1.3 - Principles of Design

Visual 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’ve 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.

The 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.

The principles are based on sensory responses to visual input: elements APPEAR to have visual weight, movement, etc. The principles help govern what might occur when particular elements are arranged in a particular way. Using a chemistry analogy, the principles are the ways the elements “stick together” to make a “chemical” (in our case, an image). Principles can be confusing. There are at least two very different but correct ways of thinking about principles. On the one hand, a principle can be used to describe an operational cause and effect such as “bright things come forward and dull things recede”. On the other hand, a principle can describe a high quality standard to strive for such as “unity is better than chaos” or “variation beats boredom” in a work of art. So, the word “principle” can be used for very different purposes.

Another way to think about a principle is that it is a way to express a value judgment about a composition. Any list of these effects may not be comprehensive, but there are some that are more commonly used (unity, balance, etc). When we say a painting has unity we are making a value judgment. Too much unity without variety is boring and too much variation without unity is chaotic. The principles of design help you to carefully plan and organize the elements of art so that you will hold interest and command attention. This is sometimes referred to as visual impact.

In the previous chapter, the Elements of Design were likened to the ingredients used in a recipe - eggs, milk, etc. We can think of the Principles of Design as the directions in a recipe - mix the ingredients, bake for 45 minutes, etc. The principles are the manner in which the composition is assempled (or the cake is baked)! The following page explore important principles in composition.

Visual Balance
All works of art possess some form of visual balance – 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 Links to an external site. of Piet Mondrian, whose revolutionary paintings of the early twentieth century 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.

The example on the top left is weighted toward the top, and the diagonal orientation of the white shape gives the whole area a sense of movement. The top middle example is weighted more toward the bottom, but still maintains a sense that the white shape is floating. On the top right, the white shape is nearly off the picture plane altogether, leaving most of the remaining area visually empty. This arrangement works if you want to convey a feeling of loftiness or simply direct the viewer’s eyes to the top of the composition. The lower left example is perhaps the least dynamic: the white shape is resting at the bottom, mimicking the horizontal bottom edge of the ground. The overall sense here is restful, heavy and without any dynamic character. The bottom middle composition is weighted decidedly toward the bottom right corner, but again, the diagonal orientation of the white shape leaves some sense of movement. Lastly, the lower right example places the white shape directly in the middle on a horizontal axis. This is visually the most stable, but lacks any sense of movement.

There are three basic forms of visual balance: Bilatterally Symmetrical, Asymmetrical and Radial.

     Bilaterally Symmetrical                Asymmetrical                  Radial

Bilateral Symmetrical Balance
Bilateral Symmetrical balance is the most visually stable, and characterized by an exact—or nearly exact—compositional design on either (or both) sides of the horizontal or vertical axis of the picture plane. Symmetrical compositions are usually dominated by a central anchoring element.In Diego Rivera's Flower Day, we can see how the billateral composition creates a sense of stillness, but it also give the image a felling of somenity and seriousness. Images that are symmetrical often convery a feeling quiet power and stability.

But bilateral symmetry’s inherent stability can sometimes make an image look static. View the Tibetan scroll painting below to see how the implied movement of the central figure Vajrakilaya lessens the severe symmetry. The visual busyness of the shapes and patterns surrounding the figure are balanced by their compositional symmetry, and the wall of flame behind Vajrakilaya tilts to the right as the figure itself tilts to the left. Tibetan scroll paintings use the symmetry of the figure to symbolize their power, stability, timelessness, and spiritual presence.

Spiritual paintings from other cultures employ this same balance for similar reasons. Sano di Pietro’s ‘Madonna of Humility’, painted around 1440, is centrally positioned, holding the Christ child and forming a triangular design, her head the apex and her flowing gown making a broad base at the bottom of the picture. Their halos are visually reinforced with the heads of the angels and the arc of the frame. You might say that this one and the Tibetan scroll painting are mostly symmetrical, but notice how much more symmetrical the second Madonna and child image is with the right and left halves of the painting almost identical. This is achieved by the Christ child being placed in the middle of Mary’s lap and her two hands raised in unison.

