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Cropping for Dummies

A few years ago I gave a series of 'Creativity Classes'. These consisted of various multi-media art and craft exercises and explorations for absolute beginners, women who had never so much as held a paint brush or crayon since the fourth grade! Each class focused on a different medium. We worked with paint, pencil, oil pastel, ripped paper collage, glue – you get the picture. The projects were small so that they could be completed in each 3-hour class, usually on an 8 x 10 inch piece of mat board. In every case, my 'students' would laugh and kid each other about their terrible work... and most of it was awful – the whole point was to explore and have fun. But at the end of each class I would take a small oval cut mat – the opening about 3 x 5 inches – and crop everyone's work in an interesting place. Every time the room would fall silent as a piece of real beauty was revealed. It was like magic. Many of those little gems ended up getting framed and hanging on the artists' walls, as a reminder that we all have art within us. It was wonderful.

Seamlessness means no edges

I always look forward to your letters; they often show me a new way of thinking of

The Couple original painting  click image to enlarge

the things we do. However, Mr. Maisel's quote struck me as simply wrong. My compositions are organized out of shapes, values, edges, and colors. The interactions of these elements are "seams." In fact, "edges" is practically a synonym of "seams". I cannot think of any normal use of the word "seam" in which it is not an element of my compositions.

(Andrew Niculescu note) The quote Clyde is referring to is: "A composition is an arrangement, built out of parts, that aims at seamlessness." (Eric Maisel)

Introspective journey

This image for me reflects our personal journeys to locate or re-discover those people, places, and inner landscapes that we all have lost through time, distance and tragedy.

Your simple exercise gave me a welcomed opportunity to revisit this theme on a closer, more introspective level. My recent work has settled into an almost archaeological inquiry, as if by deconstructing and dismantling an image one can arrive at some sort of possible understanding of the subject. The cropping and selecting of a close-up image reflects the larger compositional thinking that formed the original image.

In analyzing these close-ups, you find a new, smaller world of chance compositions and a fresh new appreciation for detail and texture. As this is a native digital image, it reveals additional useful information about resolution, layers, opacity and translucency.

My current related photographic work has also focused on these attributes, as well as experimenting with unexpected optic effects by using unusual, trash or found lenses especially in macro situations.

Finding oneself, as in "Finding Troy", entails an introspective journey that brings us closer and closer, layer after layer, revealing finally the base layers that make us what we are. You are correct about the parts containing the "spirit", or "signature" of the whole, which seems true, also, of most of life. Composition, an arbitrary, inexact process at best, appears to be guided best by intuition and chance rather than science.

Peter Ciccariello Experimental Photography click images to enlarge Cicada I Photograph, Reversed Lens Cicada II Photograph, Reversed Lens Cicada III Photograph, Reversed Lens More work by Peter Ciccariello

Cropping with lots of photos

This was a fun exercise... paintings in paintings. I do spend a lot of time "cropping" images before I paint them... sometimes I take more than 50 photos of something before I get the view I want. Nevertheless, no matter how hard I try to get everything "right" I always find something wrong when I finally get to the business of painting it. I guess it's because no matter how much time you spend studying something, painting it gives you a totally different understanding of it.

Carol Ubben Cropping Examples click images to enlarge This picture is part of a cactus which is part of a still life with an Indian and all kinds of other "stuff"... More work by Carol Ubben

Colour comes first

This image was cropped with the viewfinder and macro lens. My first thought was

photo  click image to enlarge

color when I took the shot. After the download: Shape, Value, Placement, Foreground, Background, Importance and Support. My strongest response is still my first: color.

Interesting outcome

I tried this with some photos of glass I've done and it was an interesting exercise. Trying to determine what to crop, how much, whether to crop from an area attractive for colour or an area attractive for shape (or, in fact, ignoring the obviously beautiful bits and going for something that might be more mundane like a base) - very interesting. I've attached three photos, all of glass. I like the little reflections that show up, ordinarily ignored in the face of the larger picture. These little shots of light seem to form a landscape of their own, part of and yet quite separate from the overall larger design. Thanks for the challenge.

Jamie Gray Cropping Examples images are not enlargeable Cropped platter Cropped vase Cropped bowl

Eyes opened wider

This was fun. Thanks. What surprised me was how much more pleased I am with them, now that they're standing on their own. Perhaps it's because I was drawn to photograph my favourite parts. Perhaps because in my head they can't really be isolated from the original whole. (I am forgetful, but not that bad!) But whatever the reason, it has been a very valuable exercise. My eyes have been opened a little wider.

