Lesson 4 Principles of Composition

Principles of Composition
3rd Class

Homework Turn In
Prayer
Sketching Exercise
Lecture
Slide Show
Homework


Modernity and Science says:
The human body a random co-location of atoms that has no more meaning
that a TV, because it too is a chance collocation of atoms.


1. Proportion
: The pleasing relationship of all the parts of an object with one another.
Related to one another and whole in an interesting manor.
Avoid Monotony

Ex.1 Simple Rectangles

Rectangles:
A. Square, uninteresting, monotonous, same length on all sides
therefore poor proportions
B. Length of sides different, related enough to hold interest and
attention. Good proportions, Golden Mean
C. Length too great for width, no relation between two, lacks
interest, bad proportion
D. Width exactly twice the height, does not hold attention, poor proportions

What Trinitarian similarity do you see in these shapes or the language
I used to describe them?

Ex. 2 Law of Greek Proportion Rectangles

Rectangles: 3-5, 4-7, 5-8, 9-10, 7-12, 8-13, etc
This exemplifies the mathematical relationship of proportions
A rectangle 8ft high, the proportional division mark should be at 5ft


Examples of Good Proportion:

1. The Human figure, is eight heads high
2. The Parthenon at Athens,
a. Considered by many to be the most beautiful building in the world,
build with acute attention to proportions
3. Dress and Suit Design:
a. The most interesting and therefore the most attractive is one where
the division is just above exact center

The Principle of proportion holds that an unequal divisions of space is best

2. Balance or Symmetry
The equal distribution of weight on each side of a central point, or
axis producing a sense of stability or rest

Ex 3 See-saw drawing

The law of physics states that the weights and arms on each side of a
central point must be proportionate in order to be balanced

And so it is in art

Formal Balance: Equal weights on each side
Informal B.: unequal, but arranged to satisfy the eyes, (free or occult)

Examples
1. The human body
2. Study Dresses
3. Compare houses
4. Look for formal and informal Symmetry in art, graphics and media


3.Rhythm
: The principle, which requires the regular, smooth and easy flow of
line in design,
Good rhythm should lead the eye easily from on e part to another
Rhythm in art is natural, and smooth as a baby sleeping,
Subtle
Five methods of creating rhythm in design;
Repetition, radiation, opposition, transition, and gradation

A. Repetition (rhythm)
Regular recurrence of the same or similar units throughout the design
This could be a variety of things

Examples of Rhythm via repletion,
1. Patterns on rugs, clothing, wallpaper
2. Borders, pottery, books, architectural, laces
3. The regular count or measure of music
4. Small areas of bright color in a room or on a garment

Almost endless examples

B. Radiation (rhythm)
: Lines flowing from a common center may be point or line

Examples:
Light: most common, every direction in straight lines
Leaves,
Flowers,
Trees

Principles of radiation are closely related to Dominant Interest.
A Focal point is considered a dominant interest
The face of a body is a center of interest
"Rays" it is certainly lead from the human face..ha, ha. Pow bang. Ha. Ha!

C. Opposition (rhythm)
: Severe harsh rhythm, produced by two lines at 90-degree angles
Cold, abrupt and very common form

Examples:
1. Belt at right angle to torso
2. Landscape where trees meet horizon
3. Harmony where mountains and a peak meet the skyline

D. Transition (rhythm)
Gradual merging of two lines into one,
Carries eye in swinging motion across the design

Ex.
1. Leg to tabletop,
2. Skate Park, ramp,
3. Music, break down, often this is a good time to clap politely or
yell something at the top of your lungs,
"Were all going to die!"
5. Bodies, swinging lines like that of a grey hound dog, panther,
rolling prairie

E .gradation (rhythm)
Gradual increase or decrease in size of units in a design.

Examples
1. Trucks and old cars
2. Dresses, tucks in fabric, made smaller or larger
3. Pine tree
4. Sky scraper
5. Music, usually a build up before a transition,
6. Literature

Quite important to composition of all sorts

F.Dominate Interest
: Requires every design to have one principal unit.
Center of interest
Which all other will be subordinate.
A presupposition if you will,
Ex. Anyone who loves anther is consciously or subconsciously
refereeing to a Christian presupposition

Subordinate units:
-Clues that lead to the dominant interest,
-They have an important part to play, by serving the dominant interest
to stand out more clearly
-Often time the subordinates are missed because they are so carefully
placed, you don't notice them until you reexamine a story, painting,
piece of music

In good Trinitarian fashion they should not be heavy handed.
Bad clues tell the whole story
"Im a clue that will tell help you solve the riddle"

God is not so obvious, he is much more mysterious.

