Composition - Thinking beyond mechanics

I am building on an idea for a series of still life paintings. I am pretty excited about this project because it is going to push me to go beyond the mechanics of recreating what I see. There are about 1,050,000 results when you do a search on Google for Apple Painting. It is amazing how many ways an apple can be painted. What makes you click one and not the other? It usually has a lot to do with composition.

There are lots of resources on the web for composition.

Wetcanvas has tons of information in their Composition and Design Forum:

• Visual Associations and Communication is a great start on how to communicate within a painting.
• A Composition Checklist is a great list of things to check for.

There are some very good articles on composition as well.

• Composition Color and Contrast
• Landscape Composition Rules
  
• Composition, Understanding it - Using it!
• Composition in one easy lesson
• The Alexander Painting is my favorite because it not only covers composition information, but a view into why something worked and did not work in a painting and how he came to the end result.

Some other resources for composition that I found useful are:

• Art Composition and Perspective in Paintings
• Art Composition and Definitions
• Composition
• Composition and Design Principles
• Percy Principles of Art and Composition
• Priorities

Composition is a huge subject. It can be overwhelming. I don't think it is something that can be learned in a few easy steps. I think it is something that you have to jump in and try over and over again.

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