Chapter 5 Summary:  The Principles of Design

Can a work of art be better than another? All right, so today we're going to look at Chapter 5, The Principles of Design. And the principles of a design are important because although one may argue that there's no such thing as bad art, there is such thing as visual appeal, market value, gallery representation, artistic grants, and product sales. And at the end of the day, the artist must admit that there are just some things that work and some things that don't. But it doesn't have to be some kind of great mystery. By utilizing effectively the elements and principles of design, the artist can be better equipped to creating stronger and more effective works of art. So we're going to take a look at principles of design like unity, balance, emphasis, proportion, scale, and rhythm. And by looking at these principles, we can see how artists have been able to make some pretty great art. All right, so the first concept we're going to take a look at is unity. Unity is very important to our experience of art and you really see it throughout every single art form. Take a look at any major Disney movie and you can see how the colors, the costume, the music, and just the overall feel of the movie are just all unified and all have this kind of underlying unity to it. Check out this painting by Jackson Pollock. At first glance, it may just seem like a bunch of random marks and patches of color. But as you look closer, you start seeing that the brush marks are actually all around the same thickness, size, and form. And as a result, the whole surface just sings out. It has one unified whole. Another example of unity can be seen in this assemblage by Annette Messenger, which includes these framed photographs and these handwritten texts, which are all suspended by this twine. And not only is the unity found in the fact that they're all grouped together and they're all have like these black frames, but also there's unity in the conceptual aspects of the work as well. All of the photographs portray isolated body parts, a knee, a mouth, a throat. And when you spend time to actually look at the work, you'll start noticing the framed texts seem to have a relationship with the images. So for example, the word tenderness is next to the arms and so forth. Going along with unity, another important principle of design is the concept of balance. Whenever we look at a work of art, there is a certain distribution of weight that happens in our eyes. Visual weight refers to how heavy or how light forms feel when they're arranged in a composition. And when we feel that the visual weight is even and evenly distributed from the center, then we feel like the composition is balanced. Now the text describes two different kinds of balance. There's symmetrical balance and there's asymmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance is when the forms in a composition seem to mirror each other across the center. This work by Georgia O'Keeffe is a good example of a work that is symmetrically balanced. Here's a Buddhist mandala showing the cosmic realm. Symmetrical balance is important here because it's used to help those who are meditating on it achieve enlightenment. Now the concept of asymmetrical balance can be achieved even when the two sides don't match. Now this type of balance can be a little trickier because it's not so straightforward. To achieve asymmetrical balance, you have to be aware of what makes one form appear to be heavier than another. So for example, when a form is larger, textured, has more contrast, and seems to be more complex, that tends to hold our eye longer and is therefore heavier visually. You can see a good example of asymmetrical balance when you take a look at this chilling painting by Gustav Klimt called Death and Life. In this painting, he has basically separated the two sides, death and life, but look at how he balances the composition. Even though the right side has the most action and the most forms, the alarming gaze of the death angel is able to weigh down the left side because it's just so alarming and isolated. The patterning on the death angel is also louder than the patterning on the right, and so because of all those things, there's just this sense of balance even though the right seems to have more going on. Here's a painting by Vermeer. Do you see how that little small crack of light on the upper left hand side tends to balance out all of the light on the right side? I mean, just think about it. If that little crack of light weren't there, the whole left side of the painting would completely disappear from our radar. Here's another good example. It's a painting by Manet depicting this barmaid looking out at us. Now, there's a lot of really interesting things happening in this painting, but check out how the artist is able to have every single element in this painting balancing out something else on the other side. Check it out. The white circular lights that dangle down, they seem to balance each other out. The oranges that are on the counter there, they're balanced out by the wrapping that's on the wine. That light kind of horizontal shape seen in the background is balanced by the light horizontal shape in the counter and so forth. Some of you may not have realized that this work was so meticulously balanced, but that's the mark of a master artist. They make it look so natural. They make it look easy. And while balance is important to achieve, it's also important to do so while maintaining emphasis, another important principle discussed in the text. Emphasis means that our attention is drawn more to certain parts of the composition than other parts. And when you have a relatively small area of emphasis, that is sometimes called a focal point. So think about this. Why would an artist want to create an area of emphasis or a focal point