Colour: Warm colours advance and tend to visually weigh more than cool colours. Red is often considered the heaviest or most energetic colour and yellow the lightest but a colour can be tonally dark or light and have a different saturation, so a light red might be outweighed by a mustard yellow.
Tone or value: On a white ground, dark elements have more visual weight than light elements.
Position: Elements located higher in the composition are usually perceived to weigh more than elements located lower in the composition. The further from the centre or dominant area of a composition, the greater the visual weight an element can have. Elements in the foreground carry more weight than elements in the background. However this can depend on the shape of the rectangle the elements have to operate within; a long thin horizontally orientated rectangle, may reinforce the visual weight of other horizontal elements within the lower part of the rectangle.
Texture: Textured elements appear heavier than non-textured objects. Texture can make an element appear three-dimensional, which can give apparent mass and therefore implied physical weight to a form.
Shape: Objects with a regular, clear shape appear heavier than objects with an irregular or softer edged shape. This can be related to: Depth of field and focus: Just as with a camera you can bring something into and out of focus, you can draw forms softer or sharper in relation to an imagined depth of field, the objects in focus having more visual weight.
Tone or value: On a white ground, dark elements have more visual weight than light elements.
Position: Elements located higher in the composition are usually perceived to weigh more than elements located lower in the composition. The further from the centre or dominant area of a composition, the greater the visual weight an element can have. Elements in the foreground carry more weight than elements in the background. However this can depend on the shape of the rectangle the elements have to operate within; a long thin horizontally orientated rectangle, may reinforce the visual weight of other horizontal elements within the lower part of the rectangle.
Texture: Textured elements appear heavier than non-textured objects. Texture can make an element appear three-dimensional, which can give apparent mass and therefore implied physical weight to a form.
Shape: Objects with a regular, clear shape appear heavier than objects with an irregular or softer edged shape. This can be related to: Depth of field and focus: Just as with a camera you can bring something into and out of focus, you can draw forms softer or sharper in relation to an imagined depth of field, the objects in focus having more visual weight.
Orientation: Vertical elements can in certain instances appear visually more powerful than horizontal objects and in some cases diagonal elements carry the most weight. Orientation is very closely allied to position and of course you can mix and blend any of the above to give the eyes an exciting time.
As you bring these various elements together you will find that other issues become more important, such as contrast: Contrast draws attention to an element. so it will appear visually heavier than its surroundings. You can use contrast with any of the elements above and in various ways such as by using the 70/30 rule, which is explained in detail in the later part of this post. Therefore you could have a majority of elements having hard edges and clearly defined shapes and just one with soft focus; in this case you may well find the normally insignificant soft edged object becomes the most forceful. You may also want to think about density: Packing more elements into a given space increases the visual weight of the space. For example compare images of Annette Messager's 'My Vows', with Malevich's Black Circle. However in this case we also have to consider the fact that Messager's circle hangs in the lower half of the frame, therefore the emphasis is on its weight, whilst Malevich's sits in the top half, therefore it appears to rise up and float.
As you bring these various elements together you will find that other issues become more important, such as contrast: Contrast draws attention to an element. so it will appear visually heavier than its surroundings. You can use contrast with any of the elements above and in various ways such as by using the 70/30 rule, which is explained in detail in the later part of this post. Therefore you could have a majority of elements having hard edges and clearly defined shapes and just one with soft focus; in this case you may well find the normally insignificant soft edged object becomes the most forceful. You may also want to think about density: Packing more elements into a given space increases the visual weight of the space. For example compare images of Annette Messager's 'My Vows', with Malevich's Black Circle. However in this case we also have to consider the fact that Messager's circle hangs in the lower half of the frame, therefore the emphasis is on its weight, whilst Malevich's sits in the top half, therefore it appears to rise up and float.
Density relates to perceived physical weight: We know that an elephant weighs more than a balloon. An image of an elephant can therefore feel as if it weighs more visually than an image of a balloon, because we transfer a real world expectancy into the imagined world of an image.
Laura Such: lead balloon
However any rule is easily broken.
Intrinsic interest: Some things are more visually interesting than others, they might for instance be very intricate or unusual, but it might simply be that the observer has a fascination for something, perhaps they are a tree surgeon and therefore any tree in a composition will stand out for them. Intrinsic interest is related to the fact that visual weight can also be about relative psychological or social importance. For instance when we find this situation in Children's, Egyptian or Medieval paintings and drawings, visual weight might also have to account for the fact that one thing is drawn much bigger than another, because it is more important to the person constructing the image. For instance a child they may well think of themselves as being more important than a house.
