Tag Archives: elements of composition

Introduction to Thread Painting Course begins April 1.

Excitement is building as the start date for my new online class is fast approaching. Introduction to Thread Painting begins April 1. That’s next week and there are still a few spaces available.

Additionally, in the coming months, I will begin Color & Composition courses, and will offer Coaching Sessions, along with free behind the scenes content for all to enjoy.

I feel strongly that connection is essential to successful learning, and hope to build a vibrant, sharing community where creators feel emboldened to learn and apply new skills and concepts. If this appeals to you, read on to find more details about each of my offerings…

Introduction to Thread Painting will begin April 1.

-Course includes 12 lessons that increase in difficulty and complexity to help you build yourstitching skills.

-Each lesson includes an instructional video, lesson notes, support materials, and ideas for further exploration.

–Because I believe face-to-face contact is so important to learning: All participants are invited to join a weekly video check-in with Lea on Wednesday evening, or Saturday afternoon.

-A new lesson becomes available each Monday for 12 weeks, with an additional 4 weeks access to all course materials.

-The cost of the course for Beta testers is $180. That is just $15/lesson

To learn more CLICK HERE

Color & Composition courses-Coming soon!

-Learn to use color with confidence by gaining an understanding of color theory and elements of composition.

-There is so much information to cover on these topics that it will be divided into 2 courses. Color & Composition I will be available in June 2024, and Color & Composition II be offered in January 2025.

-Each class meets for a 2-hour online video session once a month for 6 months.

-Each session features an in-depth look at a color scheme, a concept related to color, and another related to composition, along with ideas for further creative exploration.

-Participants will respond to monthly challenges and share their work at the next meeting where we will celebrate and give feedback as requested.

-This is meant to be a very nurturing experience that provides inspiration and encouragement, while celebrating experimentation and artistic exploration.

To learn more about this, and other upcoming courses and offerings, CLICK HERE

Individual and Group Coaching Sessions available in the coming months.

-This is an opportunity to talk through iussues or obstacles encountered inyour creative process related to color, design, composition, or execution.

-Advice and guidance is also available related to submitting to competitions and exhibitions, publishing, and teaching about your work.

-Sessions are offered for 30 or 60 minutes via video conferencing.

-These are single session events, so no long tern commitment.

-Sessions are suitable for individuals, or a small group working on a single project.

If you want more information on Coaching Sessions, CLICK HERE to add your name to the waitlist, and you’ll receive notice and more details as they become available.

Positive and Negative Space in Art Quilting

Effectively using positive and negative space is key to creating compelling art quilt compositions.

Positive space is the area of the composition that is happening, or of interest

Negative space is the area around the positive space, and the area that is NOT happening, often referred to as “The Resting Space”

You can’t have one without the other, and both serve attention.

Manage Positive & Negative Space in Art

Negative space doesn’t have to be boring to be effective. It is possible to focus the eye and draw attention to the positive space, but not waste the negative space.

In my portrait quilts, I often create the figure, then audition it on several backgrounds to see what works best. White space worked well for my tribute to Malala, but something with more color and visual texture was needed to offset the solid mass of the figure in Busy Signal.

Portrait of Malala wearing a red scarf. Negative space is created with a white background. A Islamic floral border of blue and red flowers with green leaves. The center text is a quote by Malala Yousafzai, "With guns you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism.

Malala, by Lea McComas, 30″ x 50″, 2019.

Mottled and textural print fills the negative space to contrast with the bold figure irepresented with solid spaces.

Busy Signal, 25 in x 36
2017.

Auditions for Negative Space

Selecting appropriate fabric for negative space in your art is a skill that can be practiced in isolation. As with any skill: repetition builds proficiency. I suggest you do the following exercise in a deliberate and thoughtful manner. This experience will increase your knowledge base and make the process easier in the future.

Select a small motif. Begin with something simple, but repeat this process with more complex motifs.
Select a group of fabrics to audition. Look for connections to the motif, i.e. color scheme, shape, line, texture.
Place the motif on each of the fabrics and take a photo reference.
Make notes about the effect and the appeal of each combination.
Also, not the kinds of contrast that are at work: color, value, pattern, line.

a simple seashell motif is auditioned on a variety of fabrics.

