What are some simple visual devices for unifying an image?
Two effective and reasonable simple visual devices that artists use to draw together subject features in a composition are linear vectors and nodal points. This discussion focuses on these devices but mindful that the terms are not self-explanatory descriptors, I will begin by describing how they function in images.
Regarding “linear vectors,” this term describes the alignment of portrayed subject material in such a way that a viewer of the image can perceive a line carried through from one portrayed feature to the next. For example, if an artist wished to portray two rectangular blocks in an image as pictorially separated from each other but conceptually linked (i.e. compositionally united) the artist would ensure that an edge of one of the blocks is perfectly in line with an edge of the other block (see illustration below). A viewer looking at this arrangement is then likely to perceive a line created that conceptually bridges the gap between them. This perceived line is what I wish to describe as a linear vector. Artists use such optically created lines (linear vectors) as a way to draw together subjects that are spatially separated and seemingly very different in physical attributes into a cohesive composition.
(upper image) diagram of the created linear vector
(lower image) alignment of the subject to create a linear vector
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Regarding “nodal points,”
this term describes pivotal points within an image that the eye perceives as
aligned with important lines, angles or intersections of the portrayed subject.
Sometimes these points arise from the artist’s preliminary measuring of the
subject’s proportions and are shown as small dots or “x” marks usually
inscribed on the outer border of an image. Often the marks are shown as having
migrated into the picture area as well when the artist is plotting proportional
measurements to accurately position the featured subject within the composition.
Artists also use nodal points to show a conceptual extension of a form. For
example, in the illustration below, the upper edge of the closer glass block
has been extended to its intersection with the further back block and this nodal
point has been accentuated with a touch of colour.
(upper image) diagram of
the created nodal point
(lower image) alignment
of the subject to create a nodal point
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As a practical
demonstration of these visual devices I wish to use a fine drawing (see below)
executed by John Brereton (one of the James Cook University ’s first-year illustration
students) of a taxidermy chicken during a short examination last week on the
principles of drawing. As part of his written explanation John describes how he
created a connection “between the head of the chicken and [its] front leg”
through the strong lines linking them—linear vectors. I have marked this
path of linear vectors in the diagram shown further below. Interestingly, in
discussing the effect of these lines with regard to notions of compression and
stretching in the chicken’s form, John makes the insightful comment that the
lines create contrast between the chicken’s “proud/arrogant” back and the
“softer voluptuous chest.” John proposes that “this chicken believes it has the right to scratch around in your vege/flower
garden! It dares you to disagree.”
John Brereton
(
[Taxidermy
chicken], 2012
Ink,
charcoal and watercolour on cartridge paper
29.6
x 21 cm
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Diagram
of linear vector pathways
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The use of nodal points
also features in John’s drawing. As part of the initial layout, the four sides
of the drawing have been used like a ruler with sight-size notational
measurements registered in pen marks. These marks guide the artist’s hand in
plotting where, for instance, the tip of the chicken’s beak is to be positioned
and the proportional distances between its beak, breast and hindquarters. In
the diagram below the alignment of these reference points have been revealed to
show where and how John established the chicken’s position on the page.
Diagram
of nodal points used in the preliminary stage of sight-size measuring
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From an historical
perspective, the list of artists using these visual devices is considerable. Last
century features Sir William Coldstream (1908–1987) with his famous “Coldstream
method”—an exacting style of measured drawing continued by his pupil at the
Slade, the now legendary Euan Uglow (1932–2000). Looking back a century earlier,
I have decided to focus on Charles-Emile Jacque (1813–94) and his sensitive
etching, Les Petites Vacheres, to
discuss linear vectors and Honoré Daumier (1808–79) with his satirical lithograph,
À Bercy, to discuss
nodal points.
In Jacque’s Les Petites
Vacheres (shown below) featuring two cowgirls surrounded by
cows with one of the girls portrayed standing lightly resting on a staff while
the other reclines on the ground and toys with a nest of baby birds. At first my
eye is drawn to the standing girl but only momentarily as attention is soon
diverted down her staff to the reclining girl. This shift in focus is not driven
simply because the staff acts as a pictorial bridge between the two girls.
There is more to the shift than that. This is a linear vector as the staff is
aligned to connect with the reclining girl’s head and then her shoulder and
finally down her arm to the nestlings (see red line in the diagram further
below). The more one looks closely at this print the more connecting lines
appear and they appear to be arranged intentionally. See for instance the
inverted “v” shape formed in the tree behind the girl and how a dead branch
from from it connects with the formation of birds flying in the far
distance (see the blue lines in the same diagram below).
Linear vectors in Jacque’s Les Petites Vacheres
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In Daumier's À Bercy (shown below) featuring two brewery workers—one carrying pails of what is probably water from the Seine towards the other worker who is pouring the liquid from a pail into a barrel—the critical visual dialogue is clearly between the two portrayed figures. More subtly, however, there is also a potent graphic dialogue between the horizontal line created by the pointed nose of the figure carrying the pails and a horizontal line aligned with and pointing back to the same figure’s nose created by the candle support on the far right edge of the image. This alignment is planned and it is all to do with a carefully placed sequence of nodal points. For instance, in the diagram further below, see how the line from the candle support is perfectly level with the other figure’s nose and hands. This subtle graphic exchange between all the pointy bits lies at the heart of what makes Daumier’s satirical style of drawing so engaging to look at.