Staging and Lighting

Staging

Staging enables a good composition by creating clarity within a scene to achieve an easier understanding of the overall image and its expressed emotions. The relation of negative space, the area surrounding objects, to positive space, the objects themselves, will enhance the overall composition and readability of the image by guiding the viewer’s eye. (Bacher, H. 2007. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation. Focal Press)

 Images from Bacher, H. 2007. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation. Focal Press

Staging with Characters

There is a trick to get the perspective right with characters not entirely in the picture. One must adjust the characters to the character with visible ground contact to make it look correct. Therefore use the horizon-level of the painting and place the new character at the same size relation following the perspective grid.

 Image from Bacher, H. 2007. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation. Focal Press

Staging with Shapes and Positive/Negative Space

Images from Bacher, H. 2007. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation. Focal Press

Staging and Lighting to Create Atmospheric Scenes

Images from Bacher, H. 2007. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation. Focal Press

Lighting

Lighting can be used to tell a story or draw the viewers attention. Basically it is a category of colours as lighting is merely a lighter colour/value to its surrounding. But with the portrayal of different sorts of lighting one can produce very atmospheric scenes and art pieces. Lighting defines the mood of a painting further and can be used as a staging guidance and amplifier. 

Lighting Behaviour on Diverse Materials

Image by Sam Nielson (http://www.artsammich.blogspot.co.uk/)

The Importance of Value

In art one has the freedom to arrange values. The placement and arrangement of these values depends on the desired outcome. Value creates contrast between objects and is able to create a theme. It also helps the staging of characters or scenes in general. Therefore experimentation with value should occur to find out the best possible solution in the creation of depth and atmosphere. 

Beneath are some examples of how value works and helps clarify the scene. The images are from the book "Dream Worlds". (Bacher, H. 2007. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation. Focal Press)

Images from "Dream Worlds"

Despite having a very simple composition and staging the value changes the mood in each version. Value is something that should be planned from the very beginning of a painting as it allows the painting to build onto the atmosphere and mood.  

Images from "Dream Worlds"

In the paragraph beneath Hans Bacher explains once more the importance of value and how it acts as a foundation for the colour, as guidance as one might say.

 

                       Images from "Dream Worlds"

How to Create Glowing Objects with Value

Dan dos Santos wrote a nice article on how to create a glowing effect through value. There are different methods to create such a glowing effect, for example one could use complementary colours for instance (see more under the post "Colour Theory"), but what if you have a different design in your head where the surrounding colours are similar to the colour that's supposed to glow?

In that case saturation can do the trick. Value and saturation control are a very important aspect in painting. Dan dos Santos describes his process here: http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.at/2012/10/not-so-bright.html

Image by Dan Dos Santos

"By placing the darkest values right in the pupils of the eye, I made the whites appear much whiter than they really are. Even at the drawing phase, the whites of the eyes already appear whiter than the board they are drawn on. This is obviously impossible (and in fact they are actually a little bit darker than the board), but our eyes perceive it otherwise. Go ahead, zoom in on the image above. You would swear the eyes are whiter than the rest of the image, but they are not." (Dan dos Santos 2012)

Image by Dan dos Santos

The trick is to paint all surrounding colours a bit darker and greyer than one usually would. The duller one paints things, the more the object, in this case the eyes, stand out.

The Rules of Composition

Composition guides the viewer's eye. During the compositional stage artists determine important areas in a painting use lines to lead the viewer to them. The arrangement of shapes play an important factor as well as colour. Despite many artists using intuition to compose their artwork, a few important elements such as Rhythm, Balance and Unity are to be found.

Rhythm
Rhythm helps guide the eye through the artwork. It can be seen as a method to organize the painting. There are two basic types of rythm, the dynamic and the controlled type.
The dynamic impression is created through diagonal lines, patches and varying spaces between shapes and creates a sense of activity.

If the spaces are repetitive and even, the painting is dominated by vertical and horizontal lines and the colours are analogous the composition tends to have a more controlled and static pattern.  

Balance

Again two contrasting aspects can be used to describe balance best; symmetrical or asymmetrical. Balance can be achieved through 

the arrangement of shapes and colours. Important to realize is that regardless if its symmetrical or asymmetrical, the artwork will still be balanced in some way.

Unity
This element can be described as the consistency among the various elements to create a unifying art piece. This can for example be achieved by using colour schemes to guide the eye around and also unify the picture.
A further facet of unity is the feeling of “completion.”  In an unified artwork no part can be added or subtracted without destroying the whole.

So now lets have a look at some example compositions. "Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation" has a nice section on composition and depicts the different compositional structures and layouts precisely. The following images are from the book Dream Worlds. (Bacher, H. 2007. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation. Focal Press)

Afterword: Sometimes Less is More

A complicated composition is not always the best solution in art. Simplicity can be stronger than a cluttered or complicated composition due to its effectiveness.

”Simplicity does not imply starkness. A simple composition is economical in use of line, form, mass and movement; includes only one center of interest; has a unified style which harmoniously integrates camera angles, lighting, tonal and color values” (Mascelli, J. 1998. The Five C's of Cinematography: Motion Picture Filming Techniques. Scb Distributors.)

Consequently everything decreasing the pictures effectiveness should be removed since it has no real purpose and only distracts.

Colour Theory

Colour is the element of art that is produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye.

Hue

There are three properties to colour. First is hue, which simply means the name we give to a colour (red, yellow, blue, etc.).

Intensity

The second property is intensity, which refers to the strength and vividness of the colour. For example, we may describe the colour blue as "royal" (bright, rich, vibrant) or "dull" (grayed).

Value

The third and final property of colour is its value, meaning its lightness or darkness. The terms shade and tint are in reference to value changes in colours. (http://arthistory.about.com/cs/glossaries/g/c_color.htm)

Complementary Colours

“Most of you probably understand the concepts of contrast when it comes to value and complementary colors. For instance, if you want something white to stand out, surround it by black. Likewise, if you want something blue to stand out, surround it by orange. But there are many other means of contrast, and in this case, saturation is doing the heavy lifting.” Dan dos Santos (http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.at/2012/10/not-so-bright.html)

Relativity

Different results can be achieved by adjusting the intensity, hue or value/tone. Relativity is one of the most important aspects of colour theory. Make a colour bright and saturated by surrounding it with dull colours.

As Matisse and Kandinsky explain, colour acts as an important factor in the creation of specific moods in artwork. Hereby “the cultural background plays a significant role” (Bacher 2007). Nevertheless similar rules are applicable in many parts of the world as “certain cool colors calm down the emotions, while hot colors create aggression in emotions” (Bacher 2007). Through their combination different moods and atmospheres are created. 

Harmonic Colour Schemes

(Images from Bacher, H. 2007. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation. Focal Press)

High Contrast Colour Schemes

(Images from Bacher, H. 2007. Dream Worlds: Production Design for Animation. Focal Press)

Colour Expressing Emotions

Matisse and Kandinsky describe colour as an important factor in the creation of specific moods in artwork. Hereby “the cultural background plays a significant role” (Bacher 2007). Nevertheless similar rules are applicable in many parts of the world as “certain cool colours calm down the emotions, while hot colours create aggression in emotions” (Bacher 2007). Through their combination different moods and atmospheres are created.

While Matisse chooses colour independently from scientific theory and bases his choice "on observation, on sensitivity, on felt experience” (Flam And Matisse 1995). The concept of applying colour without connection to the subject matter is an interesting approach. Kandinsky even takes it a step further by describing colour as a powerful tool to directly influence the soul and create great emotional effects (Kandinsky 1977).