    

The use of bilatteral symmetry is evident in three-dimensional art, too. A famous example is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri (below). Commemorating the westward expansion of the United States, its stainless steel frame rises over 600 feet into the air before gently curving back to the ground. Another example is Richard Serra’s Tilted Spheres (also below). The four massive slabs of steel show a concentric symmetry and take on an organic dimension as they curve around each other, appearing to almost hover above the ground.

       

It is important to remember that bilatteral symmetry doesn't have ot be exact. You will see in the painting below by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, that although the two halves are similar, they are not mirror images of each other. The artist who was of mixed Mexican and European heritage uses the symmetrical composition to explore her own identity, using symmetrical balance that she, like many people, hold complex heritages and histories within ourself. Despite the differences between these different identies, they are both equal parts of who we are, and who Frida Kahlo was.

Asymmetrical Balance
Asymmetry uses compositional elements that are offset from each other, creating a visually unstable balance. Asymmetrical visual balance is the most dynamic because it creates a more complex design construction. Gustav Klimt's Death and LIfe is a fine example of asymmetrical balance. The dark purples, blues and black of the slim figure on the left balance the higher value, brighter figures on the right grouped into a large mass. The reason the image doesn't appear unbalanced despite the goup of figures on the right being a larger shape than the figure of death on the left, is because darker hues tend to feel heavier than lighter ones, hence the image is balanced, albeit asymmetrically.

         

Claude Monet’s Still Life with Apples and Grapes from 1880 (below) uses asymmetry in its design to enliven an otherwise mundane arrangement. First, he sets the whole composition on the diagonal, cutting off the lower left corner with a dark triangle. The arrangement of fruit appears haphazard, but Monet purposely sets most of it on the top half of the canvas to achieve a lighter visual weight. He balances the darker basket of fruit with the white of the tablecloth, even placing a few smaller apples at the lower right to complete the composition.

(l) Claude Monet, Still Life with Apples and Grapes, 1880, oil on canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago. Licensed under Creative Commons. (r) Hiroshige, Shinagawa on the Tokaido, ukiyo-e print, after 1832.

Monet and other Impressionist Links to an external site. painters were influenced by Japanese woodcut prints, whose flat spatial areas and graphic color appealed to the artist’s sense of design. One of the best-known Japanese print artists is Ando Hiroshige Links to an external site.. You can see the design strength of asymmetry in his woodcut Shinagawa on the Tokaido (below), one of a series of works that explores the landscape around the Takaido road. You can view many of his works through the hyperlink above.

In Henry Moore’s Reclining Figure the organic form of the abstracted figure, strong lighting and precarious balance obtained through asymmetry make the sculpture a powerful example in three-dimensions.

Radial Balance

Radial balance suggests movement from the center of a composition towards the outer edge—or vise versa. Many times radial balance is another form of symmetry, offering stability and a point of focus at the center of the composition. Buddhist mandala Links to an external site. paintings offer this kind of balance almost exclusively. Similar to the scroll painting we viewed previously, the image radiates outward from a central spirit figure. In the example below there are six of these figures forming a star shape in the middle. Here we have absolute symmetry in the composition, yet a feeling of movement is generated by the concentric circles within a rectangular format.

   

Raphael’s painting of Galatea, a sea nymph in Greek mythology, incorporates a double set of radial designs into one composition. The first is the swirl of figures at the bottom of the painting, the second being the four cherubs circulating at the top. The entire work is a current of figures, limbs and implied motion. Notice too the stabilizing classic triangle formed with Galatea’s head at the apex and the other figures’ positions inclined towards her. The cherub outstretched horizontally along the bottom of the composition completes the second circle.

Repetition

Repetition is the use of two or more like elements or forms within a composition. The systematic arrangement of a repeated shapes or forms creates pattern.

