Introduction to Compositional Analysis

To analyze the composition of an image is to explain how it works. Being able to identify and articulate how an image works requires an understanding of what we mean by “works”.

In writing, we always know where we’re supposed to start. But in a painting, where we start and where we stop is up to us – sort of. Our eyes are guided by principles that we are not always aware of, but which painters, photographers, and filmmakers use to control the order that we take in an image.

Look at any famous painting. Where did your eyes go first? Can you explain what drew them there? Is there something the painter has done to make sure your eyes are guided to that point first?

Then – and this might be a more interesting question – where did your eye go second? And third? What shape does your eye draw on the painting? How is the painter guiding your eye from point to point using the painting? These are the kinds of movements we make subconsciously when we take in a painting. Being able to say why they happen that way is the beginning of compositional analysis.

One exercise for developing compositional analysis skills is to draw the route your eye takes, from the first focal point to the last, around a painting. Number each point where your eye stops. You can do this on blank paper and see the way your eye has been guided around the painting, or onto the image itself, to show the places where you stopped. Doing this exercise will often expose how small details of a painting are actually being used to control your experience of the painting, much like a novelist thoughtfully orders the plot of their novel.

The following exercises will guide you through this strategy using a famous painting by Vincent van Gogh called Starry Night. You can click the link below to visit the painting:

The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, (1889) Museum of Modern Art, New York.