<p>Studio in Art: Design principles Unity</p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>How can unity be created?</p><p>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.</p><p>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!</p><p>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. </p>