The Principles of Design

Principles of Design

• The Rules that govern how the artists organize the elements of Art.

• The Principles are Balance, Rhythm, Repetition, Pattern, Movement, Proportion, Emphasis, Gradation, Harmony, Variety, Contrast.

Achieving Unity

• The look and feel of wholeness or oneness in a work of art.

• Achieved by how artists select and use the art principles: Rhythm, Emphasis, Movement, Balance, Contrast, Harmony, Variety, Gradation, Proportion.

• Without it a work looks disorganized, incomplete, or confusing.

Balance

• Principle of design concerned with equalizing the visual forces or elements in the work of art.

• The types of balance are:• Symmetry or Formal Balance• Asymmetry or Informal Balance• Radial Balance

Symmetry

• Also called Formal Balance

• Occurs when equal or very similar, elements are placed on opposite sides of a central axis.

Examples of Symmetry or Formal Balance

Asymmetry

• Also called Informal Balance

• Occurs when there is a balance of unlike objects.

Baby at Playby Thomas Eakins

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

byKatsushika Hokusai

Examples ofInformal Balance

or Asymetry

Powwow Dancer by Daphne Odjig

Radial Balance

• Type of Balance in which forces or elements of a design come out or radiate from a central point.

Examples ofRadial Balance

This piece by Salvador Dali shows radial balance.

Rhythm• Principles of Design that indicates movement

by the repetition of elements.

• There are four types of Rhythm• Random

• Regular

• Alternating

• Progressive (see next slide)

or

Progressive Rhythm

Transformationsby

M C Escher

Use of Repetition

• Technique for creating rhythm and unity in which a single element is appears again and again.

• Repetition is very similar to Rhythm and they are usually used together by sometimes you can have Rhythm without Repetition (example, Progressive Rhythm)

Progressive Rhythm

Transformationsby

M C Escher

This work usesRhythm but

not Repetition

Pattern

• A Two-dimensional, visual repetition

• Examples of Pattern are fabric, wallpaper, bed spreads.

Pattern

Work by Henri Matisse that uses a lot of pattern

Movement

• Principle of design that deals with creating the illusion of action or physical change in position.

Movement

Dynamism of aDog on a Leash

byGiacomo Balla

1912Oil on Canvas

The many repetitions of the legs, feet, tail,and chain in this work give it the appearance

of actual movement.

Nude Descending a Staircaseby Marcel Duchamp

Captures the feelingof movement that occurs

when someone is walking down the

stairs.

This piece captures the feelingof movement in the trees and sky

Most art does not really move

but there are someexamples of mobiles byAlexander Calder that

do move.

Mobile from National Gallery of

Art

Lobster Trap and Fish Tail

Proportion

• The principle of art concerned with the size relationship of one part to another.

• If you have ever tried to draw a human figure and realized that the head was too big or small compared to the rest of the body, you were already using the principle of proportion.

Facial Proportions

Body Proportion

• The basic rule of thumb is that

the body is 71/2 or8 times the size of

the head.

Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519), Study of proportions, from

Vitruvius's De Architectura, pen and ink

Leonardo, inspired by the mathematician Vitruvius (Roman,

1st century BCE), drew this famous picture of Vitruvian Man -- a sort of ideal figure -- whose arm

span is equal to his height -- a ratio of one, or 1:1.

 

Artist can changethe actual proportionat any time. In this

work by Michelangelo,he made Mary much

largerthan the body of Jesus.If Mary could stand up,

she would be about nine

feettall! He did this so that

she wouldn’t look crushed by

the weight of the body.

The Pieta by Michelangelo

Examples of Contemporary Artists who distort proportion.

Emphasis or ContrastThe principle of design that makes one part of a

work dominant over the other parts.

That dominant part is called the“Focal Point”.

The Focal Point is the first part of the work to attract the viewers attention.

A way of combining elements to stress the differences between those elements.

Emphasis by Location

In the Dining Roomby Berthe Morisot

The young woman appears

to be in the center of this painting.

A lot of times, wenaturally look in the center of the picture

first like we would witha photo or camera.

Emphasis byContrast

Rembrandt. Self-Portrait. c. 1629. Oil on canvas.

Rembrandt uses valuecontrast to create a

focal point in this work.Only the head and the

area immediately aroundit are painted in light

values. The backgroundsinks into darkness.

Emphasis by Convergence

Baptism in Kansasby

John Steuart Curry

In this painting allthe people arestaring at the

preacherand the girl. The

viewer becomes one of the crowd and

stares too.

Emphasizing with the

UnususalTime Transfixed, 1939

  Artist: Rene Magritte

(1898-1967) Surrealist

By placing veryunusual objects or

impossible activities in awork, an artist can also

create a focal point.

Variety• Principle of Design concerned with difference

or creating contrast.• A way of combining elements in involved ways

to create intricate and complicated relationships and to add visual interest to a unified whole.

• An artwork which makes use of many different hues, values, lines, textures, and shapes would reflect the artist's use of variety.

• Have to balance variety and harmony.

This Art workcontainsdifferentcolors,

shapes, andvegetables to

make thepicture moreinteresting.

This Art work by Daphne Odjig alsocontainsdifferentcolors,shapes, andvegetables tomake thepicture moreinteresting.

Variety keeps the eye moving….

Harmony

• A way of combining similar elements in an artwork to accent their similarities and create a unified whole.

• Use subtle and gradual changes and repetition

• Use a limited number of like elements to tie work together.

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh shows harmony in its colour scheme and use of line.

Gradation

• A way of combining elements by using a series of gradual changes in those elements. i.e. small to large, dark to light

This piece by Salvador Dali shows great use of gradation.

• Incredible Windmills by Vladimir Kush

This piece shows harmony by it’s colour scheme and use of gradation. How does it also show good use of variety?