Auditions with simple motif.

options to fill negative space with complex motif

Auditions with complex motif.

Notan: Light-Dark Harmony

Notan is a Japanese terms that means light-dark harmony. This is a way of looking at positive and negative space in terms of value.

The concept is that a composition works well when the light and dark spaces appear in balanced proportions and they work together to create interesting shapes. The light areas should group together and the same for dark areas. Notan commonly done in 2 values, can also work with 3 or 4 values.

Easy Notan Exploration

A simple exploration of this concept is to create mirror image compositions. The photos below show the process with a simple tree drawing, and black and white fabrics.

Begin with a simple drawing. Add lines to indicate where the design can be cut into 2 halves.
Transfer the drawing to paperbacked fusible and iron to black fabric
Cut the design in half and then cut the tree from the background.
Fuse the back pieces onto white fabric as shown.

simple tree drawing for notan exploration

Explore notan using a simple design.

Mirror image tree with 2-value notan.

Here is another version of this experiment using 3-value notan.

tree drawing is used to create various versions of a 3-value notan

Mirror image tree composition created with 3-value notan.

Evaluate Positive & Negative Space Using Notan

The concept of notan can be used evaluate or develop a pictorial composition that is balanced and pleasing. Here is a 5-step process:

Open an image in a photo-editing program
The Long Goodbye
Grayscale the image
Composition in grayscale.
Posterize at 2 levels.
Composition posterized in 2 values.
Change mottled areas to white, or black.
Composition in 2-value notang.
Evaluate the interaction of black and white shapes. If the interplay between black and white; positive and negative space is interesting, this is an indication that the composition is appealing.

Managing positive and negative space is no guarantee that you will create a masterpiece. Consider this just one of the ingredients in the recipe for success.

Learn More in My Color & Composition Class

Interested in learning more? Every month I lead a Color and Composition class where we explore a color scheme, color concept, and a composition concept. We meet online the 4th Saturday of every month 1:00-3:00 PM MDT. To join us, sign up through the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum.

Subscribe to this blog for future summary updates on topics covered in the Color & Composition class.

Unity & Variety Create Harmony & Interest

Unity & Variety are tools to create harmony and interest in art quilt compositions, and were the elements of composition that we explored in the last session of my monthly COLOR & COMPOSITION class. In this blog I’m sharing some of the highlights of that discussion.

UNITY refers to a relationship between the elements within a composition that bring harmony. The desired effect is to create the feeling that a work is a single creation with multiple parts, as opposed to, a collection of separate things.

Composition with unity

Round place mat with various items including a plant, fork, pen, latex glove, and pliers.

Composition with disunity

Techniques to Create Unity.

A number of techniques can be used to create unity.

Visual Repetition

Visual repetition is probably the most common way of creating unity. Repetition gives a

Analogous scheme with blue & yellow parents.

sense of familiarity. As humans, we prefer familiarity over anomaly. This can play out in various ways:

Color Scheme– Choosing a scheme brings focus and consistency. Each color is a part of a larger structure.

Line-Repetition of lines is more than having multiple lines. It is also about repeating the same kind of line, such diagonal, horizontal, s-curve, or spiral.

Shape: Shapes can be geometric or organic. They can vary in size, or color. In eluding multiple versions of the shape creates familiarity and harmony.

Proximity

Placing items near each other creates unity through grouping. This is where negative space is important. If you are going to create a space for items to gather, there also has to be a place where they do not gather. This “negative space” will be a topic in our next Color & Composition session.

Still life composition with potted tree in front of a window next to a trunk covered by a hand women mat. A tin cup and pitcher sit atop the trunk with a small plate with tangerines. One is peeled and divided.

Turkish Treasures Still Life, 2020.

This still life composition was created for an article I wrote for Quilting Arts Magazine (April/May 2020). It illustrates the concept of proximity. I communicate that these objects go together by placing them in contact with each other, or overlapping them.

Simplicity

Eliminate unnecessary elements in a composition so that the focus can be on what is important. Too many different things competing with each other creates confusion and discomfort.

