"Courage and Wisdom Caught Me Napping."The lion stands for courage, and the 2 owls are two different kinds of wisdom: conventional and intuition. Acrylic on illustration board, ACEO
After doing some outdoor painting and struggling mightily with the composition, I holed up in my studio a few weeks to learn composition once and for all, as my past attempts had brought me only a partial understanding of this complex skill. This time I used "The Simple Secret to Better Painting" by Greg Albert. I recommend it highly! He simplifies composition down to one basic rule: "Never make any two intervals the same." The info in the book is very well organized, and each section he illustrates how to use this one rule with focal point, color, and value patterns. He also shows how the rule applies to landscape, still life, and figures. Painting is a lot more fun now that I finally comprehend the basics of composition.
6 comments:
Hi Theresa
I love this painting! Your choice of animals along with the sleeping Miss. and the feeling of magic..
I think I will pick up this book.. I need it.. Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful work.
Penny
You just keep on getting better and better!
And I recommend "The Simple Secret to Better Painting" too. In fact, I have it and would be glad to let you borrow it.
Thanks Laura and Penny! Laura, I am the proud owner of a copy of Albert's book. Definitely worth buying!
So glad to hear about Greg Albert's book, Theresa and how much you got out of it.
Do you mind if I post a link to your post to the Children's Book Illustration for my students?
I know they'd love to hear about your hunkering down to really understand design issues.
"Courage and wisdom caught me napping: is really lovely.
I mean the Wiggio Children's Book Illustration online group. (comprised of many Inklings and my students. (didn't finish my typing!)
Thanks Mark, and sure, be my guest! That's a really useful book, I think beginners could understand it well.
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