The Tate Mark Making Coursework Guide

The Tate website has a Student Resource called the Mark Making Coursework Guide

It covers the different ways artists can express themselves using different methods and approaches to mark making.

These include:

• What is mark making? Why use gestural qualities?
• Capturing life
• Expressing emotions
• Abstract mark making
• Graffiti and Graffiti Inspired Art
• Digital marks and making your mark using sound

Each section highlights artworks by different artists in the Tate Collection to highlight the points being made.

Mark making often does not get covered well in art instruction guides and book. This is a useful resource for those wanting to learn more about art.

NOTE: I'm trying to model how you can reference content on other sites without wholesale scraping of that content.  Right now, a LOT of my time at the moment is being spent going after VERY LAZY people who are scraping lots of content from my site - except they take it all and change less than 5% of the words!!

I'm not posting images because of the scraping which is going on.

The Big Drawing Book Review 2013

I have to confess.

I a serious addiction to books about drawing and sketching. For me books about drawing were a way into finding out different ways of drawing, how people drew in the past, how to render accurately - and why rendering in ways which are looser can be more interesting.  Books opened my eyes to what was possible and encouraged me to find new ways of drawing. I developed an interest in mark-making.

Some of my collection of Books about Drawing

Back in 2007, I spent a month reviewing drawing books and encouraging others to do likewise - see The Big Drawing Book Review

Since then we've had a huge resurgence of interest in both drawing and sketching.  I see drawings more often in exhibition. Urban Sketchers got off the ground, other drawing projects followed such as Sketching in Nature appeared and we now even have a new art prize for drawing.

As this is Big Draw I'm therefore proposing to repeat The Big Drawing Book Review in 2013

The Big Drawing Book Review: What does this involve?

The idea is simple. I'll explain what I'm doing below.  If you'd like to join in and also rate the drawing books you like or recommend that would be wonderful - it's good to share!

What I will be doing

This October I'm going to be reviewing books about drawing - instruction books, books about drawings by specific artists, reviews of drawing practices, and books about sketchbooks - on my blog Making A Mark Reviews.

My reviews will focus on:

• Basic Facts about the book - title, author, publisher - and who the book is aimed at. 
• My opinion about the content - with reasons. 
• Who the book is suitable for eg 
• beginner - somebody wanting to learn how to draw 
• improver - somebody wanting to learn more and improve their drawing 
• advanced - somebody who is already knowledgeable and skilled who wants to face new challenges, to learn about artists and different drawing practices 
• Readability - A comment on how well the author writes and how accessible the book is. Are points made clearly - and can I remember them afterwards! Also what level of reading the book is pitched at. 
• Presentation/Quality of Binding - Whether it looks good and feels good. For me this is often influenced by the quality of the images and the way text is laid out 
• Value for Money - Is it good value for money? 
• Overall quality - Would I recommend it - and if so, the reasons why.

Every Sunday I will then highlight the books I've reviewed on "who's made a mark this week?"

Last time I also developed a website which highlighted books about drawing and sketching I recommended.  See The Best Books about Drawing and Sketching.  This also linked to reviews by me and the other bloggers who participated in the Review.

That site has become extraordinarily long - and very popular - since 2007 and is now slow to load. Unfortunately the site format where it's hosted has changed recently. As a result, I'm now looking to revise it into a number of sites which are more targeted to particular interests e.g. advanced drawing - or books most suitable for beginners; or people who want to draw specific subjects or learn specific techniques e.g. perspective drawing.  See How to draw perspective for an example of the new sites I'm developing.  The existing site will then become a hub for the specific interests.

If you want to join in with The Big Drawing Book Review 2013:

• YOU need to send me a link to your review 
• I will then include a link to your blog post in the listing each week on this blog.

I'm going to be using the rating we all used last time to sum up the book.  This is it.  Please also use it if you feel comfortable with it.

Rate your book!Finally, after making it clear who you think the book is aimed at, try and decide whether it rates:

• 5 pencils - go out and buy this book right now if you have the money. In your opinion, an essential book for anybody seriously interested in drawing and/or learning more about drawing. 

• 4 pencils - a seriously good book about drawing; definitely one you want to own at some point - maybe one for the Christmas present list if you're broke 

• 3 pencils - good effort but nothing which really distinguishes it from other books. It's just this author's take on the basics. The sort of book which is good while you are reading it but doesn't stick in your memory. 

• 2 pencils - undistinguished in your view. For example: content may be a rerun of previously published books and/or remixed with a new front cover; presentation may not be particularly noteworthy. 

• 1 pencil - buying this book would damage your wallet but is unlikely to enhance either your knowledge, skills or enjoyment. It may also hurt your eyes! (Unfortunately there are a few of these out there - although I'm assuming we've probably weeded through a few of these without buying!) 

If you've got any queries please leave a comment below

If you'd like to join in also leave a comment and I'll put your blog into my feedreader.  You can do as many or as few reviews as you like.

Books about Sketchbooks on my bookshelves

Note:  This project has been initiated by me in the spirit of learning that underpins The Big Draw but is not registered with or associated with The Big Draw which is more event-related.

Labyrinth - Art on the Underground by Mark Wallinger

My very first Labyrinth - #63 at Embankment Tube

I bagged my very first Labyrinth yesterday.

Labyrinth is the name of the series of 270 artworks which are being hung in every underground station in London as a permanent art exhibition to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the London Underground.

The artist responsible for them is British artist and Turner prizewinner Mark Wallinger. His work is often noted for its social commentary.

I gather there are only ten of them installed in stations so far - however there will be one in all 270 stations when the project is complete.

