What Criteria Should We Use to Describe if an Object Is Art?

The principles of art (or the principles of design) are essentially a set up of criteria which are used to explicate how the visual elements are bundled in a work of fine art. These principles are possibly the closest thing nosotros have to a set of objective criteria for analyzing and judging art.

Art is a notoriously gray area when information technology comes objectively defining what is great and what is not. An artist of ane era may be mocked during his lifetime, yet revered after his passing (such equally Vincent van Gogh). The principles of art assistance combat this gray area to some extent. They allow the states to communicate what makes a bully painting groovy with an element of objectivity and consistency.

The following is an explanation of what the principles of art are and how yous tin can use them to do good your ain artworks.

Pattern

Design is a very important pattern concept which refers to the visual system of elements with a repetitive course or intelligible sequence.

Design is not always obvious. Information technology could be a elementary underlying notan blueprint which dances between light and night in some kind of sequence. Or it could be the utilize of similar color patterns throughout your painting.

In the painting beneath, notice how the top arm of the discipline almost blends into the background, and how the legs blend into the cloth, and the material blends into the rest of the foreground. This interlinking pattern drags you through the painting and creates a very interesting design.

Joaquin Sorolla, Bacchante, 1886

Read more about blueprint in art.

Residuum

Balance is concerned with the visual distribution or weight of the elements in a work of fine art. A painting could exist balanced if ane half is of the same visual weight as the other half. Or, you could have a small area of heightened significance which is balanced confronting a much larger area of less significance, like in the painting below. In the painting below, notice how the dark areas used for the boat and foreground announced balanced against the much larger area of soft, tinted colors.

Efim Volkov, Seascape, 1895

Accent

Accent is a mode of using elements to stress a certain area in an artwork. Emphasis is really just another way to describe a focal bespeak in your artwork. In the painting below, there is strong accent on the moon through the use of color contrast.

George Henry, River Landscape By Moonlight, 1887

You can read more about emphasis in art here.

Contrast

Dissimilarity is everything in art. Without information technology, an artwork would be zilch but a blank surface. Contrast tin come up in many forms:

Texture contrast: A contrast betwixt smoothen and textured. Many of Vincent van Gogh's paintings are great examples of texture contrast in activeness.

Colour dissimilarity: A contrast betwixt light and nighttime, saturated and dull or complementary colors (hue contrast). For example, in the painting below, the highly saturated carmine contrasts against the relatively deadening colors in the rest of the painting.

Joaquin Sorolla, Male parent Jofre Protecting A Madman, 1887

Detail contrast: A contrast between areas of particular and more than bland areas, like in the painting beneath.

Rudolf von Alt, View Of Ragusa, 1841

Shape contrast: A contrast between unlike shapes (rectangles and circles). For example, in the painting there are the curving shapes created by the winding paths, h2o and trees dissimilarity confronting the rectangular shapes of the buildings.

Willart Metcalf, Early Bound Afternoon, Fundamental Park, 1911

Interval contrast: A contrast between long and brusque intervals. In the painting below, detect the variation in the lengths of the intervals between the copse. The interval contrast tin exist used to create a sense of rhythm in your artwork.

Isaac Levitan, Oak Grove, Fall, 1880

Read more about using contrast.

Harmony And Unity

Harmony is a fleck vague compared to some of the other principles. Generally speaking, it refers to how well all the visual elements piece of work together in a work of art. Elements which are in harmony should take some kind of logical progression or human relationship. If there is an element which is not in harmony with the balance of an artwork, it should stick-out and be jarring to look at. Kind of like an off-notation in a song.

You lot will commonly be able to tell just from judgment if all the elements are in harmony. It will just expect right. However, if the painting looks off, and then it tin be difficult to tell if that is because there is no harmony between the elements or if there is some other result.

When I recall of harmony, I recall of the peaceful arrangements of color in Monet'southward series of water lilies.

Claude Monet, H2o Lilies, 1908

Unity refers to some kind of connexion between all the visual elements in a piece of work of fine art. Like harmony, this is a bit of a vague term which is difficult to objectively employ to analyze art. The painting below demonstrates a strong sense of unity through the use of a like hues used throughout the painting. Fifty-fifty though there is a stiff contrast betwixt the light and nighttime areas, at that place is a sense of unity created through the apply of similar hues (nighttime yellows, oranges and greens are used in the foreground and low-cal yellows, oranges and greens are used in the background).

George Henry, Apex, 1885

Read more about using harmony.

Variety

Variety refers to the use of differing qualities or instances of the visual elements. Variety can be used to intermission upward monotonous or repetitive areas.

Below is a painting with lots of variation in color, shape and texture, yet not so much that information technology loses any sense of harmony.

Tom Thomson, Maple Saplings, 1917

Below is a painting with insufficiently less variance. The issue is a much calmer painting.

Lake Keitele, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, 1905

Movement

Your paints cannot physically move, only y'all can arrange the paints in a way which gives the illusion or proffer of movement.

I of the nearly effective techniques for creating motion in your painting is to use assuming and directional brushwork. By doing this, y'all can suggestively button your viewer around the painting every bit you please. You could also suggest movement through repetition or pattern.

Below are two examples of paintings which demonstrate a great sense of move.

Joaquín Sorolla, Sea And Rocks - Javea, 1900

Frederick Judd Waugh, Breaking Surf

Also, I could non talk most using motion in fine art without some mention of Vincent van Gogh.

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night Over The Rhone, 1888

Read more about motility in art here.

Proportion

Proportion concerns the relationship between the sizes of different parts in an artwork. For example, the width compared to the length, the area of the heaven compared to the land or the area of foreground compared to the background.

Some proportions are considered to be visually pleasing, such as the dominion of thirds and the golden ratio.

In the painting below by Giovanni Boldini, notice how the proportions of the female discipline's easily, face, feet and torso are all accurate. If Boldini painted the hand besides large compared to the remainder of the subject's torso, there would exist an result of proportion.

Giovanni Boldini, A Guitar Role player, 1873

Scale

Scale refers to the size of an object compared to the rest of the surroundings. For example, the size of a human being compared to the tree he is sitting nether or the size of a mount compared to the clouds. Scale is different to proportion in that scale refers to the size of an entire object whereas proportion refers to the relative size of parts of an object. For example, the scale of a human relative to the rest of the painting may be correct, but the proportion might be wrong because his easily are too large.

Summary Of The Principles Of Art

I promise this mail service clarifies to you lot what the principles of fine art are and how you lot can utilize them to help understand and communicate your thoughts about art.

It is also of import to understand that a keen painting does not have to tick all the boxes in terms of the principles of art. Almost of the great paintings volition simply demonstrate a few of the principles.

So do not think of the principles of fine art equally a set of overarching rules which y'all must comply with. They are but a style to assist the states understand and communicate our thoughts about fine art.

The principles of art allow us to identify some kind of objective reasoning backside why a great painting is great. This is important as it keeps u.s. from falling into a vague space where art is no longer able to be defined or critiqued (much similar what has happened with modern art).

(If you lot want to learn more about the principles of fine art, you might be interested in my Painting Academy course.)

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