Composition Class Homework

barrymcw.com/blog/2013/7/21/composition-class-homework

July 22, 2013

Blog
Like everyone else, I don't update it enough.

I'm taking a composition & layout class at LAAFA, taught by Bill Perkins. We're just one week in
but it promises to be great.

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First week's homework was black & white, or Notan, studies of a couple paintings of our own
choosing. It's a great exercise & it's one that pops up in many painting/composition classes.
Time permitting, I'll keep doing one or two of these a week, just to get the mileage in & get me
really, really studying paintings (as opposed to simply looking at them).

It's a hard assignment. I'm not doing it digitally at all, no Photoshop cleanup other than Levels
and it's really tough copying the layout & proportions properly. I'm likely rushing them and it's
pretty clear that several are pretty off when it comes to their proportions. Still, they're making
me think and plan out my marks, which is key. It's also hard dropping these to only two values.
Three values would make most of these read much better, but that's not the assignment.

Because I want to do animation layout, background paint & vis dev, I picked a mix of old master
paintings & contemporary animation bgs.

Enjoy mes amis.

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