Principles of Art
UNITY
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The elements that help a work of art come together and look like a finished whole.
Variety helps a unified artwork have interest. |
The painting above shows unity in the use of similar shapes and rhythm of color.
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The sculpture of the gorilla uses unity through the use of a common material (colored pencils make up the shape of the gorilla)
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The painting of the koi fish shows unity through the use of paint strokes.
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EMPHASIS
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The focal point of an image. Think of it as the area of the art that hooks the viewer in.
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Color is used in the image above to create emphasis.
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The painting above uses size to create emphasis because the large chick becomes the focal element.
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Focus and blur can also be used to create emphasis as shown in the photo of the rocks.
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CONTRAST
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The use of opposite elements to create visual interest.
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MOVEMENT
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The use of elements to help guide the viewer around the work of art
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The artist uses leading lines to move the viewer around. The flag is the area of emphasis and the flag pole as well as the rifle that the main character is holding create lines to move the viewer down the right and left sides. The overall movement shape your eyes would trace would be a triangle.
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In the painting of the ballerinas, the artist uses the red-orange color in the girls' hair to move the viewer from the foreground to the background.
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The textures of the brush strokes in the painting above help to move the viewer over the hills toward the building in the background.
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PATTERN
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An element that repeats. This helps to create interest or move the viewer around the work of art
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The aboriginal people from Australia used patterns of dots in their artwork to disguise symbols they didn't want other people to know about. These symbols were sacred and represented something special in their culture. This type of painting became popular for Australian art.
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Buddhist monks create patterned mandalas as a form of meditation.
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Gustave Klimt shows how pattern can be used to create interest in a work of art as well as create separation in his painting above, titled "The Kiss".
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RHYTHM
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A pattern that has variation, giving more dynamic design than just repeating one element
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The image above shows a flowing rhythm, giving a very calming and soothing sense. The subtle gradation of color adds to that affect as well as gives variation to add interest.
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In Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase", the artist uses repeated shapes that move at a downward slope to give a sense of movement.
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Wassily Kandinsky was often inspired by music. His painting above uses many repeated elements but changes colors, sizes, length, etc. to give an impression of different notes and tones being played. They move the viewer's eyes across like beats to a song.
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BALANCE
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The arrangement of elements to create a harmony of weight or to create tension
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Asymmetrical balance is balance that can't be cut in half in any way. In the painting above, the artist balances the darker figure in the foreground by placing a larger number of lighter figures in the middle and background. Darker colors tend to be visually heavier. Asymmetrical balance is the hardest to do successfully but can result in more interesting compositions.
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Symmetrical balance is balance that uses an axis. In other words, it can be cut in half. Note that this doesn't mean that each half slice has to be a mirror image. In the painting above, you can clearly see that you can cut the image down the middle vertically. and it would split the two elephants. But notice that the women aren't perfectly split in half and neither is the background. This painting would still be considered symmetrically balanced.
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Radial balance is balance where the design starts from the center and radiates outward. For a design to be radially balanced, all elements of the design must repeat 3 or more times. The photograph above is not in radial balance, but the actual artwork is. There is a central figure, a design that radiates out from that figure, then other figures are placed around, repeating a pattern.
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