I was immediately gripped by a feeling that we all have a bit of transpotter in us and I'll end up searching them out in all the stations I visit on a regular basis.  I'm very sure I won't go so far as to find all 270 however I'm also very sure someone will.

I mean, let's face it Scotland has its Munros (hills under 3,000 feet) and London has the Underground system instead.  Instead of bagging Munros, we can all get our trainers on and run up and down escalators and stairs as in order to bag a Labyrinth.

Next will come the Guinness World Record for the fastest time that it takes one person to get him or herself  photographed next to all 270  Labyrinths.

Plus don't forget the Guide to the Labyrinths of London - a book which is doubtless starting its way in the world on 100 odd computers around London as I type!

Labyrinth - an Art on the Undergound project

The labyrinths are black graphic designs on a white background.  A red cross marks the entrance.  The concept of the labyrinth relates to the notion that the Underground is a bit of a puzzle to navigate - people lose themselves in the underground.  However it's also about the fact that many a Londoner holds the map of the underground system in his or her head and never in the pocket.

There are other echoes of the Underground system:

• The graphic motifs are all round.  This is intended to be reflective of the iconic roundel used in the sign for every tube station and the to and fro of the daily journey to work which is so much part of people's everyday life in London.
• They're made of vitreous enamel which also echoes the various signs around the underground system.  

Taken together it's very odd that the sign, when you encounter one, looks as if it's mean to be there. I was walking into Embankment station when I suddenly realised I was walking right past one!

You can see a film about Labyrinth below in which Mark Wallinger explains why and how he got involved with the project, how it evolved and how the 270 different designs work and are made.


Art on the Underground - Video

More websites and articles about this installation:

• Transport for London - Art on the Underground - Labyrinth by Mark Wallinger 
• The Independent - Mark Wallinger, Labyrinth, London Underground Tube Stations, London
• The Telegraph - Mark Wallinger commissioned for largest ever artwork on London Underground
• The Guardian - Mark Wallinger's Labyrinth for Art on the Underground - video

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A fish for Good Friday

Study after 'A Trout Rising'
by Joseph Crawhall (Scottish; 1861-1913), Hunterian Museum, Glasgow
original - watercolour on line 28.2" x 39.0"
study - coloured pencils on Saunders Waterford 10" x 14"
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is another of my studies for my Japanese Art Project and, as it's Good Friday today, I thought it might be appropriate to have a fish as an image.

In this instance, it's a study of a work by a Scottish artist called Joseph Crawhall who was himself influenced by Japanese Art. This is what the Hunterian Museum has to say about the original work.

As a watercolour artist, Crawhall’s strength lay in depicting animals and birds. His decorative technique, as seen in this work in the brush strokes and the use of pure colour on linen, was influenced greatly by the Japanese prints that were popular during the 1880s and 1890s.
Hunterian Museum - A Trout Rising, Joseph Crawhall

You can see some more of his work at the Hunterian here and he also has work in the Burrell Collection, also in Glasgow.

What I particularly like about the original is the great use of the brush in mark-making and the stunning use of very limited amounts of colour on a very neutral background. What's interesting in studying the work of those influenced by Japanese art is to find out what they took from the art and then reused in their own projects.

What I'm taking away from this study is the way in which crispness of edges brings these into focus just as 'washiness' and soft edges suggest depth and recession and objects within our peripheral vision. Trying to emulate really good watercolour work and brushwork is not easy! Soft edges are also not a big feature of ukiyo-e and I'm thinking I maybe need to look a bit more at Japanese watercolours.

I came across this fish in a book I bought last Friday. It's called Japonisme - Cultural Crossings between Japan and the West, Lionel Lambourne, Phaidon Press. Lionel Lambourne OBE is the former Head of Paintings at the Victoria and Albert Museum (1986-1993) and a curator. When looking him up I came across a rather curious blog which is all about Quotes about Japan - which highlight some from this book.

I've only skimmed the book so far - but what I've seen and read suggests that this a very erudite and interesting book by a scholar who has done a lot of research, selected a number of images not seen in other books and writes extremely well. I can't do better than quote the publishers precis.

After 1858 when full trade was resumed, a wave of 'Japanomania' swept across Europe and America. The 1862 'Great Exhibition' in London was the first to display a wide range of Japanese goods in the west. Visited by hundreds of thousands of people, the prints, ceramics and lacquer work became the height of fashion.

After an introduction telling the story of the first contacts, the long isolation and the events leading to the renewal of free trade in Japan, he turns to capture the excitement in Europe as artists – led by Whistler and the Impressionists – discovered Japanese prints and artefacts, and began to incorporate their influence. The story spreads far beyond fine art to follow this creative mania into the decorative arts, interior design, furnishings, fashion accessories and, in turn, literature and theatre.

With his inimitable style and his rich store of well-chosen anecdotes, the author brings peculiar personalities to life and conveys a vivid impression of the enthusiasm that Japonisme generated. Chapters are devoted to travel, Japonisme in America, landscape and gardens, and even the curious subject of ghosts.

The visual impact alone of Japan on the West was enormous, as is expressed wonderfully in the rich and varied selection of 250 illustrations. These assimilate many original Japanese prints and artefacts juxtaposed with the works they directly inspired, as well as a vast spectrum of influences on the decorative arts, posters, advertisements, book illustrations, fashion, cartoons, photography, gardens and architecture.

Particular highlights come in:

• Chapter 2 - Japan and the Painters - focuses on Whistler, Tissot, Degas, Cassatt, Van Gogh
  
• Chapter 3 - The Poster and the Japanese Print - focuses on Bonnard, Toulouse Lautrec and Beardsley

Other artists covered in other chapters include Monet, Klimt, Manet, Gauguin, Arthur Wesley Dow and architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

[Note: I'm continuing to fight my broadband connection/modem router which continues to be very problematical this week plus the 'lurgy' which continues to linger and linger........]