Using this principle the artist may conceal unattractive elements,
and draw more attention to those that are flattering or important.

Examples:
1. A common room may be made spectacular, by a one beautiful piece of
furniture, table, chair or painting. Other furnishings can be used to
draw the attention to the one.
2. You can subtle try this with your own room, clothes that you wear,
things you create

In true art the lines leading to the center of interest from the
subordinate parts, so necessary to completion of the picture, story or
song are more often felt, than seen.

Summary
The result of good composition is unity, harmony and beauty.

The ___________ is beautiful because the artist had knowledge of when
and how to combine a pleasing and orderly fashion.

Indeed we can see that God's great plan for the universe showed
everywhere these principles.
Nature
Plants,
Mountains
Flowers
Animals

Mankind (notice how much of principle of composition refer back to
proportions of the human body)

God has gifted each of us with the ability to compose things artistically!
Each of us will have this artistic skill in different areas.
You may begin to notice your gifts when others start to imitate
something you are good at. Dressing, sports, money, designs, home
decoration, research, food, fashion, speaking the list goes on.

Homework
1st. Design a dress or suit using all the laws of composition, though
one should be highlighted
2. Write a description of a house you like, both inside and out.
Explain in detail why it is good and fits the principles of
composition


--
Matt Barley
P.O. Box 422
Wallowa OR, 97885

mobile: (541) 263-1216
Work: (541) 886-2951

The Power of GIMP (and some extras)

Short post here. I just want to post this cool picture I modified with the G.eneral I.mage M.anipulation P.rogram; I used a neon edge-finder effect. The shot was a sort-of silhouette of the mountains inspired by Instructor (the Illustrious) Barley's dissertation on the aesthetic value of silhouettes. Well, for what it's worth, here it is:




Btw, it was broad daylight when this shot was taken. Weird contrast, huh?


While I'm at it, I'll throw in a couple of those long-overdue vacation photos:

code gripes

One thing that's really getting under my skin this year is the dress code.

First let's take the parent/student/whatever handbook. Oh, and while we're there: I say that all students and staff should have access to all documents of school policy at all times. Comments?

Anyway, the handbook itself is a bit ambiguous in parts regarding the dress code. "No distracting or outlandish appearances." That could perhaps translate to: "I don't like those big pink earrings. Take 'em off." That's just a hypothetical example, of course.

So that's what's written. Another annoying bit is what's not written. In recent years, Mr. Buck has cracked down on any jacket, sweater, or basically any other clothing that has a logo other than one that reflects Providence Academy. Well, that's what they say. Unfortunately, the staff has taken to calling any image a logo. Even when it 's not one.

I call upon Providence Academy to revise the handbook in order to make it clear what the official standard is and stick to it!!

By doing this, Providence Academy will establish a universal standard for the school, overruling all teacher preferences except for exclusions noted in the handbook.

Recently Mr. Tollefson was heard in Apologetics class talking about clothing. He said that they should pay us for wearing advertisements for them, instead of us buying clothing (e.g., Levi jeans, Vans shoes). If this is true, Providence Academy should pay us to wear their sweaters advertising the school. We should not pay for the sweaters. They should pay us.

we're still here

OK, school seems to be going well, and fairly smooth I guess, with a very interesting Art class taught by Instructor Matthew Funk Barley.

I'm probably going to write a longer article this weekend, so check back later.

Oh, yeah, and publicity. I would (as would the whole PAN staff) greatly appreciate active writers cover news at our school and county news of sorts. Sorry, we don't pay, but we could try to get you a grand sounding position! Most Revered Editor?

I want to try to get a note in the "Monday Note" next week talking about Providence Academy News. We're the real Providence Academy News. They might have had the name first, but really, what do you think?

