Class demo Thursday

Waiting for the "last 5 strokes".

Here is the class demonstration from today's lesson. As I told my students, it's about 98% finished. The first time I confront a new subject I will work out an initial composition, then see where it takes me.  The reference photos are for inspiration but not to copy verbatim.  Usually, I will have made a value plan. Without a value plan, I am leaning on my experience. For a panoramic format like this I will use the steelyard type of composition. 

Balancing the composition: If you imagine visual interest as having weight, the trees have less "weight" than the buildings, so it takes a greater length of them as a counterbalance. I will need a small dark shape somewhere in the lower left quadrant to balance the large collection of buildings on the center/right. Its just like a lighter child who must sit further from the fulcrum of a see-saw to balance a heavier child. The fulcrum is seldom in the middle because most of the time artists are deliberately balancing a heavier mass with a lighter one. That is an artistic balance of unequal parts or asymmetrical balance.

Check back in a day or two for "the last five strokes". Feel free to write and tell me what you would have done.