What’s so important about composition anyways?
When you are creating an illustration for public exhibition, the composition can mean everything. As scientific illustrators, we strive to weave a narrative into our work. This is easily done if you are creating a poster or a figure for a book and you have text to fill in the blanks. What about if you are creating something that is more along the lines of fine art? How do you tell a story and create something that will catch the eye of the viewer in the gallery? This is where the elements of composition come into play.
GNSI-NE’s very own Susan Stranz will be conducting a lecture on composition for public exhibition. She will be focusing on the guidelines for submission to fine art shows and the general rules of composition for public exhibition. Her lecture will be accompanied by images that demonstrate the principles of composition. Following the lecture, Susan has offered to hold an open critique session for anyone who is currently creating a piece for an exhibit. For those of you who are creating a piece for the Mass Migrations Exhibit in November, this may be a great time to get some valuable feedback on your composition. Bring your work-in-progress, bring your sketches, bring a notebook, if you haven’t even started yet bring your reference materials. Let’s all get together and have a brainstorm of creative inspiration!
Schedule
9:30 AM – 10 AM Open social time. Coffee or tea and light refreshments will be provided.
10 AM Lecture starts and the Open Critique Session will immediately follow the lecture.
Recording of the lecture is now on our new YouTube Channel!
This is our very first lecture recording, so there are some technical issues, but we wanted to share it for those members who could not join us in person. Please note, the first hour of the lecture does not have much visual content, as Susan was discussing the points of composition that we would be studying in the second half of the lecture. The second half of the lecture features the discussion of numerous paintings selected by Susan to help illustrate the compositional elements she discussed in the first half. These will get better as we do more of them, promise! The first time is never a complete success.
