Art of composition covers six essential principles

Dear friends,

Among all the components of visual arts, such as painting and calligraphy, composition, which is the organization of all the elements of painting into a cohesive design, is the most fundamental.

To achieve line and color comparable to that of the great masters is not an impossible task, for excellent line quality and comparable skill in other elements of painting can be mastered in time. However, the grasp of composition may take a lifetime to attain.

Usually, an outstanding artwork, whether painting or calligraphy, surpasses another mainly in the way the artist organized the design and not because his painting technique was vastly superior.

The art of composition encompasses six essential principles:

* Host and guests concept

In Chinese art, the major form in a composition is referred to as the "host" and the "guests" play a secondary role, mainly to balance that major point of interest. However, the guests are not insignificant. On the contrary, they are necessary, as essential as the leaves to a flower.

In a landscape, the mountain form would be the host, whereas a cascade, trees, a hut, travelers, would all be considered as the guests, the subordinate objects.

In a composition, the first step is to decide where, in the picture plane, to plant the host, which often will be the action line; then, where the rest of the form, which carry lesser weight, should be arranged to balance or render contrast to the main form.

This holds true in calligraphy, also. (For example, see Fig. 46, 47.). Needless to say, the host should occupy a commanding post, otherwise the result would be like "noisy guests overpowering the host."

The famous poet painter Wang Wei of the T'ang period (7th century) once stated in his Treatise On Landscape: "Arrange the proper position of Host and Guests; set in order the posture of the peaks."

A well-known artist of the 10th century, Li Cheng, echoed this same view in an article, The Secret of Painting Landscape: "In painting landscapes, the first thing is to decide the location between the host and the guests; next, to arrange the relations between the near and the far; afterwards, to set forth the objects in the scenery, and adjust the forms in higher and lower parts."

This was reiterated in the eleventh century by the great landscape master Kuo Hsi of the Sung period (1020 - 1090) in his painting High Inspiration in Woods and Springs: "In painting landscape first mind the large mountain, called the leading peak; once established, then, the near, the far, the little ones and the big ones."

* Depth of Perspective

As has been described in the section on space-consciousness, the Chinese concept of perspective, unlike the scientific view of the West, is an idealistic or suprarealistic approach, so that one can depict more than can be seen with the naked eye.

The composition is in a ladder of planes, or two-dimensional or flat perspective.

* Mi and Shu, or Density and Looseness

An effective composition cannot be too well organized or too scattered. Without a contrast of density (Mi) and looseness (Shu), a picture will appear too flat and lack any sense of depth (see Fig. 66). On the other hand, with adequate arrangement of the dense and loose, the composition becomes well organized and will naturally give a feeling of depth (see Fig. 67).

How can we achieve the effect of Mi?

Mi is actually a cluster of anything, such as grapes, foliage, etc. The only way to accomplish this effect is to employ the overlapping technique. For example, when one sees a bamboo grove, one can only see the leaves in front of him, yet he knows that there are many, many leaves behind those. Some of them are partially covered but there are still more, entirely hidden.

Only with this type of vision can one see the whole bamboo bush in-the-round or in a three-dimensional shape, rather than as a flat plane. Therefore, in order to paint something so as to avoid flatness, overlapping must be used to solve the problem, that is, one must superimpose one group of leaves upon another grouping. This process may be repeated so as to achieve a deeper or tighter area, which is called Mi, or density.

The terms Shu and Mi may also be interpreted as hollow (Hsu) and solid (Shih). This explanation suggests the solution to the problem of how to attain the contrasting effect of Sho and Mi.

(To be continued.)

-- Kwo Da-Wei