Pictorial Composition

See also: Composition

The pictorial composition is art to compose an image according to forms and of colors with an aim of giving a total balance to the image by the choice of the masses of colors and the guiding lines.

According to the periods of the history, these rules were modified to obey the guiding principles of the various currents or pictorial movements.

Moreover, the support and the media which transport them act on these rules of composition:

  • In a illustrated Album, the pages in glance, the overlap of the text on the illustration forces to control the typography of printing works, whether the manuscript is simple or penmanship;
  • On a Poster, the position of the text and its correlation with the image are important. However in the Publicity S, particularly publicities of Supermarket S or the leaflets, the impact on the eye of the conspicuous colors generally takes precedence over the Esthétique of the image;
  • In a Cartoon, the composition will be rather made box by box, or subsets of boxes;
  • In the Western painting, the image alone is enough with the composition, but there exist nevertheless certain rules.
  • In a Far-Eastern painting, a short poem penmanship can replace the image.

Elements of the composition

Among the visual elements of a pictorial composition, one distinguishes:

  • the line - the visual way which makes it possible the eye to move in table

  • the form - a geometrical or organic space
  • the tonality - lights, shades and the darkness
  • the texture - the appearance of the work which is translated into tactile impressions
  • the Couleur - with its various values and intensities
  • the Direction - the visual routes which take vertical, horizontal or diagonal ways
  • the Taille - dimensions and the proportions of the images or forms the ones with the others
  • the Perspective - the expression depth in an artistic work

Method of composition

The Artist-painter determines what will be the center of interest (that one call the Focus in Photographie) of its table, and it composes the elements consequently. The goal is to manage to focus the glance of the spectator who will then tend to be delayed on this center of interest.

Several elements are to be taken into account to compose the image:

  • the form and the proportions
  • the center of interest
  • balance between the various elements
  • the Harmony, or uniformity of the elements
  • orientation of the elements
  • size of the image compared to the field of vision
  • the way or direction followed by the eye
  • negative space
  • the color
  • the Contrast S, i.e. the value or the degree of luminosity and darkness, used in the image.
  • the Geometry: for example, the use of the Golden section
  • the rate/rhythm
  • the illumination or lighting
  • the repetition
  • the prospect

See too

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