"Balancing Details"

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"Balancing details is an art." If there are too many details in life or in art, there is overload. However, if there are no details in life or in art, there is boredom and very little substance. It's a delicate balance.

As you can plainly see, I have been experimenting with design and collage. And details are very important when creating a collage. The most important thing to realize is that the eye is constantly looking for connections. And if the connections don't make sense, the viewer is unable to stay engaged in your art.

It is also possible to have a lot of detail, but not enough contrast, and then the viewer cannot distinguish any connections and there is no place for the eye to rest. The secret is to keep significant sections free of detail so that the viewer's eye goes right to the focal point or even several areas that have strong enough connections to be focal points.

And the beauty of collage is that you can completely gesso over a particular section and replace the collage piece with something more convincing. I did that very thing yesterday on a large piece that had too many jolts of color. So I eliminated one color altogether and substituted another to change the mood of the piece.

In the posting today. there is ample white or very light lavendar sections that have little or no detail. And the placement of the red pieces provides a very loose frame around the one piece of detail. In conclusion, the attention to how much or how little detail is a very important design decision. And it's quite okay to have very intense color combinations with some detail as long as there are significant sections of white or very little color and also some punches of very dark color. Within this framework, you can have a very successful collage. And there you have it...just a few more things to think about.