Summarized
By Paul Dinwiddie
Without exception, all great two dimensional works of art employ four key elements. They are composition, color, craftsmanship, and content.
Creating a successful composition involves first knowing the basic rules:
Next we must understand that if a composition does not make a point or tell a story, it is simply boring. This is true in all art forms: the visual arts, music, theater, literature, etc., etc. How well the story is told will determine the degree of impact the composition has on its participant.
Color has 4 characteristics that we must fully comprehend and employ in order to create a great composition: value, temperature, hue and chroma. The value of a color has to do with where it fits on the gray scale. A color’s temperature is relative to the colors next to it. However, being able to control this relative temperature is a vital issue. The color’s hue is where it fits on the color wheel: red, blue, yellow, or, orange, green, purple. A color’s chroma has to do with its intensity of pure hue versus—does the hue tend toward brown or gray—we call these broken colors.
The most important of these characteristics is value. Have you ever seen one of the tests for colorblindness? The values of the colors are all the same, and if you are colorblind you are unable to make out the image. The value of the color is what we see first. Second to value is temperature. The skillful use of color temperature is a powerful element in a work of fine art. A color’s hue is by no means unimportant. The hues will set the mood, but without controlling value and temperature the hues will become insignificant as the work will fail. Chroma is last on list, but by no means unimportant. Many great artists use mostly low key (or low chroma) colors for the majority of their compositions and then skillfully place small amounts of high key (high chroma) color. This technique is extremely helpful in controlling the center of interest.
Craftsmanship has to do with the level of mastery artists have over their medium and the ability to skillfully employ one's tools. Good habits of craftsmanship occur at the intersection of knowledge, skill, and desire.
Without content (or subject matter) a work of art is simply an exercise in design; being similar to a composition with no focal point, no subject, no interest. Great works of art all have great subject matter. Tell me something great about your subject. It can be tranquil or dramatic, agonizing or ecstatic, beautiful or beastly. A great painting must have content.