area? Well, for one, it can make the experience of the work more enjoyable to viewers. I mean, think about it. Nobody wants to listen to a song that just consists of a chorus or where all of the instruments are playing a solo all at the same time. We also don't want to watch a movie with a hundred main characters. Instead, it can be best to have, you know, the lead characters, the supporting actors, and then, you know, the extras. And in the same way, a work of art will often have, you know, one emphasis area and then a secondary focal point and then, you know, maybe areas that are more subordinate. Take a look at this painting by Henry Tanner called The Banjo Lesson. In this painting, it's very clear that the focal area is the face of the man, the boy, and the banjo. It even makes this little triangle of interest. Now, once we've taken the sweet moment, our eyes then may drift and we may pick up some secondary things. We might notice the empty bowls on the ground and that may give us a context of the characters and their life. And, you know, we see all these things while maybe other elements of the painting are then pushed into subordination. That's how an artist can use emphasis to kind of create that visual intrigue. All right, so you give it a try. What's the focal point in this painting? Who's the star? Hopefully, we all unanimously say it's that guy right there. So, how does de Goya ensure that this is the case? Well, for one, the color of his shirt is much brighter and has more contrast than the rest of the painting. And then, he has all of the rifles pointing directly at the man. And those rifles kind of serve as those leading lines to guide our eyes right to him. And to top all that, he is the only person in the painting with his arms out. It's as if he's demanding the viewer to look right at him. So, there's a lot of ways to achieve a focal point in a work of art. And you would just be amazed at how many of these tricks are utilized in commercials and in advertisements. Emphasis really has a strong place in good design and it's a really important principle to consider. The next principle of design that the text discusses is the concept of scale and proportion. The term scale, it refers to the size that's in relation to some kind of standard or what we would consider normal. Some artists try to mess with scale in order to kind of make a certain statement. Claus Oldenburg was known for making these huge sculptures of these common everyday items. And by seeing these items at such a tremendous scale, it really transforms the way we look at them. But people have been messing with scale long before Oldenburg and Honey I Shrunk the Kids. I mean, back in the Babylonian era, you may notice that they made their god, who is the one seated in this relief. He's much taller than the size of the king who's standing. And he made that him taller in order to show who's the boss. This kind of thing is all over ancient art. It's called hierarchical scale. And typically, the more important you are, the bigger you're depicted. Now the term proportion is different than scale. Proportion refers to something in comparison to a whole. So for example, you can look at this head of this Roman emperor Constantine, and you can recognize that in relation to the entire face, the eyes are kind of depicted out of proportion because they're depicted really large. I will also add that scale is actually important when talking about this work too, because although we only have a few fragmented body parts remaining, the entire sculpture would have been nearly 40 feet tall. Yikes! But getting back to proportion, I can't leave this topic without bringing up the Greeks. The Greeks were obsessed with determining the most perfect proportions of man. And their conclusion? The Doryphoros. This sculpture is an excellent example of the Greek ideal. His head is exactly one-seventh of his body, and everything else has been meticulously rendered and perfectly measured. Their thoughts on proportions greatly influenced Leonardo da Vinci, who studied human anatomy and made this sketch in his attempt to to make those perfect proportions and make man's proportions fit perfectly within the two perfect shapes, the circle and square. The last principle of design discussed in the text has to do with the concept of rhythm. Usually when we think of rhythm, we think of music or we think of that Johnny Cash song. But you know, visual artists have been getting rhythm for a long time, and that's because in art, rhythm is how a work is structured and in the pace that our eyes take when we experience or when we take in a work of art's elements. And you know, just like drums, one key way of attaining rhythm is through the use of repetition. Take a look at this Paul Klee work. When we look at this work, we see that he's creating repetition, and we can see that in those silvery forms as they repeat across the image. He also repeats lots of other forms, and you know, in doing so, our eyes just move throughout the whole composition as if on beat. So, unity, balance, emphasis, proportion, scale, rhythm. If you want your work to be more effective, and if you want to communicate and express yourself more eloquently, I mean, these are the key concepts to explore. And you know, next time you look at a work of art, you know, take some time, spend time with it, and try to appreciate what the artist is doing to make it look so strong and make the design so strong. Because I guarantee you, the artist has made a lot of important decisions concerning these principles of design in order to make it look flawless, and in order to make it look natural and easy. I mean, that's why it's a, there's a reason why it's a compliment for somebody to say that you've got it down to a work of art. So, that sums up Chapter 5, The Principles of Design. So, we'll catch you next time. See ya!