Jillian Penney Cropping Examples click images to enlarge

Making a statement

One of the reasons that digital art has become a passion for me is that it allows the

cement jeans photo  click image to enlarge

deconstruction/ reconstruction of an image to infuse it more exactly with what captured my eye in the first place. Is the image revised or is it presented more truly? What is known from studies on perception is that there is no "seen" object. So much of what is "of self" informs perception that the image becomes lifeless unless it is a statement about the act of perception. I frequently crop my pictures to make a statement about line, shifting planes, textures. In this image I was impressed with how the light burn across the cement was so like the texture of my jeans... so all else is removed except the concentration on the texture. Bringing up contrast and applying filters does not "change" the image but rather allows me to present to others that which I have observed.

Delicious cropping

In our watercolor class, our teacher has exposed us to delicious cropping. It is exciting to know that small compositions are hidden in the big picture. Hopefully, what we achieve 'by accident' will help us become more aware of our innate abilities and thus help us develop better skills. Below are an original, done on Yupo paper with watercolor, and three croppings. I scan my work and then play with cropping using Adobe Photoshop.

Rosemarie Manson Cropping Examples click images to enlarge Swirls original painting Swirls cropping Swirls cropping Swirls cropping

Assortment of mats for a treasure hunt

This cropping exercise is one I do regularly with my students. The last class is a

Blue Poppy watercolour painting  click image to enlarge

group critique and when a painting is not working well and the student is discouraged (in spite of my attempts to focus on the positive) I bring out a vast assortment of mats and see if we can find a part of the painting that is worth framing. It's amazing how one can sometimes find two or three small paintings that are quite effective within one larger painting that has gone wrong. I have also framed and sold small paintings taken from larger ones myself. This generally happens with those experimental paintings I do during the summer or Christmas holidays, when I throw caution and planning to the wind and just mess around. The lack of planning usually means the composition is not great but the energy and excitement often create lovely passages that can be "discovered." The two art groups I belong to have both adopted a tradition of exchanging tiny matted paintings at our Christmas pot-luck, so early December is my time to bring out the problem paintings and the mats for a treasure hunt. I do sometimes discover delicious things that motivate me to move in a new direction.

Blown up image a revelation

Your cropping exercise is very worth while and educative. It trains the eye for better composition and simplification. Also makes us focus on the essential. More importantly, for those who find it heart breaking to part with their work, it can turn rejects into keepers. Every two years or so my wife nags me about cleaning up the studio and getting rid of the rejects. But before I put the exacto knife to the "croûtes" I examine each painting to see if a section can be salvaged and maybe eternalized in a frame. Surprisingly, I would say that about 50% of the time I can recuperate at least one little painting. It might be one or more 5" x 7"s or a medium size 16" x 20". The original uncut reject sizes are no less than 16" x 20". The idea came to me years ago when I examined my paintings with a magnifying glass and discovered that by viewing the blown up image I could travel in a wonderful world of amazing colours. Similarly, a close up detail of a larger painting often reveals those special moments of genius that Robert Henri talks about during the execution of the painting. I call them my little gems. And they become keepers. A recycling project that pays off. Now I understand the fraudulent scheme of selling 2 or 3 Jacksons from one original piece. To prevent such fraud I inscribe the size on the back of all my paintings.

Sylvio Gagnon Recuperated Art images are not enlargeable More work by Sylvio Gagnon

Chaotic compositions that make sense

A student asked me yesterday, "Is it necessary for a composition to

Sensous Sunset watercolour painting  click image to enlarge

be balanced to be good?" After going over symmetrical, asymmetrical and occult balance, we talked about purpose. If the goal of the work is to be distressing, a balanced composition may not be effective. If a composition is seamless as your quote would suggest, can it also be full of tension, surprise, perhaps even distressing, ugly or shocking? What composition tools has an artist to use to bring to surface these sensations? I am finding more and more work today, particularly in design, that is not balanced, not seamless, not contextually correct, not paradigm consistent – that is rock your socks brilliant. The urban world at least is full of chaotic compositions that seem to make sense in a way that earlier decades and centuries could never have imagined.

Happy accidents

A few years ago the Alpine Club of Canada Gazette accidentally printed one of my glacier paintings upside down; I was delighted to see that the composition not only worked – it may actually have been improved by the inversion. One reader pointed out that the sky had become water, and the ice, talus. Elements that I thought had weight and movement before had become fully animated, until it didn't even really matter what was what. The process of art-making is full of happy accidents – what fun!

Max Eliott Cropping Examples click images to enlarge Mt. Athabasca original painting Mt. Athabasca upside down Mt. Athabasca cropping Mt. Athabasca cropping

Knowing what's outside the border