I've been trying to figure out how to study composition and how to teach it in my classes. It's a tough one because it is so subjective. I don't want to tell my students that there are 'right' and 'wrong' ways to compose an image. I like to start with a goal then work backwards. What does mastery of composition look like? What can an artist do when they've mastered composition that they could not do without that knowledge and skills? Unfortunately I don't have an answer for those questions yet. I still have much research and thinking to do. What I have been doing is taking a logical approach and trying to come up with a mental framework for understanding composition. The first step is defining composition. I've defined it as: "The arrangement of visual elements of art in order to communicate in a clear and satisfying way." The next question that follows logically from that is 'what are the elements of visual art.' For that I'm using line, shape, value, color and proportion. How can I arrange them in order to communicate in a clear and satisfying way? Clarity and satisfaction are both very subjective, so there is no easy answer there. What are my options for how to arrange them? They are pretty much infinite so I need some sort of principles or categories to organize how to organize them. Based on my research and thinking on the subject, I've come up with the principles of emphasis, contrast vs harmony, repetition, rhythm, balance, and unity. Now I can look at how each element can be arranged by each principle. I did this a couple months ago and wrote out this whole logical framework. It's about 40 pages with small illustrations to test out each point. I think it's helped me but its just the beginning. I need to understand how to put it into practice to make my art better and how to teach it in a way my students can apply it. I'd be happy to share this writing with anybody who's interested. I'd love to hear other peoples thoughts on this idea.

I highly recommend two resources. For the first recommendation, there's this e-book compilation of blog posts from Anthony Waichulis called "A Primer on Pictorial Composition". This goes into the science of how we perceive and why we think some compositions are better than other. Grab yourself a read, it really makes you understand some of the fundamentals of how our biology affects us. You can get the PDF for free from this page https://anthonywaichulis.com/resources/. This won't make us good at composition, but it'll give us the understanding of what and why. For the second recommendation, maybe some of you know, this entire year (2021) all Artstation learning resources are free for any member - including non-pro members. There are a few series by Stephane Richard (known as Wootha online) on practical composition. Go check out his instructor page https://www.artstation.com/learning/instructors/wootha and his listed series there. After reading "A Primer on Pictorial Composition" you'll be able to fill in the dots and get a really good understanding of how all this abstract mess works. I highly recommend anyone get a free Artstation account and grab yourself some free fine learning resources as they're available for the entire 2021 year.

Best advice I have @TeResA Bolen I study Gestalt to analyze but then I just dive in with my eyes Eating colors and lines like golden french fries ahaha I feel the intent and let myself cry I put myself in their shoes and live or die I destroy the concept of "him and I" and think "how would this artist have tried to make a line?" I take away reverence. What he did I can do. I respect the artist and hold him close like a brother; maybe even two! I take artists and fuse em like monster movies with Harryhausen glue! I take style and taste em like movie popcorn and candy Jujubes. Chewy. Like the thoughts I muse. I make a hail mary every time I try to stand on the shoulders of Giants. I visit mother willow of the forest trees. I listen for what I love; such as the hum of bees. Or the change of leaves in the wake of Midsummer's eve where Oberon crafts love spells and schemes~ I look at the seas and seize the Cs and seasons I please to create things that even a child would dream! I practice tea ceremony like Mise en Scene. I make sure to check my ego at the door but keep the self esteem. I say failure is when I accept it and breeze through paper reams! I read books like telepathy and on those dead I do lean. A brownie of Robin Hood's; a fairy in the eaves! That is the art of being verdant, thriving, and green! <3 Trust yourself, explore, and BE-LIEVE! (Less a book but I'll poke @Marshall Vandruff for fun too. I try to pay him back for his songs though I hope it's not obstructive to have his name tagged. If so then I'll stop. Just tell me begone and I'll be through. Much appreciated for you being you, dude! ahaha) Post Script, I have found that shape deconstruction is just fun as all get out. Deconstruct things! You'd be impressed how many facets make up any one subject! Mix and match! Play like Legos! The brain is elastic and doesn't muddy the colors like when you mix Play-Doh! Or was it Plato? Oh well, same stuff different day though! ahahaha

Every image is made of abstract bidimentional shapes in its essence. Referential images are made of abstract shapes that happen to be similar to things we know from the world. What you should look for in a composition is rhytm in the distribution of shapes and contrasts. Use a wide variety of contrasts (hard and soft) and look for varying shapes. Remember this: Repetition of shapes tends to form patterns and patterns are predictable so always look for different shapes. Hope this helps in some way.

This is just out, and the Draftsmen rocked the topic with this episode! https://prokolab.com/course-lesson/how-to-learn-composition-draftsmen-s2e15/notes

This could be a book-long answer. But if you know music, consider. How to you study musical composition? How do you know whether a particular song you write is a "good composition", and that the music "carries feeling", before you finely craft the lyrics? It's the same set of concerns. Musical composition comes from a composer's choices to make the music go a certain way because they like it that way. Pictorial composition comes from an artist's choices to place, to enlarge or shrink or color or outline or darken or lighten or soften or change... every element to the artist's liking. And if they like it, the next test is whether others do also. But are there rules about it? Are there rules about how to compose music? If so, what are they? Listing them could be constructive, because they may apply to making pictures. The ultimate answer is that composing is the record of an artist's emotional responses to their own explorations in a picture. And those emotional responses tend to be heavily influenced by what they love, what they study, and the art in which they immerse themselves. Again, musicians make the point. They compose within a style and form and "emotional flavor" they know and presumably love. So how do you study (visual) composition? Choose masters you love. Analyze them in the classic ways - shape and value studies are the best way to start. Color and texture and angle and edge analysis... every element observed, every principle extracted, discussed, ingested, practiced, and developed. Look at what you love, then try your hand at it. That back and forth between studying pictures and making them is your way of composing your own creativity. A call and response between the art you love and the art you make.

@Teresa Bolen If you figure this out, I want to know, because composition is on my list of things to study and I am totally clueless where I should go to study it. I've had gazillions of meh art classes in my life that were only of modest benefit and now I'm quite picky about my study resources. I want the best!! 🙂 That's why when I realized I needed to study the figure, I immediately thought "Proko." Never considered anything else.