Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers Paperback – August 12, 2010

This edition is 34 pages of microscopic type, no intro and not a single illustration. It's useless in the full sense of that meaning: Unreadable, without illustrations impossible to understand. If it had cost me more I wouldn't be throwing it in the trash, but it is indeed trash. The Dover edition is apparently the version to get, but in any case this is the version to avoid.It now occurs to me that one needs to be careful in purchasing replications of material in the public domain, like this ancient chestnut. Seemingly the publisher's intent was to use as little paper as possible, thus the micro-text and exclusion of the illustrations, or perhaps they had some kind of copyright associated with the artist himself. In any case, a very poor mercantile decision, since it makes impossible the basic utility of the product: Readability and understanding. Making shoes so cheap they can't be worn, isn't really "making shoes", is it?I requested a refund and it was given, but additionally I was told I need not send the product back. They apparently hold it in as high a value as I.

This book is, so far, wonderful, the introduction is in depth and well written. The introduction maybe a bit tedious for those who are not interested in the history of how Dow came to write this book, but it is a well written piece. The book itself, offers the tools to see and understand the backbone of picture making in a clear and concise manner. It is not a "book" filled with lots of pictures, I have seen/purchased some books with many pictures but little content, if you want the "how to" manual for composing pictures, this is your book. Furthermore, if you are struggling with the format of this book, I suggest you start with Dorr Bothwell and Marlys Mayfiled's NOTAN, the Dark Light Principle of Design, and "Learning to Look" By Joshua C. Taylor, all are wonderful books that are rich with great information for an artist who has already enjoyed the delights of intuitive picture making, but now wish to understand the mechanics of how to create stronger compositions.

A terrible edition- it is basically a pamphlet with page number markers for illustrations that are apparently in other editions. Extremely small text. Overall, a huge ripoff that will be returned. I thought this was the Dover edition, but looks to be a very inadequate print on demand. I am very disappointed in Amazon for putting this out. Not even worth one star

The concepts presented in the book are interesting and might prove helpful IF the book included the pictures and diagrams referenced in the explanations. There are constant references to source material that is not pictured, so the concepts have little meaning. I can't say for sure, but it appears as though someone retyped the manuscript of the original book in the smallest font possible. If I had paid any more than I did, I would ask for my money back. What I would most like is the book I thought I was buying.

This version of the vintage text on composition--that the artist Georgia O'Keefe, and no doubt many other artists of note studied in their day--comes with an amazingly well written and profoundly useful lengthly Introduction by the multi-gifted philosophizing art historian Joseph Masheck.After reading only the first few pages of Masheck's fast-paced concisely intelligent writing, I was hooked, and ordered his book on Cezanne--titled *C's Aesthetics* --which I have now completed reading, and am working on re-reading the section specific to certain of Cezanne's paintings so as to compare Macheck's analysis with repro's of the specified paintings by *C*.So, I am very glad that I bought this version of the Dow Composition book, for that Macheck Intro alone.Also, Macheck states, in his Intro, reasons for recommending artists & art students revisit this older written work on Composition by Dow--to the effect that those from younger generations were born into abstraction and do not understand how it came about--that there once was a time when only in the work of Cezanne was anything like the current (and past Cubism) styles of abstraction even suggested and made possible--and so a study of Dow's *Composition* is a way of revisiting those times so as to expand one's understanding, appreciation.... and output as a working artist...After completing the Macheck Intro to Dow's *Composition*, I began to read the vintage text portion and do the exercises---and right away, with the first exercise, felt amazed at how much the ink line brushwork helped me on many levels. I had never done Asia style ink brushwork before--it was not something taught in the California art school where I studied for my degree (perhaps considered old-fashioned) and though I have seen many examples of Japanese & Chinese painting & brush style calligraphy in museums in those countries and in the USA-- seeing, studying, thinking about something does not replace doing, as Dow reminds in Section III of his *Composition* book---"artistic skill cannot be given by dictation or acquired by reading."And so it may be beyond words to explain exactly how doing the exercises benefits and how those benefits come about--such as in using the exercises and new understandings as *jumping off points* in creating studies and fully realized art works...

Do not buy this edition. This is an awful facsimile of a library copy. You can see it right in the front matter--Library of the New York State College of Home Economics, Gift of Mrs. C.B. Robinson. I'm almost positive they just ripped it from Google Books. The content isn't sized to the pages; even numbered pages are on the right side; the images are incredibly dark and sometimes impossible to discern; there's writing on pages--not in the book, in the copy! It's madness. I could have printed off a .pdf and had a better version.

This reprint of the book is not well done. The sections aren't separated by headings as they were in the original book design - instead they run together so you can't tell where an exercise stops and the next descriptive section begins. There are also typos, and some of the images are low-resolution. Disappointing that this company Loki's Publishing would rush through the reprinting of a classic book just to make a few bucks.