When I teach my portrait class, students work from a photo. One of the first things I talk about is cropping out anything that is in the background that has nothing to do with the subject. If it can’t be cropped, then distort, blur, or replace it. This is what I did in Sweet Song From and Old Fiddle.

Hand holding the neck of a fiddle is visible with a mottled blue-green background.

Detail of Sweet Song From and Old Fiddle, 34″ x 18″, 2013.

Thematic Relationship

You may have objects that don’t share other unifying qualities, but they share an underlying meaning. A good analogy is the sewing machine: it is made of many different parts, but, put it all together and it it works. Remove a piece, and it doesn’t.

I remember a news report on January 20, Inauguration Day that featured Donald Trump speaking at Andrews Joint Base in front of 17 American flags. Apparently, the number 17 was important because Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet, and Q-Anon supporters believed this was a symbol of the revolution to come later in the day.

Consider those elements: American Flags, Letter Q, # 17, Revolution.

Regardless of your political leanings, that those elements were thematically connected, is astounding.—Scary as hell, yet, astounding.

The example I have to share with you is much more benign. I give you Busy Signal where a cell phone, a hand with wait gesture, and a face cut off below the eyes send a message about communication and connection in our world.

Busy Signal, 25 in x 36, 2017.

Add Variety to Create Interest

Variety-of elements creates interest, breaks the boredom, and adds interest. Again, there are various ways to do this.

Altered Repetition

Incorporate an anomaly, a change in the repetition. In the Circles in Squares example below, all of the elements share a color scheme, and the sizes and shapes are consistent, but offsetting, or slight shifting of elements adds interest.

Circles-in-Squares color study

Interrupt the Pattern

Another option is break a pattern my inserting a another element. I did this in my tribute to Malala, by placing her image over a large floral border.

Portrait of Malala wearing a red scarf with a white background. A Islamic floral border of blue and red flowers with green leaves. The center text is a quote by Malala Yousafzai, "With guns you can kill terrorists, with education you can kill terrorism.

Malala, by Lea McComas, 30″ x 50″, 2019.

Color & Composition Monthly Workshop

Subscribe to this blog for future updates on topics covered in the Color & Composition class.

Repetition and Rhythm Add Comfort and Excitement

Today I want to focus on the design concepts of repetition & rhythm, and how we can put these to work in our quilts. This content was covered in the last session of my Color & Composition class. If you are interested in joining us for future sessions, I’ll put a link at the bottom, but for now…

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Repetition is about using a design element over and over. A repeated element gives a sense of familiarity and comfort. This could be a repeating line, shape, or pattern.

Repetition is something that we are naturally drawn to; something we bring into our world. Here are some examples that I found in my own environment.

repetition of design in furniture drawers and hardware

multiple drawers with repeating hardware

Repetition in the stair railing.

repetition as design element in hand woven rug

repeating design in a rug

Many artists will repeat an element in every piece.

elements of my art extend beyond the edge.

Beyond the Edge: My Signature Move

It becomes their signature move, something that makes their work easily recognizable to viewers, and fans. My signature move is to take an element off the edge of my work. See more examples in my genre gallery.

Within a composition, repetition can be as simple as repeating a line, shape, color, texture.

As I’ve been working in recent months to update the online galleries for the Border Wall Quilt Project, I’ve found many wonderful examples of repetition. Here are a few.

Repeating element-hearts. Brick by L K.

Repeating element – woman. Brick by Cynthia Catlin.

Repeating element – brick. Brick by Cynthia Catlin.

Pattern is created when more than one element is combined and repeated.

Here are examples from the BWQP where I think this idea of pattern is used effectively.

Pattern of repeating vertical and diagonal lines. Brick by Maude Wallace Haeger.

Repeating pattern of stripes and coffins. Brick by Karen Sullivan

Rhythm, Rhythm, Rhythm, Rhythm

Conversely, Rhythm is about the space between repeating elements. It adds interest and excitement..Today, let’s look at 5 types of Rhythm:

Random Rhythm has no regular interval between repetitions. They can be all over the place.
Random Rhythm. Brick by Ramona Bates.

