PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

A Study in Unity and Harmony

The Red Studio is nonconventional init’s use of color. The painting portrays Matisse’s studio. The spaces between the objects are filled in completely with a flat shade of red, with barely any indication of placement or depth besides a thin line representing the back corner of the room where it meets the wall. The red replaces the usual white of the canvas but represents the same plain slate.

Henri MatisseHenri Matisse

Red Studio1911

oil on canvas

Unity and HarmonyHenri Matisse said, “I have always tried to hide my efforts and wished my works to have a light joyousness of springtime which never lets anyone suspect the labors it has cost me.”

This is one of Mattise's most unusual color creations. Created in 1908, the piece originally started out as Harmony in Green, and then Harmony in Blue. The predominantly blue canvas was then painted over in the bold red seen here.Henri Matisse

The Dessert: Harmony in Red1908

Current Location: Royal Academy Hermitage Museum

BalanceAsymmetrical, Symmetrical and Radial

Symmetrical balance creates harmony

Asymmetrical Balance

Diego Velazquez Las Meninas

(Maids of Honor) 1656-1657

Radial Balance

19th century Tibetan schoolAmitayus Mandala

19th century ADpaint on woodPublic Domain

Current Location: Rubin Museum of Art

Value or Tone Value or Tone is a measure of how light or dark a color is, without any consideration for its hue. The Impressionists’ were experts at analyzing value. Their revolution in painting flowed directly from their insistence on capturing the "fleeting moment”. They created plein-air paintings from direct observation of light in nature. If a tree-trunk appeared red in the light of a setting sun, Impressionists like Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley painted it red. The same subject could appear in several differing hues, depending on the effect of light.

Claude Monet Water Lilies 1906

Pointillism: hundreds of small dots or dashes of pure color are applied next to each other to create maximum luminosity.

Contrast: ValueAn artist can employ contrast as a tool, to direct the viewer's attention to a particular point of interest within the piece as in: Edward Hopper”s, Night Hawks, 1942

Emphasis & Focus

Emphasis is defined as an area or object within the artwork that draws attention and becomes the focus or focal point. Notice how Caravaggio uses color, lighting, contrast, line and shape to arrange the composition and bring the focus to Judith.

CaravaggioJudith Beheading Holofernes

Caravaggio is very famous for his expert use of chiaroscuro to direct the focus. His paintings are recognizable for the dramatic contrast between an intensely dark background and the effects of light to draw the viewer into the painting and the focal point.

Chiaroscuro is an Italian term referring to the contrast of light (chiar) and dark (oscuro) in an artwork.

This painting is famous for three reasons: its large size of 11’10” x 14’4” the effective use of chiaroscuro (light and shadow balance), its portrayal of motion in what would have been a traditionally static painting.

RembrandtThe Night Watch1642

Proportion

Proportion is a principle of art that describes the size, location or amount of one element to another in a work. It has a great deal to do with the overall harmony of an individual piece.

Proportion can be used for emphasis

RhythmWhenever movements begin to flow in a repeatable pattern, they become rhythm. It can be created with the repetition of strokes, visual elements, or even entire subjects.

Jackson Pollack is most famous for his rhythm in painting.

Pattern

The Kiss, by Gustav Klimt’s depicts a man and woman kissing and embracing, with their bodies cloaked by elegant golden robes made of gold leaf. Patterns of simplified flowers and shapes flow from the figures hair, across their robes, to the flowers on the ground below, unifying the composition.

Movement & Eye Flow

Degas often used diagonal arrangements and the color red to guide the viewers eye around the space of the composition.

Edgar DegasThe Dance Class1873–1876

Edgar Degas captured the illusion of movement in his pastel paintings.

The S Curve, a traditional art concept in Ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, depicts the figure as a sinuous or serpentine “S”.

Venus de Milo depicts a S Curve body shape

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

The Birth of Venus1879

CompositionThe Valpinçon Bather is an 1808 painting by the French Neoclassical artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres..Division of space and the lines of the figure combine to activate the composition.