Visual Language - Composition

Composition:

• Our task was to produce 5 roughs exploring composition.
• Our designs needed to include a figure, an object and a landscape.
• The design that shows the best composition we need to develop into a finished image with appropriate media (A5).

• I tried out a guy smoking on the beach in a few different arrangements but I couldn't manage to achieve a nice balanced composition.
• I didn't feel that all the elements worked nicely together as a whole image.
• They looked to flat and the scale doesn't work properly. 
• I think maybe working from reference material would be needed to get a decent design.

• I had an idea to draw a hitch hiker on a road that leads into the mountains.
• This gave me a nice starting point to get some simple compositions where the perspective leads you up the page.

• These where my favourite compositions. I like the one on the right hand side best. Its simple and not to overcrowded. 
• I like how the road leads up to the mountains. It gives a slight symmetrical balance to the image.
• Including perspective in the image is beneficial to the composition, I think this is why I feel this rough is more effective than my previous.

• This was my final composition, Im not pleased with how it translated from a rough.
• I think the application of colour is poor and looks un clean. But I wanted to have a go at using paint pen to apply colour to a large area.
• In the rough the image seems to be full enough. But when working at a larger size it made me realise that more components should be included, It looks empty and boring.
• They skyline is also to high up the page, It leaves un-easy green space between the character and the hills.
• This image doesn't have the compositional values I wanted.

Im not happy with the solutions I came up with for this task. Maybe I though about 'what' I was drawing to much rather than how they can work on a page effectively. Drawing objects and figures that sit in a landscape is something I'm not comfortable with so I found it very challenging. But it is something I need to improve and develop. It has helped me think about new things to consider when working with composition:

• How objects can be placed alternatively to give different values and importance.
• The foreground, mid ground and background need to be considered - not everything sits at the same distance away from the viewer when working on a landscape.
• They way we read an image can be controlled by using lines of sight.
• Negative space or empty space can really change how the object is seen, if the image is really busy the different components will merge together. Negative space can help to single out a key bit of information.
• The perspective and viewpoint is vital, and could create a totally different image from the same components. These are so easy to ignore and it could be a subtle change the benefits the image greatly.