The Artist's Magazine, December 2011 - Artist's Network

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from Mastering Composition (North Light Books, 2008) by Ian Roberts find the vertical For a fully enlivened picture plane, engage both horizontal and vertical lines of force. BY IAN ROBERTS 60 www.artistsmagazine.com
EVERY ACTIVITY HAS ITS ARENA. In painting, the arena isn’t the studio but the canvas—the very specific horizontal and vertical surface of your picture plane. With your first mark on the canvas, you create a dynamic tension. Each additional mark you make adds more complexity. Obviously, the goal isn’t to create complexity— that’s a by-product you have to deal with. Your goal is to orchestrate engagement. The reason we still look at great paintings, ones that people have admired for 200 years or more, is precisely this. The arena of their picture plane holds, engages and fascinates us. LEFT: The various elements of Laura’s Carpet (oil, 30x30) were consciously arranged to draw the eye to the center of interest, which appears at the intersection of horizontal and vertical lines of force. Armed With an Armature How do the creators of great paintings accomplish this feat They use, of course, all the tools of good painting—strong value masses, subtle color intensities and harmonies, edge quality, great drawing. But one principle underlies all these tools: The artists make full use of their arenas. The image on the canvas fully exploits the dynamic of the picture plane. A study of older paintings reveals a geometry underlying the composition. Sometimes this is mathematically derived, but often it’s schematic. This geometry can be called the armature of the composition—the lines of force in the structure of the painting that engage all the parts of the canvas. The armature is the foundation upon which everything is built. The term comes from the wire support to which sculptors apply their clay. It serves two functions: supporting the clay and establishing the line of the figure. In painting, the armature plays the fundamental role of describing the horizontal and vertical lines of force that enliven your whole canvas, left to right and top to bottom (see Foundational Armature, at right). Foundational Armature Dramatic value masses make a strong statement in Morning Market (below; oil, 8x10), but it’s the underlying armature (above) upon which those masses hang that enlivens the picture plane with horizontal and vertical lines of force. Half-Armed Landscape Let’s look at the genre of landscape by way of example. Any landscape has a horizontal engaging the left and right sides of the picture plane. It’s the horizon. It’s always there. Even if the horizon is only implied, we feel it. December 2011 61
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The Artist's Magazine, December 2011 - Artist's Network

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