Design Principles of Artworks

  Lines, shapes, colors and sizes are significant elements of a piece of artwork. And cutting through these edges help us analyzing, understand an image comprehensively from a design principle perspective.

  And I like to illustrate some techniques of how artists resembling viewers’ feelings by utilize design principles in artworks.

 

Size is definitely the very first thing an artist would consider while creating a piece of art. The Following piece is called “Toy Tank”, presented by Amy Cheung from Hong Kong contemporary art at Saatchi Gallery, London, 2013. This is a full size wooden tank, and there is actual space inside of the tank for people to get in and operate. By assembling a same scale wooden tank as a real one, she was creating a sense of condescending that a war can be so near to people, even fit into a room with ones. The use of material, for instance, is also diversifying the meaning of war itself, that the intrinsic of a battle can be changed on top of its location.

  This image below is fulfilled of meanings by using the contrast of scales. It’s named Boy Reading to Elephant, by Gregory Colbert. This form of art often called anthropomorphic. Viewers are easily relate themselves as the boy, because we are all human. And the elephant is anthropomorphic, because it is given a gesture of kneeing down. By using the contrast of scales between the boy and the elephant, and different languages between species, knowing the elephant must not understand the words of mankind, he is expressing the power and strength of knowledge. The plain flat background also helps to stand out his point of view.

 

 

  A feeling of unity can also be given by colors and shapes used in an artwork. In one below, Mediterranean Landscape by Pablo Picasso. Similar shape and colors are utilized in this painting. The repetitive use of triangles throughout the whole picture as if everything there is made out of triangles. And constantly use of color yellow, not only brings a unity to the image, but diversifies it by applying color yellow on irregular shapes besides triangle.

 

 

 

 

  There are many ways to create a sense of unity in an artwork. In this printing, named Twisting Love, by Megan Aroon Duncanson. It is giving us a feeling of unity through the repetition use of curves. The moon is round as well as the branches. The waves of colors are also following this practice as if the whole piece of work is finished by nothing but curves.

  Another way of sending a feeling of unity in art is to create symmetrical balance. And a most common method of achieving that is by leading viewers to its focal point. Though most people naturally go for a vision focal point by locating the center of an artwork, parallel lines and circles are the easier way to balance left and right, above and below.  This is Vitruvian Man (c. 1485) Accademia, Venice by Leonardo da Vinci. The rectangle and circle creates a symmetrical balance. And the focal point is in the middle.

  Asymmetrical balance is certainly more complicated. It's a different level of technique, but artists like to use it. We will be able to find different scale of forms in the artwork, or different weight of use in color. However, artists tend to balance those small forms to accomplish a bigger balance and unity in an work. the artwork below is a complex sample of asymmetrical balance. First, the eye-catching red to the left of the painting is balanced by the tan yellow of the human body to the right. Warm colors have heavier weight rather than cool colors. Both red and yellow composed for left and right. On top of that, the light pink color at the right corner also arouse a sense of balance with blue sky to the left top. Second,  we can easily find something call directional forces in this painting. The civilians crawls from right to the left, following the sight from the woman in blue, and the baby in white is going towards his mother. Then the mother's hand is waving to the sky. Over there, we can see not only the emperor is looking at the same direction, another woman is waving her hand toward left. This is a combination of directional forces and repetition.

  There is an other way to find the asymmetrical balance in this artwork. The man in the red is a dominant form in this image, he is balanced by a sub-dominant form which is the man in dull tan skin. by waving towards each other in the middle of the image, this man is balance by a smaller sub-dominant form which the woman in green. At the end, the focal point falls on the women who is slightly to the right on the painting.

  Small forms balance in an artwork often create an asymmetrical balance for the whole image.