Mastering Tilts

Series 18: Balancing Angles- S18L1

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An unbalanced painting can make its viewer feel unstable.  Angles all moving in the same direction are especially bothersome.  We can use the principles of contrast and emphasis to counter tilts moving in similar directions.

 This lesson is S18L1  Mastering Tilts of the BALANCING ANGLES series. Beginning with the study from Series 14, Lesson 2, Circular Paths,  Using as her source a photo of cabins in a mountain area, Dianne takes us step by step through a study using emphasis and contrast as tools to bring visual balance to a scene in which the dominant angles are all moving in the same direction.

Balance is equilibrium of opposing forces.  If we are physically thrown off balance, we will fall.  If our psyche is thrown off balance, we become an emotional wreck.  It is a necessary force to facilitate out ability to comprehend and discern so that we can perceive and appreciate.  This series of tutorials focuses attention on ways to balance angles so that the visual movement in the painting is neither one-sided nor stuck in one place.

This series of tutorials is presented in two pairs.  Lessons 1 & 3 are studies, each showing how to use a principle to resolve an issue.  Lessons 2 & 4 each take the previous study to a conclusion, showing how to use those same principles to bring convert the study into a painting.

With every brushstroke we make, we are composing.  Just as with any creation, we begin with a structure, then as the art work begins we place shapes and colors according the concept with which we are working.  But the time comes when we move to a different level of thinking and decision-making–that moment when our intention becomes to bring clarity and resolution to the work.

Among Dianne’s passions about painting and teaching painting is how composing principles can expand creative freedom if the artist transcends the “rule” idea and instead, transforms the principle into a tool that opens creative doors.

Read Dianne’s Compose blog posts HERE.  Visit Dianne’s website and example her work HERE.  And visit her YouTube Channel with dozens of Quick Tips HERE.