Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Red Jazz and Composition


"red jazz" sketch 3.75x5.75 in.



   "red jazz" final painting. 3x4 ft.


This is one of the more recent paintings that I finished for my good friend Matt Mcginnis. I started this piece about a year ago and applied several layers of compositions. This is the final one.


Solving the composition problem in this piece was my main concern. I had learned from a friend attending Art Center College of Design that a little trick to creating a successful composition was to fit your main subjects into a triangle. As you can see, the whole band is fitted into a single triangle shape. I'm not quite sure why this works, but if you take a look at some of the greatest works from old masters like Da Vinci all the way down to contemporary illustrators like James Jean, a lot of their work consists of triangular compositions. Try it! Photography, Illustration, Fine Art, etc., this composition rule works.

2 comments:

  1. I really like it. Many of your pieces dealing with jazz or just musical instruments used in jazz groups/ensembles and etc. really capture the feeling of the music for me. Great job Magnus.

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  2. Nice hint about compositions. I'll steal it for my students.....

    Beautiful work in your summer show, too! All three of you!

    FYI
    I am finding that your website pictures take forever to load. You might consider taking them down somewhat in resolution. People can't wait that long.

    xoxox

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