2. Regular Rhythm occurs when the interval between repetitions is the same. For example, your heartbeat is a regular rhythm, or, at least it should be. Here is a quilted example.

Regular Rhythm. Brick by Price & Pampusch.

3. Alternating Rhythm is the switching back and forth between 2 regular rhythms. Chess board is a simple example. However, these rhythms can be much more complex.

Alternating Rhythm. Brick by Ramona Bates,

4. Flowing Rhythm exists when repeated elements follow a curved or undulating line. Here are some examples.

Flowing Rhythm. Brick Carol Chewning.

5. Progressive Rhythm results from changing a characteristic of an element as it is repeated. These next examples show different ways that rhythm can progresses.

This sample shows an increase in size and color change.

Progressive rhythm. Brick by Lourdes Cruz, Mexico.

This next brick shows multiple scenes of a story. This is called simultaneous narrative.

example of progressive rhythm with simultaneous narrative. Brick by Sheryl D Rodda

Put Yourself to the Test

Look at the examples below and identify the type of rhythm in each. The answer key is below.

Brick by Sally Maxwell

Brick by Pat Hilderbrand.

Brick by Linda Laird

Monthly Color & Compositions Class

If you would like to join us, my Color & Composition class is sponsored by the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum on the 4th Saturday of every month through the end of 2021. In each session we explore a color scheme, a color concept, and a concept related to composition.

Answer Key: 1. alternating, 2. Flowing and progressive. 3, random

Quilt Stories: The Making of Crossing Over

In a Quilt Stories interview with Lisa Walton, I spoke extensively with her about the making of my quilt Crossing Over. It was great fun to talk with a friend, and sister quilter from Australia.

QUILT STORIES - See how LEA McCOMAS creates her THREAD PAINTED AWARD WINNING masterpieces

Here is a link to the interview

Lisa is creating a series of these interviews with quilters from around the world. Subscribe to her channel because there is more to come

You can see this piece and more of my work in my Portfolio galleries.

I’ve not been posting much in recent months as I’m working on a major new artwork that is bigger and more ambitious than anything I’ve ever done before. It is a commission for an exhibit being put together by the Clinton Foundation to celebrate Women’s Voices, Women’s Votes, and Women’s Rights. I can’t wait until I can begin to share this journey with you.

Take care and be safe–wear a mask when you go out.

Body Work

I’ve reached a place with my latest piece where I need to finalize a color scheme before moving on. So far, I’ve only chosen fabrics for the flesh. As I put these various body parts together, I’ve got to fill in the other elements of the composition (ie. dress, phone, background, hair.) I use my Itten Color Star to work this out.

Color Scheme

This Color Star is my favorite color wheel for making these kinds of decisions. It comes with a full set of templates that let me block out colors I don’t want to use and let’s me get a better sense of what colors I will be incorporating.

The hair is going to include yellow and yellow-oranges, while the phone will be blue-green, and her dress will be blue.

No decisions on the background yet, I’m going to put the figure all together and let it talk to me (or perhaps text me).

This week I’m able to complete the body along with the hand holding the phone. I’ve dipped into my special stash for the phone. It is made from some hand marbled fabrics I picked up in Venice back in the 90’s.

A body to go with the hands

Placing the face with the body, I have a real sense of progress. I’m not sure about the darkness of the upper body, but I’m going to move forward. I’ll audition some background fabrics before I decide whether or not to replace the body with lighter values.

A face with the body

Talk to the Hand

The fusing has begun. This week I was able to put together the hand for “We Don’t Talk”. It is created from warm red-orange flesh tones that I hope will pop off the surface and give it a real “in your face” feeling. For greater realism, I’m working with 7, rather than my standard 5 values.

The hand

Next, the face emerges from those cooler red-violet fabrics. You can begin to see that there is a significant contrast in the temperature of these 2 features. I hope it works as planned.

The face

I’m liking the detail in the eyes and mouth.

Next week I hope to fuse the body and put the pieces together.

Puppy Love, Part 2

Oh joy!!! I’ve finished something in less than a month; 2 1/2 weeks actually. It’s such a thrill to jump into a project and just breeze through to the end. With this piece, I took a break from thread painting and just did some dense stitching. The new challenge was to establish some designs that would fit with each element of the composition.

