Intro to Design Principles

1. Unifying an artwork is making it so everything in the piece belongs together. Artists do multiple things to unify their artwork. One thing they do are repetitions of similar colors, warm or cool, throughout the work. Another thing artists do to ensure the unity in their art is to use similar shapes.

This is Frida Kahlos's, Roots, from 1943. Kahlo creates unity in this painting using similar warm colors for the figure's clothing and other parts of the painting. She repeats the leaf shape throughout the figure's body, all of similar color. 

2. An artist creates asymmetric balance using contrast of colors and shapes/forms. Forms and their placement can also create asymmetric balance.

This is Edgar Degas' "Jockeys Before the Race." Degas uses asymmetrical balance in this work. In the foreground, there is a jockey on a horse to the right, with the left side of the foreground empty. The painting is split vertically in two by a pole down furthest in the foreground. The softer and harsher colors of the horses shoe color contrast. Another color contrast is between the ground and the sky. The illuminated shape in the upper left of the painting creates a balance between the left and right sides of the work.

3. 

This is a street art piece by Banksy. The over sized flower attracts attention. A person looking at this piece will follow the stem of the flower which goes around the corner of the street is was painted on. If this piece were to have been made on a much smaller scale, it would attract less attention and seem less relevant due to it's change in size. Normally a large figure will draw a lot of attention in a work compared to a smaller object.