Lecture and Reading 10/1/10

Lecture on FORM

Art is made of form and content
It's kind of common sense that to make something you have to organize the little things inside to create the larger form. Basically the larger picture is more important because the components inside cannot exist without one another.
Using the elements, an artist can now use the principals of organization : Harmony, variety, balance, proportion, dominance, movement, economy.
I like how the book lays these out as guidelines rather then rules (Pirates of the Caribbean flash back).
when an artists makes something, they are responsible for knowing what each of these organization words means and does to their piece. And normally, they try and instill a balance with their organization efforts.
sometimes artists make their work chaotic on purpose, but it's difficult to do.


Harmony: "A pleasing relationship between different sections of a composition."

a way to induce harmony is repetition of visual elements or the way different areas are treated.
in comes the Gestalt word, yay! Theres a lot of different ways to get harmony like the way lies are shaped, how they link together, where they point, what color they are and so on.

Variety: "Counterweight to Harmony"
Having variety can bring the viewers attention from something that is too harmonious. Its like humans needing contrast in their life. the same thing over and over again becomes boring. A good way to get variety is contrasting elements are placed in an unrelated way, sort of emphasizing and elaborating the
area.

Balance: "When we are off balance, we have a strong fear that gravity will pull us over and we will fall down."
Balance is so important because we experience ever second of every day that it can't be left out of the organization. If something is literally off balance, it draws the viewers attention nearly instantly. But, things arranged in the piece can be off balance as well, making us think more.

Proportion: "The ratio of individual parts to one another or to the whole"
Annoying visions of calculus come to mind when ever I hear proportions. In art, it's hard to determine what are standard proportions considering art is so vast and sometimes complicated. But, whenever something seems proportional and related, then it creates harmony. On the other side, if something is dis proportioned and oddly sized, then it creates chaos.

Dominance:
When creating other points in organization, sometimes they create dominance over other elements or areas and make a focal point.

Movement: "Most observers do not realize when they look at artwork they are being taken on a tour"
Eye movements are determined by the way things are positioned on a page. Visual image is different than reading, visual images can be looked at in any direction. The artist is responsible for directing the movement with flow or with skilled jumps.


Economy: "solutions to various compositional problems are resulting in unnecessary complexity"
economy has more to do with outside influence on either the artist or the way the viewer  looks at a piece