ONLINE LECTURE RESPONSE #2

Harmon's Intro Design Principles

1. How does an artist create asymmetrical balance? Give a example.

          Asymmetrical means that something is not balanced / off balanced. An artist creates asymmetrical balance by making a part of an art piece larger then other parts in the same art piece. An artist can also create asymmetrical balance with color, by making a part of an art piece very dark while other parts of the same art piece are extremely bright. This causes great contrast in an artist work creating asymmetrical balance. An example of asymmetrical balance is Edger Degas Jockeys Before the Race.

This painting is a great example of asymmetrical balance because the horse towards the right of the painting looks very detailed and rich in color. The horse and person in the right of the painting also seem larger then the horse towards the left of the painting. The horse towards the left of the painting is not very detailed and the colors look very washed out compared to the horse on right. This contrast makes the viewer focus more on the horse towards the right causing asymmetrical balance.

     2. Describe several ways to unify an artwork?

          Unity is everything coming together as one. An artist creates unity in an art piece by giving the viewer a feeling that all of the elements belong together. In a art piece that is unified there isn't much contrast. Most of the colors and shapes are similar or blend well together, many of the same shapes are repeated throughout that same art piece. A example of a art piece that shows unity is this painting of Marilyn Monroe.

This painting of the late Marilyn Monroe is an example of unity in an art piece because her face is duplicated many times. The sizes of her face and the direction her face is painting is the exact same. The viewer feels a sense of unity because the colors are similar to each other and the picture is never changing just multiplied.

     3. How is scale change the meaning of an artwork?

        The scale in an art piece has to do with the size in relation to another size in the same art piece. Scale change is when something in an art piece is exaggerated by size in comparison to other normally portioned parts of the same art piece. A example of scale change in an art piece is this wall painting of a bay face and a rock.

This picture is an example of art scale because the baby's head is huge compared to the rock above it. Not only is the head exaggerated but from the viewers knowledge, in real life the rock would be at least ten times that of the baby's head causing great scale change to this art piece.