design project.....The ingredients, like those within a cake, often interact with each other to the point that the cake wouldn't exist if one of these elements were missing.
- graphic DESIGN basics - Principles of Design
- These are the tools that blend the ingredients for any design project. You can use all the design elements, but if you don't blend them with rhythm, balance, contrast, etc., then you don't have a cake.
- Design Lesson IV - Pictorial Elements in Painting and Drawing
- Visual design elements in fine art - marks, lines, shapes, color, value, texture and space in painting and drawing, description and illustrations.
- Design Lesson V - Principles - Concepts in Painting, Nancy Doyle Fine Art
- Lesson in the principles of visual art design (painting and drawing), including balance, harmony, contrast, emphasis, proportion, movement and rhythm.
- ArtLex on Value
- Value defined as an art element, great quotations, and links to other resources.
- ArtLex on Color
- Color in life and art, defined with images from throughout art history, great quotations, and links to other resources.
- ArtLex's Li page
- ArtLex defines art terms alphabeticaly - this page includes 'Line'
- The Artist's Toolkit: Explore | Minneapolis Institute of Arts
- This site includes info on: Minneapolis Institute of Arts Toolkit - Visual Elements and Principles
This has a fun and visual approach linked to basic information and examples of artworks - The Artist's Toolkit: Encyclopedia | Minneapolis Institute of Arts
- This site includes info on: Minneapolis Institute of Arts Toolkit - Visual Elements and Principles - Encylopedia
The Encyclopedia is an in-depth guide to learning more about the building blocks of composition. Here you'll see many examples of works of art that illustrate the visual elements and principles. Click on a topic below to get started. - A Brush with Wildlife: Create a Composition with Carl Rungius
- A unique site with a very interesting approach to some basic elements and principles of composition
Silver Medalist, 2002 MUSE Awards
American Association of Museums
A Brush with Wildlife design and development by Educational Web Adventures
Copyright 2001. The National Museum of Wildlife Art. - The Artist's Toolkit: Encyclopedia | Minneapolis Institute of Arts
- Visual Elements and Principles
- ARTSEDGE: Formal Visual Analysis: The Elements & Principles of Composition
- Formal analysis is an important technique for organizing visual information. In other words, it is a strategy used to translate what you see into written words. This strategy can be applied to any work of art, from any period in history, whether a photograph, sculpture, painting or cultural artifact
BOOKS: Composition - classic books
books on Amazon
The Elements of Drawing
This is a timeless classic by a renowned art critic and tutor which has never been out of print since it was first published in the mid-nineteenth century. It contains a treatise on the laws of colour and composition. This is the small paperback version - slim and easy to carry round
Amazon Price: $8.76 (as of 07/06/2009)
The Elements of Drawing - John Ruskin
Another version of the above book. This edition is 'as it was' orginally published
Amazon Price: $22.00 (as of 07/06/2009)
Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers
A mentor to Georgia O'Keeffe, Dow literally "wrote the book" on composition. First published in 1899, this manual influenced generations of teachers and students. Relevant to all of the visual arts, it employs a workbook format to impart principles regarding harmonic relations between lines, color, and dark and light patterns. Includes discussion of Notan
Amazon Price: $26.37 (as of 07/06/2009)
Harmony of Reflected Light: The Photographs of Arthur Wesley Dow
Amazon Price: $45.00 (as of 07/06/2009)
Pictorial Composition (Composition in Art)
Originally published in 1903. It may now come across as formulaic it but reviewers suggest it goes into lots of detail not generally covered by most art books
Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 07/06/2009)
Nancy Doyle on Design and Composition
Nancy Doyle Art Instruction
- Design/Composition 1 - The Meaning of Design/Composition in Visual Art
- Essay about the meaning of design/composition in fine art, its sources, elements, history, characteristics, etc.
- Design/Composition 2: History of Design/Composition in Art
- Lesson two in design and composition in visual art: History of Design and Composition in Painting.
- Design/Composition 3 - General Guidelines in Painting Composition
- Composition in art lesson - general guidelines of composition; elements and principles of design in painting and drawing, including color, space, balance, unity, etc.
- Design/Composition 4 - Pictorial Elements in Painting and Drawing
- Visual design elements in fine art - marks, lines, shapes, color, value, texture and space in painting and drawing, description and illustrations.
- Design/Composition 6: Sources - Lesson in the Sources of Design and Inspiration in Visual Art
- Lesson in the sources of design for visual artists - their ideas and inspiration.
Value - an element of Composition
In my opinion, value is the most important element in the design of a painting and is more important than colour - without values there is no design.
