Artists without knowledge of good composition, wondering about how to create well balanced and visually appealing art can start their journey with this book. As it is mentioned in this title, “composition is a broad subject”, so it’s best to digest in small chunks.

This book introduces readers to the principles of design and other basic principles in a practical way. Concepts are explained with words but also shown visually (most of the book consists of watercolor, acrylic or oil paintings analyzed). This approach is very suitable for beginners, it makes it easier to understand and put into practice.

Composition analysis with advice and tips is provided for landscapes, portraits, still life and florals. There’s a chapter, almost at the end, that focuses on how to use photographs to create paintings with good composition. With only 128 pages, this book is easy to read and holds a lot of information to get you started creating more appealing paintings. ( )

Portfolio: Beginning Composition by Kimberly Adams
Tips and techniques for creating well-composed works of art in acrylic, watercolor, and oil

Colorful well written book that details the basics of composition, planning, how to choose subjects and how to work from photographs. From the use of grids and projectors to light, design, contrast, value, difference between positive and negative space, use of sketchbooks, motion, perspective and more this book will provide newbie artists and those more advanced ideas on how to improve the paintings they create. I enjoyed the use of color in the paintings and the section on use of background to make the subject pop.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing-Walter Foster for the ARC – This is my honest review

4 Stars ( )