HMN101: ART APPRECIATION Professor: Ma. Clarita R. Domantay, LPT, MAED Principles of Design The Rule of Thirds Reading the Image At the end of the lessons, the students are expected to: 1. Define and demonstrate the elements and principles of design. 2. Know the importance of the Rule of Thirds and its relation to The Golden Ratio. 3. Understand the importance of “Reading the Image” and also the Four Plane of Analysis. INTRODUCTION • The principles of design describe the ways that artists use the elements of art in a work of art. There are 8 principles of design: Balance, Emphasis, Rhythm, Movement, Pattern, Proportion, Variety, and Unity. • The Rule of Thirds is a guideline for both artists and photographers. It will help produce a more pleasing arrangement and layout for your compositions. • Reading the Image by Alice Guillermo it provides guidelines in analyzing or interpreting images may they be from ads, paintings or any text. Principles of Design The principles of design describe the ways that artists use the elements of art in a work of art. Balance It is the distribution of the visual weight of objects, colors, texture, and space. If the design was a scale, these elements should be balanced to make a design feel stable. 1. Symmetrical - the elements used on one side of the design are similar to those on the other side. 2. Asymmetrical - the sides are different but still look balanced. 3. Radial - in radial balance, the elements are arranged around a central point and may be similar Emphasis - It is the part of the design that catches the viewer’s attention. Usually, the artist will make one area stand out by contrasting it with other areas. The area could be different in size, color, texture, shape, etc. Any object or area of emphasis is called a focal point. The focal point is meant to be the part of an artworks to which the viewer’s eyes are first attracted. Rhythm - It is created when one or more elements of design are used repeatedly to create a feeling of organized movement. Rhythm creates a mood like music or dancing. To keep rhythm exciting and active, variety is essential. - Created by repeating shape (a pattern), lines, colors or any other visual component - motif Movement - It is the path the viewer’s eye takes through the work of art, often to focal areas. Such movement can be directed along lines, edges, shape, and color within the work of art. Pattern - It is the repeating of an object or symbol all over the work of art. Proportion - It is the feeling of unity created when all parts (sizes, amounts, or number) relate well with each other. When drawing the human figure, proportion can refer to the size of the head compared to the rest of the body. - Refers to the relationship of the size of one element when compared to another - artist can make his/her subject seem strong, weak, funny, mysterious. Variety - It is the use of several elements of design to hold the viewer’s attention and to guide the viewer’s eye through and around the work of art. - adds interest to an artwork by working through comparison and contrast. Unity - It is the feeling of harmony between all parts of the work of art, which creates a sense of completeness. - Gives an artwork a feeling of “oneness”; separate parts working together. - unity is an impression – a feeling the artwork coveys to the viewer. The Rule of Thirds • The Rule of Thirds is a guideline for both artists and photographers. It will help produce a more pleasing arrangement and layout for your compositions. • We can say “The Rule of Thirds” is more like a "technique", rather than a "rule". • If you divide your canvas into 3 by 3, which will look like this: • The intersections are where the focal area be placed or located • What is “focal area/focal point”, it’s simply where the attention of the audience is drawn Example of Rule of Thirds: The Rule of Thirds can be related to “Golden Ratio.” “Golden Ratio”, also known as “divine proportion” has been around for some time and has influenced many areas of life including architecture, math, design, and course of art Example of Golden Ratio Reading the Image by Alice Guillermo Who is Alice Guillermo? • She was born in Manila on January 6, 1938. • She received a BA in Education degree (magna cum laude) in 1957 from the College of Holy Spirit, formerly the College of Holy Ghost. • She is a recipient of Palanca Awards. • She is a renowned writer, researcher, art critic and professor. • She is best known for her extensive body of art criticism and academic texts on the subject of Philippine art, which academics credit for having significantly informed the writing of both art history and art theory in Southeast Asia. • Guillermo’s essay is very important because it provides guidelines in analyzing or interpreting images may they be from ads, paintings or any text. She said that art should be placed in the context of society and history because these two always have the connection. According to Guillermo, the basic documentary information of an artworks are: 1. Title of the Work 2. Artist 3. Medium and Technique 4. Dimensions / Measurement 5. Date of the Work 6. Provenance • Example of basic documentary information of an artwork Spoliarium (can be seen on the National Museum of the Philippines) 1. Title of the Work – Spoliarium 2. Artist – Juan N. Luna 