Links:

• Japonisme - Cultural Crossings between Japan and the West, Lionel Lambourne, Phaidon Press. Paperback 250 x 290 mm, 9 7/8 x 11 3/8 in, 240 pp, 220 colour illustrations, 30 black and white illustrations. ISBN 0714847976
• Hunterian Museum, Glasgow
• Glasgow Museums, Burrell Collection
  
• Wikipedia
• Joseph Crawhall
• Good Friday
• Making A Mark - The Japanese Art project
• The influence of Japanese Art
• The concepts and characteristics of ukiyo-e
• The elements of ukiyo-e
• Principles of design and composition and ukiyo-e

Greg Albert - The Simple Secret to Better Painting

The book I always recommend to people who want to learn more about composition and design is Greg Albert's "The simple secret to better painting", first published by North Light Books in 2003.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: This is a very accessible book.  It makes complex topics very simple and provides one simple idea to keep at the front of your brain when working on a composition. I think it's more likely than any other book I've come across to both get the basics across and enable people to develop a grasp of quite sophisticated concepts - such as dynamic balance.

'The Simple Secret to Better Painting'
Greg Albert, North Light Books (2003)

BUY THIS BOOK (associate links support this blog) from

• The Simple Secret to Better Painting from Amazon.com
• The Simple Secret to Better Painting from Amazon.co.uk

So what does he cover and what is the simple secret? 

As it's already explained on Amazon and various art forums I think I'm safe in revealing that............

The one rule is 'Never make any two intervals the same'
Greg Albert

His book shows how that one simple rule can then be applied in various contexts when thinking about the design and composition of a painting. You may think you don't need the book now you've got the secret - but the value of the book is in the way he demonstrates in simple and effective ways how that rules can be applied. I know I've sat and chanted his idea to myself when stuck with a composition - and it works!

The book starts with a section on design dynamics. He provides a number of simple images and game-like tests that enable people to get their head around the idea that the type and nature of a mark can represent different things. He uses these to explain visual concepts - visual tension, visual energy and visual weight. He shows, using simple illustrations of different arrangements of mono marks, what's boring, what is chaotic and what is pleasing - and how his one rule applies

The next section is on making things interesting which looks at how to deal with dividing up your painting into different zones and how to divide up the space between objects and add more variety - by making no two intervals the same. He also demonstrates how to make lines of division more interesting. This was a tip I was given years ago - but this book made it make sense! This section also focuses on shapes used in the painting and how to make these more interesting, the importance of odd numbers and how to create interesting groups of different shapes.

Any division of space is an opportunity to add interest Greg Albert - Making things interesting

Achieving a dynamic balance follows up on the concepts introduced at the beginning and deals with balance as a principle of design with lots of illustrations of how balance can become unbalanced or static as well as how to achieve a dynamic balance using the different elements of design eg through balancing different sized shapes and colours and the nature of the mark made.

We need to find the right balance between boring order and distressing disorder. Too much variation causes a painting to lose unity. Not enough variation causes a painting to lose interest Greg Albert - introduction to achieving a dynamic balance

Pleasing the eye deals with how the viewer's eye scans a picture, why a painting needs a dominant centre of interest, which subjects tend to attract the mind, how to draw the eye and create a focal point - in a number of different ways (possibly one of the most effective pages in the book) and then how to place it.

The center of interest is a magnet for the mind.........The overall effectiveness of a painting's design will be a function of the location of its focal point and center of interest. Greg Albert - Pleasing the eye

He also deals with how to lead the eye into and around a painting with very simple and effective explanations of the 'rule of thirds', sweetspots, leads, pointers, blocks and exits.

The important thing is he doesn't just tell you, he also makes sure he shows you all the important notions which need to become part of an artist's vocabulary when talking about a composition. This is a book which has succinct text and lots of images which speak volumes.

The next chapter concentrates in the importance of tonal value and value contrast.

Tonal values are critical. The lights and darks contribute more the success of a painting's composition than any other factor, including color Greg Albert - introduction to tonal value and contrast

He demonstrates why tonal value is so important, how value intervals can be varied, how to see your subject as a pattern of 3 or 5 values (something which is propounded but not always well explained elsewhere) and how to lead the viewer's eye using the value pattern. He has a whole chapter devoted to colour. He considers how to create dominance using colour, colour temperature, colour intensity, colour values and colour contrast. He also explains what an accent colour is and how to use and place it in a composition to highlight the focal point.

The book also contains sections specifically devoted to still lifes, landscapes and portraits. In each of these he covers the basics which help to make a successful composition. He addresses issues such as:

• selecting still life objects
• arranging a still life
• making use of photographs (for landscapes)
• basic value patterns for landscapes
• cropping the figure and cropping the portrait
• dealing with multiple figures

Using the 'Big Drawing Book Review' rating model, I'd award this book five pencils.

This is a book which you can come back to again and again. It's a 'basics' book for those wanting to learn more about composition and design and it can also act as a 'pick you up' for more advanced artists who feel they're getting stale and need a visual boost. This book makes composition as a topic both accessible and understandable to art students and would-be artists who've been ducking out of improving their knowledge of composition. For those who tend to neglect the importance of composition because it's 'too difficult' or there are 'too many rules' or there is 'too much to think about' there is now no excuse! 

Finally, one of the added bonuses of this book for budding authors is that it in effect provides a model 'how to' of how to write and lay out a 'how to' fine art book! I guess that's one of the benefits of it having been written by somebody who used to be the Editorial Director at North Light Art Instruction Books!

