M4 Key Terms ART

Asymmetry uses compositional elements that are offset from each other, creating a visually unstable balance. Asymmetrical visual balance is the most dynamic because it creates a more complex design construction.

 

Asymmetry

Emphasis the area of primary visual importance (main idea)

Emphasis

Pattern The systematic arrangement of a repeated shapes or forms creates pattern

Pattern

Motion recreating the movement of things in an artwork, such as a person walking/running.

Motion

proportion The size relationship of parts to a whole and to one another (ex. The size of a person’s head compared to the size of their arm.)

Proportion

Pattern The systematic arrangement of a repeated shapes or forms creates pattern

Pattern

proportion The size relationship of parts to a whole and to one another (ex. The size of a person’s head compared to the size of their arm.

Proportion

Repetition is the use of two or more like elements or forms within a composition.

Repetition

Radial balance movement from the center of a composition towards the outer edge - or vise versa. Many times radial balance is another form of symmetry

Radial Balance

rhythm, the lyric or syncopated visual effect that helps carry the viewer, and the artist’s idea, throughout the work

 

Rhythm

scale The size relation of one object in an artwork to another.

 

Scale

Symmetrical balance characterized by an exact – or nearly exact - compositional design on either (or both) sides of the horizontal or vertical axis of the picture plane. 

 

Symmetrical Balance

Time depicting the passage of time in an artwork

 

Time

unity in composition and form, a visual sense that all the parts fit together; that the whole is greater than its parts.

 

Unity

variety The opposite of unity; diverse elements in the composition of a work of art.

 

Variety

visual balance  a sense of weighted clarity created in a composition

 

Visual Balance