Sketch Book for the Artist

PLANTS

AND

GARDENS

Cropping and Composition

MANY STUDENTS WILL START a drawing in the middle of the

paper. Focused on the shape and detail of their subject, they

remain happily unaware that there is, or should be, any

relationship between what they are drawing and the surface

they are drawing it on. The paper is only paper, and the

troublesome subject floats somewhere in the expanse of it.

However, a single fig drawn in the middle of a large,

empty square of paper gives quite a different impression

from the same fig drawn on such an intimately small square

that its skin nearly touches the boundary. The meaning of the

same drawing changes simply by its relationship to the space

it occupies. The size of any subject, its placement on the

page, the size of the page, and its overall proportion are all

discrete and essential aspects of successful picture-making.

Before you begin to draw, think carefully about where to

place your subject. Are you are happy with your paper? If not,

change it; add more, take some away, or turn it around. Do

not just accept what you are given, adapt it to what you need.

CHOOSING A VIEW

A Single Fig

"The size, shape, and orientation of the paper are so integral to the

composition that they determine the impact and meaning of the drawing."