One of the most important thing that art students need to learn is making original compositions. It is not enough to find an image that they like and simply draw it, rather they should be looking for ways to transform it and make it their own. Often a single image thatisfound is not sufficient to convey the concept that they have devised. A good place to start is to combine two or more images together to create a unique composition.
I introduce this skill to them in conjunction with the technique of gridding.
I start with a simple theme that they need to conceptualize: A ROOM IN MY MIND. here they need to decide on a space/ room that is meaningful to them or represents them in some way. They the need to fill the room/ space with various objects that further their concept of themselves.
There are many ways that a composition can be merged. The first is to resize the images using a photocopier and physically cut them out and stick them in. Although this is pretty "old school" some learners prefer this method.
Another method is to go digital. Using programmes such as Gimp or Photoshop to do this. I recommend Gimp to my learners as it is a free software and is easy to use and very effective for the purposes of photo editing.
Using these methods they then create their original composition.
Gridding is an effective way to enlarge an image whilst maintaining correct proportions.
Here are my tips on gridding:
* begin by measuring the length and breadth of your image. Make note of these measurements.
* Measure the length and breadth of your sketch paper
* Remeber that when gridding you must always work with perfect squares.
*Take the measurements for your image and find a common denominator between the measurements for length and breadth. Eg 1 cm
* Work outhowany blocks you have for both the length and breadth. Eg10 downby 14 across
* Using the measurements of your sketch pad find a common denominator for the length and breadth, that will allow you to have the same amount of blocks as the image, but on a larger scale. Eg 4 cm blocks
* Draw your grid onto both the image and the sketch pad. Marking both the top and bottom to ensure accurate, straight lines.
* Begin sketching- block by block- all the outlines of the image.