Find a Happy Balance
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Welcome back everyone! Today we are going to talk about finding a happy balance. No, we aren’t going over techniques of teeter tottering…sorry to disappoint some of you. We need to find a happy balance in our lives and in our art. Yin as well as Yang.
People can suffer through the harshest of winters, freezing their butts off, scraping windows, shoveling heavy snow…cursing the whole time. All they can do is wish and hope that this is the last storm. They are sick and tired of it. They want the sun, they want the heat! Then, when summer comes around, they complain that it’s too hot. They roll up their car windows and crank the AC. “Ahh, that’s better.” They aren’t being prima donna’s, they just want a happy balance.
We get pissed when we hit rush hour traffic, but also get pissed when someone is tale gating or fly past us because we aren’t in a rush like them. We desire a nice even balance. Just like Goldilocks…not too hot, not too cold…just right.
We must also apply this balance to our art. Not too much stiff structure without the elegance of a gesture. This is why in drawing you always start with the gesture (see video below). Take the planned out structure of a fine art photo and add the spontaneous element of a street photo. This will give you a unique and desirable balance between the two. This is why I’m learning street photography a bit more. It opens my eyes to another side of art. Once I get a good grasp on it, I’ll be able to take some of those elements and mix them with the fine art photography. We can also apply a fine art element to street photography….paying attention to lighting, composition, color theory, etc. This is why some fine art photographers edit in birds, or flipping hair, or blowing dresses…to give it that spontaneous feeling. But these are all copy and pasted throughout so many photos that it’s becoming cliche. That’s the last thing you want your image or painting to become.
Find a happy balance within your art to express the emotions and concepts that are important to you. And as always, learn design techniques in order to effectively communicate these concepts to your viewer. Thanks again for joining in everyone! Take care!