From the Kellogg Collection
Egyptian painting: Social position is represented by size
Cecco di Pietro: Madonna and Child with Donors
In the Cecco di Pietro image above the donors are tiny in relation to the Madonna, because they are relatively unimportant.
Miró
The artist Miró was someone who used to play with proportion to give psychological energy to his paintings. The red form that dominates the image above is in dialogue with both the linear elements and another circular blue shape and although these forms are non figurative, we still feel that some sort of psychological positioning is taking place. Proportion in this case being used quite differently to Rothko, who uses proportion as a form of spatial division.
Rothko
You feel in Rothko as if he uses proportion more as a landscape metaphor. A large block of colour resting in the upper half of a canvas, triggering a sensation similar to one we get when looking at a flat landscape that is dominated by sky.
In all of these cases artists are using proportion for effect. By manipulating it, a subject can be made to seem psychologically strong, supportive, weak, unimportant etc. but it can also be something that can trigger feelings of elation, mystery, vastness, claustrophobia etc.
However proportion can also refer to what is 'right' and in proportion. Sometimes this is fixed by a canon. For instance, the Ancient Greek canon of proportion, as formulated by Polykleitos in the 5th century BC, established a mathematical, system for representing the ideal human form.
Doryphoros: After Polykleitos of Argos (Greek, ca. 480/475–415 BCE)
Polykleitos created a measurement system based on a mathematical formula in which the human body was divided into measured parts that all related to one another. The end result, as in the 'Spear Thrower' above, was an expression of what was called symmetria. In art of the High Classical period (ca. 450–400 BCE), symmetria was not only about proportion and balance, it was also a way to give life to the inanimate. The body of the Spear Thrower, (Doryphoros) stands in a contrapposto position. I.e. his weight rests on his right leg, freeing his left to bend. This causes the right hip to shift upwards in relation to the left; the left shoulder therefore rises and the right drops. His body is both brought into a state of equilibrium and energised through this counterbalancing act. Always in movement but at the same time balanced and in proportion.
Although closely related, this type of visual construction is sometimes confused with proportional measuring, the technique of comparing the sizes of different parts of a subject to each other (e.g., width to height) rather than using absolute, fixed units, as in the canon of Polykleitos. It involves using a tool like a pencil at arm's length to establish ratios, a checking process that is supposed to ensure accurate and consistent scaling when drawing from life.
Euan Uglow: Loaf
Euan Uglow's studio when painting 'Loaf' in the 1980s
The measurement of visual proportion relies on establishing relationships and you can see in the image of Uglow's studio above, how tricky this can be.
I was looking at this recently in my post on the vertical. These two different approaches to proportion are though closely related, because in order to develop a canon of proportion, many measurements had to be taken from actual examples. For instance Albrecht Dürer developed a comprehensive, mathematical canon of human proportion, as was laid out in his 1528 treatise Four Books on Human Proportion, which looked at the construction of faces and bodies using geometric measurements. His system, diverged from the canon of Polykleitos and other's by recognising the diversity of human measurements, and trying to reconcile these with consistent measurements for constructing the head. I.e. he realised that all canons would at one time or another have begun with measuring what was actually out there and a canon would have been fixed by then finding a best average. But one person's best average is different to another's and in fact Durer's heads that rely on his proportional system always look very stylised and awkward to me.
Durer: a study in human proportion
However we can also exaggerate proportions to emphasise something. For example, a cartoonist may distort a proportion in order to create an image that highlights a particular quality of character that they wish to give to the subject.
Dave Brown: Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson
By elongating Mandelson's tongue the cartoonist Dave Brown suggests how he was able to get into Gordon Brown's head. It is also interesting to see how Dave Brown exaggerates the proportions of their relative faces, Gordon Brown becoming like an old saggy featured Basset Hound, and Mandelson more like a sharp-featured spiv with elf ears.
Richard Schmid
Harley Brown: Pastel
A pie chart representing what the arts are worth to Southeast Alaska. Painting, carving, theatre, music and other creative pursuits generate at least $60 million a year in business.
In the image above we can see how the arts are represented to the world of business. But artists can use the idea too. For instance, Christine Sun Kim, an artist I have written about in the past, uses pie charts to map personal experiences.
Christine Sun Kim
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