Just a friendly reminder: The Creativity Workshop deadline is fast approaching for the August 2008 issue, in which Kathy Collins challenges readers to use a rapid painting process to achieve freshness and avoid overworking in their watercolors. Read an excerpt of the article here. And send your paintings to wcamag@fwpubs.com to win the $100 gift certificate to Jerry's Artarama by August 26, 2008. Recently, a reader wrote in about Collins' challenge:

I enjoyed reading Kathy Collins' Creativity Workshop in the August 2008 issue and I'd like to try it; however, I'm not really clear on the composition step. How do you design it? What exactly is a cruciform shape and what are layers of color in varying sizes? Could we see some pictures of this first step? That would be so helpful. Sincerely, Trudie Kiliru.

As it turns out, Collins loves reader mail and was happy to reply:

In response to the reader’s questions, designing a composition is the first step toward a successful painting and I appreciate her interest in learning more. The composition forms the basic structure of a painting. As I noted in the Creativity Workshop, there are some simple designs that work well, so it’s not always necessary to invent a new composition every time you paint. The cruciform pattern (cross-shape) is one of these designs and layers of varying sizes is another.

By way of illustration, a page from my sketchbook shows the bare bones structure of two of my paintings. I designed the painting Field in Summer (above) with three layers like a pile of pancakes: the sky, the purple mountains and the yellow-green foreground. It’s important that each layer be a different size and not exactly the same shape for variety. The sketch illustrates the basic structure of that painting.

In Synchrony (at bottom) the mast of the boat and its reflection comprise a vertical line and the shoreline is the second (horizontal) line. This cruciform pattern is basically two lines that cross each other at a 90 degree angle and is usually designed so that the center of interest is at the place where the two lines intersect (preferably not in the center).

There are innumerable ways to compose a painting and I've named only a few, but I hope this explanation has been helpful and I congratulate the reader on her willingness to try the Creativity Workshop!

Best Regards,

Kathy Collins