We all went back to Willy lots and had a few glasses of wine in very high spirits, then a few more at dinner, and i knew when it came to my evening presentations they'd all be falling asleep with the heat, food and wine! However they rallied and we had a lively discussion about the following day's activities which was focussed on composition. I started with the basic rule of thirds, which involves placing the emphasis or object on a junction of thirds, see below Then I moved on to some images I selected with the same rules realized, and we discussed where the compositional lines were, and what the focal point was, and we identified strong abstract shapes, and underlying structure, ( armatures ) Here are some of the titles of the examples I showed for composition, but as I'm only allowed 1 image per blog post you'll have to check my personal blog for more details http://gillymarklewwatercolour.blogspot.co.uk/ Ian Roberts from mastering composition Ronald Jesty, google search Ian roberts Kiff Holland from design & composition of professional artists. I presented images I had previously scanned with tracing paper over, and with the lines of composition drawn on top for clarity Juliette Palmer and Ronald Jesty Brian johnson from design & composition of professional artists. Kiff Holland from design & composition of professional artists. Then I presented some of my own compositional thumbnails inspired by other artists armatures, based on scenes I had previously photographed at FM when I had come on a reconnoitering mission. We discussed between us what other compositional possibilities there were with each image, and in particular interestingly for me, re the boats at the bottom, I had been drawn to photograph the strong abstract shapes of the boats, but felt I ought to have a focal point where the boats were pointing to, but having done that I had preferred it without, and without telling my learners they were of the same opinion, the boats needed nothing more, and that the blue shadows had their own narrative about the end of the day / journey. It got us all thinking about compositional possibilities, and armed with handouts we went down the stour towards Dedham in the morning before the tourists came. We found ourselves a shady spot, to work out our pencil thumbnails incorporating all we discovered about compostion