Pattern is the regular repetion of visual elements. Patterns can be made by repeating lines, color shapes, etc. Patterns create rhythm, the lyric or syncopated visual effect that helps carry the viewer, and the artist’s idea, throughout the work. A simple but stunning visual pattern, created in this photograph Links to an external site. of an orchard by Jim Wilson for the New York Times, combines color, shape and direction into a rhythmic flow from left to right. Setting the composition on a diagonal increases the feeling of movement and drama.

The traditional art of Australian aboriginal culture uses repetition and pattern almost exclusively both as decoration and to give symbolic meaning to images. The coolamon, or carrying vessel pictured below, is made of tree bark and painted with stylized patterns of colored dots indicating paths, landscapes or animals. You can see how fairly simple patterns create rhythmic undulations across the surface of the work. The design on this particular piece indicates it was probably made for ceremonial use. We’ll explore aboriginal works in more depth in the ‘Other Worlds’ module.

 

(l) Australian aboriginal softwood coolamon with acrylic paint design. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Rhythm can be utilized to direct a viewer's eye through a composition. For example in Pieter Bruegel's The Hunters in the Snow, the artist repeats obects in way that causes the viewer to scan the painting from left to right. Notice how the trees on the left are depicted at evenly spaced intervals. As the trees recede in the distance they appear smaller. This creates a sense of rhythm that encourages the eye to move left to right. Upon close inspection, you will notice he does this with several different elements: the triangular-shaped roofs of the houses, the curvelinear lines of the dogs' tails, the rectangular sahpes of the ice rinks and fields. This painting is a masterclass in demonstrating how an artist can control the way a viewer looks at an artworks simply through creating a sense of rhythm using lines and shapes.

Pieter Bruegel, Hunters in the Snow, 1565. Oil on panel, 46 × 63¾”. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria (Public Domain)

Scale and Proportion

Scale and proportion are both principles concerned with size. Proportion indicates the relative size of parts to the whole; a person’s head compared to the rest of their body, for example. The image below demonstrates how proportions can be changed by altering one aspect of a form. For example by narrowing the width of the vase, a thinner proportion is created. By changing only the height, a squatter proportion is made. The famous cartoon character, Snoopy, has a large head out of proportion with the rest of his body. Cartoonist often exaggerate proportions of heads to create emphasis on the character's facial features and reactions.

Scale shows the relative size of one object in relation to another; a person compared to a dog, for example. Scalar relationships are often used to create illusions of depth on a two-dimensional surface, the larger form being closer to the viewer than the smaller one. The scale of an object can provide a focal point or emphasis in an image. In Winslow Homer’s watercolor A Good Shot, Adirondacks the deer is centered in the foreground and highlighted to assure its place of importance in the composition. In comparison, there is a small puff of white smoke from a rifle in the left center background, the only indicator of the hunter’s position.

(l) Winslow Homer, A Good Shot, 1892. (Public Domain)

Scale and proportion are incremental in nature. Works of art don’t always rely on big differences in scale to make a strong visual impact. A good example of this is Michelangelo’s sculptural masterpiece Pieta from 1499 (below). Here Mary cradles her dead son, the two figures forming a stable triangular composition. Michelangelo sculpts Mary to a larger scale than the dead Christ to give the central figure more significance, both visually and psychologically. If they were both depicted the same size, Mary would appear awkward trying to cradle a full-size adult figure in her lap. At first we don’t notice how much larger Mary is because of Michelangelo’s masterful sculpting ability.

  

(l) Jan van Eyck, Madonna in the Church, c.1440.  (pPublic Domain) (r) Michelangelo’s Pieta, 1499, marble. St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. Licensed under GNU Free Documentation License and Creative Commons.

