Digital Art: Design Principles and Balance

• Constant practice is key to mastering digital art, similar to traditional art.
• Experimentation and discovery arise from things that self-practice cannot teach.
• Manipulating certain aspects of artwork can reveal aesthetics.

Design Principles

• Digital art compositions must adhere to design principles.
• Design principles are fundamental guidelines for combining individual elements, leading to consistent and satisfying designs.

Balance

• Balance is the arrangement of elements in a composition to promote harmony.

Types of Balance

Formal Balance

• Also called symmetry, formal balance promotes harmony through equal distribution.
• Symmetry conveys trustworthiness, integrity, elegance, and formality.

Informal Balance

• Also called asymmetry, informal balance counters each element to achieve harmony.
• Asymmetry can be achieved by supporting a dominant element with lesser elements.
• Asymmetry conveys casualness, energy, and popularity.

Radial Balance

• Radial balance involves elements surrounding a central point.
• Radial balance conveys teamwork.

Emphasis

• Emphasis directs the audience to a key, standout element.
• The element drawing attention is the most important thing in the composition.

Rhythm

• Rhythm uses repetitive elements to create a sense of movement.
• Patterns are built from elements and intervals, causing the viewer to move around.

Types of Rhythm

Regular Rhythm

• Elements and their intervals are predictable or similar in regular rhythm.

Progressive Rhythm

• The sequence appearance and dimension of an element and its interval is ever-changing in progressive rhythm.

Flowing Rhythm

• The element or interval is organic, evoking feelings of being one with nature in flowing rhythm.

Unity

• Also known as "harmony," unity evokes cohesion and interplay.
• Unity allows the artist to view each element as part of a whole, establishing continuity and promoting consistency.

Types of Unity

Repetition

• Repetition involves reusing color, size, or other visual aspects of certain elements.

Proximity

• Proximity is the distance between elements; closely placed elements feel more "unified."

Alignment

• Alignment is the uniform arrangement of all involved elements on a particular axis.

Contrast

• Contrast involves the shift in tone within an element; it is usually done via color, alignment, or other variations.

Color Theory

• Color is a powerful communication tool in art and graphic design.
• Color is defined as a specific wavelength in visible light that carries a certain amount of energy.
• Color divided into three categories.

Color Categories

Hue

• Also called the color's name, hue refers to the general family of colors based on additive and subtractive colors.

Value

• Also called luminance, value refers to the tone, shading, or tint of a specific hue.

Saturation

• Also called chroma, saturation refers to a color's vibrance or intensity.

• Color theory studies and applies color in art to achieve a desired effect using schemes, harmonies, and phenomena.

• Color schemes use colors to signify a message through different combinations, creating effects that appeal to viewers.

• Color harmonies combine colors that harmonize, using the color wheel to create desirable effects when used correctly.

• Colors can have up to three complementary colors, with the one directly opposite being the main complementary color.

• This allows the formation of shades.

• Color phenomena involve strange occurrences in art when colors are involved, connected to the color wheel and its harmonies.

Typography

• Typography is the presentation of text to the viewer, commonly used in graphic design.
• Typography is achieved by choosing which font to use, how big they should be, and how they are spaced apart.