Microsoft Windows V***a

I would sure hate to offend anyone by making mention of Microsoft's newest and biggest, but I have an opinion, and that's what blogs are for, right? Ok, here it is: I believe the outrageous amounts of memory, hard disk space and video/graphics capabilities demanded by this power-hungry, MS-derived beast is due to two basic things. These things are: LAZY programming, and extreme functionability; that's right, 'extreme functionability.' Look at Linux's options: Ubuntu, Puppy Linux, etc. Look at Windows 98. These slim OSes took up (maybe) a couple GBs of HD space. Vista wants 15 GB to stretch it's legs (although I don't think all of those are actually taken up by it). That's ridiculous. Or is it? The second reason I think contributes to the high requirements of this OS is extreme functionability; maybe that's not the right word. What I mean is, Vista is overachieving. This latest from MS has SO many capabilities as far as networking, security, connectivity, productivity, and activity in general, it is semi-understandable why you have to run it on a mega-machine. For example, check out the free MS program, Virtual PC 2007. It essentially emulates, that's right, it emulates an entire OS!
[pause until the shouts of derision die out]
[2 hours later]
As I was saying, Virtual PC allows you to create a virtual PC, complete with OS. Win 98, 2000, Server 2003, OS/2, etc. This virtual machine will run programs not compatible with Vista!!!!!!
Is that impossible or WHAT? That's just weird. Not only that, but files and folders are drag/drop compatible between Vista and any Windows OS. Also, the virtual PCs have virtual disks. Go figure. If that's not overachieving, I don't know what is. This is NOT to let Vista of the proverbial hook. They're still in the hot seat-LAZY programming is still lurking in the sewers, and that goes for Mac, too...

Here's a link in case you're interested: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/demo/vpcdemo.html?wt_svl=20322a&mg_id=20322b

As an afternote, Dell is doing an all-right job of making Vista-capable computers (semi) affordable.

And, for what it's worth,

"A man ate a pillow in his sleep one night. When he woke up the next morning, he was a little down in the mouth!"- Anonymous

"That's all for now folks!"- Porky Pig

The First Day of School

NOTICE: due to Executive Order Number 5223, school has been canceled nation wide this year.

Well, it was a good start today here at Providence Academy. Some things are familiar, but many things are different. Notably, the high school students seemed to have a lack of storage space.

There are still a fair amount of things to be ironed out, but we have taken the first step!

Here are some photos captured today.















In the hall before chapel















esteemed alumnus Cody Moffit stopped by before chapel















Mr. Buck in the very first chapel of this year!















a slice of the classroom















Mrs. Roddey explains things to her class

Oh, and a real notice: Blogger states that they are having a "Scheduled outage at 11PM PDT." Follow this link for more info.

cheerio!

The Last Week of Vacation: Day Seven

This is your last day of vacation.

It doesn't matter if you're ready or not. School is tomorrow.

Well, OK, maybe it matters if you're ready.

Anyway, what do I have to say today? Everything is ready. Well, almost everything.

So, pray especially for Mr. Buck, I'd say.

And, um, school starts tomorrow.

The Last Week of Vacation: Day Six

Hey, thanks for your comments, everybody. I like it!

I already pulled some stuff from my huge backpack I got at Ant Flat (very good condition except one side pocket has a ripped out bottom). I put a bunch of stuff in there on the last day of school. It's just been sitting in my room and I haven't some much since. I took everything out of it today, I think (you know, I think I took out a few things... 'cause there was some school stuff on my floor, I think).

Made a pile of sorts of the stuff I would need this year out of that stuff. I looked at a school journal from last year. That was in Mrs. Bomby's Advanced Composition class. Which reminds me, I'll be taking Literature this year. And so will Elliot, and, well, a lot of other people (a lot in ratio to total student count, more like).

Things seem destined to be different this year. in a very good way, I hope. Some of us remember when we had, what, around 40 students? Maybe God will bless us in a very amazing way (you know, like more amazing than usual, if you catch my drift, and he alrady has blessed us by helping us through harder times). Maybe 40 students will seem like a handful in a few year. Maybe...

Anyway, here's what you have all been waiting for. The question!

And that is: are you ready for school?!?

[repeats in loader more ominous, almost game show type voice; "Arrrre you reeeeady?!!"]

And my answer is yes. No.

I'm ready to get back into it in a way, somewhat, but I feel like "ooops! School's in two days! Where's my pencils?"

In other words, it seems sudden, if you follow me.

So, don't worry. When I come to school Monday, I'll have a pencil. If not two. Or more.

Including today, you have two days of vacation left. Have fun!


The Last Week of Vacation: Day Five

These things do creep up on us.

How did this happen?

