Scale and Proportion

Scale is used to depict an object from the size of an original object. The object in a painting can be bigger or smaller than the original object by using scale. Proportion includes the object and it's surroundings. Katsuskika Hokusai used both scale and proportion in his artwork From the Illustrations to 100 poems by 100 poets. The boat is seen as the main focal point of the painting. However, if you look in the background, you see hills and houses. In real life, a boat is not bigger than a grouping of hills or a house. Hokusai used scale and proportion to make the houses and hills in the background fit into the frame with the boat.

Visual Movement

Visual Movement or Continuation is used to create a path that the audience should follow in the picture. Eugene Delecroix uses this in his painting called Christ Asleep During the Tempest. In the picture I have included six arrows to show where the artist wants you to look. When looking at the picture, the movement starts at the bottom right hand corner and moves diagonally into the top left hand corner. The three yellow arrows were used to show the movement towards Jesus Christ. Starting with the yellow arrow in the water, the waves are painted on an angle so that they frame Jesus Christ in a depression in the water. The boat looks like it is going over a wave, but it also looks like the water is framing Jesus Christ. The middle yellow arrow demonstrates the arm of the man next to Jesus. He is painted to look like he is falling, but he creates a visual movement or point towards the sleeping Jesus. The third yellow arrow was used to depict how the people in the boat are mostly looking at Jesus. They are surrounding him, but their faces are looking at him. The red arrows depict the movement of the boat to the mountain. The storm in the sky looks like it began at the mountain peak because of the vertical lines that the clouds make. The boat and the man behind Jesus are pointed toward the mountain.

Contrast/Variety

Variation is created through contrast in a piece of art. For example, the rough textured background compared to the paintings on top of it in Dark Dreams on the Hillside by James Lavadour create variety. He uses the different lines within the pictures to make them blend, but the color with the texture of the background makes it stand out against them. The pictures use darker colors whereas the background uses a brighter purple and white to create a variety within. The pictures also look smoother than the background which portrays extreme roughness. The arrows point to the texture of the background compared to the smoothness of the pictures.  

Repetition/Rhythm

Repetition is the idea of something happening over and over again. Rhythm occurs when something happens over and over again in a composition. When these two work hand in hand, you create an artwork that has a certain object repeating over and over again. For example, the white, brown, and purple dots placed on the red background of Larry Poons Nixes Mate all seem to create a rhythm of vertical lines going off of the paper. If you follow the dots, they seem to make a criss-cross design on top of a red background which makes them pop out. The black arrows in the piece show the imaginary lines that are being created through the dots. 

Emphasis

Emphasis is used to draw the audience's attention to a certain spot or focal point in the artwork. This can be done many different ways. Color, contrast, isolation, and grouping are just a few ways that emphasis can be used. Anselm Kiefer's Heliogabal has at least three separate focal points. The painting is of a body of water at sunset. The main focal point in the sun in the center of the portrait. It is the main focal point because when you first look at the painting, it is the first thing you look at. The sun is set off through contrast from the blue ocean. It is intensely bright compared to what the water looks like. The second focal point is the orange part of the sunset just above the sun. This draws you to the third focal point of the word Heiogabal written into the sunset in orange and yellow. All three focal points are emphasized through direction. The water looks like it fades into the sun, while the vertical lines of the sunset lead you directly to the three focal points. The scale of the painting also helps with emphasis. The sun is smaller than everything else and as you progress through the paintings, each focal point becomes a little bigger.  

Asymmetrical Balance

Asymmetrical Balance is the balance of a picture through equal visual weight on each side. The Astronomer by Jan Vermeer includes two lines of asymmetrical balance. There is one horizontal line and one vertical line. Jan Vermeer is also known as Johannes Vermeer who is mentioned in our textbook on p. 155 through his artwork called Woman Holding a Balance. In The Astronomer, the horizontal line of symmetry is created by the holder of the globe. It separates the bottom half from the top half of the painting. A vertical line of symmetry is created through the edge of the cupboard in the background. This line shows equal spots of light and dark on each side of the painting. The top left hand corner and bottom right hand corner are shaded darker than the rest of the painting.

Frottage

By definition, frottage means to rub. Artists use this technique by placing a piece of paper over an object that has texture and rubbing the texture onto the paper. For example, Max Ernst created The Sea using this technique. You can see the textured area located in the circle. It looks rough and stone like, but is really just paint on a paper. You can also see frottage in the lines that are created. He used string as his textured object and rubbed over it in order to create the textured lines. There is also an example of impasto in the black background on the top part of the painting. The paint has been laid on thick in order to make it look textured.