The biggest spaces should be given to the most important part of the picture.
Several young artists gathered together would find it helpful to enter into a friendly competition in a particular subject to be drawn in a specified space. They would work independently and would eventually compare their sketches and discuss the various points.
It is remarkable how seldom similar sketches agree. Our neighbors' interpretation of the same thing often arouses great astonishment in us, and gives us much food for thought.
As time goes on our minds will naturally incline toward good composition.
Nature's beautiful 'arrangements,' her 'composition,' her 'rhythm,' her 'action,' will strike your eye at every turn.
A group of tossing elm-trees against the clouds and a few dark wings streaking the sky; a tumble-down shed round which cows are grouped, standing or lying, lazily chewing the cud; a shuffle of chimney-pots against a city sky and a trail of smoke; a boy flying down a long, narrow wet street, with a bundle of papers beneath his arm; a swan 'floating double' past a tuft of reedy grasses; an old man leaning on a thick stick or with a bundle on his back and climbing a steep path; a woman sitting under the light with her sewing grouped at her elbow; boys and girls gathered about a game, or fire, or a gate—all these are natural 'compositions,' and charming ones.
You might turn your attention to advertisements, for these are arranged with a view to attracting the eye and gripping the attention. Look at them as so many patterns, and ask yourself if the allotted spaces have been filled pleasantly.
Look at reproductions of the Great Masters. The wonderful way in which these painters grouped their subjects is an education in itself. The extraordinary simplicity of the arrangement, action, and composition will often surprise you.
The shapes of some pictures have given rise to quaint legends, and probably the most famous of all is that of Raphael's Madonna della Sedia, or Madonna of the Chair.
