Activity 4 - Principles of Design

February 13, 2006


William H. Johnson’s painting, “Ambulance on the Go”, uses several principles of design. These design principles include unity, variety, rhythm, and asymmetrical balance.
The most obvious principles are the unity and rhythm of the ambulances. The ambulances are all similar in shape, color and direction of movement. They have a tight formation marching along the road as if they are part a single of linked chain. This repetitive chain of ambulances reinforces the concept of rhythm in the painting. We also see a rhythmic line of yellow houses along the horizon. Again, there is even more repetition as we follow the line of telephone poles along the road. There are some unifying colors in the painting. The green fields seem to dominate the lower half of the painting and shades of blue dominate the upper half of the painting. Yet there still seems to be some colors of variety, with the yellow and red flowers speckled in the green field and yellow and red wheel spokes.
Finally, the painting appears to be asymmetrically balanced. Looking along the road in the direction of movement, on the right side of the road we see telephone poles, houses, and trees. On the left side we only see small flowers.


Winslow Homer’s, oil painting, “Dinner Horn”, displays the design principles of emphasis, subordination, asymmetrical balance, unity, and variety.
The main point of emphasis is the lone female standing in the center of the painting. She stands out because her bright dress and skin tone sharply contrasts with the darker hues in the background. The house, trees, shadowy hillside, and distant field are all subordinate to the lone female.
Also, the painting seems to be asymmetrical, primarily because the visual weight of the house draws some attention away from the female. The scene would appear more symmetrically balanced without the house and if a tree trunk on right balanced the left tree trunk as the woman stood in the center.
The entire painting implies a seasonal change to autumn. The wind blowing red, brown, and yellow leaves unifies the autumn scene of the painting. The dark earth tone color of the house (brown) further unifies this autumn scene. Although these colors give some unity, we can also see a lone patch of dirt that the female stands in, providing some variety. There also seems to be some strange variety of color in the blue leaves to the right of the woman.