{"id":62,"date":"2015-04-10T18:35:29","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T18:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.candelalearning.com\/masteryart1x6xmaster\/?post_type=chapter&p=62"},"modified":"2018-06-26T16:34:33","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T16:34:33","slug":"oer-1-8","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/sac-artappreciation\/chapter\/oer-1-8\/","title":{"raw":"Design Principles","rendered":"Design Principles"},"content":{"raw":"In this reading you will learn to identify and distinguish how the principles of design are used to visually organize an artwork.\r\n\r\nVisual art manifests itself through media, ideas, themes and sheer creative imagination. Yet all of these rely on basic structural principles that, like the elements we\u2019ve been studying, combine to give voice to artistic expression. Incorporating the principles into your artistic vocabulary not only allows you to objectively describe artworks you may not understand, but contributes in the search for their meaning.\r\n\r\nThe first way to think about a principle is that it is something that can be repeatedly and dependably done with elements to produce some sort of visual effect in a composition.\r\n\r\nThe principles are based on sensory responses to visual input: elements APPEAR to have visual weight, movement, etc.\u00a0 The principles help govern what might occur when particular elements are arranged in a particular way.\u00a0 Using a chemistry analogy, the principles are the ways the elements \u201cstick together\u201d to make a \u201cchemical\u201d (in our case, an image).\r\n\r\nAnother way to think about these design principles is that they express a value judgment about a composition. For example, when we say a painting has \"unity\" we are making a value judgment. \u00a0We might also say that too much unity<\/em> without variety<\/em> is boring and too much variation without unity is chaotic.\r\n\r\nIn any work of art there is a thought process for the arrangement and use of the elements of design.\u00a0 The artist who works with the principles of good composition will create a more interesting piece; it will be arranged to show a pleasing rhythm and movement.\u00a0 The center of interest will be strong and the viewer will not look away, instead, they will be drawn into the work.\u00a0 A good knowledge of composition is essential in producing good artwork.\u00a0 Some artists today like to bend or ignore these rules and by doing so are experimenting with different forms of expression.\r\n

Balance<\/h2>\r\nAll works of art possess some form of visual balance \u2013 a sense of weighted clarity created in a composition. The artist arranges balance to set the dynamics of a composition. A really good example is in the work<\/a>\u00a0of Piet Mondrian, whose revolutionary paintings of the early twentieth\u00a0century used non-objective balance instead of realistic subject matter to generate the visual power in his work. In the examples below you can see that where the white rectangle is placed makes a big difference in how the entire picture plane is activated.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"288\"]\"Six Image by Christopher Gildow. Used with permission.[\/caption]\r\n\r\nWhich of these are visually static and which seem to have a sense of dynamism or implied movement?\r\n\r\nGenerally, when analyzing for visual balance, imagine a vertical line through the center of the image and compare the two halves. There are three basic forms of visual balance:\r\n