Dynamic Visual Movement (And Survey!)

Conjure up in your mind, as best you can, some of the most dynamic and energetic pieces of art you’ve ever seen? They are probably something that really moved you (pun not originally intended) or to which you were drawn and just couldn’t look away. Dynamic movement in art is just what it sounds like—it’s lively, energetic, impactful and, well, moving. More specifically, it refers to something in the composition that inexorably moves the eye from one thing to the next.

Just look at some classic examples such as Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Jackson Pollock’s No. 5, 1948, and Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2. In each case, it is hard to just plant your eyes at one point and gaze there. The lines quite insistently draw your eye along from one point to another. But why? Doesn’t all visual art, 2D or 3D, have lines of some sort? What makes these lines so dynamic?

 

Well, it is the combination of several characteristics that, when used together, can create dynamic movement visually. Although it would be nice to hand you a single, simple formula for this, it is not one particular set of characteristics but rather a kind of recipe you put together. The recipe includes some combination of lines, repetition, gradation, and/or the placement of objects.

Each “recipe” brings about a different flavor profile, a different atmosphere or emotion. The Starry Night has a breezy and calm feel, even thought the sky is very active, due to the fairly consistent repetition of brush strokes and the flowing lines they create. So, the recipe here is mostly repetition and line. Nude Descending a Staircase, on the other hand, even with so many lines, actually gets most of its movement from gradation, repetition, and placement. The shapes go from dark and unclear to light and more recognizable, are repeated more or less in each gradation, and the diagonal placement with the clearest form at the bottom of the diagonal slope moves our eye downward (which is easier for us to see movement in due to our lifelong relationship and expectation of gravity!)

So, if you want to add or just tweak a design to have more dynamic visual movement, try out a combination of these characteristics. Let’s look at examples of how they are used to create very obvious dynamic visual movement in polymer and other craft art.

 

Going with the Flow

The key to movement will be to focus on the flow of marks, shapes, colors, etc. in your work. This isn’t always fluid, mind you, but fluid lines and shapes do readily create a sense of movement. Some of the best inspiration for flow comes from things that we see physically flowing in the world around us.

For instance, Forest Roger’s work, although not themselves images that we see in the real world, regularly draw energy and impact from the representation of fluid movement. In the piece you see at the opening of this post, Badb Catha (Battle Crow), the flow of fabric and feathery wings are dramatically sculpted in a frozen moment of furious movement. To see this kind of movement in reality would be but a flash amidst a flurry of action. We never get to a solid glimpse of those moments when it happens in front of us, so our minds expect and kind of fill in the movement. That expectation of continued movement in nearly all parts of the sculpture is what imbues the piece with such intense energy.

 

Here is a similarly dynamic piece by a ceramic sculptor by the name of Yuanxing Liang that I just had to share. It’s hard to believe it’s not just an illustration the movement and details are so lush and yet delicate. You can see the many sides and more detail of this particular piece on Colossal here.

 

Forest does create additional drama with the vivid red of the fabric and the pointed and dangerous looking ends and edges. But movement represented in a frozen moment can also be coolly dramatic without being this intense. Just look at this silver and gold Wind Necklace by Chao Hsien Kuo. It’s delicate form and the repetition of undulating lines terminate in slightly rounded and gold tipped ends so that even though there is a tremendous amount of movement in the design, it feels contained and graceful.

 

There is a level of complexity in these first few examples that might feel a bit intimidating, but you can achieve quite a bit of movement with simple shapes and repetition. Ford and Forlano’s Vine Necklace looks rather like the rippling reflection of light on water in this zig-zagging necklace made up of right-angle tube beads and leaf canes. Stringing the angled beads, one after another, creates an erratic movement that doesn’t stop because there is no focal point or other place for the eye to rest. The movement itself becomes the focus of the necklace.