Note: Greg Albert graduated from the Art Academy of Cincinatti, Ohio and he has taught drawing and painting as part of its community education programme for many years. He also has advanced degrees in painting and art history and has worked as the Editorial Director of North Light Art Instruction Books. His other books are Basic Drawing Techniques (paperback ISBN: 0-89134-388-1) and Basic Figure Drawing Techniques. (paperback ISBN: 0-89134-551-5). According to the Art Academy, he's currently working on a book about figure drawing and anatomy.

Links:

• The simple secret to better painting Greg Albert, North Light Books (2003) Paperback; 128 pages, 20 b&w illus., 200 color illus. ISBN: 1-58180-256-0
• Composition and Design - Resources for Artists on the move to a new website

Composition - The Elements of Design

It's amazing how many of us who don't have the benefit of a fine art degree seem to have managed to learn something about the different aspects of what's involved with composition and design without actually ever coming across the idea of the 'elements' and 'principles' of art/composition/design! Or at least that's my experience. I'd certainly never heard about these particular groups before starting this project. Maybe this is what they teach you if you do an Fine Art degree? ;)

What is composition and design?

Composition: The plan, placement or arrangement of the elements of art in a work. It is often useful to discuss these in reference to the principles of design, as well as to the relative weight of the composition's parts.
Art Lex

OK - so what are the elements and what are the principles?

A useful analogy is to think of the 'elements' as being the ingredients part of a recipe for success and the 'principles' as being the method part. Miss out either and you can't bake a cake or make a picture which fulfils coventional western ideals of what a picture should look like. Some of the ingredients affect the 'flavour' of the piece while others are intrinsic to the structure and body of the work.

elements of art or elements of design - The basic components used by the artist when producing works of art. Those elements are color, value, line, shape, form, texture, and space. The elements of art are among the literal qualities found in any artwork.
ArtLex

principles of design or principles of art - Certain qualities inherent in the choice and arrangement of elements of art in the production of a work of art. Artists "design" their works to varying degrees by controlling and ordering the elements of art. Considering the principles is especially useful in analyzing ways in which a work is pleasing in formal ways. How any work exhibits applications of these principles can further or modify other characteristics of a work as well. (See definition for further details of the principles)
ArtLex

I'm going to split this introduction into two parts - one for elements and one for principles. Some of the elements and principles will then be the subject of future posts during this project while others - such as colour - will be the subject of future projects.

Interestingly, I've come across different lists in different places on the Internet and in books. Some include 'composition' as an element while other don't. Some seem to mix items up between elements and principles. Personally, I take the view that composition is what you do when you work with both elements and principles.

No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.
Claude Monet

I'll be quoting from ArtLex extensively because (a) it's a very good resource and (b) it tends to be comprehenive while other sites can sometimes be rather partial.

I also recommend that you take a look at the links I'm collecting in Composition and Design - Resources for Artists - which now contains a section devoted to elements and principles. I'll be developing other modules for the different components.

Bsides the books listed at the end, other good resources include:

• Associate Professor Charlotte Jirousek's website on the Cornell Website which provides a very good introduction to elements and principles as part of her online interactive textbook Cornell University - Art, Design and Visual Thinking - it also has an excellent set of images to accompany the text
• Graphic Design Basics - which cover both Elements of Design and Principles of Design - no images but very succinct and easy to print off for educaitonal purposes
  
• Nancy Doyle's series of lessons on composition - which you can find links to either at the end of this post or in Composition and Design - Resources for Artists

The Elements of Design and Composition

The elements of design are the building blocks - they provide the structure for a design or an artwork.

Value

Value - An element of art that refers to luminance or luminosity — the lightness or darkness of a color. Value is an especially important element in works of art when color is absent. This is particularly likely with drawings, woodcuts, lithographs, and photographs. It is also true with most sculpture and architecture.
ArtLex: Value

Values in two dimensional artwork create gradations in light and contrast - and without these everything would be flat. Values can be created in different ways - by line and by colour.

To my mind, value is the most important element in the design of a painting. Without values there is no design. It's more important than colour because there are great works of art which have no colour and value can be a component of colour but colour isn't a component of value per se.

"The first things to study are form and values. For me, these are the things that are the basics of what is serious in art. Color and finish put charm in one's work."
Jean Baptiste Corot (1796-1875), French painter. Keith Roberts, Corot, 1965.

There will be more about value in subsequent posts. Aids to composition include greyscales or value scales.

Colour

An element of art with three properties: (1) hue or tint, the color name, e.g., red, yellow, blue, etc.: (2) intensity, the purity and strength of a color, e.g., bright red or dull red; and (3) value, the lightness or darkness of a color.
ArtLex: Colour

Colour will be the subject of another of my projects later this year. You can see links to information on the Internet which has already been collected in Colour - Resources for Artists

Shape

Shape - An element of art, it is an enclosed space defined and determined by other art elements such as line, color, value, and texture. In painting and drawing, shapes may take on the appearance of solid three-dimensional object even though they are limited to two dimensions — length and width. This two-dimensional character of shape distinguishes it from form, which has depth as well as length and width.
ArtLex: Shape

Both form and shape require space (see below) to exist - shape needs at least two dimensions while form requires three. Two dimensional shapes can be defined by lines alone or values alone.

Notan defines three dimensional forms in terms of two dimensional shapes and values.