The blonde hair of the girl was easy. I used various values of yellow threads in long, undulated lines of stitching.

Next, similar, but shorter, wavy lines were put down with some variegated threads in a pattern that alluded to the hair of the dog. Several times I had to stop and pet my dear Coco’s face in order to really understand the changing direction of her hair. She didn’t mind too much.

Stitching the face was a leap of faith. It is so tricky to stitch the face! If you try to recreate the actual contours, and the lines aren’t just right, it throws off the perceived shape and makes the face look distorted. I decided to go in a completely new direction: loop-d-loops. I covered the entire face in a small repetitive design that had nothing to do with its shape or contour. I still varied the threads, letting the values do the work. I’m really pleased with the results.

The background was the most troublesome decision, just as with choosing the fabric. The print was complex and busy. Afraid that it would become too strong and overpower other elements, I didn’t want to stitch the printed design. I came up with a wandering ribbon design with a tiny meandering stitch to fill in the spaces. I feel like the 2 patterns of the fabric and stitching sort of neutralize each other and take away their power to dominate.

Finally, here’s the finished piece.

Golden Mean Calipers Part 2: Crop a Picture

This is my second video on how to use the Golden Mean Calipers. This week I show you how use them to crop a photo around a focal point so that the outer dimensions are harmonious and the subjects in the composition are well placed. These calipers are available in my web store. If you find these videos interesting or helpful, subscribe so that you get notified whenever I post a new one. I’m trying to do this once a week until I run out of things to say—like that could ever happen.

Calipers video part 2

Using the Golden Mean Calipers

Golden Mean Calipers

Today, I want to share with you a tool that I’ve discovered called the Golden Mean Calipers.. I’ve also seen them labeled “Fibonacci Gauge.” can be a useful design tool in your artistic process. There are a variety of ways this particular tool can be used. Let me illustrate a few.

Finding the Sweet Spot Within Your Composition

A focal point is used to grab the viewer’s eye and engage the viewer in your artwork. Generally, it is best to avoid taking the viewer’s eye to the center, for when it arrives there, it will tend to stop and rest. Placing key elements off center will tend to prolong the viewer’s engagement with the composition. Use the calipers as shown below to determine the best placement of the focal point and other key elements of a composition. In portraits, eyes and mouths are important features for focal points.

Use calipers for cropping the sides of an image.

Lay the calipers over a photo print, to determine the best way to crop it.

Use the calipers to determine the placement of a design element within a larger panel.

Taking Elements Off the Edge

Avoiding the middle also applies when taking lines or elements off the edge of a composition. See how the calipers can be used to determine the most visually pleasing locations for the placement of lines that will carry the viewer’s eye to the edge of a composition.

Creating Borders with Harmony

This tool is also useful when adding borders to a traditional block quilt. One method is to start with the blocks themselves. Place the outer points of the calipers at the edges of the blocks. This will give you two new measurements that will be in harmony with the blocks. Use the larger measurement for the total width of the border. This area can further be divided by placing the outer points of the calipers on the edges of the border area. This will indicate pleasing widths for and inner and outer border. All measurements indicate finished sizes. Don’t forget to add seam allowances.

Measure the width of your block.

Create a single border matching the wider measurement of the calipers.

Create harmonious smaller borders.

Divide the border area using the calipers.

Sometimes, a specific finished size is necessary and this isn’t achieved in the process above. In this case, determine the desired total width of your outer borders, open the calipers to this desired width and then measure the distance between the points to determine the finished widths of an inner border and outer border.

Perfect Facial Proportions.

The Golden Ratio occurs naturally within faces and calipers are useful when creating portrait works, either when drawing the face, or problem solving when a face doesn’t look quite right. See the photos below for ways to check the proportions of the face, and placement of the features.

Placement of mouth between nose and chin

Bring of the nose in relation to forehead and chin.

Placement of eyes

If you are interested in learning more about facial proportions and portrait quilting, check out my book, Thread-Painted Portraits: Turn Your Photos into Fiber Art

AND look for videos on my YouTube Channel Lea McComas Fiber Art.