Dramatic Open Space
April 9, 2015
Inspirational Art
Dramatic focal points don’t need to be shiny, bright, high contrast, busy or have anything much at all. In fact, negative space – the space between, around, or within elements – can create very elegant and dramatic focal points. Here is one such example by the talented Mathilde Colas.
The necklace uses a ring of combined textures to frame the negative, which is accented with a heavily textured bead. Although the bead sits in the center, the focal point here is the empty space itself. The ring and bead just define it and assist in drawing your eye to it, as well as bouncing your focus around the center composition and back out towards the beads on the rest of the necklace. I couldn’t find a straight-on shot that offered a more dramatic image, but I think you get the idea, right?
Empty space is actually one of the more dramatic focal points you can use because humans do have a thing for empty spaces–we tend to want to know what was there, why it’s empty and what might fill it. Enclosed negative spaces like this are reminiscent of windows looking out on the world, of welcoming open doors, of caves, boxes and tunnels with dark, unseen interiors. Open space is a mystery and an opportunity. Who wouldn’t be intrigued?
Mathilde does drama in bold and curious forms with many little surprises in her combinations and accents. Have fun buzzing around the spaces on her website!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
Limited and Bright
February 19, 2014
Inspirational Art
I thought we’d at least go bright and fun for our mid-week limited color theme. Here we have Sophy Dumoulin working with a limited palette, as she often does, but with all the great patterns and full saturation of the colors, you don’t really think about it being a limited palette, but it is just blue and green, two analogous cool colors, with a few patches of white. The look is playful and the shapes are neatly placed. The pins all have a feeling of restraint, but the approach works. There is comfort in keeping things on the simpler side sometimes.
Sophy’s work can be found online on her blog and she also teaches classes at CraftArtEdu.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners. Click on an image below.
The Advantages of a Limited Palette
February 17, 2014
Inspirational Art
So last week, we looked at work that used every color in the rainbow, or close to it and looked at how to use a lot of color without looking chaotic. This week, we are going to look at minimizing color using limited palettes where color is an accent. I know … I hear that collective sigh, knowing that brilliantly colored pieces will not be showing up here this week, but I promise, you can be stunned by pieces that use very little. Wait and see.
Yes, many of us are polymer fans in large part because of all the color we can play with but the versatility in form, texture and application is really unmatched by any other medium, far more so than the color aspect. So if you limit or take away color as a primary design element, what do you work with? Well, you are forced to pay close attention to everything else. It is pretty easy to let color support the design and impact of a piece, so if color is your design ‘crutch’ (and I don’t mean that in a negative way … color is important and is quite valid as a focus) try moving away from it and explore form, texture, line, composition, repetition, negative space, etc. It’s a great exercise that, when you return to wider ranging color palettes, will take your pieces from rather pretty to simply amazing!
Eva Thissen‘s brooch here has an incredible impact, not only with little color but with brown–of all single colors to choose–as the dominant hue. And yet, it’s absolutely stunning. The texture and detail make the piece visually rich so that the small dots of subdued color are seen as accents rather than color supporting the design.
Enjoy perusing Eva’s Flickr pages and her enchanting pieces for to get further ideas about putting color in the background while using texture and composition to carry a piece.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
Dramatic focal points don’t need to be shiny, bright, high contrast, busy or have anything much at all. In fact, negative space – the space between, around, or within elements – can create very elegant and dramatic focal points. Here is one such example by the talented Mathilde Colas.
The necklace uses a ring of combined textures to frame the negative, which is accented with a heavily textured bead. Although the bead sits in the center, the focal point here is the empty space itself. The ring and bead just define it and assist in drawing your eye to it, as well as bouncing your focus around the center composition and back out towards the beads on the rest of the necklace. I couldn’t find a straight-on shot that offered a more dramatic image, but I think you get the idea, right?
Empty space is actually one of the more dramatic focal points you can use because humans do have a thing for empty spaces–we tend to want to know what was there, why it’s empty and what might fill it. Enclosed negative spaces like this are reminiscent of windows looking out on the world, of welcoming open doors, of caves, boxes and tunnels with dark, unseen interiors. Open space is a mystery and an opportunity. Who wouldn’t be intrigued?
Mathilde does drama in bold and curious forms with many little surprises in her combinations and accents. Have fun buzzing around the spaces on her website!
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or an issue of The Polymer Arts magazine, as well as by supporting our advertising partners.
I thought we’d at least go bright and fun for our mid-week limited color theme. Here we have Sophy Dumoulin working with a limited palette, as she often does, but with all the great patterns and full saturation of the colors, you don’t really think about it being a limited palette, but it is just blue and green, two analogous cool colors, with a few patches of white. The look is playful and the shapes are neatly placed. The pins all have a feeling of restraint, but the approach works. There is comfort in keeping things on the simpler side sometimes.
Sophy’s work can be found online on her blog and she also teaches classes at CraftArtEdu.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners. Click on an image below.
So last week, we looked at work that used every color in the rainbow, or close to it and looked at how to use a lot of color without looking chaotic. This week, we are going to look at minimizing color using limited palettes where color is an accent. I know … I hear that collective sigh, knowing that brilliantly colored pieces will not be showing up here this week, but I promise, you can be stunned by pieces that use very little. Wait and see.
Yes, many of us are polymer fans in large part because of all the color we can play with but the versatility in form, texture and application is really unmatched by any other medium, far more so than the color aspect. So if you limit or take away color as a primary design element, what do you work with? Well, you are forced to pay close attention to everything else. It is pretty easy to let color support the design and impact of a piece, so if color is your design ‘crutch’ (and I don’t mean that in a negative way … color is important and is quite valid as a focus) try moving away from it and explore form, texture, line, composition, repetition, negative space, etc. It’s a great exercise that, when you return to wider ranging color palettes, will take your pieces from rather pretty to simply amazing!
Eva Thissen‘s brooch here has an incredible impact, not only with little color but with brown–of all single colors to choose–as the dominant hue. And yet, it’s absolutely stunning. The texture and detail make the piece visually rich so that the small dots of subdued color are seen as accents rather than color supporting the design.
Enjoy perusing Eva’s Flickr pages and her enchanting pieces for to get further ideas about putting color in the background while using texture and composition to carry a piece.
If you like this blog, support The Polymer Arts projects with a subscription or issue of The Polymer Arts magazine as well as supporting our advertising partners.
