Collage: Through the Window with Paper Explorations

I'm way behind on posting these. This was a class two weeks ago...only prompt was to use cut papers with a Through the Window theme in my Mather for seniors class.

Honestly 40 or so minutes isn't enough to do a work start to finish. I did go through my magazine page ahead of time and pulled what I thought would be a lovely vacation villa with a view...but also to concentrate on the inside instead of outside the window.

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The angle of the camera made this forced perspective. Nice outside view somewhere with lovely water in the window.

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While I had a stack of pages selected, I didn't have a cohesive idea. But, class started and so I began

with the window on the peach paper and then added a darker blue floor. One of the scraps I had was an advertisement for a busy rug, which I cut all apart and reassembled on the floor. 

We were encouraged to add a three-dimensional element. I planned a window/mirror made from a circle.

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I used an image and reinforced the little doors with card stock. The round element helped to add some softness the angular elements in the page so far.

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Inside the round shutters is a fisted woman from an art magazine, a reflection perhaps or a painting. A surprise for a peaceful setting.

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The table and chairs came from a decor magazine. I actually used an exacto-knife to cut in between the legs, etc.

I built a little briefcase box that opens and closes to sit on the floor. 

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Surprise element: smiling lips under the lid.

I added a few plants and a pot with flowers...all from magazine cuttings, bits and pieces.

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I found the tiger which I imagined to be a stuffed toy, playing with a ball. When you are working so fast, you are actually unaware of composition details. 

But let's look at my overall composition.

Notice the triangular balances of colors: Red on the vase base on the left, the flower pot on the right, and the red in the window on the upper right.

Same with the Yellow ball/tiger on the lower left, the flowers on the right, and the yellow elements on the doors of the circle image.

The stronger balance of heavy blue on the bottom, medium blue of the window scene, capped with the lighter border on the ceiling. Not triangular, but a grounding of sorts for the whole composition. The viewer knows where he/she is standing on a solid floor.

None of this was conscious...but actually a good way to design an artwork.

Even the little dashes of white are balanced, the rug fringe, the shutters, and the white around the table area.

All these composition elements keep your eyes moving around but staying on the page in the room.

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I used little bits of green here and there...the leaves on this potted palm are also three-dimensional, giving the page three-three dimensional elements, also forming a triangle.

Whether you are working with pieced elements in a collage, color elements in a painting, or the weight/shades of different lines in a drawing, it is the composition that determines if a work is interesting, exciting, or peaceful.

Comparing Composition Elements

Triangular elements keep your eyes on the page, drawing you in. Often called the Golden Triangle of composition. This can be done with color, line, or shapes.

Horizontal linear elements can give the feeling of stability or solidarity such as a road anchoring the subject on the work, or can also be peaceful and calm such as water or a soft horizon. 

Vertical linear elements suggest growth, strength, and stability; plants, forests, walls, or  buildings

Diagonal linear elements are energetic, but an excess of criss-crossed angular elements will insert chaos.

Here's a powerful example of all the above.

wikipedia/Guernica by Picasso



Without color...Picasso managed to use all the different types of composition in this huge anti-war oil painting titled, Guernica depicting the bombing of a Spanish town in Basque in 1937.

Notice the large Triangular composition that keeps you in the center of the work. Then the other triangles are broken up into individual subjects: the Mother on the left with baby, the man on the lower left arms spread out and body forming a triangle, the horse head with leg, the wind head to the right center, the running figure across the lower right, another figure reaching up and ending in a triangle point below.

What does this do?

The entire composition is triangular and chaotic, violent, expressed by the many overlapping triangles. The only element that isn't in a triangle is the all-seeing eye/lightbulb, Picasso's eye of the world watching.

The Verticals such as the fists and arms raised represent the strength of the people. 

The Horizontal lines of arms/legs the surrender or still finality of death. 

 In black and white, Picasso still expressed the horrors and deaths of war. 
Wow, sorry this just got dark.

How about a lovely example of triangular composition?

Wikipedia

Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, her entire figure is a tight triangle, the other linear elements are all horizontal: water, horizon, the table her hands are resting on. The whole composition is peaceful.

Why the Mona Lisa is considered such a great work? Perhaps because of the small triangular smile/secret which you can't help but focus on, and her peaceful hands. The only diagonal lines are in her harmless clothing.

Composition should always interesting. 

I hope this helps a bit when you are doing your projects.

What is your favorite type of Composition

 to use in your artwork?

(Apparently mine

 is triangular

?)

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question. 

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Thank you for your cooperation, 
Sandi 

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