Visual Language - Composition + study task

In it's most basic terms, composition refers to the purposeful arrangement and organisation of elements in a picture. When making images, decisions are to be made about where to draw each elements, their sizes, positioning, perspective etc in order to achieve the desired effect on a viewer. Compositions are read by viewers for the large part subconsciously, and if done correctly, giving 'the viewer a satisfied sense of order or beauty, although they may not realise by what methods this satisfaction was produced'.

However compositions are not decided upon always to create 'order or beauty' but instead can create a whole range of responses and feelings for effect.

Just as compositions are read, I do strongly believe that they are created intuitively, and when making an image you can just tell when there is something wrong with it's layout and arrangement. As Matt says, composition is how you go from someone who is good at drawing, to someone who is great at illustrating and making images.

Composition in a traditional is not something I have previously thought too much about. A lot of my work in the past consists of spot illustrations as opposed to constructed scenes and finished pieces. So considering my compositions more now is tricky but something I want to really try and push.

STUDY TASK

My three words were: Phone, Doctor and a Room.

I wanted to create a sense of ambiguity with my composition, reflecting back to a Robert Heindel image on one of the slides, where the identity of the patient is unknown and only part of their body is visible. I also wanted to place the viewer with the doctor, allowing them to follow his line of sight whilst drawing attention to the phone and the dramatic nature of this exaggerated point of view.