“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 composition look its best. Don’t get stuck on just one or two. Use a variety of design elements and principles, knowing that variety creates visual interest and energy.
Use variety to make your art connect deeply, deeper than reality itself.
The tools we use, be it brush, knife, pastel stick or even your finger, have the ability to make incredible marks. Their only limitation is our ability and freedom to use any and all parts to make our marks in a unique and visually stimulating way.
Consider balance and harmony before variety. Both of these principles play into the choices we make when we consider variety as an element we use to make better design choices. So, in other words, don’t use variety just for the sake of using variety. Variety must fit well in an overall balanced and well-harmonized composition.
Variety of subjects: I encourage everyone to practice painting a variety of subjects. This practice opens new ways of seeing and completing a painting.
Think about a variety of sizes and shapes within your paintings, but also the proportions of your paintings. If you’re used to painting the standard 9 x 12 outside, go big to a 12 x 16 or even 16 x 20. Try a panoramic ratio of a canvas, say 8 x 16 or 12 x 24. Go vertical if most of what you paint is horizontal. Try a variety of different mediums altogether. You’ll soon come to realize, it’s not the medium nor the brush, nor the paint nor panel used, but the fact that shapes are being made in the best possible way around an overall greatly designed composition.
Variety of moods and emotions: As you approach different subjects and scenes to paint, be open and mindful of the emotions these scenes create within you. Allow these emotions to affect the way you paint this subject. Allow new and different color mixes to enter your designs. Paint with a limited palette, limited brush strokes, limited time, or paint everything with one big brush. The more you use variety, and all its components, the more open you will be for change to happen. If things flop, take heart knowing that at least you know what doesn’t work well. But when things do go your way and you have an incredible breakthrough, know that it was your capability to change things up a bit that made this day a success.
Other things to consider
Variety of Mediums: oil, watercolor, pastel, gouache, acrylic, casein, pen and ink.
Paint on a Variety of substrates: different sizes of paper, canvas, linen, muslin, burlap, wood panel.
Variety of subjects: portrait, figure, seascape, landscape, cityscape, still life.
Variety of stories: beauty to rescue, adventure to live, battle to fight
Design Elements
Variety of color and value
Variety of shapes and forms
Variety of lines
Variety of sizes
Variety of textures
Design Principles
Variety of perspectives
Variety of patterns
Variety of movements and direction
Variety of repetition
Variety of contrasts