Studio in Art: Design Principles

Studio in Art: Design principles Unity

When parts combine to create a sense of oneness, they display unity. Artists are very concerned with unity – they want their artwork to have a feeling of wholeness or harmony. Artists achieve unity in their artwork when all the parts of a design or idea work together. Unity is achieved when the viewer no longer notices individual parts of an artwork, but simply looks at the whole work.

What then, is unity? In the visual arts, unity occurs when all of the elements of a piece combine to make a balanced, harmonious, complete whole.

How can unity be created?

1. GOOD COMPOSITION: This is the way most artists create unity – having a good composition means that your artwork looks complete and whole. All areas of the artwork come together – there are no areas that stand out as looking “unfinished” or “incorrect”. There are no “dead areas” in the compositional movement.

2. DOMINANCE: One way to achieve unity in an artwork is to make a single design element play a major role. Ex: An artist might create a painting with one color that occurs throughout most of the composition, which unifies the overall image. Use of color is one of the easiest ways to create a sense of unity!! Ex: A sculptor might create a sculpture from a single material that dominates and unifies the surface of the artwork. Use of texture is another easy, immediately noticeable way to create unity in an artwork!

3. REPETITION: Artists may repeat elements of the composition to create a feeling of unity. Ex: Artists may repeat design elements in an artwork. The design element repeated usually varies a little to make the artwork more interesting, such as making the same shape get larger or smaller. Ex: Artists repeat subject matter, using the same subject multiple times in an artwork.