Somewhere along the trail of good web resources an artist (and I can’t remember who) mentioned a classic book on composition. I love books. I love classic books. I love art. I couldn’t resist. I found Arthur Wesley Dow’s Composition: Understanding Line, Notan, and Color from Dover Publishing and have had one of those great reads that will change the way I think art, do art, teach art.
Dow has strong views on the order in which the elements of visual art should be taught.
He says,“Good drawing results from trained judgement, not from the making of facsimiles or maps. Train the judgement, and ability to draw grows naturally. . . .design [is] a preparation for drawing.”
He is not discounting the great value of learning to draw accurately and doing the tedious study required to master the tools and to learn to see, but he makes the point that “ The whole fabric of art education should be based upon a training in appreciation.“Design, or composition, is of first importance so that the student gains an appreciation of beauty, which he says may be defined “as consisting of elements of difference harmonized by elements of unity. “
He goes on to say, “Art is not produced by principles of composition unless they are used in combination with the principle of good spacing. One must strive for the best, the most harmonious, result. THE MYSTERY OF SPACING WILL BE REVEALED TO THE MIND THAT HAS DEVELOPED APPRECIATION (emphasis mine).Then he gives examples of line, notan, and color exercises that teach students to appreciate and recognize beauty.
As I read Dow’s book, I reflected on my own experience. When I was first struggling to “be an artist” I would spend my time copying both nature and pictures, and even though I could copy what I saw, I still knew that my work was greatly lacking something important. It was not until I began to study design principles that I saw how composition is the key to creating that harmony of elements that are beautiful. Now my art begins with the design first.
Years ago when I lived in Taiwan, I studied Chinese watercolor painting. But even then, I was mimicking the teacher and the craft and not being taught to see that the beauty was in the design first. Dow uses Oriental Art to illustrate his lessons on design. I wish I had read his book before I picked up that bamboo brush. Now I am seeing that experience with new eyes and enjoying the feel of black ink and rice paper again.
