Drawing Tuesday - balance

Balance is one of the "rules" of composition. There's certainly lots of scope in playing with those rules!

"Balance refers to how the elements of art (line, shape, color, value, space, form, texture) relate to each other within the composition in terms of their visual weight to create visual equilibrium. That is, one side does not seem heavier than another."

Symmetry (around an axis) is useful for balance, but can be boring. Manipulating the other elements can achieve asymmetrical balance. Think of, or go find, The Great Wave or The Last Supper to see how Hokusai and Leonardo did it. 

Alexander Calder's mobiles come to mind - a very physical manifestation of balance. http://www.thewestologist.com/arts/calder-and-the-art-of-balance  - "Calder’s mobiles are not simply about balance in relation with gravity. Their ever-changing forms manage to balance the natural and the abstract, the timeless and the modern, order and chaos, control and letting go"

There's visual equilibrium, and there's visual DISequilibrium. There's a tipping point. There's overbalancing, and being out of balance, as well as being balanced....

From Janet K - Wasn't sure what to do this week so decided to try 'off balance'. Spending time on a ladder replacing lining paper and painting so do worry about off balance.

From Gill - As slacklining is all the rage in Clissold Park I thought I’d join them this evening.

From Carol - I was never very good at maths, but things don’t add up like they used to.

From Judith - More negative shapes from La Merc Festival Barcelona where they build people towers with kids in crash helmets on top!

From Ann - Taking the idea of balance literally. I did this life study with ok don drawing on zoom a few weeks ago...how the model balanced on the stools and  equipment was amazing. 

From Sue K - This is my garden mobile made from a (sadly) broken porcelain lampshade - luckily a calm day to do it - when windy it makes a lovely tinkly, resonant sound!

From Mags - Today I  had my first trip to  Tescos since before Xmas ! ( I always hang my trolley from the trolley )  

Then took advantage of the sun to wash our winter dressing gowns.  They're very heavy when wet   so definately a balancing act to ensure the whirligig doesn't fall over !  ( Photos manipulated in Photoshop , I could twiddle for hours ... ) 

From Jackie - Ceramic sculpture in 3 pieces: ‘balancing act’

This was delicately balanced  but sadly it only remained like this for a couple of years until someone jogged the shelf…..it had a short but much appreciated life! 

It remains a continuing challenge to work out a way of securing pieces like this….

From Joyce - I drew this at the Alexander Caldwell exhibition “Performing Sculpture” at Tate Modern, March 2016. Fascinating exhibits and some witty ones of people.

From me - Thought about this topic a lot and nearly got stuck into drawing a heap of stones, but "simplify" is my current watchword, so I resisted that till the last little sketch. Trying how to figure out how to (a) get the lighting right and (b) indicate that they are all overbalanced and about to tip and topple!