Composition and Design for Artists

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 which are Value, Colour, Shape, Form, Space, Line and Texture
You can also find out where you can find more good quality information about the elements of design either on the Internet and in Books

Also continue to read this lens to find out more about the different elements

Making a Mark: Composition - Principles of Design

This post forms part of an introduction to the elements and principles of composition and design which are: balance, emphasis. harmony, movement, pattern, proportion, rhythm, untiy and variety

It's an overview and follows on from the previous post about the elements of design. More can be written about each and every principle - and has been - and I tell you some of the places you can find out more

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". This post explains why.

Making a Mark: Composition and Design - finding and creating a focal point

The focus of a picture should be about the reason why you wanted to paint it. "Emphasis" is one of the design principles. Providing an emphasis on a particular part of a painting will lead the eye to what the artist wants the viewer to see.

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.

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.

About.com: Painting - Top 10 Tips for Painting Composition

Marion Boddy Evans says that strong composition in a painting can be very intangible, but these painting tips will help you get to grips with it.

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 by 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.

Composition 1: What Makes a Good Composition?

The first of a series posts beginning an investigation into how can we approach
learning more about composition and design in a natural and organic way.

Elements and Principles of Design

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: 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

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

Composition and Design Principles

Some Ideas About Composition and Design Elements, Principles, and Visual Effects
Marvin Bartel formal aspects of composition and design. teaching with this page visual elements principle

Not quite the same as the usual list but interesting

The Elements of Art (Education at the Getty)

This page provides definitions and examples of the elements of art that are used by artists working in various mediums.

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.

Bruce McEvoy on Format

handprint : format proportions

As visual displays, paintings have the potential to be three things at once: a representation that mimics natural perception in a physical environment; a pleasing geometrical or abstract arrangement of line, texture, symbol and color; and an artful arrangement of forms within the edges of a flat surface.

handprint : the key format proportions

The key format proportions based on symmetrical folds across the picture space and squares constructed from these dimensions.

handprint : constructing the format proportions

Now I'll explain different methods for defining or constructing the format proportions on your painting surface or photographic image.

handprint : composing with the format proportions

If you are working at any stage with digital photographs, then the format proportions are most easily implemented as an image overlay onto the reference or original photograph, using graphics or image editing software.

handprint : other format proportion schemes

Many other format proportion schemes are possible and several deserve mention here. (Covers mise en scene)

handprint : format proportions in western paintings

At this point there will be two critical questions: Do the format proportions really produce a better design? And are the format proportions so complex as to be arbitrary? The most direct way to answer these questions is to make a review of images from western painting.

handprint : are the format proportions real?

These "analyses" invite the obvious and legitimate rebuttal that geometrical interpretations applied after the fact can always be made to match some aspects of a painting: that doesn't mean the proportions actually highlight key aspects of the composition.

handprint : format proportions - use what works

I conclude with a hazard that is obvious by now: that one can "explain" any random distribution of forms in a rectangle with some system of proprotional or geometrical divisions, provided you can use as many lines or curves as necessary.

Value - an element of Composition

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.

MAKING A MARK: The Denman Ross Value Scale

A value scale is a way of describing how values change between black and white. One of the most well known is the Denman Ross nine step value scale. This was devised in 1907 and was introduced in The painter's palette: a theory of tone relations, an instrument of expression by Denman Waldo Ross

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?

The Pastel Pointers Blog - What does "simultaneous contrast" mean?

Simply put, simultaneous contrast teaches us that everything is affected by its opposite. Something will look lighter when placed next to something dark, and warmer when placed next to something cool, and visa versa.

The Pastel Pointers Blog - Determining Value

Relating value (the relative lightness and darkness of things) to color can be a tricky exercise. When color is intense (high in chroma), this becomes even more of a challenge. Since chroma is easily related to brightness, it's common to associate lightness to it as well, leading to value confusion. This is usually the culprit when we're having a hard time associating a proper value to a given pastel stick. Grayed tones become much easier to identify. The color is diminished, allowing for the value to be easily distinguished.

Value Scale

How do we measure the differences in light or dark necessary to recognize values with our eye or realize in paints our intended value design? We use a value scale or photographer's grayscale. Demonstrates how to create a value scale using different marks

The Dimensions of Colour - Lightness and Chroma Lightness - THE DIMENSION OF LIGHTNESS

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.

Grayscale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Grayscale images are distinct from one-bit black-and-white images, which in the context of computer imaging are images with only the two colors, black, and white (also called bilevel or binary images). Grayscale images have many shades of gray in between.

The painter's palette; a theory of tone relations, an instrument of expression : Ross, Denman Waldo, 1853-1935 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

Explains the origins of the Denman Value Scale

Space - an element of composition and design

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"

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

all about viewfinders

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.

composition versus design I Channeling Winslow Homer

Includes a list of different sorts of viewfinders

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.

John Singer Sargent and the Golden Section - Barnstone Studios

Music Made From Overlapping Golden Section Root Four Rectangles

Pleasing Proportions

llinks nature's symmetry to art and architecture created by man

Jay Hambidge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jay Hambidge (1867-1924) was an American artist, born in Canada. He was a pupil at the Art Students' League in New York and of William Chase, and a thorough student of classical art. He conceived the idea that the study of arithmetic with the aid of geometrical designs was the foundation of the proportion and symmetry in Greek architecture, sculpture, and ceramics.[citation needed] Careful examination and measurements of classical buildings in Greece, among them the Parthenon, the temple of Apollo at Bassæ, of Zeus at Olympia and Athenæ at Ægina, prompted him to formulate the theory of "dynamic symmetry"

Stapleton Kearns: Jay Hambidge

a post about Jay Hambidge 1867-1924, a Canadian born artist and mathematician who wrote Elements of Dynamic Symmetry. It's about the theory and principles which underpin pleasing proportions.

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?

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.

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 and blogs 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.

composition and design 2Channeling Winslow Homer

A discussion of some approaches to composition and design

Picture Composition Practice with Arthur Wesley Dow

Can picture composition be learned? Can it be practised effectively? I think it can. This post describes my regular, daily composition practice method.