Art is a word used to refer to various activities carried out by human beings to express personal thoughts, ideas, and emotions. Such activities include creations or expressions that reflect some importance in the minds of people due to the attraction that they have on the senses. Art covers sculpture, painting, music, and other forms. Design refers to a process used by artists to solve certain problems by creating changes so that they can be able to understand their needs (Gardner et al 123).
Principles of design are observations that artists put into consideration before creating their arts. One of such principles is balance. There are three types of balance. These include formal balance where similar objects are put on both sides of a middle point creating the asymmetrical design, informal balance where unlike objects are used and radial balance where like objects are arranged to bunch out from the middle point.
Rhythm is the second principle of design. Rhythms and in particular visual rhythms are created by a pattern formed when images, shapes, lines, and sounds are repeated and often reflect thoughts, ideas, and feelings of individuals. The third principle of design is emphasis. This refers to an area where the artist puts a lot of focus. It enables the viewers to classify different parts of art based on their importance. Emphasis can be created through location, contrast, convergence, or isolation.
The next principle is variety. Variety involves creating art with complex relationships. It may include the use of different colors, shapes, patterns, lines, and textures. Contrast is yet another principle that is used by artists. Contrast helps in emphasis, variation, and addition of interest which enables the user to develop a certain feeling in the work of art. Contrasts can be for emphasizing big or small differences. For instance, the use of very different colors shows high contrast and is used to show big differences while similar colors show low contrast and are used to show small differences.
The next principle is proportionality. Proportionality mainly deals with the size of one part of artwork about the other parts. Artists who are interested in producing practical works usually use accurate proportions. However, those who want to express humor and experience usually use distorted proportions. In addition, artists use harmony as a principle in creating their works. Harmony refers to the consistency of appearance in a work of art.
Realization of harmony may depend on the way images are arranged, different colors are matched, how interconnected shapes are repeated, and how the spacing between objects is done. Finally, we have the principle of unity. Unity is considered the most important of all the principles. It is through unity that different parts of art, work together to form one whole. Different elements, media, ideas, and principles are combined so that they all become equally important to the creation of artwork.
These principles have the following effects on artwork. Balance helps in identifying the central point of an object. Rhythm affects the feelings, thoughts, and ideas of people. Emphasis makes other parts of the work appear more important than others. The use of varieties and harmony in an artwork creates more interest in the work. Contrast creates emphasis on areas of differences and assumes other areas. Proportionality identifies where the artist is realistic or where he is expressing humor or experience and unity enables different parts of artwork to work together.
Generally, the use of the above principles is very important to the artists as they impose different effects on the artwork and make the whole work of artistry wonderful.
Works Cited
Gardner, et al, ed. Art Through the Ages. 12th ed. Wadsworth, 2004.