Composition

Dow, Arthur W. (Arthur Wesley), 1857-1922Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.8

Word count: 144K words
Chapters: 15

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Composition by Arthur W. DowAuthor: Dow, Arthur W. (Arthur Wesley), 1857-1922,Language: English, Class: N: Fine Arts, Release Date: Apr 15, 2014

Editor's review

This book is Arthur Wesley Dow's classic work on the principles of composition and a public-domain text in the field of art education. Dow taught art for many years, and his discussion does not rely on mysterious inspiration but breaks composition down into observable, trainable elements such as line, mass, rhythm, and balance, emphasizing that composition is a teachable "capacity for visual organization." The language is plain, and the examples are close to the practice of painting and decorative art; it can be used in the classroom and is also suitable for self-learners to revisit. This is the Project Gutenberg electronic edition, easy to search and to carry for reading on the go. There is no need to finish it in one sitting: observe the paintings, posters, and photographs you encounter in daily life against the principles in the book, and do small composition exercises as you read for better results. For Chinese readers who wish to understand Western traditional ideas of composition systematically, this is a low-cost introductory and reference book with a moderate density of information.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students majoring in fine arts or design who need to build a basic understanding of composition
Self-learners in painting and photography who want to systematically fill gaps in knowledge of visual organization
Primary and secondary school art teachers looking for composition principles that can be turned into classroom exercises
General readers interested in traditional Western methods of art education

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting contemporary digital design cases and software operation content
People who only want ready-made templates and are unwilling to do observational exercises
Readers who need a systematic art history context or biographical material on the author
Readers who find English reading difficult and hope to read a Chinese translation directly

Reading tips

First read through the whole book to grasp the framework, then read closely chapter by chapter by themes such as line, mass, and balance.
After each section, take a nearby painting or photograph and make brief analytical notes using the book's principles.
Use a pencil or charcoal to make small composition sketches, putting abstract principles into practice by hand.
After finishing, look back at your old work and try rearranging the picture according to compositional principles, then compare the results.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English? Is it difficult to read?

This is an English public-domain e-book released by Project Gutenberg; the original text is in English. Dow's discussion is mainly plain explanation, and specialized terms are not very dense, so readers with basic English reading ability can finish it with the help of a dictionary; if English is difficult, they can first find relevant Chinese composition textbooks to understand the core concepts by comparison.

Do the composition principles in the book apply to photography and design?

The line, mass, rhythm, balance, and other issues discussed in the book are basic problems of visual organization and are not limited to painting. Readers of photography and graphic design can gain ideas for observing and arranging a picture from it, but the examples in the book lean toward traditional painting and decorative art, so readers need to transfer them to contemporary media themselves.

How is the electronic edition best used?

The electronic edition is convenient for searching keywords and for reading on the go, and is suitable as a desk reference to revisit repeatedly. It is recommended to take notes and make sketches with pen and paper rather than only scrolling quickly on a screen; you can also read it in installments by theme, concentrating on practicing one or two composition principles each time.

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About the author

Dow, Arthur W. (Arthur Wesley), 1857-1922 Author · American · 1857–1922

Arthur Wesley Dow (1857–1922) was an American artist and art educator. He devoted himself to artistic creation and teaching, and promoted the development of design education; his teaching ideas had a profound influence on many students, including Georgia O'Keeffe. The library holds one work by him, Composition, which embodies his thinking on the principles of composition and the foundations of design. Public information is limited, so the details of his life cannot be elaborated, but his extant work and educational practice show that Dow emphasized form and structure and treated design as a central part of artistic training, giving him an important place in the transformation of modern American art education.