Composition is King

In the process of trying to render an object or objects in a creative, convincing manner, students often overlook the importance of the way in which those objects are arranged on the picture plane. Poor composition can be a death knoll for a painting or drawing, so for this project the 9th Grade painting class focused on developing a well-composed painting using wooden mannequins and a shoe.

After practicing drawing the individual components from direct observation, the student completed several thumbnail sketches to experiment with the best and most visually interesting composition by adhering to the following parameters: 1, the shoe must be the largest object in the painting; 2, the mannequin must be used at least twice and be different sizes; 3, at least one mannequin must be touching the shoe; 4, each of the four edges of the canvas must be engaged by either the shoe, the mannequin, or both; 5, the objects could be painted in any color of the artist’s choosing, but cool and warm colors had to be used correctly and every object had to be painted to show its form.

To contrast with the realistically rendered form of the shoe and mannequins, the background was painted with a contrasting color and covered with a flat, repeating pattern.