Learning by doing. Arts&English for young students

SYMMETRY

Symmetry has been used as a way to organize elements in a space for thousands of years, and it can be used to unify the different parts of an image harmonically.

If an image is symmetric, when you follow it by the axis (or the different axes),  both parts will be exactly the same. Axes can be vertical, horizontal or oblique.

Symmetry is found in art and architecture, but also in nature and a lot of places of our daily life.

Types of symmetry:

-          Axial symmetry. There is only an axis and it is usually situated in the middle of the composition.

This is an example of axial symmetry in architecture:

-          Radial symmetry. There are some different axes which pass through a common point and they are placed like lines of a wheel.  The elements are at the same distance of the centre.

This is my own example of radial symmetry:

RHYTHM

In visual art, rhythm consists in a sequence of elements, in which some different elements (or only one element) are ordered repeating and mixing them ( their colour, form, lines, brightness,…) and including free spaces. The result is a harmonic trajectory that organises a surface and gives the impression of dynamism.

Rhythm can be: uniform, alternate, increasing and decreasing, radial, symmetrical, modular, rhythmic or free.

This is an example of rhythm, a composition painted by Victor Vasarely in which is easy to see the rhythm.