This is a useful resource for on the subject of composition. It's for artists, beginner to advanced. If you can't quite grasp the subject, this is a good book to start with.

Ian Roberts is a great teacher and you can tell from the clear breakdown on the subject, making it easy for understand what makes a good composition. He also provides numerous drawing tips as well, like the basic mistakes to avoid, control of edges, and helpful exercises to train the mind to see and think about composition.

The book covers the common armatures which are the basic structure behind every composition. There are also lessons on cropping and framing using values and colour shape.

The lessons are illustrated by lots of examples, mostly painted by himself. They are mostly landscapes, still life, and a tiny bit on portrait. The painting demonstrations included are very detailed, down to the type of colours used.

The accompanying DVD shows examples of the techniques that are used to improve composition, before and after the changes were made. You can see how even little color changes can affect composition. These are also lessons in the book which are presented in the video.

Highly recommended to all artists.

Mastering Composition: Techniques and Principles to Dramatically Improve Your Painting is available at Amazon (US | CA | UK | DE | FR | IT | JP) and Book Depository (US | UK).

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This book is also available for the Kindle. The ebook is in colour, but the Kindle 3, unfortunately, can only display grayscale. You can check out the format of the sample ebook on Amazon.

Looking at a painting from the old masters showing how composition is used.

Some of the common armatures used for composition.

Tips on making your drawing more visually engaging.

A detailed step by step demonstration.

A lesson on understanding values.

Looking at various ways of cropping an image.

Drawing tips.

Planning before painting.

Understanding colours, its properties and how to mix them.

A series of examples showing how subtle changes can affect what the eye sees.

Another detailed demonstration.

The book ends with a gallery with selected paintings of some artists.

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This book is available at:
Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.de | Amazon.fr | Amazon.it | Amazon.co.jp | Bookdepository.com | Bookdepository.co.uk