Design Wrap-Up

Design Elements and Principles are the tools artists have to build their paintings.   Take ownership of your tools. Building mastery, like building any skill, takes time and practice. There are no shortcuts to practice. These blog posts and write-ups are meant...

Repetition

“The greatest obstacle to discovering good art within you is not ignorance – it is the illusion of knowledge.”   Repetition, as a design principle, is a good principle to understand and use. In good conditions, it plays well with Rhythm and Harmony, and when done...

Unity

Unity in art adds cohesiveness, certainty, and an overall harmony within our design. This is one of the hardest design principles to put into action on location. It’s an extremely good habit to acquire, but very difficult to do.   Unity also refers to a consistent...

Variety

  “Variety’s the very spice of life, that gives it all its flavour.” ― William Cowper Variety is also an excellent design principle that artists use to mix things up a bit and add pleasant and unexpected surprises.   Use all Design Elements to make your...

Balance

What is balance in art? Why is it important?   Balance in art refers to the use of our design elements, such as line, texture, color, shapes, and 3d forms in such a way that it creates visual stability. Visual stability, or balance, is often different for everyone.  ...

Proportion and Scale

The Design Principle of proportion and scale are closely linked to two other principles, boundaries and perspective, and to the Design Elements shape and size.   Proportion describes the relationship between the dimensions of different shapes and forms you’ll be...

Emphasis and Dominance

While you are planning your next painting, ask, what contrasting techniques can I use from the Contrast worksheet to strengthen the contrasts in and around my story’s hero?  This emphasis will do wonders to keep your center of interest the center of interest. Below,...

Perspective

Perspective is used to represent the ways objects appear smaller or larger as they move farther into the distance or closer to the viewer. It adds depth and dimension to flat images. Perspective is what makes a painting seem to have form, distance, and look...

Patterns

When we go out to paint, sometimes the scenes we look for are not that inspiring. Here’s a few things to do when things just aren’t clicking. Apply different imaginative filters to your eyes and see what you can identify. Filters: Use various principles of...

Harmony

The human eye is attracted by contrast. The human heart is held by harmony. The human spirit is connected by story.   Harmony is huge! Much bigger than we give this humble Design Principle credit for. Harmony is what Nature does automatically. We humans, in trying to...

Contrast

Understanding the Power of Contrast. The human mind/eye/attention is attracted to all forms of contrast. The higher the contrast, the higher the attention. Knowing this, artists can use one or more contrast techniques to strengthen or weaken the relationships between...