A book I picked up by Jack Hamm on drawing scenery (http://www.amazon.com/Drawing-Scene...../dp/0399508066) first clued me into composing pictures as abstract spaces. While composition isn't something I've mastered by any means, that concept gave me a huge boost at the time, and made drawing in general a lot less frustrating.

Basically, the idea is that each picture can be divided into spaces of different value (darker or lighter) for the most readable composition. Thus, your foreground might be the lightest, middle ground a medium shade, and background the darkest, or any combination thereof. Some really striking graphic designs are only black and white with no shades in between.

In any case, it got me to thinking about the problem of color and if it could be solved similarly. Abstraction helped me see the relationship between value and composition, so maybe abstract color pictures will help me to better see who to put color into play in more conventional art. Any results of my experimentation will probably go into scraps at best, unless people really think they're worth seeing.

Feel free to share your own experiences/thoughts.