GOOD ARTISTS ARE WELL "BALANCED"!

  Continuing our Art Foundations study/review, depending upon which class is doing this, we considered the importance of the art principle balance--the distribution of "weight" or activity in a composition, in these respects:

A. SYMMETRICAL BALANCE---exact of even balance along a centerline or "axis" in these ways:

1. Radial Symmetry --rotating around a center point

2. Exact Symmetry--a mirror image or an exactly repeated design

3. Axial Symmetry--having 2 opposing repeats, one on each side of an axis.

B. ASYMMETRICAL BALANCE---not exact but counterbalanced with contrasts such as dull and bright colors, dark with light values, geometric with organic shapes, active and inactive areas and its first cousin below ---

C. APPROXIMATE SYMMETRY---overall organization in which an "even" placement of color, forms, etc is displayed.

Radial design repeats segments around a center point. Segments can be exact repeats as in the left example, or varied as in the last two. A radial design has more than 2 repeats.

Cut design over watercolor   Foil, tissue and colored cutouts     Foil, colored cutouts

A 2. Exact Symmetry = "Mirror Images"

This was fun to do. There are devices that will mirror half your image for tracing purposes, but we did it the old fashioned way using windows.

This image involved a bit more effort in reverse painting of shadows and highlights, and I enjoyed the placement of the cat in dead center at the bottom.

Water color and black marker       Pencil contrasts and ink.

Both designs are different examples of exact symmetry. The left one changes colors from side to side. In the right work, the areas are divided into quarters, and top right and left halves repeat. We do find ways to interpret principles our own ways, don't we?