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l 3 Artist Does Caricatures for Business Promotion by Rob Savage "You don't see stores like this around much," said John Boots, the owner of Ar- tistik Images. "It's something something unique." His words could be considered considered an understatement. At Artistik Images, Mr. Boots offers a variety of services services including portraits, air brush shirts, and framing framing of pictures. And he seems to be willing willing to try new things. "It helps to be flexible," he said. His latest venture is drawing caricatures of the local merchants for the advertisements advertisements appearing in this week's edition of The Statesman. "It's something I've never done before." Judging from the look of his store, it's probably one of the few things he hasn't done. Customers entering the shop on King St. West can see completed paintings paintings by Mr. Boots and paintings paintings that he is working on, including the photographs he's using for the painting. They can also see some of the ventures he has taken on for his own personal interest, interest, including the mask he created for last Halloween Halloween which now sits on a back shelf. • "I try to make one every year for Halloween to scare the kids when they come," he said. He has also done sculpting sculpting and paints murals on the gas tanks of motorcycles. motorcycles. He said he's painted his van four times. That hobby can be time-consuming, since it took him 300 hours to paint it the third time. The fourth time, however, he spent only three weeks on it. "I wasn't as fussy then," he said. Much of the work done in the stores doesn't take quite so long. He said he can usually usually do a portrait in about three days. The portraits and the custom custom shirts are the most popular items sold. Mr. Boots said he thinks the shirts sell well because they personalized. Some of the requests made for shirts are often bizarre and possibly possibly obscene. He said one lady had a la^P iii= eus Redefining Composition Webster calls it, "The arrangement into proper proportion or relation and especially into artistic form." I find that definition of composition a bit presumtuous. To me, composition could better be defined, "The arrangement of elements by proportion or relation." What's the big difference? difference? No big difference, but an important one. Webster implies implies that any composition contains elements in "proper" assembly, assembly, very likely resulting in "art." I've seen composition I wouldn't paste on my bathroom wall. Merely arranging elements and calling that arrangement "proper" and, worse still, assuming that proper arrangement is "art!' is ridiculous. If that were the case, there would be no such thing as a good versus a bad photograph, painting, sculpture, dancework, or musical selection. Now, before you run off and accuse poor old Noah of having snorted too much peyote dust when he wrote that definition, let's try being reasonable, understanding, fair. If you place the word, "effective," in front of the word, "composition," then Webster's appears to have hit it on the head, l ean buy those " things about "proper" and "artistic" then. • •• But what, exactly, constitutes effective composition in photography? In short, just about everything you do to a scene prior to snapping the shutter. The illustration accompanying this column, for instance, has only four elements in it -- far fewer than the average photo. Yet, all four elements combine to produce an effective overall shot. They create "effective composition." Let's examine them and find out'why. 1. ) The predominant element in any photo is called the subject which, in this case, is the cat. Unless you absolutely hate felines, you'll probably admit that this particular cat is quite interesting. Notice its "arrangement," the way its back arches against the top of the scene, the way its front legs carry the main load of weight. If you were to represent the cat by a single pencil or brush stroke, you would end up with a single curving line beginning at the lower, righthand edge of the frame arid sweeping up and around to the middle lefthand edge. . That imaginary line creates something called "movement" within the scene. It prevents the scene from becoming stagnant stagnant and boring. The eye instinctively starts at the lower right and follows the "line" to the very tip of the cat's nose. 2. ) The ledge beneath the cat serves as a solid "base" so that the animal doesn't seem to be floating in space -- a nice effect for a Star Wars action flick but rotten for a two-dimensional two-dimensional photo. It also serves as a visual "frame," marking the lowermost part of the scene. # 3. ) The bent cornstalk to the right and above the cat seems to mimic the curve of the animal, although with angulated straight lines. It serves as a visual frame, too, marking the uppermost part of the scene and keeping the last element -- the background -- from intruding upon the subject. 4. ) The background is just about as plain, uncluttered, and unobtrusive as it could possibly be, creating a sense of visual order and comfort. A busier background -- say one filled with branches and leaves from a nearby tree -- would be so busy, it would tend to compete with the subject for attention, thus weakening the entire scene and the overall effectiveness of the photo. All four of these elements contribute to the overall effective composition of this photo, Remember Webster's original definition? definition? "The arrangement into proper proportion or relation ..."? Each of the four different elements relates as a whole to the effectiveness of the captured scene. Now, collecting and arranging all the elements in a scene so that they create an effective photo may seem like a lot of work. And it is, in the beginning. But, like learning to play the violin, creating effective .composition becomes easier with practice. And there's no better way to turn a ho-hum photo into a dynamic piece of art than by careful composition. So get in the habit of utilizing effective composition each and every time you lilt your camera to your eye. Consider all the elements in the scene, and then think about how best to arrange them. It may seem like a lot of work at first, but it will soon become second nature. And you'll be a much better photographer for having put forth the effort. However you define 'composition, " a good photo | speaks for itself. PHOTOGRAPHY CUSTOM FRAMING anges photo z K 1 HOUR EXPRESS PHOTO FINISHING 31 KINC ST. W. UOWMANVILLE G23-25G6 The Canadian Statesman. Bowmanville, August 