Page 98 - Art Attack Gr 9 LB SKU1007

Give some reasons why designers would delibrately make things in their work out of proportion:
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Last year you learnt about symmetrical balance. Symmetrical balance, also known as formal
balance, is achieved when you have an equal, identical distribution of parts or subject matter on both
sides of a central axis. When it is almost but not identical, we call it approximate symmetry. The
central axis can be real or imaginary. If you had to visually cut the picture in half, the sides would be a
mirror image of each other. This creates feelings of stability, formality and dignity. This can be seen in
a portrait of a member of the royal family. This is the simplest and least interesting type of balance.

You probably created symmetrical compositions when you were small – where you folded a piece of
paper in half, put paint in the middle, closed the paper and spread the paint over the page. You
opened the page again and AMAZING… you created a symmetrical composition in just five easy
steps! At times images and compositions have radial symmetry when everything is arranged around
a central point- like water going down a plughole, or an aerial photograph of a merry-go-round.

Asymmetrical balance occurs when opposing or dissimilar elements are brought into equilibrium.
This is more difficult to achieve but is interesting and dynamic in appearance. Below is a table that
shows what visually weighs more and less.

ELEMENT OF ART “WEIGH LESS” “WEIGH MORE”
TEXTURE SMOOTH TEXTURE COARSLEY TEXTURED
COLOUR COLD, DESATURATED WARM, SATURATED

SHAPE SMALL, INCOMPLETE LARGE, SOLID SHAPES

TONE LIGHT AND VARIED DARK, SOLID TONE
SPACE OPEN, UNCLUTTERED CLUTTERED, COMPACT

With this information in mind, draw an example of an asymmetrical, a radial, a symmetrical and
an approximately symmetrical composition:

Artifact Publications and Training 2015 92