Lately I’ve been noticing how many good paintings and drawings use repeating shapes within them, a motif. This motif seems to carry us through the composition, and give harmony and order to the shapes. I recently stumbled across this original drawing by Diego Rivera, posted on Facebook by Paul Hemminger of Bellingham Frameworks. It’s full of repeating angles and shapes. You can see the repetitions in the colored lines I added here:
I’ve emphasized in orange the curve of the worker’s backs, the hats, the hands. The angle of the legs, the tool, the arms, and again the land, all arching at well placed and graceful intervals are grouped, emphasized here in red, green, and blue. Along the orange arches, the green lines fan out a bit, while the red lines stay exactly parallel. The counterbalancing opposite angle in the upper right keeps us in, and loosely mirrors the lines below the left figure. So many repetitions! Lovely piece.
Next time you see a work by a skilled artist, take a look and see how many repetitions you can find within the composition.
People posted hundreds of drawings for our 30 day January challenge, in which artists are invited to respond to a daily prompt posted on our V. Notes blog. Unlike other drawing challenges, these prompts are wildly varied, open to non-typical materials around us, and are designed to feed a broad spectrum of creative skills at …
Every president of the United States selects art for the White House. As our 44th president, Barak Obama and his family proceeded to select art – borrowed from three museums in Washington: the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the National Gallery of Art – for the family quarters, east …
The Big League Show’s Call for Art (deadline April 28) said artwork must be framed. My apologies. Framing is nifty, but your artwork does not need to be framed. Correction to the League Call for Art: Artwork must be ready to hang. What does “ready to hang” mean? Basically, it means your artwork needs a …
[image_with_animation image_url=”8262″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I asked Paul D. McKee who some inspirational painters were for his upcoming Unconventional Painting workshop. He sent me this: Robert Rauschenberg David Wojnarowicz Anselm Kiefer Lawrence Carroll I knew the first three names (V-Notes on the way), and thank you to Suzanne Walker for repeatedly saying the name “Wojnarowicz” in …
Motif & Repetitions in a Diego Rivera
Lately I’ve been noticing how many good paintings and drawings use repeating shapes within them, a motif. This motif seems to carry us through the composition, and give harmony and order to the shapes. I recently stumbled across this original drawing by Diego Rivera, posted on Facebook by Paul Hemminger of Bellingham Frameworks. It’s full of repeating angles and shapes. You can see the repetitions in the colored lines I added here:
I’ve emphasized in orange the curve of the worker’s backs, the hats, the hands. The angle of the legs, the tool, the arms, and again the land, all arching at well placed and graceful intervals are grouped, emphasized here in red, green, and blue. Along the orange arches, the green lines fan out a bit, while the red lines stay exactly parallel. The counterbalancing opposite angle in the upper right keeps us in, and loosely mirrors the lines below the left figure. So many repetitions! Lovely piece.
Next time you see a work by a skilled artist, take a look and see how many repetitions you can find within the composition.
Related Posts
30SAL Faves: Week 3, Part 2
People posted hundreds of drawings for our 30 day January challenge, in which artists are invited to respond to a daily prompt posted on our V. Notes blog. Unlike other drawing challenges, these prompts are wildly varied, open to non-typical materials around us, and are designed to feed a broad spectrum of creative skills at …
Obama’s White House Art Collection
Every president of the United States selects art for the White House. As our 44th president, Barak Obama and his family proceeded to select art – borrowed from three museums in Washington: the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the National Gallery of Art – for the family quarters, east …
Ready to Hang
The Big League Show’s Call for Art (deadline April 28) said artwork must be framed. My apologies. Framing is nifty, but your artwork does not need to be framed. Correction to the League Call for Art: Artwork must be ready to hang. What does “ready to hang” mean? Basically, it means your artwork needs a …
Lawrence Carroll
[image_with_animation image_url=”8262″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I asked Paul D. McKee who some inspirational painters were for his upcoming Unconventional Painting workshop. He sent me this: Robert Rauschenberg David Wojnarowicz Anselm Kiefer Lawrence Carroll I knew the first three names (V-Notes on the way), and thank you to Suzanne Walker for repeatedly saying the name “Wojnarowicz” in …