GD Principles of Art

The Principles of Art project was fun, but I faced an incredible amount of obstacles. In the end, though, I did create a work of art that followed pretty much all of the different principles in very different ways. Here are the specifics about my project, including the explanation of how I included each principle into my work.

The first principle of art is called balance, and is defined as being the visual weight of a design which provides structure and stability to a design. The Golden Gate Bridge is a major aspect of balance, in which it is a large portion of my work and adds weight to the left side of my artwork. The different shades and shapes of the sky also provide somewhat of an aspect of balance to the entire work as it evens out the distribution of weight, rather the weight be almost entirely on the left side of my work. The big hills also contribute to this concept. The weight is more evenly distributed in the piece.

The second principle I included is rhythm, which is defined when one or more elements of a design are used repeatedly to create a feeling of organized movement. In my case, I believe that the lines of the waves of the water do this. The constant curvature of the lines trails the eyes on multiple paths from left to right across the piece. It provides trails for the eyes to follow. It is a repeated element that is organized to attract the eyes.

The third principle I included is pattern, which is defined as the regular arrangement of elements like lines, shape, or colors. It is slightly less obvious than the other principles, but I do believe I included a little amount of pattern, specifically on the bridge. You can see the little triangles going opposite directions paralleling the road on the bridge, and this is an organized arrangement of shapes. Also, the lines running up and down parallel to each other, or the lines of the bridge, also are organized in a regular arrangement of a element repeated.

The fourth principle I included is emphasis, or an element the aims to draw the viewer's attention. I aimed for the point of emphasis to be on the sun, because of its sheer size, being one of the biggest elements in the work. It also is a bright, white element that is vibrant in comparison with the lower half of the artwork which is darker, almost black. It attracts the eye and the viewer's attention in that way. The skyline and sun are the center of interest in the design.

The fifth principle I included was contrast, which is when two or more opposing elements are present. This is somewhat similar to emphasis, in a way. For contrast, I made the horizon and sun very light colors while to res of the work is dark. Light and dark are contrasting of one another. Using color also can help with emphasis, too, and I chose color for both emphasis and contrast to draw the viewer's attention in my work.

The sixth principle I used is unity, which is the creation of a cohesive design. My artwork has unity because it uses earth tones throughout, and a lot of neutral or dark colors.

The seventh and last principle of design I used is movement, which is defined as the path the viewer's eye takes. It is often referred to as "flow," and I included it in the lines of the sky, which vary and the viewer's eyes tend to follow that line. If you look close enough too, the lines on the water, the waves, have flow as well, allowing the artwork have a sense of movement.

Those are all the principles I included!