Group composition

Me and my college friends had been told to create a composition from the paintings we had created the week before. First of all we chose out our favorite and most interesting parts of our paintings which we thought would look well in the composition. When we had decided on a layout for the composition which took a while we cut out the parts we would use within our painting. Then we began pinning our pictures on the wall in the layout we had sketched out. When we looked at it on the wall in the layout we had chosen we began thinking on how we could use our pictures to make the audience engage with our painting. We then started juggling the pictures around to see how where the focal point would go and worked around our color scheme so our composition wouldn't make the audience stare into space as we wanted to pull the audience in. This took us a fair amount of time to final come to an agreement.

After we spent our time deciding on a final composition layout we started by priming the canvas with a light blue paint which was liquefied with water. Once the base was near of enough dried we started on the background of the swirls. We all participated in this. Everyone kind of did there own thing using whatever colors they wanted and ended up swerving from the color scheme. In the end of the swirls I noticed Eleanor's brightly colored ones. I love how bright her swirls came out as she used inks and paint an thought it was a great part of the work we had done so far.

So far all the had was some pretty swirls and it felt as if we was going to end up with a composition with no 'oomph' in. We then moved onto the key element to our composition which was the jagged black lines with the orange in the middle. We all started to begin applying the two black jagged lines into the middle of the canvas. Whilst doing this we had some disagreements and agreements whether to blend the lines out or to keep the sharp. Preferably I wanted them blended as I could see the composition turning into a landscape. We ended up with a mix. Whilst working on the black lines Emma started adding blue ink to black and blending it in and leaving some to bleed. I loved the blue with the black it made the canvas pop out more and grabbed my attention to it.

Once the black was finished with the started on the middle part of the lines. We began by splatter and smudging yellow and red paint. Once we had finished covering the middle we attached the canvas to the wall and stood back to evaluate our work. We found some points of the composition we didn't think stood out and what could be added and improved. In the end we added more color into the middle of our composition to brighten it up. Also we added some trees and a moon at the top of the painting to turn it into something more recognizable.

Overall I really enjoyed this task. It taught me how to compromise well with other students and gave me more confidence to share my opinions. There is a few things I would change about this painting, such as the trees at the top as I would of liked them to of been more blended in with the black. Despite to fact of this I think the painting we have created is a strong piece of work and enjoyed my time doing it.


Artists and the relations:

Whilst we was in the middle of our composition our painting reminded Jon of John Martins work. John Martin became publicly acclaimed in 1816 with his piece 'Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still upon Gibeon' even though this piece broke many rules of composition. Even though he fired up the Pre-Raphaelites especially Rossetti a Pre-Raphaelites poet John Martin had also gained a few followers and fans such as Thomas Cole, Rider Haggard, Jules Verne and even the French Romantic movement were influenced by him. 

I do enjoy some of John Martins work such as The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah 1852 and The Destruction of Pompei and Herculaneum 1822.