Proko - How to Learn Composition

How to Learn Composition - Draftsmen S2E15

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How to Learn Composition - Draftsmen S2E15

by Stan Prokopenko in Draftsmen Podcast

comments 10

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 Thank you for being so generous with your knowledge! This is sooooo helpful! I've been looking forward to this since I first heard about it, and you two far exceeded my already high expectations. Wasn't expecting anything on the details of how to study nohtan (濃淡), but grateful it was there! I sat down ready to take notes, watching from the pc rather than the smaller iPad screen, and gave it my full attention, rewinding as necessary. One clarifying question please 🙋‍♀️ - Around 43:28, @Marshall Vandruff said something along the lines of there are Three Great Important Things About Composing - 1. Do it for the joy of making decisions, have fun. 2. Contrast and balance/use of opposites/(check your own use of polarities in your work) then Stan asks about Metaphor Is the third great important thing on this list Metaphor? From the flow of the conversation up to that point, that's the way I'm understanding it - and WOW did that section knock my socks off 🧦, but just to confirm. Thank you 🙏. Thank you again for how much you are giving us! So excited!!!

LESSON NOTES

Composition is technical, creative, and incredibly subjective. Marshall teaches us how to learn composition and suggests artists and resources that will help you learn more about it. Marshall talks about breaking apart master paintings to learn how to compose, focal points, contrasts, metaphors, harmonic armatures like the golden ratio, among many other things. Marshall has years of experience teaching this subject so there's a lot to absorb and be inspired by when it comes to composition.

Thanks to Betterhelp for sponsoring today’s Draftsmen episode! Save 10% on your first month with Betterhelp

References and books

(some contain affiliate links)

Edgar Payne: Composition of Outdoor Painting
The Elements of Dynamic Symmetry by Jay Hambidge
Pattern and Design with Dynamic Symmetry by Edward B. Edwards
Drawing Lessons From the Great Masters by Robert Beverly Hale
Picture This by Molly Bang
Framed Ink by Marcos Mateu-Mestre

Referenced Artists:

Erik Gist

Golden Ratio

Myron Barnstone

Rembrandt

John Constable

Norman Rockwell

Hogarth’s hand proportions guideline

Alphonse Mucha

Frank Frazetta

Francisco Goya

Howard Pyle

Rachel Morales’ tonal studies (2 tone and 3 tone)

Jessica Nguyen’s tonal studies of Harvey Dunn and Howard Pyle

John Singer Sargent

Winslow Homer

Käthe Kollwitz

Frank Brangwyn

Harvey Dunn

Gustave Doré

Edgar Degas

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot

Steve Shriver

NC Wyeth

Wayne Thiebaud

H.R. Giger

Joe Madureira

COMMENTS

Stan Prokopenko

This is a particularly good Draftsmen episode. Marshall teaches us how to study composition! He talks about breaking apart master paintings to learn how to compose and the artists and resources that will help you learn more about it.

@meghanakamath

•

4yr

Hello Marshall and Stan, Firstly, this episode was amazing! I've just started learning composition and had a very narrow view on the subject but this episode has really shown me how an artist can have fun with it... Just a quick question tho: I'm a little confused with the matrix design where we separate the light and dark patterns... Are we supposed to separate light and dark or light and shadow? Or does this depend on whether we want Notan or Chiaroscuro? Thank you so much!