Form

Form - In its widest sense, total structure; a synthesis of all the visible aspects of that structure and of the manner in which they are united to create its distinctive character. The form of a work is what enables us to perceive it.Form also refers to an element of art that is three-dimensional (height, width, and depth) and encloses volume. For example, a triangle, which is two-dimensional, is a shape, but a pyramid, which is three-dimensional, is a form. Cubes, spheres, ovoids, pyramids, cone, and cylinders are examples of various forms.
ArtLex: Form

Forms can be organic and natural or constructed. Either can be geometric in form. Artists often talk about finding the 'big shapes' when starting a composition - but the shapes might be three dimensional forms. You can 'abstract' from a natural object to find its geometric equivalent - eg an apple is a sphere.

Space

An element of art that refers to the distance or area between, around, above, below, or within things. It can be described as two-dimensional or three-dimensional; as flat, shallow, or deep; as open or closed; as positive or negative; and as actual, ambiguous, or illusory.
Artlex: Space

Positive space is the space taken up by objects. Negative space is the space inbetween objects. Focusing on the latter often enables us to see the true relationship between different objects. Empty space can be highly regarded in some art forms and cultures and is exemplified above in this sculpture by Henry Moore currently on display as part of an exhibition of his work at Kew Gardens.

Line

line - A mark with length and direction(-s). An element of art which refers to the continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. Types of line include: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, straight or ruled, curved, bent, angular, thin, thick or wide, interrupted (dotted, dashed, broken, etc.), blurred or fuzzy, controlled, freehand, parallel, hatching, meandering, and spiraling. Often it defines a space, and may create an outline or contour, define a silhouette; create patterns, or movement, and the illusion of mass or volume. It may be two-dimensional (as with pencil on paper) three-dimensional (as with wire) or implied (the edge of a shape or form).
ArtLex: Line

Lines in visual art do not have to be on canvas or paper. They can be marks made within the environment.

Texture

texture- An element of art, texture is the surface quality or "feel" of an object, its smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. Textures may be actual or simulated. Actual textures can be felt with the fingers, while simulated textures are suggested by an artist in the painting of different areas of a picture
ArtLex - Texture

Texture can be represented in visual artworks in either two or three dimensional ways. It's often a pictorial illusion - which is dependent on line and value.

Books with a good explanation of the elements of design

• "The Elements of Drawing" John Ruskin (1857) and never out of print!
  
• You can search the text for specific terms on this Ruskin College Oxford website
  
• Letter 1 concerns the basics of drawing which involve the elements
  
• Letter 3 concerns itself with "On Colour and Composition" and Ruskin's 9 laws
  
• scroll down to see all the information that is available on the Internet.
  
• It appears you can download a complete copy from the Canadian Libraries.
  
• If you want to buy a copy, then I recommend that you get this edition with editing and annotations by Bernard Dunstan.
  
• "The Simple Secret to Better Painting" Greg Albert (Paperback 2003)- if you buy one book for this project, make it this one.
  

Links to sites which provide further information

• Composition and Design - Resources for Artists - includes a section of the elements and principles of composition and design
  
• Cornell University - Art, Design and Visual Thinking an online interactive textbook created by Associate Professor Charlotte Jirousek
• Navigate to the Elements of Design and Principles of Design (and see the rest of the textbook) using the menu in the left hand column
  
• Graphic Design Basics
• Elements of Design
• Principles of Design
  
• Nancy Doyle: Design Lesson IV: Elements of Design
  
• Wikipedia - Design Elements and Principles This Wikipedia article is rather limited in its explanation and seems to confuse elements and principles. NOT recommended. The folowing articles are also very basic - the subject matter is covered better on other websites
  
• Wikipedia - Elements of Art
• Wikipedia - Principles of Art

[Note: I'm going to publish this but am searching around for some images which add value to add in to this post. Check back again later if you want to see what I found!]

Composition and Design - An Introduction

Singing the Blues

10" x 8", coloured pencil on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

In the next two months or so, I'm going to be investigating composition and design for artists and producing an overview of what I find out. Which is not to say that this could ever be a topic which can be adequately covered in such a short time! It is of course a lifelong area of interest for an awful lot of practising artists.

Design and Composition - I'm revisiting this topic to try and understand more about what different people have had to say about composition, what are the 'rules' and why breaking the rules also works. I intend to relate design and composition to specific subject matter (eg landscapes and flowers) and artists that I like and/or will feature this year - such as Degas. I'm starting the year with this topic as it underpins so much of what comes next. It will continue to run as theme throughout the year and I'll be referencing it in other areas of work during the rest of the year.
Katherine Tyrrell - "Making A Mark in 2008 - the Plan"

Composition and design - why?

Why study composition and design? Well, although I studied art to advanced level at school, my studies seemed to neglect exploring this important topic area in depth. Similarly, I've tended to find that it's common for many painting workshops and courses to err much more towards teaching techniques relating to particular media and to touch upon composition and design only in passing. When was the last time you saw a workshop which was focused wholly on designing your artwork? Have you noticed how all the books on the art shelves in the bookshops are mostly about painting in a particular medium?

How to tackle this? Well, in the past, my own particular approach has been to develop my own 'book of notes on art'. This has been culled from instruction provided by my favourite authors and workshop tutors.

What I noticed as I started to develop the book was that there is very little that is new - most were saying the same things - only in different ways. The only thing that seemed to vary was the level of attention that different sources paid to different topics. Occasionally somebody had a new take on a topic which was particularly illuminating and helpful.

My book provides me with my 'take' on core subjects and doesn't include anything at all about media. I have pages and pages of notes about various topics - but an awful lot of it is about design and composition. You can see my 'table of contents' list on the right.

This softback book goes with me on my travels and provides me with both stimulation to get my head in the right place and help when I get stuck trying to develop a particular work.