- handprint : tonal value
- "Lightness or tonal value is the light or dark of a color regardless of its hue.....Given all the space devoted to hue in "color theory," it is surprising to learn that value is the most important design element of a painting. It is hard to overstate the importance of good value structure to the impact of visual art. This page explores in depth the various ways artists think about, measure, and control the value structure of their paintings."
This is a detailed but excellent summary of aspects of tonal value - with some images. - ArtLex on Value
- Value defined as an art element, great quotations, and links to other resources.
- Dixie State College of Utah - Institute for Continued Learning
- a class brief on value
- Grayscale and Planar Values: Art Studio Chalkboard
- information on art and art history
- The Alphabet of Art - Value
- Of all the Elements, Value is the most important in creating mood. Motion pictures and television employ value to create the proper mood for the story they are telling. For mystery, strong contrast and generally dark value is used. For comedy, generally less contrast and high values are used. For moods between the two, or mundane scenes, medium values are normally used.
- The Dimensions of Colour: Lightness and Chroma
- Lightness is technically defined as the perceived brightness of an object compared to that of a perfect white object (Kuehni, 2005). Lightness refers specifically to object colours, not colours seen as independent lights, and ranges between black and white through the various shades of grey.
- The Dimensions of Colour: Basics of Light and Shade
- Specular and diffuse refelection - and how it affects values
- ValueTips | ©Aldridge
- Tips on Values by Donna Aldridge
PSA M-MAPS
©Donna Aldridge - Richard McKinley - Seeing Red
- This post on Richard's Pastel Pointers Blog is all about values and the use of grey scales and red acetate to see values when working plein air. It includes a neat tool which provides both grey scale and red acetate (see below)
- Picture Perfect Viewfinder
- Better paintings, less guesswork, with the Picture Perfect "3 in 1 Plus" Viewfinder
* 3 VIEW FINDERS with composition guides. Find the best compostiion, sketch with greater accuracy; know instantly what standard surface sizes are appropriate.
* VALUE FILTERS neutralize color without obscuring details. Compare value range of colors, develop contrasts with ease.
* 2 VALUE SCALES, one that is an integral part of the viewfinder unit, and a second separate scale for added flexibility in determining values. - Gurney Journey: Drawing Shadows, Drawing Light
- Shadow is what we look for when we draw. Once we establish the outline, we begin to shade the drawing. Only at the end of the process are the illuminated areas revealed.......What if we could reverse that thinking and explore the structure of the light masses from the beginning?
Space - an element of composition and design
Positive space is the space taken up by objects. Negative space is the space inbetween objects. Focusing on the latter often enables us to see the true relationship between different objects.
- Sanford & A Lifetime of Color: Study Art
- Space is one of the elements of art. Space is an empty place or surface in or around a work of art. Space can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, negative and/or positive.
- ArtLex - negative space
- Negative space is an aspect of one of the elements of design. Included on this "Ne-Nz" page
- positive and negative space - Google Image Search
- Image results for "positive and negative space"
BOOKS: Elements of Composition
books on Amazon
Creating a focal point
- The Artist's Magazine - Learning to Focus - By Patrick Seslar
- Learning to Focus - By Patrick Seslar
Strengthen your center of interest by exploring the compositional options. - The Artist's Magazine - Focal-Point Power by Greg Albert
- Greg Albert - author of 'The simple secret to better painting' - discusses the function of a focal poin and the focal point power of a painting submitted to the Art Clinic
The four most important lines
Photographers are often urged to 'fill the frame' and this section also includes examples from photography of this approach to framing an image.
- Fill the Frame Challenge Results
- Weekly digital photography contest site, featuring active forums, tutorials, photographer profiles, and more. Enter and/or vote -- fun learning for ALL skill levels.
The Golden Mean / Golden Section / 'Rule of thirds'
- Golden Section
- The Divine Proportion, or Golden Section, has many unique, intriguing relationships and properties found in nature, art, music and mathematics.
- Golden mean (philosophy) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The philosophy of the golden mean
- Rule of thirds - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article fails to refer to the mathematical concepts which lie behind the rule of thirds
- ArtLex on the Golden Mean
- The golden mean / section defined with images of examples from throughout history, great quotations, and links to other resources.
- Fibonacci Numbers and The Golden Section in Art, Architecture and Music
- The golden section and Fibonacci numbers in art and architecture (and poetry and music)
- muddy red shoes: After the Sketches
- demonstration and explanation of the use of the rule of thirds in preparation for a painting
- Golden Section and Rule of Thirds (Golden Mean, Golden Ratio, Golden Spiral, Golden Proportion, Golden Triangles).
