Action and Composition
Having sketched your study with pencil or brush, consider it well. Is the composition lop-sided? Have you crowded too much into one place? Have you left a space crying aloud for some attention, though it be but a few short strokes of the pencil or brush?
Turn your drawing upside down. Look at the picture as a pattern, regardless of other interest, and try to consider it as such. Or, again, collect a number of small objects, a few vases, ornaments, shells, ribbons, books, hats, balls, gloves, candles (and candle-shades), and, arranging those which harmonize together in groups, make swift sketches merely for the sake of arranging patterns, of practising composition.
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| Fig. 102. An Oblong Composition |
Whether we wish to push on our studies and become eventually professional artists, or whether we only intend to amuse ourselves by sketching now and again, we shall certainly have to give attention to these considerations.
If you are a professional artist, the space that you intend to fill with pen or pencil bulks very largely on your horizon. If you illustrate stories for magazines, or for books, then the arrangement, or composition, demands a great deal of thought. The editor or publisher specifies the number of square inches allotted for your picture, and it is by no means an easy task to fill that space satisfactorily.
If portraiture is your special forte, then it is essential to arrange the composition so that it fills the canvas and paper pleasantly. Sometimes I have seen portraits arranged with so little care that the unfortunate subjects seem to be slipping out of the picture.
