A Composition Exercise

Composition mens an organized arrangement of individual elements.

It's harder for most people (including me) to think in terms of the big picture. We like to get right to the details and then we can end up with a cluttered disorganized finished picture - with beautiful lines and textures.

Here is a picture that had to be organized not just for the drawing elements within - but to leave space for the Title and text.

My suggested exercise:

Draw this rough composition - but leave out the last couple levels of details.

1) Overall biggest shapes-

Tree and ground

water and surrounding bushes

2) Negative shapes that frame the characters

3) The characters only in roughest form- no details.

I would draw each of these levels in a different color, so we can see the hierarchy from biggest shapes through the levels to the final rough characters.


Does that make sense?


Oh...and write your thoughts and observations at each level.