- What is the Golden Section, Golden Mean, Golden Spiral, Golden Ratio. How to use them in the photography. Rules of Composition. Examples, articles, software.
- Pencil Shavings
- I will make an attempt in this posting to take some examples of works that have appealed to my eye and talk about what makes them interesting to me. In so doing, I will hope to bring in and emphasize some of those basic elements of good design that I hinted at in the earlier posting and make a more specific reference point for readers.
- Exploring Color & Creativity: Revisiting the Golden Mean
- Not having a scientific bent, I've never tried to analyze the whys and wherefores of the Golden Mean, but I have read that in design tests, this proportion is almost invariably selected by subjects as the most pleasing proportion of a rectangle. It is found in nature (for example, a chambered nautilus) and was used in art by the Greeks and some Renaissance artists. It has always been a mystery to me why watercolor paper manufacturers don't make their standard sheets in this proportion.
The Golden Ratio on Wikipedia
In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in golden ratio if the ratio of the sum of the quantities to the larger one equals the ratio of the larger one to the smaller. The golden ratio is an irrational mathematical constant, approximately 1.6180339887. Other names frequently used for the golden ratio are golden section (Latin: sectio aurea) and golden mean.Piotr Sadowski, The Knight on His Quest: Symbolic Patterns of Transition in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Cranbury NJ: Associated U...
BOOKS: Art History and Composition
books on Amazon
How to Read Paintings (Chambers Arts Library)
This contains a section on composition and covers much detail - related to memorable paintings - which is not often seen in other books about composition
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Art History and composition and design
- The Gombrich Archive
- The Gombrich Archive, presents previously published material by Professor Sir Ernst Gombrich that does not appear in other collections of Gombrich's work, as well as a forum for its discussion. This website is being constructed by Richard Woodfield [Emeritus Research Professor at Nottingham Trent School of Art and Design
Japanese Art - and composition and design
- Making a Mark: The concepts and characteristics of ukiyo-e
- This post focuses on the key motifs and subject matter of ukiyo-e
- Making a Mark: The elements of ukiyo-e
- This post aims to provide an overview of the different elements of design typically used in a Japanese wood block print during the Edo period.
- Making a Mark: Principles of design and composition and ukiyo-e
- This post tries to relate a Japanese way of making pictures to western concepts of what's important in terms of Principles of Design (as discussed in the last project).
As we'll see as this project progresses, there's an awful lot of western art which adopted conventions which originated in the East. - Making a Mark: Japanese Art - drawing the Chokushi Mon in Kew Gardens #1
- I attempted to draw the Japanese Gateway (the Chokushi-Mon) in Kew Gardens while at the same time trying to remember all the things I'd been learning as part of my Japanese Art Project.
This post is about I designed my sketch and the things I now need to do to translate it into a more formal drawing using the design and composition devices of Japanese drawings and prints.
What is Notan?
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Arthur Wesley Dow and American Arts & Crafts
- Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #1
- The aim of understanding more about Notan is to know more about how harmony can be created within a composition and how every line and shape (positive and negative) can contribute to the perfection of the whole .
This post introduces the concept of Notan - Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #2
- Arthur Dow identifies Notan as a way of identifying visual harmony.
This post highlights what has identified as being the key learning points for appreciating two value Notan - Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe Month: Learning about Notan #3
- An example of trying to produce work according to the principles of Notan - and the problems I encountered
- Making a Mark: Georgia O'Keeffe month: Two white irises (and three buds)
- This discusses Georgia O'Keefe's work and introduced her approach to cropping and composition
Composition and Design - some quotations
- Claude Monet Quotes
- No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.
- Vincent Van Gogh Quotes
- Those Dutchmen had hardly any imagination or fantasy, but their good taste and their scientific knowledge of composition were enormous.
- Andrew Wyeth Quotes
- It's all in how you arrange the thing... the careful balance of the design is the motion.
- David Hockney Quotes
- Art has to move you and design does not, unless it's a good design for a bus.
- Robert Rauschenberg Quotes
- So that ideas of sort of relaxed symmetry have been something for years that I have been concerned with because I think that symmetry is a neutral shape as opposed to a form of design.
