More Insight into our Visual Language
For several weeks, I've been focusing these Saturday posts on specifics of our visual language. We've dissected each of the visual elements, and looked at the roles
they play in creating visual paths in our paintings. When we use these as our composing tools, we give real meaning to our paintings.
Let's take a journey now into how our master painters did that. Let's begin with Degas' The Ballet Class and find out how he keeps our eyes in the painting. We saw this
piece last week.
To find out their visual role, first let's delete the instructor and the dancer behind him.
Now we can see that the compositional role the instructor and the dancer going off the painting behind him is to catch that strong direction movement (diagramed below) and redirect it back
into the painting. Without him there and her as a backup, the eye continues to the outside of the painting.
Look again at the original...
...and notice that the lower portion of the instructor is overall darker in value (emphasis) and isolated in space (more emphasis). His
position is looking back towards the left side (direction) of the painting. The element value using the principle of contrast, and the element of direction using the principle of isolation--these are the tools Degas uses to keep our eye within the painting.
Pay a visit to James Gurney's print of his Dinatopia painting, Dinosaur Boulevard. Carefully examine this work. Look for where he uses similar tools to keep your eye within the piece.
During my Language of Painting series, I explained the role of our visual elements. If you'd like to review those roles to better understand the behavior of elements, here are the links to each of those
discussions: Color --Value -- Shape -- Texture -- Size -- Line and Direction
Enjoy a weekend of visual discovery!
You can access the archive of all my newsletters (as well as the Quick Tips and other stuff) at any time by going HERE.
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