The Principles of Design
Jan 12, 2016
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?