BOOKS: Applying the basics - books on composition and design
books on Amazon
Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting
Amazon Price: $9.95 (as of 07/06/2009)
List Price: $9.95
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14 Formulas for Painting Fabulous Landscapes
The UK version, published by David and Charles, has a slightly different title (Winning Formulas for Painting Fabulous Landscapes) and different cover
Amazon Price: (as of 07/06/2009)
List Price: $28.99
Pulling Your Paintings Together
Release Date: 09/01/1985
Amazon Price: (as of 07/06/2009)
List Price: $27.50
Painting by Design: Getting to the Essence of Good Picture-Making (Master Class)
Release Date: 03/01/1991
Amazon Price: (as of 07/06/2009)
List Price: $29.95
Landscapes and Composition
- Basic Landscape Composition by L. Diane Johnson
- Diane covers the basics
- Johannes_Vloothuis: Landscape Composition Rules (1 of 23)
- WetCanvas!: Cyber Living for Artists
- AskArt - Essay on Tonalism
- Tonalism, a distinctive style of low-toned atmospheric landscape painting, developed a sizable following among American artists in the 1880s.
Still Life and Composition
How does the idea for or purpose of a still life affect its composition?
- Making a Mark: What is a still life?
- This blog post discusses different approaches to still life. This tends to focus on different concepts for and constituent parts of a still life. It includes links to examples of how artists have composed a still life across the centuries.
Lighting Design
- Rembrandt lighting - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- The key in Rembrandt lighting is creating the triangle or diamond shape of light underneath the eye. One side of the face is lit well from the main light ...
- Studio Lighting Techniques
- Lighting Techniques - by Chuck McKern
Most photographers are interested in portrait lighting but most seem not to understand how to do it.
The fourth style of lighting is Rembrandt Lighting. Rembrandt lighting is obtained by combining short lighting and butterfly lighting. The main light is positioned high and on the side of the face that is away from the camera. This technique produces an illuminated triangle on the cheek closest to the camera. The triangle will illuminate just under the eye and not below the nose. - eHow: How to Use Rembrandt Lighting In Portraits by ejayway
- How to Use Rembrandt Lighting In Portraits.
- Chiaroscuro and Rembrandt Lighting in Photography by Rolando Gomez
- The key in Rembrandt lighting is creating the triangle or diamond shape of light underneath the eye usually furthest from the camera lens. One side of the face is lit well from the main light source while the other side of the face uses the interaction of shadows and light, also known in college Art 101 classes as chiaroscuro, to create this geometric shape on the face.
- Portrait Lighting Styles » StudioLighting.net
- A portrait lighting system usually includes at least two light sources, the main and the fill light. Other light sources such as background lights and accent lights can be added, as well.
- Lighting and Portrait Questions & Answers
- Contents include:
Lighting the round face; Broad, short, loop and Rembrandt lighting; Fill light for subject lying down; Window light decisions - Good Lighting is an Art
- This has very good demonstrations of different types of lighting and the impact on a subject plus diagrams of how to set up lights. It also contained detailed explanations about colour temperature
- ArtWise - Art Wisdom & Commentary for Painters: Shedding Light on The Subject
- STUDIO LIGHTING ON A STILL LIFE setup is usually taken for granted - given a second thought rather than the first. So many times, the subject is carefully orchestrated in assembly; then a light poised at a 45 degree angle and painting commences. Indeed the position of the light at this angle is traditional and standard - just fine and safe.
But, why have your light positioned in an ordinary way when your setup could be extraordinary, lighted for optimum drama, beauty, or any number of moods?
Lighting - a tutorial for traditional and digital artists
By Itchy Animation
- Itchy Animation - Light Tutorial - Part 1
- This tutorial is aimed at artists who want to understand the behaviour and appearance of light. It applies both to traditional and digital artists
- Itchy Animation - Light Tutorial - Part 2 Light Direction
- The direction that we view a light source from has a profound effect on our perception of it, and on how the objects in a scene will appear. Choosing which direction your main light is coming from is one of the most important decisions you can make since it will have a great deal of impact on how a scene will appear, and also on the emotions your image will conve
- Itchy Animation - Light Tutorial - Part 3 - Natural Light
- Natural light comes in a wide range of different flavours, and the difference between them can be enormous. The source of all our natural light is the sun, however it takes on different characteristics at different times of day and in different weather conditions, turning this one source of light into essentially many different ones ranging from hard and warm to soft and cool
- Itchy Animation - Light Tutorial - Part 4 Artificial and Indoor Lighting
- Light indoors has a very different character to that found outside, mostly down to the lack of direct sunlight found indoors.
Forums discussing design and composition
- WetCanvas! - Composition and Design Forum
- This is a very quiet forum on Wet Canvas! Henrik is usually around providing good advice if you ask.
Making A Mark
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I enjoyed the site so full of interest,but I really need to know which pencils to use for sketching I do not understand the differences between HB or 2B and wish to learn the value of each in order to improve.
Posted August 12, 2008
