Creating Impactful Compositions
from Mitch Baird
Mitch Baird discusses the concept of clearly stated masses in painting, emphasizing the importance of understanding and presenting these masses to create a strong and impactful painting. He gives an example of scenes in Colorado to illustrate the impact of clearly identifiable masses and suggests that artists should focus on four or five masses to create a cohesive composition. Clear and concise masses help set up spatial and atmospheric perspectives in an image, and artists should evaluate the strength of masses in a potential subject to determine its potential as a successful painting.
This is a simple concept that sometimes doesn’t register with us, or we don’t think about it before starting a painting. This is the idea of clearly stated masses. When we have an image, there are masses within the scene or image we are using that crate the design or interest in the painting by their arrangement. Of course, we have the leeway to place the arrangement, but we need to have a solid understanding or representation of the masses in the scene. Otherwise, it just won’t have strength. Or, we will have to create the strength ourselves to make it a strong painting. This is why some images or subjects are beautiful, but they don’t necessarily make a great painting.
“The more we can hold onto a strong structure of masses, the stronger impact the images and our paintings are going to be.”
The demo below is from an area in Colorado that Mitch had been hiking around. The image directly below has everything that is plausible in creating and seeing a beautiful scene. Mitch was initially struck by the color and by the shadows cast on the back mountain. But, we really need to break it down into masses. We have the tree in the front that is a strong mass and overlaps, then you have the mass on the side of the mountain that identifies as the diagonal hillside. Then, you have the ground plane that lays below. Then, we have another mountain and tree line on the mountain. Now, these masses are everything we would need for a great painting or image making. The problem is that none of them are really showing up as a strong, identified mass. Everything is lost in soft edges, the same value, and they are lacking contrast. Even aside from contrast, just looking at the image, everything merges and blurs. It is very hard to identity strong masses in this image.
Now, look at the next image below. Mitch hiked out around 150 yards to the right of where the photo above was taken. You can see the trees below have contrast, but even more so, take a look at the masses. The masses, as you notice, are larger. Now, look what happens to the mass behind the trees. We can see a strong shape and mass with the hillside and cliffside. Then, we see a strong mass in the ground plane. Then, there is another large mass behind the trees to the right. These are all each more identifiable and stronger in their statement. So, we know where the masses begin and end. We want to pick usually four or five masses in creating a painting to give the painting strength. So, when you look at both images, they both have all of the elements that make a great painting, right? The difference is, the elements aren’t strong enough on the image above, aside from the value. The ground plane and the hillside and mountains don’t have clear, identifiable masses like the image below.
The more we can hold onto a strong structure of masses, the stronger impact the images and our paintings are going to be. Masses identify what we are looking at and help set up both spatial and atmospheric perspective. So, when you have an image ready, you really have to ask yourself if it will truthfully make a great painting. The one at the top of his post has great elements, but we would have to change a lot of the scene ourselves to make it a great painting. The lower image has masses that line up in a way that communicates them much easier. When you are going through your references, you need to be aware of the effect of the reference vs. if it actually makes a strong compositional statement. We have to have something that identifies and gives our scene a strong, concise ,and clear message. 80% of the time, it comes down to if the masses are working and communicating an image that deserves to be painted. Even when you are out photographing, be sure to look for clear, concise masses that will make sense.
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