This is Part 2 of a translated transcript of the Russian felt artist Maria Gladchenko talk.
Part 1 - is Here
In Part 2 she is talking about scale, balance and symmetry.
Apparently this interesting idea of creating a picture doesn’t always work!
But it could work – if we consider Scale first. It may work if there were a few much smaller cats’ figures instead of one very large one.
Now we see that there are two extremes – to use a very large single element or use a lot of very small elements. Both these ways could fail in creating beautiful item. We need to find a proper Balance, balanced approach to design and composition of our piece. The mother-nature is always at hand to help! Look at this beautiful cat with marbled fur coat!
Another feature of the rectangular shape which could lead to wrong design is its symmetry. Very often it seems obvious that the design should be symmetrical with the compositional centre placed in the centre of the item.
We decided to create a symmetrical spiral. If it’s in the very centre it’ll draw all the attention to this point which is not very good actually. Even worse in reality it’ll never be at the geometrical centre. More often it will be off centre and create disproportion so it would be more practical and attractive if we position that spiral close to one end (a shoulder)
See this idea realised in this example:
So - when we are to create a symmetrical design on the central part of the wrap which will be on the back of human figure it’s better not to place large distinctive elements (geometrical or colourful) strictly symmetrical or in the very centre. It’s more advisable to position them off centre and in some random order.
But when symmetry works well? Imagine the design of the future wrap as follow
Lovely movement on the piece but if we place two extra very distinctive and symmetrical elements to the ends they will add emphasis and create the feel of finished piece
Part 3 - Dynamics and Movement - is Here, Part 1 - is Here