Visual Pulling Power

Published: Sat, 08/24/24

Updated: Sat, 08/24/24

Dear ,

One point I've been making a lot lately is that the visual language is a living, organic group of elements. They DO stuff! And how they do stuff happens when we, the painters, do something with them. Take that a step further: what we do with them creates the painting we are creating. That is composition, not a rule.

For example, we will make our paintings either teeter-totter or balanced by the way we apply visual weight of these elements. Yep, visual weight is a thing!

The weight of images changes according to their location, size, and emphasis between the four edges of the painting and something we call the visual axis. It is a visual version of the old fashion balance scale.

If a weight on one side of the axis is not equal to the weight on the other, we get a teeter-totter.

But we can shift the location of the axis and get balance.

Axis shifted towards heavier weight

We can also get that balance by redistributing the weight on each side of the axis.

Weight redistributed by pushing the heavier load towards the axis.

In a painting, whatever pulls your eye to it first creates the axis. Everything on either side if that axis has some degree of pulling power, and that pull gives it visual weight. The strength of that pull is determined four things:

(1) Its location between the axis and the sides of the painting,

(2) Its distance from the bottom of the painting,

(3) The degree of emphasis you put on the image,

(4) the direction and speed of the movement within the image.

In this Monet painting, our eye first goes to the sun and its reflection in the water, giving that area the feeling of an axis. Each of the boats carries a lot of visual weight because their strong value contrast pulls our eyes to them. Notice how Monet has created balance by where he locates each boat in relation to his axis (the sun and its reflection), and the edges of the painting.

TRY THIS:

Spend your weekend noticing visual pulling power
Notice what kinds of images attract your attention
Pay attention to how their visual emphasis plays a role in your noticing them

Enjoy an balancing weekend!

Happy Painting,

Dianne

dianne@diannemize.com

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