Composing With Dynamic Symmetry – An Artist’s Perspective
Before I get to the subject described by the title of this blog I would like to address a very preliminary topic that I don’t believe all artists are familiar with, or, if they are, probably don’t give it much thought. And that is the ever so simple concept that we, as artists, are ever only drawing (whether with pencil or brush) with a limited number of fundamental marks or symbols – essentially what we can call our “Art Alphabet.” Much like all cultures use symbols (usually called letters) to spell words, construct sentences, form paragraphs, etc., in order to communicate/express thoughts, ideas, and emotions to others.
This was introduced to me many years ago by a famous master artist/teacher, Myron Barnstone. When he described this concept it illuminated that proverbial “light bulb” in my head and took away pretty much ALL of the stress that got in the way and made me always ask, “How do I draw that?” It was then that I began to SEE much more clearly the simplicity of the things right before my eyes. Drawing and painting “anything” became a simple matter of “reading” the world around me. And once read, I could then “write” my own drawings and paintings with greater acumen and confidence.
What follows is an excerpt from a handout I give to participants of my Dynamic Composition Workshop.
The Alphabet of art:
Drawing is a Mark Making Code. Musical notation is a mark making code. Sports coaches use a similar mark making code.
Let’s look at the limited alphabet of marks artists use. There are essentially five:
The “Dot” – The “Horizontal Line” – The “Vertical Line” – The “Diagonal Line” – The “Arc or Curve”
Only two of these marks are found in nature, the Dot, and the Curve. There are no straight lines in nature. Artists use straight lines more often than they use curves.
Each mark represents a “Mood or Theme.”
If your dominant theme is horizontal, it will be “calm,” “relaxed,” “quiet.”
The diagonal is “masculine,” “charging with a lance,” “aggressive,” indicative of “movement”, and more “powerful” than the vertical and horizontal theme.
The vertical is not as stable as the horizontal. It is balanced, ordered, upright, reaching, and often indicative of growth. A “God in his glory” is vertical! Portraits are often painted in a vertical format.
The curve/arch is an enclosure, it cups, it holds, it relates.
If we create a design based on one of these directional themes, we can say that the relationship between each of the other elements within the drawing are of the same family. They are organic.
When introducing some other element, we must be careful not to disturb the “major mood” established by the horizontal, vertical, diagonal, or the arc/curve.
We can strengthen a line by introducing a perpendicular. But we must not lose the intended dominant.
Here, Two Dots . . introduce the horizontal. You do not need the “line” drawn between them to “see or sense” it. We’ve been “connecting the dots” since childhood. Consider the “Big Dipper.”
The beginning and end of a line is more important than the line connecting it.
*** Each of these directional marks/lines can be transformed into a two-dimensional figure. ***
The Square/Rectangle – The Triangle – The Circle
*** Each of these figures can be transformed into a three-dimensional figure. ***
The Cube/Box – The Cone or Pyramid – The Sphere
THAT’S IT!!!!!! THAT’S OUR ALPHABET!!!!!! The only thing left to consider is LIGHT AND DARK VALUES!
We place the figures that we draw within a shape/format. This shape is defined by two vertical and two horizontal sides and is typically a rectangle. Where we place those figures within the format for optimum impact on the viewer of our artwork is called COMPOSITION.
THE DOCUMENT CONTINUES and outlines the concepts and the means by which artists of ALL epochs and cultures throughout arts’ history have composed their work – the Egyptian, Greeks, Romans, Medieval, Renaissance. Sadly, these methods were again lost in time.
Fortunately, these concepts and methods were rediscovered and brought to light again beginning in the late 1800s to early 1900s. They were used with gusto by many of our greatest artists, illustrators, architects, and sculptors of that time.
Unfortunately, most of the so-called artists of our current “modern era,” have set aside the beauty of these principles when producing their works of art.
IT IS FOR THIS REASON THAT I WOULD LIKE TO HELP YOU TO …..
REDISCOVER, anew, the compositional formats used by ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artists, sculptors, and architects, as well as the Renaissance Masters and Classical Artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Your paintings will seem to live and breathe when composed using this system of design.
The basic principles underlying the greatest art in the world may be found in the proportions of the human figure and in the growing plant – indeed, in all of nature and even the cosmos. These principles were reduced to working use by the ancient Egyptians and found perfection with the Greeks.
The principles of design found in the architecture (the proportions) of man and nature have been given the name “Dynamic Symmetry.”
- How to use dynamic symmetry
Dynamic Symmetry is suggestive of life, growth, and movement. Its great value to design and composition lies in its power of transition, or movement, from one form (center of interest) to another in the system.
Therefore, perfect balance, eye flow, movement, rhythm, and harmony of elements within your composition is achieved only when applied to shapes that share the proportions of nature. Those shapes are known as “Root Rectangles.”
This degree of perfection, coupled with the qualities and characteristics of life and living things, cannot be realized using the so-called “standard shapes” of our day – 8”x10”, 9”x12”, 16”x20”, 18”x24”, etc.
Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Gerome, Bouguereau, Maxfield Parrish, Norman Rockwell, and so many more of the world’s greatest artists and illustrators have used these shapes and this system of composition when creating their masterpieces. And now, you can too.
WHAT EXACTLY IS A ROOT RECTANGLE and HOW are they used to compose masterful works of art? It is really very simple, and it requires no math.
The rest of this handout contains an outline I use in my classes and workshops where I walk the student through the process of constructing the BEST RECTANGLES within which to place the intended subject or main point of focus/interest for optimum impact on the viewer of your works of art.
THE FULL DOCUMENT is available for download by clicking the button below. BE WARNED: It is about 20 pages long.
(Participants of my Composition Workshop should print and bring this document to class)
