Progress Report: It's been a long haul, but bit by bit, my bones are healing and my strength and stamina are increasing. I should be back on board in May. Meanwhile, we hope you will continue to enjoy visits from the past, including this encore post about rules vs principles. Announcements will be coming soon about how we will ease into our regular
schedule. In our studies of painting, we hear two words that can be confusing--rules and principles. As applied to the arts, rules are made by other people, and
principles are defined by nature.
There are entirely too many rules about painting and not one of them is necessary. In fact, I believe that rules actually cramp the artist within. In my experience, teaching students how to use principles better equips them to grow into their own artistic voices.
Unlike rules, Visual principles are based on nature's laws such as how gravity works or how balance works. Whereas rules require you to follow particular methods to draw or paint images, principles allow you to
observe what is happening and respond accordingly. For example, gravity might cause water to fall rapidly or slowly, with a variation of visual texture, or if influenced by wind or other objects, take multiple directions on the way down.
A rule will set steps for you to follow to create a waterfall. Your waterfall most likely will look the same each time you create it. But a principle will guide you to observe what the light source is doing, the actual shapes
it is creating, the direction in which the water is falling, and how your eye perceives the results. Following principles, your interpretations will be fresh and unique for every waterfall you paint.
Following principles requires skills and tools, but so does following rules. The difference is whether we use them according to a prescription or according to the potential of the tool.
Every skill requires good craftsmanship and that includes knowing what tools will do. The carpenter, the mechanic, the plumber, the chef, and the painter will learn all the possibilities of a tool and what happens as a
result.
These skills include knowing how to use the tools with materials. The painter learns about the behavior of paint, of painting surfaces, and what to do with the tool to make these work together. We get results
by the way we combine these according to their natures, not by following rules.
What we do with them requires the skill of using our eyes to gather information. The vocabulary (the visual elements) translates or interprets that information, and the principles guide us to put it into
a visual form, something that expresses our artistic voice and communicates through the eyes of the viewer. That might be done abstractly, impressionistically, realistically or any other mode.
WHY NOT PONDER THAT FOR A WHILE!
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
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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