ART PROPORTIONS PRINCIPLES & ELEMENTS IN DESIGN COMPOSITION : Use Proportions of Relative Elements to Create Interest in Drawings

Elements of Design: Proportion and the Golden Ratio

The “golden ratio” has fascinated artists and mathematicians for over 2000 years. It’s a mathematical formula observed in nature and used by artists, architects, designers, and even musicians in countless ways.

Golden Proportion in Art Composition

The ancient Greek civilization studied shapes, patterns, and proportions that existed in the natural world around them and found that, from among them all, that the "Golden Proportion" was the most simple, beautiful, and perplexing of all. Found naturally in plant and animal form it led the Greeks to theorize that the same natural beauty existant in nature should be utilized in manmade creations (art, architecture, music, etc.) if they, too, were to be thought of as beautiful.

How To Use Size, Scale, And Proportion In Design

Loud and soft, dark and light, big and small. Each is a relative measurement of some quality on some scale. Day doesn’t exist without night and up doesn’t exist without down. Each exists in contrast to the other and contrast occurs on a scale.

Illustrator: Golden Section / Divine Proportions

Have you ever wondered why a profound piece of art is so compositionally pleasing? The artist probably employed the use of the Divine Proportion, which is a phenomenon that suggests that there’s a mathematical equation that’s consistent with the aesthetics of good composition. Let’s examine a brief history of the Divine Proportion and its use over the centuries.

Layout Composition: Proportion and Consistency - Designers can often make judgments about layout composition by instinct—it’s a by-product of constantly thinking in visual terms. Occasionally though, some projects leave you stumped for a solution; no matter how hard you try to fit the elements onto the page, they just don’t look or feel right. In these situations it can be helpful to return to basics, and see which one produces the best solution to the problem.