Composition is thearrangement of shapesto keep the eye moving

with pleasure.

Glenn Hirsch

Ilya Repin

line has rhythm

Giovanni Tiepolo

Claude Lorraine

Victor Hugo

Paul Signac

Positive and Negative Shapes create rhythm

M.C. Escher

Jackson Pollock

Diebenkorn

Matisse

Picasso

Robert Bechtel, watercolor

DIAGONALS keep the eye moving

Gericault

Giovanni Tiepolo, 1760

Anders Zorn

Anders Zorn, watercolor

Diebenkorn

Goya

John Singer Sargent

Victor Hugo

Andrew Wyeth

watercolor and colored pencil

Stephen Scott Young, watercolor

Stephen Scott Young, watercolor

SCALE unites smaller shapes into large shapes by unifying the color

Adam Hirsch

Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin

Chen Rong Nine Dragons 1244

Chen Rong Nine Dragons 1244

Victor Hugo

Richard Diebenkorn

translation of value

dark on top of light

light on top of dark

A ‘translation of value’ white against dark, and dark against light

Georges Seurat

Nicolas Poussin

Value studies are a means of simplifying, organizing, and expressing the essential massing of light and dark.

To appreciate abstraction it’s important to understand that this is really about structural contrasts and relationships, not things.

Using a limited number of tones is a way to sift out the clutter of small details to get to the poetry of the big abstract tonal structure – the real bones of the subject.

Guercino

Caravaggio

Victor Hugo

Translation of value - light against dark, and dark against light.

Mo Seder

Illuminated Manuscripts

The word manuscript is derived from the Latin words manus (hand) and scriptus, from scribere (to write).

Illuminated, from the Latin illuminare (to light up), denotes the glow created by the radiant colors of the illustrations, as well as by real gold and silver.

Positive and Negative Shape creates rhythm

Repetition creates rhythm

Scale creates impact

Diagonals keep the eye moving all over the picture

The exchange of value creates relationships