20,1986 Youngest Grandson Has a Birthday M John Boots, of Artistik Images, works on a caricature caricature that will be used in an advertising campaign for the local merchants. The campaign created a new challenge for Mr. Boots who said he had never done caricatures before. particularly creative saying to go with a picture of an orange she wanted on her shirt. Much of what is ordered probably seems quite different different from his earlier works. Mr. Boots said he's been interested in art for as long as he can remember. "I guess I've always drawn," he said. When he was small, he sketched nature scenes and pictures of houses. He got his first airbrush when he was 16. "It just kind of grew from there," he said. He then began painting murals on cars for his friends. He took a 10 month course in Commercial Art at Mohawk College and eventually eventually set up shop in Bowmanville. Bowmanville. The store first opened in the shop now used by Whyte's Upholstery. Mr. Boots and his brother Peter | : began in that store in 1981, and he said business was quite good. Somewhat to his surprise, the early days weren't difficult. difficult. "It's something different, different, I guess." Things didn't work quite so well when he moved his shop into a house. People were reluctant to go into his home to look at the work. In June, 1985, he moved into his present location at 43 King St. W. He now sells color portraits for $185, black and white portraits for $165, and air brush shirts for about $45. Customers can also buy paintings done by Mr. Boots, although he is somewhat somewhat reluctant to sell them. He's hoping to build up a collection of his own work for an exhibit he would like to put on. At the present time, he hasn't got enough paintings to do this. He does enter competitions, competitions, but is disillusioned by the number of abstract artists he sees winning awards. Mr. Boots said he prefers the old artists and doesn't know why some modern artists continue to win. He remembers one story where a monkey painted some abstract art which won some awards, since the judges didn't find out the monkey did it until after. He swears the story is true and remains disillusioned to this day. His own favorite artists include Robert Bateman and Ken Danby. Mr. Boots said he likes to create pictures which combine combine fantasy and reality and which look as realistic as possible. "The closer I can get to the photographs I'm working from, the better." Mr. Boots doesn't see himself himself as a tempermental artist artist either. He doesn't insist upon silence when he works, and says he prefers to work with the radio going. He also doesn't mind if people look over his shoulder shoulder while he's working. He says the gratification he gets from his work is when he knows his art has touched someone personally. personally. He remembers doing a portrait of his friends' parents parents for their 25th anniversary. anniversary. When the parents saw the work, they had tears in their eyes. "I guess that's when' you really know it works," he said. Buoyant Market Boosts House Prices Editor and Mrs. John James would like you to meet their youngest grandsons, Samuel, aged two and a half, and Mason, who celebrated his first birthday on Wednesday, August 13th. Their parents are Bob and Ellen James, Minden. The strong demand for residential resale housing in most Canadian centres shows little signs of abating. As a result, the value of homes continues to record significant increases...... According to the Royal LePage Survey; of Canadian House Prices released today, imhdugh some areas are seeing stable markets and relatively moderate selling price increases, many other communities are reporting gains as high as 20 percent or more in the past year. "Moderate interest rates and a generally strong economy are the major factors factors stimulating home buying activity," says George Cormack, President, Royal LePage Real Estate Services. "Many communities report strong demand from first-time buyers." "Montreal, Toronto, and many other Ontario centres are experiencing the strongest markets for resale housing in recent memory," adds Cormack. Cormack. "Other cities, like Calvary, Calvary, Edmonton, and Ottawa are seeing more moderate levels of demand, but resale housing prices in these areas are stable or increasing slightly.'! Cormack's comments coincided coincided with the release of the July issue of the Survey of Canadian House Prices. The quarterly, cross-Canada study tracks the estimated selling price of six categories of housing in over 170 communities communities from coast to coast. The Royal LePage Survey is designed not only to track house price trends, but also to compare the value of similar homes in different communities communities across the country. For example, the three- bedroom Detached Bungalow defined by the Royal LePage Survey in the Richmond area of Vancouver has gone up just over four percent in the past year to $125,000. An identical home in North Toronto is now estimated at $155,000., 27.5 percent more than it was a year ago. In Montreal's St. Laurent area this Bungalow is up 17.6 percent to $100,000 and in Halifax's Clayton Park, it's worth an estimated $124,000, unchanged from July, 1985. Resale housing values quoted in the Survey of. Canadian House Prices represent the estimated current current market value of typical homes in six different categories. categories. The prices cited are Royal LePage opinions of fair market value in each location based on data and market knowledge provided by Royal LePage residential real estate specialists. Royal LePage is Canada's leading realtor, with close to 10,000 employees in over 370.; residential and commercial offices in Canada, the United States, and overseas. A complimentary copy of the Survey of Canadian House Prices is available from any Royal LePage real estate office in Canada. >, MIDWAY MIDWAY MIDWAY MIDWAY MIDWAY 5 I ...... . _j > f : rrrrrq ~ * [ Hr . p> lr Tr. MIDWAY MOTORS 1300 Dundas St. E., Whitby 668-6828 DURHAM REGION'S No. 11MPORT TRUCK DEALER My ffeweltovy Stove,, *ljou Will fyUvâ . . s z/l> ... tap. 2ualihf, fjeuteltoiy at JLÔW Priced,! Watchs for Men and Women Diamonds • Rings • Earrings Chains • Bracelets Bateman Prints • New shipment just arrived! Introducing ... Sterling Silver Jewellery Cathy's Gold 78 King St. W. 623-1933 Bowmanville Are You PLANNING A VACATION? It's not too early to think about your winter vacation. The new books will be arriving any day. Book NOW to avoid disappointment. 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