Line in Composition - Before You Paint

    First and foremost Andrew Loomis is king! A great illustrator, painter and art professor, his greatest contribution to the world, by far, was his ability to teach what he knew about Illustration, painting, and design. He was the Shakespeare of explanation of how to do it and the thought behind design. He put it into words and nobody can say it better. He put his knowledge into concise, finite terms to explain the unsurpassed, visual examples he created to generously share with his students and the world his expertise. His words, his approach, his concepts of design are so definitive, he is quoted around the world. Because he had, and still has, such an influence on how and in what terms art professionals, art professors, and art directors think, and speak, he is no longer copyrighted. Once studied, his words come out of their mouths so frequently in explanation simply because there is no better way of saying it. Loomas volumed his oral and visual definitions and his approach to design, color, and composition into textbooks, and dedicated the books, giving them to the future. Andrew Loomis books are out of print, but his words breathe their way into other experts' books and teachings to appear as fresh and divine as the first day he put his brain synapsing art down on paper. To explain line is to embody the teachings of Andrew Loomis and what he made line mean to us, and pass it on. So if I quote him, while explaining, it is no small wonder! 

Here is some of what he put in my brain mixed in with what line means to me. Please take it and use it and become part of the cognescenti. 

Line as Composition 

    

Compositional line's functions in art are to convey it's own intrinsic beauty, direct the eye over a given course, and to arrange, and to create design. As your teacher, I cannot make you do anything, you are not willing to do, no matter if it would instantly make you a superior artist. However I am going to do my very best to underscore how important line is, right here, right now. LINE IS THE ROAD TO SUCCESS AND THE WAY IS CLEAR! JUST CONSIDER LINE BEFORE EVERY PAINTING. MAKE A 3-5 LINE PLAN AND FOLLOW IT.  TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO REALIZE HOW IMPORTANT LINE IS, PLEASE: 

 Before you start any work of art, think of your piece in terms of line in the following manner:

• You cannot escape line. 
• All line should have function and purpose.
• Line is composition in it's simplest identity.
• All composition reduces to line, therefore you cannot escape line. 
• So regardless of what you do or don't do, line exists in your piece of art and it is either good line or bad line that controls the success of your work.
• If you do not like the line of your painting's composition, then you will not like your finished product. (No, matter how well you do with the rest of it.)
• Decide and fix the line now,before you make a single mark on your canvas or surface. Follow your plan!  

    So, if line is in your painting no matter what, why not take a few minutes before each painting and plan, follow your plan, and be successful from the beginning. Because, no matter how good you get at painting, you'll always have to copy someone else's successful art , or copy successful photos to make an appealing painting,  in which you can still mess up the composition if you don't recognise theirs; or if you paint originals, you can instead be frequently disappointed, be non-advancing in your endeavors because your composition sucks, or worse, give up, all because you don't want to take 15-30 minutes to plan before you dedicate time to an otherwise loser painting. Is that strong enough, for students to get passed their laziness or their egos? In the least, it will set you apart from others if you decide to plan or not plan. Maybe if you force yourself to remember that a good composition can sell your painting, over a painting by someone else who has much more painting ability than you do, when their painting has a bad composition compared to yours. so people like yours better.

     To remember you must plan in order to be successful remember this always: You cannot escape line: it's going to be there whether you plan it or not, and odds are if you don't plan it, it's going to be worse than you hoped for.

    In Lesson 2 - Part Two, You will take the first step to understanding the complexities of  composition. This first step is HUGE but so, very, very simple, with HUGE results. Understand Composition using the brevity of line, which is coincidentally the first step to art analysis and developing the ability to constructively criticize your work, so you know what you should do next in your artwork, how to finish and how to know when you are done.