 

I have found that one of the easiest and most graceful ways to show movement is simply to use curved lines, particularly ones that are repeated and nestled or otherwise follow the lines of the adjoining or nearby lines or forms. In this necklace’s layers of leather (yeah, I thought it was polymer first time I saw it!), a piece created by Irina Fadeeva, the folded edges start from a point along one of the focal stones and then radiate out, following the curve of the layer below. That repetition of curved lines along with how one section flows and fits along the edges of the adjoining sections keep your eye flowing back and forth across the piece even though there are three very prominent focal points to stop and focus on. Those lines pull on your gaze to keep looking around.

 

Here are a few more beautiful examples of nestled lines but this time as surface design. Ceramicist Natalie Blake creates the most gorgeous movement in her textures by lining up carved line after carved line then developing the atmosphere of calm or blossoming energy through the use of delicate or dramatic, but always glowing, color.

 

Keep in mind that when creating lines for surface design, they do not need to be well defined, especially if you have gradation in your design recipe. Look at the delicate, sometimes barely there, lines in this beautiful enamel brooch by Ruth Ball. The lines encircle each other like a ripple in a pond although it’s actually a swirl, moving from the center point outward. The lines get gradually more delicate as they get farther from the center. It is, however, the gradation from that black to purple to a wisp of sky-blue that brings in the drama and heightens that sense of movement as the whorl swoops around and up towards the top of the brooch.

 

All the above examples use repetition to some extent to assist in the sense of movement. However, you can leave repetition out of the recipe and still have a sense of movement. For this you need to add placement to the recipe.

Here is a beautiful example by Donna Kato showing how placement creates flow by making things look like they’re about to fall over or roll off. This is accomplished with the use of tension points – where elements are just barely or not quite touching each other – and diagonals. This combination makes things appear unstable because we expect things that are not firmly attached to roll or tumble downhill. This works much like the frozen dramatic moment of movement we saw in the first couple of examples, in that it gives us a sense that movement is impending, adding energy to the design.

 

So now, after all these examples, do you recognize elements that show movement in your own work or have you come up with some ideas you’d like to try to add more movement in your work? It’s not that a sense of movement is necessary in any design, but you need to decide whether or not movement is important for your piece and the energy level you want to convey. Like any other design element, you want to give yourself the opportunity to include or exclude it intentionally.

 

Moving Down the Road

So, this weekend is the first of four weekends in a row that I’m going to be traveling so I’m getting these blogs together ahead of time, but I’ll try and sneak in some photos from the road, especially if I see anything artistically inspiring.

For those asking how I’m doing, all I can tell you is that the progress on my arm is still very slow. I’m going to check in with my favorite kinesiologist when I am in Denver in a couple weeks to see what more can be done but I am preparing to handoff or otherwise get around doing the print production that is so hard on my arm which, unfortunately, is primarily the project tutorials with their tons of photos and a lot of layout tweaking. But I have to tell you, I’m already having withdrawals (I love doing layout!) but my brain doesn’t stop planning and have a bunch of ideas, but I need your help …

Survey, Discount, and CA$H Drawing

As I think I mentioned last week, my editorial assistant and I are working out our options for getting inspiring information to you, but I don’t want to create what WE think you want. We want to KNOW what you want.

To that end we are asking you to help us out by filling out a survey. The survey will help us determine what kind of content you might be looking for and see how it can mesh with some of the ideas we have in mind. It will also help us with final decisions about content for the magazine this next year.

So, would you give me just 2-3 minutes to fill out this survey? Not only does it help us help you get the information you want and need, I’m giving away a little something to make it worth your while …

All survey respondents will get a 15% off coupon for your entire cart on our website and … drum roll please … CASH money! A randomly drawn survey filler-outer will get $50 cash! Who couldn’t use a few extra bucks, hmm?

Look for the 15% off code on the page that comes up after submitting the survey and write it down. Its good through the end of October. We’ll send a reminder mid-October as well so you don’t miss out.

Survey closes on September 29th. The drawing for the cash, a purely random drawing, will take place on September 30th and winner will be notified by email.

Okay, that’s it for this weekend. Have a beautiful week and have fun making note of all the visual movements you find in designs every day.