Although it's very helpful, the 'structure nut' in me wanted to try and develop a more coherent overview of various topics and that's what I intend to do this year. I'm therefore starting with the topic which, for me, provides the baseline and infrastructure for all other areas of artistic development - composition and design.

Composition and Design - How?

Inevitably, doing a project as part of a blog means focusing on published material and whatever resources are available on the Internet.

When I started to prepare for this project I was struck by how few books there were - compared to other topics and media related topics - and how few references to composition and design on the Internet. So I'm hoping that this project will also be interactive and will, with your help, also make some progress in identifying good books and good websites. I've found some and you will know of others!

All of the hyperlinks I identify will be added into my new Squidoo lens Composition and Design - Resources for Artists. This already includes some of the links and books which I expect to be referencing in my planned posts.

Composition and Design - what?

I reserve the right to change my mind about what the project will cover and in what order as this is, after all, a process of distilling and sorting!

The emphasis will be on providing an overview of a topic, the identification of aids and checklists and the provision of book references and hyperlinks to useful websites.

I'm also going to make it a rule that all debates, by way of comments, about different approaches to composition will be very civilised. I've seen how this topic can generate very strong views on Internet forums in the past!

This is what I've currently got jotted down as a framework for posts. At the end I'll organise whatever I've done as posts and create a summary which links back to each post.

• What is composition and design? An introduction to:
• the elements of design - value, line, colour, space, marks and texture (the list varies depending on who you read)
  
• the principles of design - balance, unity, contrast, direction, emphasis, economy, rhythm, proportion (ditto)
  
• plus some quotes and hyperlinks
  
• A Composition Digest - some books about composition
• introduction - and interactive element for people to suggest books
• book reviews
  
• Creating a focus / centre of interest
• the golden section / rule of thirds / sweetspots
• aids for composition - the viewfinder
  
• a checklist of how to create a focal point
• The importance of tone: values and contrast
• aids for composition - working in greyscale
  
• aids for composition - the value finder
• aids for composition - the thumbnail
  
• Notan - a review
  
• a checklist for working with value and contrast
  
• The importance of line, mark-making and direction
  
• Composition and the Still Life
• Composition and the Landscape
• Composition and the Portrait
• Composition and Floral/Botanical Art
  
• Composition and Artists
• Edgar Degas
  
• Composition and the History of Art
• historical and modern approaches
• cultural differences
  
• Japanese design and composition

If you want to make sure you follow this project as it unfolds can I suggest you subscribe to my blog which will save you having to check back to see what's been posted. You can subscribe via e-mail or in a feed reader - see the links near to the top of the right hand column.

The next post in the project will introduce the elements and principles of design.

Links:

• Composition and Design - Resources for Artists
• Making A Mark: Making A Mark in 2008 - The Plan
  

13th January 2008: Who's made a mark this week?

'Emilia' by John Ward CBE PS (Hon)

(1917- 2007)
work exhibited at The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2007
(see item about The Pastel Society Annual Exhibition 2008)

Welcome to the very first (if rather late!) "who's made a mark this week?" of 2008.

For new readers of this blog, every Sunday this post highlights various art-related items I've seen and found interesting in the previous week.

Thank you!
First off I'd very much like to thank all those people who've been mentioning "Making A Mark" in lists of 'must read/favourite art blogs' and/or highlighted my blog on theirs in recent days - your kind words are much appreciated. I was in the middle of compiling this list when my computer died and I'm afraid my brain doesn't do back-ups either and I now can't recall whether I've got everybody listed or not so apologies if I've left anybody out! (I've got one which is deliberately not mentioned for a very good reason!)

• Dan at Empty Easel - 8 Must read art blogs for 2008 - a few of the best art blogs online. Two who are also highlighted and who endorse the mention of my blog are:
  
• Laura at Laurelines
  
• Dion Archibald at The Art News Blog - List of Art Blogs
  
• Martha at Trumpetvine Travels - Happy New Year
• Kirsty Hall (Up All Night Again - also mentioned comes up with her own list of Must Read Blogs which also includes Making A Mark!
• Marsha Robinett of The Extraordinary Pencil - Blogging for Beginners
  
• Robyn (Have Dogs, Will Travel)
  
• Nancy Moskewitz at Moskovitz Art Studio - Katherine Tyrrell's Art Blog
  

I'm also very touched by all those fellow artist bloggers who e-mailed me or commented while I was off-line for virtually a week with my computer woes. For the record, if it's a planned absence I always announce it in advance! ;) If it's an unplanned absence it's almost always due to a computer or broadband malfunction!

Anyway, as a result of all you kind people, I'm very happy to announce that while I was offline my blog broke through and then raced past two key blogging thresholds of 500 subscribers and 250,000 pageviews in two years of blogging. Statistics for visits and pageviews for this blog have recently been going crazy!!!

OK - now back to normal posting.

Art Blogs

• Art Blogs have started January full of new year resolutions (well done everybody!). Here are a couple of different perspectives:
  
• Kirsty Hall (Up All Night Again) - has decided to join in with 101 things - which is a really neat way of taking on board projects which might take a bit longer than a year
• However Karen Jurick (A Painting Today)seems to have found a new way of dieting in January - she's painting instead of eating anything naughty and teases us with images of her cheesecakes instead - here and here and here and here. Enough! ;)
• Duane Keiser (A Painting a Day - by Duane Keiser) has started posting to "On Painting" again after a long break with a very interesting post about a Whistler exhibition at the Freer Gallery. He's also had a week's break from posting to his main blog because last week he went to Madrid to see Las Meninas in the Prado! I'm looking forward to seeing his account of his trip - hopefully this next week.

