Design as a tool

[Line]

I've been re-reading Loomis' Creative Illustration, after not having touched it for maybe 2 years, in order to delve deeper into it, learn more and also see what I have learned and practiced, with a new level of perception.

There are a few facets of pictoral creation that facinate me more than others. Two of those are composition and design. Loomis provides a sound basis for study, I have found things here and there that have added and I am hoping that the video by Jason Manley, which I bought and feel is great so far, will add more to my arsenal of composition understanding and construction.

Design however, in it's very basic and pure sence is something I have not looked into more than what a study of a composition might suggest. Re-reading Loomis, and particularly his words on the subject in the chapeter about tone, it recaptured my imagination and interest in an even deeper way than before and I'd like to look into it.

I remember there was an illustration of many knights fighting, that was based on this http://weblog.tudelft.nl/media/blogs/34075/fallacies/PietMondrianKomposition.jpg , it certainly showed me the impact such a design might have on a product of the type illustrtors usually create, but also hinted more to me about why I found the initial composition wonderful.

So, what can I do from here on? Any books to read? Images to study? Artists work to look into? Educate me CA!!!

[~Faust~]

If you want to learn about decorative design, a great ressource would be Owen Jones' Grammar of ornament : http://www.archive.org/details/grammarofornamen00joneuoft (Its free!) has a lot of interesting text and even better Plates in it.

I know there is a lot more to design, but pretty patterns are nice,too!

[dpaint]

The two books for image making that come to mind are Composition by Arthur Wesly Dow and the Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne, both are landscape books but the information applies to designing anything because after all it is really just a shape on the page.

The Payne book but has great ideas about the how and why of composing with great examples and lots of thumnails. It is expensive though so you might look for it in your library. See example page

The Dow book is now a Dover book and worth the 12 bucks it will cost. Don't get the California press version which is twice the price and falls apart at the first touch, it is so poorly bound.

[Farvus]

If you mean design in general then it would be hard to give some suggestion because it's very wide subject. You approach differently when designing spoon and differently when designing skyscraper. But if you just mean abstract two dimensional composition of shapes then maybe look into Maitland Graves "Art of Color and Design".
Here's pdf download - http://www.mediafire.com/?yxzmxnmh9ub
The book has very unreadable illustrations and someone on CA was nice enough to post better scans - zip here (http://www.wou.edu/~jsmith6/C_A/Copy%20of%20TheArtOfColorAndDesign/Copy%20of%20TheArtOfColorAndDesign.zip)

[armando]

Line: You're talking about one of Donato Giancola's paintings. It's not really based on Mondrian. People were just mentioning that he likes Mondrian's work. I can't remember but I think the argument was: Donato Giancola likes Mondrian therefore you should like Mondrian.

[JeffX99]

The Edgar Payne book dpaint recommends is excellent - though a stiff read. Carl Rungius was another outstanding landscape/wildlife artist who took design and composition to a very high level in his work. My favorite book for composition is "Drawing Scenery: Landscapes and Seascapes" by Jack Hamm - it's softcover and only about $10. It breaks down the concepts of design and composition in two dimensions in a clear, direrct way.
Here's a link to it on Google books: http://books.google.com/books?id=h0-8aHIHDKoC&dq=jack+hamm+drawing+scenery&printsec=frontcover&source=bl&ots=OfGRtHT3pT&sig=0aolSpCS3fWGOVkygZIcsNo3_wo&hl=en&ei=ZrIxS57PJIiSsgOZyZnABA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=&f=false

[Line]

Hmm, I understand this one is quite tough to nail down since design is such a broad subject. I am interested in it in relation to image creation, an illustration, sort of like a part of composition design. I am guessing dpaint's suggestions are closer to what I am looking for.

Still, in hopes of making myself more clear, just in case this narrow things down a bit, I am talking about design in the context Loomis wrote about in pages 88 to 91 in Creative Illustration. http://fineart.sk/index.php?s=80&cat=13 I am going to check the books suggested tho, and thanks for the suggestions.