"The New School Marm" part 2

There were a couple of very thoughtful comments left after the last post. I thought they warranted some more discussion. So here's part two on this painting...

Rafi wondered about the dog at the bottom of the painting, and if the painting would be better without the dog. He asked if adding the dog might have make too much of a frame around the woman, and isn't the contrast on her strong enough to hold your eye in the frame without the addition of the dog? It's a good question.

Here's the original painting again...



...and the original, minus the dog.



Personally, I think the painting needs something in that spot. Without anything there my eye gets "stuck" in that area where the dog used to be, it can't quite make the transition over to the stagecoach, and my eye starts to slide out the bottom of the painting. And without the dog the picture becomes too symmetrical to me...now the top of the picture is an empty blank area and so is the bottom.

I think the bottom area does need some element to help frame the woman but the dog sticks out because the dog is not handled as naturally as the other subjects in the painting. He's posed in a flat profile and posed in a bit of a stiff way, with all four of his legs parallel.

Also it's worth pointing out when looking at paintings on the internet it's hard to know what the original purpose was and how big the picture was going to be reproduced once it was done. That can affect the composition as well. What may look cluttered on the internet may have been a much larger painting in real life and may have been meant for a size that may have dictated some of the compositional choices.

Rafi was also asking about my comments about how compositional elements are there to "keep your eye from leaving the frame" and wondering if there was more to that theory. There's been a lot written about that and keeping the viewer's eye from sliding out of the picture seems to be the heart of most studies on composition. Including these great pages from Andrew Loomis's "Creative Illustration".





Also Poore's "Pictorial Composition" and Graham's "Composing Pictures" cover this extensively as well.


Rodney left comments wondering if the picture would have been better off if the coach was still there (instead of heading off) and also he wondered if it seems a little awkward and unrealistic that she'd still standing there like that, after the coach has left.

I get his point. But I like that the coach is departing...it gives the painting a feeling of finality. She's definitely staying and she and the town are stuck with each other...permanently. If the coach was still there you'd feel like she might still get back on. And you might wonder who else was getting off...or it might look like she was leaving the town after one last look around instead of just arriving...etc. I can think of a bunch of reasons why I like the coach leaving. Mostly I think I like it because everyone else in the frame seems like they're in motion, or just paused in the middle of an action, while by contrast she's just standing there stiffly and with perfect posture.

But of course it's all a personal choice and I know Rodney probably has a good version in his head that would work great.

And I guess to some it might feel a little "unrealistic" that she's just planted there, standing like that. But I think it's great because of how much power and authority it gives her and really helps tell the story in a clear way. So I like how she's standing there, taking it all in, probably thinking about how she would change this place and whip it into shape. If she were walking I don't think that would come through as clearly.


Maybe it's a mistake for me to write about paintings this way. After all it's all subjective anyway and I wouldn't want to influence the way other people see and interpret this stuff. I guess the reason I do it is because the only way I've ever really learned anything about art is by looking at art and asking myself why the artist made the choices that they did. That's the only way to learn about art, I think....analyze the choices that other artists made and see how they affect the finished work. And ask yourself if those choices are effective. Are they additive? Or do they diminish the piece?

Of course none of us can ever be in the artist's head and truly know what they were thinking. So we have to guess, based on experience. And because we're all different we all reach different conclusions. So don't ever think that my analysis is "correct" or the only way to interpret anything. Do your own interpreting, but hopefully hearing my thoughts will help stir yours up and get your mind in the practice of asking yourself,

"Why did the artist make that choice?"

Many times I've heard people say that they think many things that happen in a work of art are happy accidents or unconscious choices that just happen to work. In my experience as an artist, great artists have control over every element of their work and every choice is a conscious one, made for a number of reasons. So the more you train yourself to analyze and ask why an artist did what they did, the better insight you'll have into why some art seems to work beautifully and other art seems to fall flat or miss the mark.

"The New School Marm"

This painting is called "The New School Marm" by John Falter.



