ollen torrents, wind-tossed trees and stormy
skies, and all is changed. Such things cannot be expressed without much
more emphatic lines and masses, and the use of opposing angles and
energetic curves of movement which would be destructive of the sentiment
of peace, in other cases. Yet even then to convey the expression of
energy and rapid movement, concerted groups of lines are none the less
necessary (see illustration, p. 159[f089]).

[Illustration (f089): Informal Composition: Expression of (1) Storm and
(2) Calm In Landscape.]

Such comparisons indicate not only that there is a necessary
association of ideas with certain lines and forms, but also that certain
relations and associations of line of a similar character are necessary
to produce a harmonious composition, and one which conveys a definite
and pervading sentiment or emotion, just as we saw that the controlling
lines of structural curves, spirals, and angles require to be in
relation, and to be re-echoed by the character of the design they
inclose or which is built upon them.

The same law holds true in figure composition. The sense of repose and
restfulness necessary to sitting or reclining groups depends upon the
gentle declivities of the curves and their gradual descent to the
horizontal.

[Illustration (f090): Informal Composition: Expression of Repose and
Action.]

Draw a figure sitting rigid, tense, and alert, and you destroy the sense
of repose at once, and you are obliged also to resort to angles, still
more emphatic where strong action is to be expressed; while to express
continual or progressive movement, a choice of associated lines of
action in different stages of progress leading up to the crescendo of
the final one (as in a group of mowers) would be necessary (see
illustrations, p. 161[f090]). We cannot, then, in any composition have
too definite a conception. We must, at any sacrifice of detail, bring
out the main expression and meaning. Every group of figures must be in
the strictest relation to each other and to the central interest or
expression of the design. You cannot, for instance, in a procession of
figures, make your faces turn all sorts of ways without stopping the
onward movement which is essential to the idea of a procession. This
would not preclude variety, but the general tendency must be in one
direction. Every line in a composition must lead up to the central idea,
and be subordinated or contributory to it (see illustrati