Hierarchical scale is a technique used in art to denote the relative importance of figures within a composition by varying their sizes. This method is particularly prevalent in ancient and medieval art, where the most significant figures, such as deities, kings, or saints, are depicted as larger than less important figures, irrespective of their actual spatial or physical proportions. By visually elevating the status of certain characters, hierarchical scale communicates their dominance, power, or sanctity to the viewer. This approach can be seen in works ranging from Egyptian wall paintings to medieval illuminated manuscripts. In the image on the upper-left the great Netherlandish Renaissance artist, Jan van Eyck, emphasized the Virgin Mary's importance within the Catholic church by making her gigantic in scale. She towers inside the church.

When scale and proportion are greatly increased the results can be impressive, giving a work commanding space or fantastic implications. Rene Magritte’s painting Personal Values constructs a room with objects whose proportions are so out of whack that it becomes an ironic play on how we view everyday items in our lives.

Emphasis

Emphasis—the area of primary visual importance—can be attained in a number of ways. We’ve just seen how it can be a function of differences in scale. Emphasis can also be obtained by isolating an area or specific subject matter through its location or color, value and texture. Main emphasis in a composition is usually supported by areas of lesser importance, a hierarchy within an artwork that’s activated and sustained at different levels.

Like other artistic principles, emphasis can be expanded to include the main idea contained in a work of art. Let’s look at the following work to explore this

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, The Third of May, 1808, 1814. Oil on canvas. The Prado Museum, Madrid. This image is in the public domain

Goya is doing several things to emphasize the figure in the center. First, Goya depicts the figure wearing a shirt of a bright, white value. This contrasts with the rest of the painting which is portrayed in darker hues. You will notice, also, that the lines of the rifles, the man's arms and the blood on the ground form both actual and implied directional lines, which literally point to him. It is as if GOya is jumping up and down and yelling "Look here!"

In terms of the idea, Goya’s narrative painting gives witness to the summary execution of Spanish resistance fighters by Napoleon’s armies on the night of May 3, 1808. He poses the figure in the white shirt to imply a crucifixion as he faces his own death, and his compatriots surrounding him either clutch their faces in disbelief or stand stoically with him, looking their executioners in the eyes. While the carnage takes place in front of us, the church stands dark and silent in the distance. The genius of Goya is his ability to direct the narrative content by the emphasis he places in his composition.

A second example showing emphasis is seen in Landscape with Pheasants Links to an external site., a silk tapestry from nineteenth-century China. Here the main focus is obtained in a couple of different ways. First, the pair of birds are woven in colored silk, setting them apart visually from the gray landscape they inhabit. Secondly, their placement at the top of the outcrop of land allows them to stand out against the light background, their tail feathers mimicked by the nearby leaves. The convoluted treatment of the rocky outcrop keeps it in competition with the pheasants as a focal point, but in the end the pair of birds’ color wins out.

Time and Motion

One of the problems artists face in creating static (singular, fixed images) is how to imbue them with a sense of time and motion. Some traditional solutions to this problem employ the use of spatial relationships, especially perspective and atmospheric perspective. Scale and proportion can also be employed to show the passage of time or the illusion of depth and movement. For example, as something recedes into the background, it becomes smaller in scale and lighter in value. Also, the same figure (or other form) repeated in different places within the same image gives the effect of movement and the passage of time.

In the Early Renaissance painting The Meeting of St. Anthony and St. Paul the Siennest artist, the Master of Osservanza, depicted the meeting of two important saints, St. Anthony and St. Francis. If you look closely, you can see that St. Anthony is depicted twice traveling along the road towards the cave of St. Francis before finally embracing him. The artist is using a technique commonly used in modern comics. By repeating the image, he creates a sense of the movement and the passage of time.

(l) Workshop of Master of Osservanza, The Meeting of St. Anthony and St. Paul, c. 1430. Tempera on panel, 18½ × 13¼”. National Gallery, Washington, D.C. (Public Domain). (r) GIANLORENZO BERNINI, David, 1623. Marble, 5’ 7” high. Galleria Borghese, Rome. Sailko, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

When an artwork is stationary, an artist has to imply motion tp create the effect of movement. Some artworks, however move on their own. These are known as kinetic artworks. Kinetic artworks can be powered by a variety of means - motors, water, wind, etc. Some of the most well-known kinetic scupture are the wind-powered mobiles created by Alexander Calder. Calder's mobiles offer the viewer an everchanging view of shape and space as his large, colorful sculptures are pushed into infinite configurations by the wind.

