Artist Perception: Principles of Design, Essay Example

The principles of design are the concepts or rules that the artist uses to arrange and organize the various structural elements or objects in a drawing. The structural elements include line, shape, color or texture. The manner in which the artist uses some of these principles influence drawing’s effect and message on the audience (Jirousek 1995). The principles of design include:

• Unity
• Emphasis
• Proportion
• Scale
• Balance

Unity is the use of color, shape and size to create harmony in a drawing. In Frida Kahlo’s drawing, the “Two Fridas,” unity is indicated by the use symmetry, in which the size of the two portraits is the same. Emphasis refers to the focal point of the whole, that is, the area that draws the viewer’s attention. In Edouard Manet’s “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere,” emphasis is achieved by the use of bright colors and contrast, which draws the viewer’s attention to the barmaid.  In addition, the drawing portrays proportion, the relative size of various objects within the drawing. The size of the people shows how a real scene could appear in a large ballroom, viewed from a bird’s eye perspective.  Scale, which depicts the overall size, helps to relate an object to its life size, and it is shown by the bar maid in “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere” who is large enough to portray a real life portrait. Balance is the portrayal of equilibrium in the use of space, which is, distributing space equally in the picture. In Frida Kohla’s drawing of “A few Small Nips,” the objects are placed centrally in the room, leaving equal spaces on both sides.

Frida Kahlo uses the principle of symmetry in “The Two Fridas” to create visual stability. The two women in the painting are balanced, because they are of the same size.

Their posture is also similar, which creates a perfect symmetry. In fact, their joined hands mark the center of picture, in the sense that you will end up with two similar halves if one cuts the picture at the point where their hands join. In addition, they are both wearing some ornaments on their necks and have the same amount of hair on their heads.

This is a three dimensional portrait. Consequently, the clouds in the background appear to be bigger than is normal, especially when taking distance into consideration. However, they help to achieve asymmetrical balance by offsetting the weight of the two women in the foreground.  Similarly, the clouds occupy the entire space in the background, in the same way that the two women occupy the entire space in the foreground.

I think that Kahlo wanted to communicate the importance of harmony not only in art, but also in life. The portrait portrays a sense of harmony between nature, represented by the clouds, and life, represented by the two women. There is also a sense of calmness in the portrait, which perhaps suggests peace when there is harmony between nature and human life. Nevertheless, I somehow perceive some kind of innocence in the two women. In this regard, Kahlo seems to suggest that there is beauty in innocence.

In “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere,” Edourad Manet uses space in a way that captures the viewer’s imagination about a real life scene. The use of space shows Manet’s organization of objects to achieve harmony, rhythm, unity, balance and emphasis.

There is harmony and unity because all the space in the room has been used in a manner that portrays near and far objects accurately. Near objects occupy a larger space than far objects, which suggests their distance from the viewer. Thus, the maid in the foreground is bigger than the people in the background.

The use of space is significant in achieving emphasis by foregrounding the barmaid, while the other objects are to the background. The use of the nearest space draws the viewer’s attention to the barmaid, more than it does about the other objects in the room. Finally, space has been used to achieve equilibrium, that is, our sense of how space is distributed equally among the objects in a drawing. Balance is achieved in Manet’s “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere” because the objects- human figures are distributed evenly in the drawing. Therefore, the use of space achieves unity, which pulls the objects together and gives them a sense of belonging in the whole.

Works Cited

Jirousek, Charlotte. Principles of Design: Art, Design and Visual Thinking. 1995. July 02, 2011  http://char.txa.cornell.edu/language/principl/principl.htm

Kulka, Tomas. Kitsch and Art. New York: Penn State Press, 1996.