Here's your question for today: What will you do tomorrow? I ask this because I think I know where you will be on your last day of vacation. Sorry if it seems like a lame question, but I'm not thinking too much about it.

As for me, I don't know what I'll do tomorrow worth mentioning. Sigh.

See you later [yawn].

The Last Week of Vacation: Day Four

Hello again.

Yes, I'm still here. I haven't quit yet.

Well, it's sort of hitting me, but slowly. School starts Monday? You must be kidding... right?

Yeah, well, you know what they say: the truth hurts. More correctly, the truth hurts sometimes.

In case you were wondering, that's not the question of the day. Actually I don't think I put a lot into it today, so I decided on something cliché. So hear this: what is you're favorite subject in school (this year, any year)? Or do you have more than one.

You think I'm going to tell you my favorite subject?

OK, you we're right.

Actually, I can't say I really have a favorite subject. It would probably be a matter of which subjects I enjoy the most. It's a kind of indifference for me, I suppose.

Therefore: algebra, advanced composition. That's what comes to mind. And then there's Mrs. Bomberger's Evil Revenge. I gripe about Latin, but now I'm stuck with it. ;)

Alright, I admit I am glad I learned Latin. The question is, how long can I remember the mechanics?

Notice: you have four days of vacation left, including today.

The Last Week of Vacation: Day Three

Hello, chaps and ladies.

I'm multi-taking here, folks. Chatting and blogging. I mean, that's talent, right?

So, the important question of the day: how much time on average do you students spend on homework each night? Or should I put it this way: How late do you stay up doing homework.

In fact, while you're at it, you might as well tell me all about your homework, life history, social security number, etcetera.

Whatever.

Homework. I usually am not up late doing it, so far, but sometimes it drags on. Like start at 5:15 or something, and work until dinner, then after dinner until 9:00 PM. Okay, maybe not the long, but I don't use a stopwatch, so I'm not sure.

I await you're comments!

The Last Week of Vacation: Day Two

What ho, everybody!

Have you ever thought how hard this is?? I mean, I have to come up with original material 7 days in a row? Do you think I'm creative or something?!?

But here's my question to you for today: what grade do you try to get at least on your assignments (do you care?)?

I think even at our school that C's are still passing. B's are average, I think. A's are excellent. And perfect A+ 100% is just... perfect.

As for me, I try to get A's. B's are okay, but I like A's better.

So what's your preferred grade?

You have six days left, including today.

P.S. sunny_12, just email us at panstaff@gmail.com and we can send you an invite to the blog if you want. If you're a member your comments will show up immediately and you will be able to post if you want. Cheers.
[added at 4:59 PM]

The Last Week of Vacation: Day One

Welcome all and sundry. I appreciate your attention. Really. I do.

As I told you before, this is the first post is a series of seven for the last week of school. Feel free to write other posts at the same time , though. Go ahead.

Well, we've been doing some painting today over at the Robertsons. Just thought I'd throw that in.

Well, I talked to Mr. Buck last week, I think, and contrary to a rumor floating around, he said there was just mopping, sweeping, and the like to do. And I though there was always a thousand and one things to do at the school?

So, how's everyone feeling about starting school so soon? Excited? Happy? Dreading it? Calm? Panicking?

I'm feeling like it's just another season. Things will come and go.

Feel free to comment, everybody.

For those curious, I invited myself to the blog (or rather my personal Google account), made that user an admin for this blog from the staff account, and that's why you will see my name as a Blogger user when I post now.

And, have you ever tried out Google Talk? Just hit this link. Once you're signed in via Google, you can message other Google users if they are signed in... way cool, huh? Or if you have Gmail, there is a built in Google Talk feature in it. Check this page for answers about chatting from Gmail.

See you tomorrow, people!

Take This Down

Just some notes for everybody.

Most importantly, there is going to be a seven part series of posts for the last seven days of vacation. I advise you to enjoy these few days, Providence students. Some, if not all of the public schools here are already in session.

During these posts (and of course at any other time, wink wink), I encourage you all to post and comment. What's school to you?? Surely there is something to write articles about?

Thank you for your patience.

Oh, and of course, it's a good thing one doesn't get assigned much to do on the first day of school. Because I, and I hope many others, will be furiously tapping away at a blog post on our very dear Providence Academy News!

And remember, If you want to be invited to the blog, just send a message to panstaff@gmail.com. No sweat. Easy.

Anything I missed?

Nathaniel