I was invited by the Oils & Acrylics Painting Group at Noosa Arts & Crafts Association to facilitate a 'Composition & Design' workshop. Why? Because really this subject is so huge, and I would only have 3 hours!
So, I decided we'd just have a general overview of what we mean when we talk more broadly about composition and design and then focus on just two aspects for our practical art-making exercise. I chose 'Value' as our Element of Art and 'Contrast' as our Principle of Design.
We began with blind contour drawing to capture information from our environment and then used viewfinders to select several mini compositions for our value studies. We went on to explore the placement of different values within the same composition and then onto colour to play around with mixing different light and dark values.
This exercise allowed plenty of scope for each artist to work with their personal preferences and choices. The group produced some very strong work and for some, I think a new journey in art making may have begun, which is very exciting!
I'm keen for this module to grow into a series that I'd like to put up as an online class - if it's something you'd be keen to see, leave me a comment below!
You can check out our album from the morning via the link below:
