Let's face it--sometimes we see art works that are just plain boring. At other times, we see pieces in which nothing is in accord, totally cacophony, as if the artist is just daring us to reject it. Our sensibilities want there to be agreement within an art work, but not so much that it puts us to sleep.
Visual Harmony as an composing principle often baffles artists. Even Richard Schmid in
Alla Prima II hardly knew how to talk about it, and I strugged with it in
Finding Freedom to Create. But I think Richard's notion of relating Visual Harmony to color is our best bet because hamony is about a piece being in tune or in accord with itself.
With that in mind, let's try a visual experiment: Examine this string of studies based on the image of banana. How would you arrange them in a scale from boring to cacophony? Is there one that is more harmonious than all the others?
At the bottom of this page is a link to how I would arrange these.
TIP: Composing includes keeping our works in tune without causing boredom. Color is our best bet for doing that. If one color exists throughout the piece, even ifslightly mixed with opposing colors, we stand a good chance of creating harmony.
Happy painting,
Dianne
NEWS & UPDATES
___Speaking of dealing with harmony, the lessons in our new video series all do just that, especially our newest installment, Harmonizing with Analogous Colors. In this lesson, we learn how to create a palette of analogous colors related to a dominant color in our subject, then how to use these to transpose the content to a harmonious interpretation of the subject.
___ Do you have trouble using the rigger If so, I have a couple of cool moves for you in this week's Quick Tip on our YouTube Channel.
One word to Forum users--To keep up with what's going on daily, click on the forum title--Composing and Drawing Tips--in your Groups list on the left of your Facebook page.
Challenge Answer: Although answers might vary and still be on target, you can go HERE to see how I would arrange the images in today's challenge.
