Blog Assignment #2: UNITY AND VARIETY

Before an artist begins a piece of artwork, there are many things he or she considers. One of them are the Principle of Design. They are given names such as unity and variety, contrast, emphasis, balance, movement, repetition and rhythm, and economy. The principles of design are used by artists to organize the so-called visual elements(lines, tones, shapes, textures, and colors) into a unified drawing. One of the elements I will be focusing on in this blog is unity and variety. Variety is the the diversity or multiplicity in an assortment, collection or group. Unity is the state of being unified or together as one. The following are five examples of using unity and variety effectively.



In, this artwork by Jacob Lawerence, he established visual themes with the lines, shapes, and colors of the train seats, figures, and luggage, and then he repeated and varied those themes. There is repetition in the green chair seats and window shades. As a unifying element, the same red is used in a variety of shapes. The many figures and objects in the complex composition form a unified design through the artist's skillful use of abstraction, theme, and variation."


Excitingly, I never thoguht Grant Wood's American Gothic would of variety and unity in it stil I researched it. The three-tined shape of the pitchfork in Wood's painting is repeated exactly in the clothing. It is also repeated in the windows and vertical lines in the house. On the other hand, curved shapes surround the woman's head - in the broach, curved edge of her dress and background trees. This repetition of shape unifies the painting, while the differences between the vertical and curved shapes give the painting a balancing sense of variety.



In this piece by Malcolm Harding, unity and variety is prominet. The many shapes of color keep your eye on the piece, exspecially the random blue circles. Harding created unity not only by using mellow, soft colors like pink, yellows, reds, and oranges, but by his grid-making through out the whole artwork. The grid unifies every element so that it appears on one plane.


Holly Clark's piece uses a variation of a grid system for her basis. The broken-image style breaks the piece into sections which gives a good variety to keep the viewer's eye on the page.The color and black and white throughout the painting gives a sense of unity. Nothing looks out of place.


In this artwork by Rudolph Russi, the many uses of color and style give much variation to the piece. The sense that he painted the buildings in a a way style instead of the normal, cliche straight buildings give a lot of variation to the painting, while still keeping unity. We, as the viewer, know if you have one building, its more than likely they are going to be more aorund it, therefore creating a town. A town is one, therefore creating unity. Also, Russi uses one light source that is used to capture all the buildings, making them more closely realated.



Though you need variety and unity in your artwork to make it more asethic, you can have too much an ineffective balance between unity and variety. These are images that are either boring because of lack of variety, or too chaotic because of too much. The followingare examples of ineffective balance of unity and variety.


This piece is a good example of too much unity. You may think the different colors in the background give some variety, but sense they used colors that every person knows, it doesn't work. They uses one shape through out the entire piece, a circle. There is nothing that keeps your eye on the art work.



This piece shows no variation, I believe, whatsoever.They used a smooth yellow for pears , but used a mellow orange for tomatoes. When I think of a tomoato I think of bright red.They used white for all the napkins; therefor giving no variation. The piece itself comes off to be boring because of the normal setting a lot of people paint these days.



In this case, the use of repeition does not give the effective use of unity the right way. It gives too much inity because it is the same element over and over again. It does not have much variety which doesn't give the viewer to interpret the piece in many ways than one.


This a great example of too much variety. There is so much going on, that you don't know where to look first. It doesn't seem to have an area of focus. There is so much little detail that you almost dont want to waste the time looking at it.


For my last part of my entry, this piece also has to much variety and unity. The same color scheme throughout, an the feeling of repeition does not give enough variety. The picture seems monotones and bland. It is not very eye appealing.