Composition Workshop

Do you tend to carefully compose your artwork from the beginning, or jump right in with mark-making or collage and then find compositional order within the chaos?  Do you think about composition as you are working?  Or does it just happen, or not happen?  What is composition anyway?  And how important is it to the overall success of your artwork?  On July 25 I'm offering my online workshop, "Keys to Dynamic Composition", where you can explore elements and principles of composition through a series of directed assignments based on specific formats. Here is some yummy student work from the last Composition class:

Making a cityscape out of the abstract landscape exercise

A beautiful example of the "cruciform" format

Layering collage, paint, and line

An exaggerated vertical orientation

Another beautiful and moody cruciform

Playing with the grid format

More playing with grids

Try playing with grids on your own!  Just download this pdf, which is not one of the lessons, and get a taste of how you can use a compositional format to explore many aspects of art.

If a more renegade approach appeals to you, or if you've already taken Keys to Dynamic  Composition and want to push it further, I'm beginning a new online class, "Extreme Composition: Breaking All The Rules" on September 12.  This will take you on a more personal and inventive journey of compositional exploration. 

Thanks for visiting!