I figure being a painter and not seeing "Las Meninas" is a little like being a Yankees fan and not seeing a game at Yankee Stadium.
Duane Keiser

• Alison (5K Radius), in Canberra Australia, has "The Sketchercisers" installed at The Art of Moving exhibition, Tuggeranong Art Gallery in Canberra. It records the three original sketch exercise bloggers (Julie Oakley - one mile from home, Penny Crompton - with my boots and sketchbook and Alison) and their year long challenge in 2006.

Dachshund Dog Portrait by Tracy Hall

• Each week during January and February, Tracy Hall (Tracy Hall - Watercolour Artist) is doing a painting for Art Helping Animals (website and blog) to benefit the True Blue Animal Rescue in Texas. Tracy is based in the Orkney Isles off the coast of Scotland. It's great to see yet another example of art and blogging reaching out to support good causes around the world. I understand from Tracy that in the last two years they've raised nearly $33,000 for various charities
• I've discovered through blogging that creative people like buying work by other creative people (no need to worry if your blog only gets read by artists then!). Lisa Call (Lisa Call) has an interesting and very helpful blog post - Do You Buy Art?
  

Art Blog Tutorials

This is a new category for 2008. Do let me know if you are planning a series of tutorial type posts.

• under bookbinding on Casey Toussaint's blog Rue Manuel Bis
  
• Learning to make a Sketchbook which concerns choosing the size of the sketchbook and the paper and folding it
  
• Learning to make a Sketchbook - Lesson 2 which is a very detailed post about how to sew the pages together
• 3rd installment on sketchbook - which is about making and glueing the endpapers and covers.
• Finishing up the Sketchbook - the cover
  

• Tina Mammoser (The Cycling Artist) also had a nice set of posts just before Christmas which set out the way she develops her paintings:
• The Joy of Messy Drawing
• and the results Yesterday's drawings
• Squaring Off

Art Business and Marketing

• Charley Parker (Lines and Colors) has done a detailed and very useful review of Blurb and Lulu for those interested in producing small books of sample images from their portfolio.
• Hugh MacLeod ( of the wonderful cartoons and blog posts at Gaping Void) was interviewed by The Guardian for an article on social networking using facebook. The suggestion is that he is now the most successful 'facebooker' in Britain!

Twitter Cartoon and Modern Art by Hugh MacLeod

• A report by The Future Laboratory for My Space, based on a poll of 1,000 social network users aged 18-24 suggests that social networking is more popular than TV with the young and is also being used by young people to sell artwork. This Observer article about the report also provides some interesting stats. It would be interesting to know how activity and practice varies through the different age ranges.
  

The survey found that women usually spent more time on social networking sites than men, and that the sites were increasingly being used to make money. Fourteen percent of users had made money from social networking sites selling T-shirts, artwork, and jewelry.
webProNews - commenting on the report

Art competitions and juried exhibitions

• I forgot to mention in December when my paperwork arrived that The Pastel Society's submission dates for its annual show are 18th and 19th January 2008. The recent hiatus with the computer may have knocked my entries out of the running as I'm now not sure I can get them sorted in time - however for those with pastel artwork framed and ready to submit you should go to their website for more details about the exhibition and to see artwork which was in last year's exhibition. Copies of the entry form are available at carlton House Terrace on the submission days. I shall be really sorry not to see new work by John Ward this year (see image at top) - although I've got my fingers crossed and am hoping there will be a retrospective. He was one of those artists who always made me want to draw even better. This is a link to posts on this blog in which he is mentioned. My blog posts about last year's exhibition can be found here and here.
  
• Derwent announced the winners of their 175th anniversary drawing contest in the USA using Coloursoft pencils in December. Congrats to fellow bloggers Ranjini Venkatachari (Ranjini V's Studio) and Nicole Caulfield (Nicole Caulfield Art Journal) who got 2nd place and an Honourable Mention respectively in the adults category. Personally I really liked some of the kids' art!
  

Art courses/workshops

• A workshop in Texas in March led by Karen Jurick and Carol Marine was promoted on their blogs Carol Marine's Painting a Day and Karen Jurick - A Painting Today and sold out in days. Now if that doesn't prove the financial value of blogging to the professional artist...........
• I spotted that the National Portrait Gallery in London is running a couple of evening workshops about portraits this month - one focusing on drawing and the other on painting (next week) - see the website for more details. More and more museums and art galleries run really good workshops for aspiring artists - it's worth checking out what's going on near you.
  

Art Exhibitions

• There were lots of scares just before Christmas about about whether or not the blockbuster Royal Academy exhibition "From Russia" of Russian paintings from Moscow and St Petersburg was going to lose its paintings. The Russian government have now given their approval (see RA site) and it's now confirmed as being officially back on - but the law had to be changed first! It's expected to get some 800,000 visitors - although given the publicity it may well now exceed this figure.
  

Art Supplies

• Jeanette Jobson (Illustrated Life), in rural northeast Newfoundland, listed details of some very interesting fine art paper suppliers in Canada just before Christmas.

Websites, blogging and feedreaders

• Bloglines Beta has now got a Bloglines top 100 - and it's interesting to see that it contains quite a few art-related sites such as:
• New York Times Arts page
  
• Art Journal
• Check out what happened to a logo designer whose Google gmail account was hacked, and whose company domain was then transferred before he was held to ransom by a cybersquatter operating out of Florida. Check your filters now!
• James Ball comments on the notion of unionising bloggers - Why unionise bloggers?

...and finally

Just before my laptop died I spotted this post on Lines and Colors about the 2008 Bloggie Awards and the fact that the categories had changed (at long last!!!) to include Best Art and Craft Blog!

