PICTORIAL
COMPOSITION
The three rules of composition
Narrative lines - Preferential angles - Golden measures
If there was only one rule to remember out of the three, it is that of the narrative lines.
These lines can be seen directly in the works without having to imagine them.
Visualizing these lines allows us to understand how the whole principle of pictorial composition works with or without characters.
1 - Narratives lines
The lines visible in a table indicate the great invisible principle of the pictorial composition : extend far to point a symbolic part of the body of a character in order to focus the gaze and tell a story.
Clic on the titles :
Line of force
or
Narrative line?
The difference between the notion of
"line of force" and "narrative line" is that the first is out of a person's imagination and interpretation.
The second is scientific data from pictorial archeology. The narrative line connects to tell the theme of the work.
2 - Preferential angles
Certain angles have been selected by the painters because their qualities reflect both an observation of nature and a symbolism.
Knowing these angles makes it possible to understand subsequently how the characters look at each other in a scene.
Open composition
or
confinement in a geometry?
Unlike a figure
geometric closed, an angle offers the painter an opening, therefore a momentum, a cadence, a movement.
3 - Golden measures
The golden measures aim in a painting to reflect the harmony of the functioning of the universe.
It is the use of the golden ratio Phi (1.618) that a simple knotted rope or a special compass allows to draw without scholarly calculation.
Intuitive hazard
or
search for harmony
?
The golden measures in the Renaissance were described and adored in many books as much as they are seen today in a work as the result of chance.
Yet they are objectively observable there!
Do not hesitate to leave your comment, your questions at the bottom of the page, my pleasure is to be able to discuss the pictorial composition. Thank you.
Guy MAUCHAMP
Travail protégé par un copyright ©guymauchamp U79J1B9 et un dépôt à la SGDL Paris.