Text d Guide on Choosing the Appropriate Format When You Design a Drawing or Painting

When you design a drawing or painting, the shape of the surface you work on plays an important role in composition. Once you pick one, all subsequent composition takes place within that particular shape. This shape is called the 'format'. When you consciously choose the format of a work to suit the subject matter, it serves as another element that leads to a successful painting.

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A painting can take on different looks with each format.

The art formats that artists commonly use include rectangles, squares, circles and ovals. Sometimes you will see free-form shapes as well, but by far the majority of artists use rectangular and square formats.

Your goal in coming up with a good composition is to first arrange all the pictorial elements in an interesting manner within your chosen format. All the other elements—shapes, lines, value, and colors—are placed in relationship to the frame. It is important to plan your painting inside a frame similar to the shape of the canvas you are going to use.

When you design a drawing, it is helpful to use a two piece viewfinder to frame your subjects. By using the two free flowing pieces of the viewfinder border, you can quickly come up with a pleasing format, and this will give you an idea of the length to width ratio you need for your canvas.

For example, if your viewfinder leads you to choose a rectangular canvas with a ratio of roughly 3:4, then, when you shop for a canvas, a standard 18”x 24” (44cm x 59cm) size might be what you are looking for.

When working out the framing for your composition, it is best to sketch out your painting first, and then draw the borders around it.

The rectangular format is very versatile in designing a drawing. It can be aligned either horizontally or vertically. A vertical rectangular format lends itself well to portraits, tall buildings, still lifes or any subject where you want to emphasize its height.

A horizontal rectangular format is great for landscapes, still life, and even portraits, depending on how you plan the composition.

A square format is, as you might expect, a sort of compromise between horizontally and vertically aligned rectangular formats. It has many practical uses, so if you get stuck trying to decide which format to use, then try a square. I find that it can add some interesting effects to otherwise “boring” predictable rectangular shapes. It also gives a more 'contemporary' flair to your painting.

The bottom line is: always keep the format in mind when you design a drawing or painting.

Exercise 23. Translate the following extracts from the texts in written form. They are given here to show how composition is spoken about in art books.

 1. The children seem to be in a real, though rather grand … Hogarth has painted a black and white floor, like a chess board. One of its functions is to make clear how the figures are arranged in the space of the room. The three girls stand more or less on the diagonal black squares while the boy has his feet on the white square near the middle of the space left over. This is one way in which the boy … is singled out from his sisters by the artist. (William Hogarth. Graham Children. From: Looking at Pictures in the Tate Gallery with Michael Compton. Guidebook, p.6).

 2. Rubens’ compositions are asymmetrical, governed by a complex, dynamic rhythm, the figures often being shown foreshortened in violent action, chiaroscuro playing a leading part throughout. (From: How to Speak about Art in English. M.Falkovich. M., 1976, p.197).

 3. Stubbs seems to want to let you see all the good points of the horses and therefore he has arranged them so that they do not overlap and hide one another. But at the same time, he has painted each one in a different pose and from a different angle in order to show off his skill, to create a more interesting picture and make it look more natural. The horses seem to be looking at one another and form a group like people talking together. There is a beautiful landscape but Stubbs has kept it mostly low down and without strong colours so that it does not distract attention from the horses. (From: Looking at Pictures in the Tate Gallery with Michael Compton. Guidebook, p.8).

 4. In the Night Watch the composition is tilted to give a three-dimensional effect. The group is arranged as a triangle but the central figure is projected toward the spectator and accentuated by being strongly lit. (Rembrandt. Night Watch. From: How to Speak …).