• Special message Tomorrow's (April 16) YouTube Live Chat will explore the difference between Saturation (also
Chroma or Intensity or Neutrality) and Value. We start at 2 p.m. Eastern. I hope you can join us! Recently, I overheard someone complaining of having vertigo, and naturally my mind jumped to visual vertigo that one can get viewing an out-of-balance painting. I addressed that way back in 2016, so I think it's worth a brushed-up repeat. TO LABEL VS TO EXPERIENCE Many words in the English language can be either nouns or verbs. They either
name something or do something. If we perceive a word as naming, we're not likely to feel involved, but if we experience it as a doing, our reaction is more alert. The word balance does that. A painting whose
placement of elements is in balance has visual stability. We might not even notice that it is well balanced. But if the visual path is askew, balance becomes a verb--we will feel uncomfortably pulled, a kind of visual vertigo. Here's one of my paintings hashed a bit to illustrate. No matter how skillfully a work is created, if it's off balance, something gets lost. In this case, all the tilts (or angles) are moving in the same direction, visually pulling us off the left
corner. Here is the painting with those tilts in balance. Now we feel equilibrium. So that you can experience a more definitive comparison, here are the two versions side by side. That's another huge reason why visual paths matter! Enjoy a well-balanced weekend! During my Language of Painting series, I explained the role of our visual elements. If you'd like to review those roles to better understand the behavior of elements, here are the links to each of those
discussions: Color --Value -- Shape -- Texture -- Size -- Line and Direction
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