Composition

When you start a drawing or painting you have to make decisions about what is going to be in your picture. You also have to decide where on the page, or canvas, you are going to put each object you want to include in your picture. This is called composition. Composition is how you arrange your picture – where you put each element of the picture in relation to the others.

For example, if you take a photograph of a friend you might point the camera so she is in the middle of the picture. But if you were photographing your friend in front of her house you might point the camera so your friend is placed on one side of the picture and the house on the other. This is called composing the picture. You are deciding what is going to be in the picture and what is most important.

Artists compose their paintings to tell a story, to communicate particular feelings or ideas or simply so the picture looks nice. Artists decide the important elements of their picture. They select which elements will be in the foreground, that is the front of the picture, and in the background, the back of the picture.

There are other factors artists have to think about when planning their pictures. We know in real life that if something is near us it is larger than when it is far away from us. This is called perspective. If an artist wants to produce a picture that looks realistic they need to make sure the content of their painting is in perspective. Perspective is used to create a sense of depth or distance in a painting.

Some artistic movements have experimented with composition to create challenging or disturbing effects. The surrealists painted fantastical pictures which changed perspectives and proportion to create bizarre landscapes.

Flood in the Highlands by Sir Edwin Landseer

This painting is called Flood in the Highlands. It was painted in 1860 by Sir Edwin Landseer.

It is a very busy picture containing lots of people, animals and action. The artist has composed the picture to tell the story of a great flood. He has placed the main characters in the foreground surrounded by their animals and the storm in the background moving towards them.

Sketch for 'The Marriage of the Princess Royal' by John Phillip

This oil painting by John Phillip is called Sketch for 'The Marriage of the Princess Royal'. It was painted in 1858.

It uses a very traditional composition. This is a sketch painting which the artist produced before painting the final painting. In the sketch he is arranging the composition and deciding where each of the people should go.

The Slipway At Peniche by Tristram Hillier © Mrs Leda M. Hillier

This painting is called The Slipway At Peniche. It was painted by an artist called Tristram Hillier.

He has composed the picture so the boats on the left look like they are moving away and the boat on the right is coming towards the viewer. This is using perspective to give the picture depth. The objects are also in proportion so the buckets at the front of the picture seem near us and are larger than the tower of the building in the middle of the picture which is farther away from us.