Design

Design and composition are the same. I like design, because it seems more widely applicable to things other than painting. You can design a building, you can design a meal, and you can design a life. I want people to see the connection between design as it relates to not just your art but also your life. In order to create powerful engaging art (and a life), the use of differences are involved.Differences of value, design, color and texture all can be used in your art to make it exciting for you to make, and for the viewer to look at. Some of the common elements of design are: line, shape, space, value, color and texture. Composition, or design, is the arrangement of all or some of these elements.

Principles

The Principles are a practical framework to help us identify and resolve any design issues we have with our painting. They are also a roadmap to allowing more artistry and creativity into our lives. The Art2life Principles are DESIGN, VALUE, COLOR, TEXTURE, RISK, and SOUL.

Loud Conversation

The loud conversation is the view of your art that you see from across the room...or even across the street! It is the combination of the high contrast light and dark shapes, areas or representational forms that together, create a pattern of light and dark. Your eye sees contrast between light and dark first, before color and texture. We want to have the loud conversation, this arrangement of light and dark shapes (realistic or abstract), be visually interesting.

Quiet Conversation

The quiet conversation is comprised of the areas of your the painting that are close in value, and relatively more subtle, and delicate. The quiet conversation is what you see when you’re standing right in front of your painting, or your art. The quiet conversations tend to disappear when you view the work from across the room. From that distance, all you will see will be the higher contrast areas and shapes in your art. The quiet conversation is less noticeable, especially from a distance, because the value contrasts of the shapes or areas that make up the quiet conversation are close in value.

Value

The value of a color is simply the lightness or darkness (in black-and-white) of that color. If you were to take a black-and-white photograph of that color, it would be one of the values on the value scale. Red is always a dark value (7-9), and yellow (2-4) is always a light value. Yellow ochre is more of a mid value (4-6). If you painted a panel with all your favorite colors, and then took a black-and-white photograph of them, you would see the values of your favorite colors.

Value Organization

The most noticeable aspect of color is its value. If you can organize your colors, especially as your art is developing, as either clearly dark or clearly light values, you will be better able to see the design of your art emerging. Try to have your colors “group” together into light or dark colors. An easy way to see if this is working, is to view your art from a distance. It is super helpful if you can clearly see what is light and what is dark. Not only does this make your art stronger, but it also makes your art more clear, so you can choose what to do next.

Value Scale

The value scale is a diagram of ten values, ranging from white to black. White is the first step, and is number one. Black is the last step, and is number ten. In a value scale, those steps from white to black are equally spaced and are numbered 1 through 10.

Value scales are helpful, because we can describe a very dark color or value by calling it a number. A very dark color could be an 8, 9 or 10. We can describe a very light color by describing it as a 1, 2 or 3. If we want to describe the values that are in between black and white, the middle values, we would use a 4, 5 or 6.

Quiet Conversation in the Darks

A quiet conversation in the darks, is the dark marks or shapes that are within the larger dark areas of your art. For example, if you’re painting a white bird with a dark green jungle background, then the dark tree branches and dark leaves, would be the quiet conversation in the darks. Those leaves and the tree branches are very subtle, as they are all dark values within a jungle background that is also dark in value.

Quiet Conversation in the Lights

A quiet conversation in the lights is the light marks or shapes that are within the larger light areas of your art. For example, if you’re painting an almost white bird, with a dark green jungle background, then the white feathers on that bird would be the quiet conversation in the lights. Those feathers are light in value and very close in value to the body of the bird.

Call and Response

"Call and response" is what we call the process of internal questioning you will have while making your art. The process of call and response goes something like this: you make a mark, or add something to your art. This step is the “call.” Next, you add a second mark, “the response,” that will enhance or improve your art, in relation to the first mark, “the call.” This way of working, or “Call and Response,” helps create more powerful art, because all parts, all areas of the art, are in relationship with the other parts. In other words, when one shape or addition is placed in the art, it is done in consideration of the other marks.

Bulls Eye

The very center of your art, just because it is in the middle, makes it very, very noticeable. I like to call the center of one’s art the “10x spot” or the “bulls eye.” It is not too much of an exaggeration to state that the middle of your art is 10 times more noticeable than any other place in your art. This is crucial to know, because if we place something in the center, the viewer will notice it, almost above all else. Additionally, if we add high contrast and size, or detail to this shape, it will become distractingly noticeable, making the rest of the art almost unseen. The viewers' eyes will stay in the center, and be unable to visit and experience any of the other areas you have developed in your art. It's powerful to let the viewer see all the areas of your art, not just one.

Corridor

When you align noticeable compositional elements, creating a visual aisle or hallway, it can feel somewhat limiting. This corridor pulls the viewer's eye off the page. Remember, we want to give the viewer a visual journey. An interesting journey is one that allows the viewer’s eye a few places to explore, not just one.

Barrier

A design barrier is an element, or elements, that visually prevent the viewer’s eye from moving freely to different places in your art. Remember, we want to give the viewer a visual journey. An interesting journey is one that allows the viewer’s eye a few places to explore. LIke a “corridor,” barriers limit and wall off large parts of your picture to visual exploration.

Saturation

Saturation is the purity, or intensity of a color. The most-saturated colors are usually the ones we buy, full strength, in the art store, such as cadmium red, ultramarine blue, or permanent green, etc. It is not possible to make cadmium red more red. It is fully saturated when we purchase the tube of paint. It is only when we add other colors, especially black and white, that the saturation of cadmium red would lessen. When colors are “greyed” down with black and white, they become less saturated. However, saturation is always relative. If we make a grey with a tiny amount of orange, in addition to black and white, we would say it is more saturated than a grey that is only made by mixing black and white together. Black and White have zero saturation, so adding them to other colors lessens the colors’ saturation.

Temperature

Temperature is the warmth or coolness of a color. Red, orange and yellows are warm colors and blue, greens are cool.

Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are the colors that are directly across from one another in the color wheel. The color wheel arranges color around a circle, according to similarities and commonalities. The colors on the wheel beside each other are the most related. For example, the orange is most similar to yellow and red. Directly across the wheel from orange is blue. Blue is the complement of orange.

Differences

Differences are what make art interesting and engaging. There are infinite possibilities of differences we can have in our art. Differences of scale, texture, value, and color are just a few. If we want to showcase anything in our art, it is helpful to place something that feels different next to it. For example, if we have a shape in our art that we want to feel very big we can place a very small shape next to it. This will make the big shape feel even bigger. This small shape can be very small, however, if it is so small, say the size of a period at the end of this sentence, it will be SO different and unrelated, that the viewer will no longer make the comparison, and the potency of this difference will not be noticed. The period-size shape and the very large shape are simply too different. They become unrelated.

Difference of colors can work this way, too. If the colors in your art are mixed without any of the other colors in them, they sometimes can feel unrelated. Colors that are in harmony will often feel more related, making your art hang together better as a whole. It’s completely fine to use unrelated or harmonized color in your art. It is only important that you understand both.

Opaque

Opaque color is thick, and with minimal texture. There are little or no marks or colors that can be seen underneath the opaque color. It simply covers everything over. When you paint a wall three times, with a flat, blue, wall paint, you have a very opaque color. Opaque colors tend to come forward in space relative to transparent colors.

Transparent

Transparent color is thin, and generally has texture, marks, or colors that can be seen underneath the transparent color. If you painted a wall three times with a flat, blue, wall paint you would have a very opaque color, but if you then poured coffee on top of that, you would have turned that blue opaque color into a transparent color. Transparent colors tend to go back in space.