Unit 4 Principles of Organization

Principles of Organization

Means of finding unity within a composition; these are not hard and fast rules but rather guides for organization. The seven principles include: harmony, variety, balance, proportion, dominance, movement and economy.

Harmony

State of order, visual unity, agreement or aesthetically pleasing relationships among the elements of the whole.

Variety

Differences Achieved by opposing, contrasting, changing, elaborating, or diversifying elements in a composition to add individualism and interest; the counterweight of harmony in art.

Balance

The equilibrium of opposing or interacting forces in a composition

Proportion

Compares elements to one another in terms of size, quantity, or degree of emphasis. It may be expressed as a ratio or may be a more generalized relativity.

Dominance

The dominant structure or organization of a composition in which all the elements conform to.

Major Force

The first movement you see in a composition.

Movement

Eye travel directed by visual pathways in a work of art

Economy

the distillation of the image to the basic essentials for clarity of presentation.

Rhythm

A series of visual elements that show order or near order by repeating themselves in a regular or irregular way.

Subordinate

The subdominant structures or organization of a composition that help to create subtlety and variety. Minor Forces-the movements you see in a composition after study, that support the dominant or subdominant structure

Distortion

A departure from the accepted perception of a form or object, often manipulating conventional proportions.

Visual Narrative

The depiction of an idea or story that uses formal ideas and composition to convey the message in a sequence of events.

Mixed Media

An artwork that has been created using more than one medium

Perspective (Linear Perspective)

A mathematical system of representing three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface. The effect is the same as if the actual scene were viewed form a given point, the objects appearing three dimensional and receding in depth with the same space relationships. Perspective has three different view points: one, two and three point perspective.

Aerial Perspective

The illusion of deep space. Distant objects such as mountain ranges, seen through the haze of atmosphere, appear to have less detail and contrast than nearer objects, lighter values, and a shift in color toward the blue end of the spectrum- also called atmospheric perspective.

Viewer’s Location Point (Station Point)

In one-point perspective, a vertical axis through the vanishing point. One-point perspective assumes that the viewer is at a fixed point looking with one eye through the picture plane to the 3D world behind.

Diminution

The act or process of diminishing; a lessening or reduction

Foreshortening

The perspective effect means that something seen lying away from us appears to be shorter than if it were viewed full on: a circle, for example, becomes an ellipse. Or when you shorten the lines of (an object) in a drawing or other representation so as to produce an illusion of projection or extension in space.

Background

In a landscape, the space we see in the distance- the sky, mountains, or distant hills. In a still life or an interior portrait, it is the area behind the subject.

Mid-ground

In a landscape, the space between the foreground and background: trees, bushes, and buildings, for example.

Foreground

The space that the subject of an artwork, or the space before the subject, inhabits. Often times the actual viewpoint of the image inhabits the foreground of that same image.

Overlapping

A depth cue, in which some shapes are in front of and partially hide or obscure others

Transparency

A visual quality in which an object or distant view can be seen clearly through a nearer object. Two forms overlap, but both are seen in their entirety.

Interpenetration

Where planes, objects, or shapes seem to slice through each other, locking them together within a specific location in space.

Intuitive Space

The illusion of space that the artist creates by overlapping, transparency, interpenetration, and other spatial properties of elements. Where the conventions of perspective are manipulated for pictorial effect, with little attempt to mimic reality.

Projections

Non-perspective methods for creating the illusion of three-dimensional forms.

Space

The three-dimensional void that elements occupy: the negative area between elements.

Decorative Space

Ornamental areas, emphasizing the two-dimensional nature of an artwork or any of its elements

Texture

The perceived surface quality of a work of art that is distinguished by its perceived visual and physical properties.

Visual Texture

Using materials to create the illusion of a surface to appear like something it is not