3. Medium and Technique – Oil Painting in Poplar 4. Dimensions / Measurement – 4.26m x 7.72m 5. Date of the Work – 1883-1884 6. Provenance – Madrid, Spain (currently in National Museum of the Philippines) Four Planes of Analysis • Basic Semiotic Plane It is the study of "signs". It consists of "signifier" or its material/physical aspect and its "signified" or nonmaterial aspect as concept and value. • Semiotic is concerned with everything that can be taken as a sign. The elements of the visual arts derive their meaning-conveying potential from two large sources: human psychophysical experiences and the socio-cultural conventions of a particular society and period. Four Planes of Analysis • Common examples of semiotics include traffic signs, emojis, and emoticons used in electronic communication, and logos and brands used by international corporations to sell us things—"brand loyalty," they call it. Example: • The movie shows situations inside the Renaissance period. Originally the movie was based on the Shakespeare’s recreation of the novel Romeo and Juliet back from the late 1500’s. It represents a love story of two teenagers that came from two feuding families. The movie, even the stage play version before, played several times in the Elizabethan Period usually gives the audience a work of art by the settings and costumes of the characters. So, at the end, the story marked the audience with a weary and disappointing feeling. Iconic Plane • It can be called the image itself; it is still part of the semiotic approach since it is still based on the signifier-signified relationship. The only difference is that that material elements of the work has to do with the particular features, aspects, and qualities of the image. • The iconic plane includes the choice of the subject which may bear social and political implications. Also, it is the positioning of the figure (frontal, in profile, three-fourths, etc.) that implies its bearing to the meaning of the work. • In the basic semiotic plane, which deals with the material aspect of the work and in the iconic plane which deals with the features of the image itself, one can see that as the signifier cannot be separated from the signified, concrete fact or material data cannot be divorced from value. Example The movie gives the audience a choice of what can they feel because of the scenarios, the two teenagers go through between their feuding families, because this isn’t just a love story, this story includes political changes in the society because of the two main families where Romeo and Juliet came from are battling for years to gain Political respect and benefits to overcome certain circumstances. The scenery and fashion of the people in the movie was a glimpse of the past, it is because it is like traveling through another time that, there are bountiful harvest, unlimited resources and criminals that can be freed again if they escaped the authorities and if no one saw what they did. Truly, the government or the authorities in this time of what the movie conveys, does have rules but do not know how to implement it thoroughly. Contextual Plane • In Contextual Plane, you put the work in context and its relationship to society. It is an advantage if the artist / viewer has a knowledge of society’s history and its economic, political and cultural conditions, national and world art and literatures, mythologies, philosophies and different cultures and world views. • The audience needs to draw the discussion between art and society. Art derives its creativity and power from their social environment, being a cultural force and the impetus for transformation. Example This sculpture truly means a lot to Filipinos, because this monument represents freedom and democracy over a dictator who led the country into darkness at those times. The creator expresses his feelings and thoughts about what happening at that time, a very tragic and hopeless period to the country but through the power of faith, unity and courage, Filipinos defeated the dictator and caused him to flee the country. Evaluative Plane • It is concerned with an analysis of a work’s values. It can often be easy to say that assessment encompasses both facets of form and content. However, this segment is conservative theoretically as both are philosophically divided. The semiotic analysis includes the basic semiotic plane, iconic plane, and contexts, which demonstrates how meaning is generated by the connections between meaning (material traits) and meaning (concepts and values) of the specific picture symbol that is an art piece. Meaning it is always rooted in the content structure. Example Made by the ancient Filipinos hand by hand and with minimal equipment for a millennia, It represents a culture of the Ifugao tribe and shows how united and devoted they are to make their harvest at its best. Because of the beauty of how the ancients created this, this enormous step of rice fields now goes and voted as the eighth wonder of the world. Even now that a younger generation of Ifugao’s tribe holds the rights of keeping this big pile of lands for maintaining it , the value of their ancestors of how they managed this before will remain to them as a knowledge and wisdom their ancestors truly want to exists for the whole eternity and for prosperity and wealth of the tribe.