The composition tells much of the story here. Putting a figure at the exact center of your picture can make a stiff and static picture but it's also a very powerful statement. If you want to make a powerful and commanding figure there's no better place to put them than at the center.

There's a nice circular frame for her that keeps your eye moving around her and keeps your eye from sliding out of the edges of the frame. The signs, the lamp, the porch, the horses, the old man, the kid, the dog and the stagecoach all create a circular frame for her. If you cover up the dog you will see how the picture would suffer if he wasn't there...there would be too much of a gap between the sidewalk and the stagecoach and your eye doesn't really bridge the gap, it gets stuck and might slide off the bottom of the page.

As I always say contrast can bring a lot of interest to a picture. Certainly that's true here.

First of all it's worth noting that she's the only female in the picture so she's already very different from everything else in the picture. Her stiff symmetrical pose (accentuated by her symmetrical bags) make her seem very stiff and full of tension and contrasts nicely with the natural, asymmetrical poses of the other figures.

I particularly like the storytelling of having the young kid in the lower right part of the frame. He's lower than her (so she feels more powerful than him) and I like his pose - his pose feels like he was just caught doing something wrong. That along with his bare feet seem to tell a story...it seems as though his carefree days may be coming to an end with her arrival. And the pose of the man who has just taken his pipe out of his mouth also suggests that he, like the boy, is a bit awed and is witnessing something momentous in her arrival ...the picture captures such a great "pregnant pause" of a moment.

You'd assume that most great illustrations are about the most important moment of action or violence or characters interacting, but it seems to me that many great illustrations seem to be, instead, about this type of moment: the weighty pause before the action happens, before people meet or interact with each other.

All of the other figures are in the shade which helps to group them together and make them one unit. By contrast she's out in the sun which makes her seem separate and different from them. Also that way there's more contrast on her (and now when I say contrast I mean the difference between the light parts and the shadows) which, again, makes her feel more severe and powerful, and the bigger difference between dark and light draws your eye to her and gives her more "weight".

Always remember that the eye will always be attracted to the biggest area of contrast - if you put black against white in your picture that will be the biggest contrast. If there's no black against white then whatever the closest thing to that will draw the eye - either black against light grey, or white against dark grey....whatever it is.

Take a look at the way that stagecoach is leaving the frame to the left. Normally that can be a tricky thing to do because it's a strong directional thrust that could make you eye go to the left and out of the frame, especially because you're only seeing part of the stagecoach and horses. However the illustrator did several things to keep the stagecoach from ruining his composition. Certainly the woman is a strong visual "anchor" (for all the reasons I mentioned above) that keeps your eye revolving around her. Other things that help are things like the fact that the stagecoach is totally in shadow so the contrast (the difference between the light and the shadows) is lessened and doesn't attract your eye as much as the strong contrasts on her. Also he was careful to make sure the movement suggested is minimal...if the stagecoach seemed to be thundering out of there at high speed not only would that hurt the static feeling of the picture that makes it feel like such a momentous moment but also it would be directing your eye to the left and out of the frame in a stronger way that would hurt the composition. Also the back edge of the coach works as such a great frame for her (along with the edge of the porch) that it becomes an organic part of the composition that is all about her, so the coach becomes just another part of the overall story. Also the eye direction on the coach passengers is carefully handled so that none of them is looking out of the frame in a strong way. That would direct your attention out of the frame in a way that would be bad for the composition.

The man on the porch and the boy (even though we only see the back of his head) have very strong and clear eye direction towards the woman. And the woman has a very strong clear look back towards them. So that helps keep us anchored around them and again helps soften the effect of the stagecoach's direction to the left.

Anyway, I liked that picture when I spotted it. It's a nice simple picture but there's a lot going on there. Hope what I wrote about it does it justice and I hope that's all clear....

Also, if you're having any trouble with the new template (font too small, etc.) leave me a comment and I'll try to fix it.

More of the "Kicks in the Head" coming soon.