Alexander Calder, L'empennage (1953), Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art.  Creative Commons Links to an external site. Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Links to an external site. license. 

In three dimensions the effect of movement is achieved by imbuing the subject matter with  implied motion by utilizing dynamic poses or gestures (recall that the use of diagonals in a composition helps create a sense of movement). Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s sculpture of David Links to an external site. from 1623 is a study of coiled visual tension and movement. The artist shows us the figure of David with furrowed brow, even biting his lip in concentration as he eyes Goliath and prepares to release the rock from his sling.

The large site-specific artworks, or installations, created by Nancy Holt are a unique synthesis of time and motions. Holt's large earthworks often depend on the actual movement of our planet around the sun to make an imapct on the viewer,. Holt's Solar Rotary located at the University of South Florida exemplifies this notion. On specific days of the year, a ring of shadow created by a large metal sctructurre forms around specific areas marked on the ground.  DUring the summer solstice the ring surrounds a central dais directly under the structure. On five other days of the year, the ring surrounds plaques on the ground commemorating specific days important to Florida history. Nancy Holt's sculpture reveal to us that we are standing on a large moving object, the Earth, and are constantly in motion.

Temporal Arts

The temporal arts of film, video and digital projection by their definition show implied movement and the passage of time. In all of these mediums we watch as a narrative unfolds before our eyes. Film is essentially thousands of static images divided onto one long roll of film that is passed through a lens at a certain speed. From this apparatus comes the term movies.

Visual experiments in movement were first produced in the middle of the 19th century.  Photographer Eadweard Muybridge snapped black and white sequences of figures and animals walking, running and jumping, then placing them side-by-side to examine the mechanics and rhythms created by each action. Muybride's sequences of photographs were an important step in the development of motion pictures.

The American entrepeneur and inventor, Thomas Edison was one of the first to experiment with motion pictures. In 1894, the Edison Manufacturing Company produced a five second long experimental film of an engineer named Fred Ott faking a sneeze. This was the second ever American motion picture.

Thomas Edison and W. K. Dickson, Fred Ott’s Sneeze, 1894. Still frames from kinetoscope film. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Video uses magnetic tape to achieve the same effect, and digital media streams millions of electronically pixilated images across the screen. An example is seen in the work of Swedish Artist Pipilotti Rist. Her large-scale digital work Pour Your Body Out Links to an external site. is fluid, colorful and absolutely absorbing as it unfolds across the walls.

Unity and Variety

Unity

Ultimately, a work of art is the strongest when it expresses an overall unity in composition and form, a visual sense that all the parts fit together; that the whole is greater than its parts. Unity is a sense of oneness. This same sense of unity is projected to encompass the idea and meaning of the work too. This visual and conceptual unity is sublimated by the variety of elements and principles used to create it. We can think of this in terms of a musical orchestra and its conductor: directing many different instruments, sounds and feelings into a single comprehendible symphony of sound. This is where the objective functions of line, color, pattern, scale and all the other artistic elements and principles yield to a more subjective view of the entire work, and from that an appreciation of the aesthetics and meaning it resonates.

Katsushika Hokusai, “The Great Wave off Shore at Kanagawa,” from Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, 1826–33. Print, color woodcut. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Public Domain)

Variety

If unity is oneness, then variety is difference. In the work below, Cortona has overwhelmed the viewer with a vast vairety of colors, organic and geometric shapes, different kinds of lines. The effect is one of almost sensory overload. If f Hokusai's work overwhelms in its monolithic simplicity, Cortona innundates the viewer with constant visual information of a seemingly infinite variety.

Pietro da Cortona, Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power, c. 1639. Fresco. Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica (Palazzo Barberini), Rome.  (Public Domain)