I've not seen any other mentions of the Bloggies on other blogs so I guess we were all pretty much in the dark about the change to these awards! It will be interesting to see which blogs gets nominated this year. I'll be highlighting those that do on this blog after they are announced on January 22nd.

Lucian Freud: the Painter's Etchings - at MOMA

A page from the online exhibition of "Lucian Freud: the Painter's etchings",
Museum of Modern Art, New York
The image shows William Acquavella, Freud's agent (L) sitting for and talking to Lucian Freud in his studio with the copperplate for etching "New Yorker 2006" in front of him on his easel
see credits on site for details of image

Little did I realise, sitting this side of the pond, that when I posted about the video discussing Freud's work and portraiture process, that an exhibition of his work was to open 3 days later in New York at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The show is called Lucian Freud: the Painter's Etchings. It opened in the Special Exhibitions Gallery on the 3rd floor on December 16th and runs until March 10. Its website at MOMA provides details of the exhibition plus details of the associated events in January and February. I wish I could go!

One of the foremost figurative artists working today, Lucian Freud (British, born Germany 1922) has redefined portraiture and the nude through his unblinking scrutiny of the human form. Although best known as a painter, etching has become integral to his practice. This exhibition will present the full scope of Freud's achievements in etching, including some seventy-five examples ranging from rare, early experiments in the 1940s to the increasingly large and complex compositions created since his rediscovery of the medium in the early 1980s.
MOMA

You can view the works in the exhibition in a very well developed virtual exhibition (see example page above). If you are interested in Freud, drawing or etching or then I highly recommend viewing this very slowly and clicking all the links. They provide access to some comments by Freud which serve to indicate how and why he works as he does. The online exhibition also includes uncommonly large images with lots of detail, for example, from Freud or his sitters talking about the process works to notes about how the work came about. It's really great to be able to enlarge to see his mark making. The pages on which the painting and print are juxtaposed side by side are particularly interesting. The more you keep looking the more you find to see and hear. I'd like to congratulate the curatorial staff and website design team for a job well done.
Note: the recommended screen resolution is 1024 x 768 or higher and that the site requires the Flash 8 plug-in or higher and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Flash 9 is recommended for optimal viewing.

The exhibition looks at the scope of his practice in etching and the relationship between his paintings and his etchings and in particular at:

• the time line associated with Freud's etchings. Interestingly he first did etchings in the 1940s and then stopped completely for 34 years before rediscovering the etching process again in 1982. It's now a constant part of his practice and he completes an etching as well as a portrait in oils - although this is the subject of a separate set of sittings with each subject.
• the etching process and comments on his etching technique. In particular the fact that he usually works on the plate placed as if it were a canvas on his easel. Inspection of various images shows something of how he works. The virtual exhibition allows some stunning close-ups of small parts of the work. I couldn't find a way to choose which bit this was - which was frustrating but it's interesting nevertheless.
  
• Freud's subjects - in groups - portrait heads; naked portraits and other subjects (ie the whippets and the garden). The website makes it possible for you to see images grouped according to the subject. His subjects are always people he knows well - and yet the titles do not always describe who the person is.
  

This summer I saw one of the prints of "New Yorker" taken from the plate that is being worked on in the image at the top of this post. My catalogue from the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy tells me that it's one of an edition of 46 and that its price this summer was £23,100. I've got a note against the catalogue entry which says "lots of small hatching marks". If you want to see it, it's about fourth from the end of the Portrait Heads section in the online exhibition. It's followed by the painting of William Acquavella.

The exhibition includes the painting of the Chardin painting in the National Gallery in London which was referred to in the video which I posted about last week - plus the etching that was made of the same subject. I think I actually prefer the etching.

In fact, maybe because I love drawing, I find myself looking longer at his etchings than his paintings. Maybe because I'm more familiar with the process of trying to find methods of mark making which are appropriate for the subject, the lighting and the values. Maybe because I like looking at how he chooses to crop and place his subject on the page and what choices he makes about how he handles the background. I know I'm intrigued by the variety of marks he makes from long sinewy lines to short regular hatching marks which follow contours or systematically surround a subject.

It's fascinating to see his copperplate placed on his easel as if it were a canvas and to learn that etching has almost entirely replaced drawings in the works he now produces. (I also rather liked seeing inside his studio - with what looks remarkably like a tea chest acting as a flat surface - and the views of the overgrown undergrowth of the garden at the rear of his studio which has been the subject of a number of his paintings.)

The exhibition catalogue (see right) is written by Starr Figura, the Assistant Curator, Department of Prints and Illustrated Books. It.....

includes more than 70 etchings-from the artist's rare early experiments of the 1940s to the increasingly complex compositions he has created since rediscovering the medium in the early 1980s-juxtaposed with some 23 paintings and 7 drawings. Includes 120 color illustrations
MOMA

The catalogue is available to buy or order from the MOMA shop. I'm rather hoping it might make the trip across the Atlantic and turn up in the Tate modern bookstore (although having just checked I've found it's possible to buy it through Amazon although delivery takes 3-5 weeks.)

For the next two weeks, those interested in drawing and who are going to be in New York have the opportunity to take some time out and have a really excellent time visiting two exhibitions of work by two great artists - Seurat and Freud - and how they choose to communicate through drawing in different mediums.

Links:

• Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Visiting MOMA 11 West 53 Street (between Fifth and Sixth avenues) New York, NY 10019-5497 Tel. (212) 708-9400
• MOMA: Exhibitions - Lucian Freud: The Painter's Etchings. December 16, 2007–March 10, 2008
• View the online exhibition
• View all related events
• Catalogue ISBN: 978-0-87070-706-3
• MOMA - Seurat Drawings
• Making A Mark: On Portraiture: Chuck Close and Lucian Freud