Artistic aesthetic elements in bonsai, Space

It's everywhere unless we are taking it up. Space is another element in art.  There are two parts to space. They are positive space and negative space. Positive space is the space that the tree takes up. This includes trunk, branches, and foliage. Negative space is the space in between the positive space. In other words the empty space.

Understanding negative space is critical to good bonsai design. Even though negative space is empty space it plays an important role in where we place the parts of a tree.

Look athe the branches from left to right. It is filled with negative space. However, some spaces are bigger than others. The left side the negative spaces are more and they are smaller. The right side has bigger negative space. As your eyes move along the tree it will tend to pause at those bigger spaces. I don’t really want that to happen with this tree. So I will have to break up the negative space.

Can you see the difference?

There is also negative space that surrounds the tree. I personally prefer when the negative space surrounding a branch touches the trunk. That is just my preference. Here are two distinct ways to use negative space.  

Space, its positive or its negative. Use negative space to support your positive space. Lots of negative space around an object makes it look alone. Less negative space creates more tension. Cheers.

Artistic elements in bonsai... Color Theory (it is still about bonsai)

Color in bonsai is pretty much straight forward. In bonsai earth tones and greens dominate. Earth tones are the colors you see in dirt. This could be reds, browns, blacks greys, whites and even some yellows. Bonsai may have other color due to flowers, and fruits. Some trees new growth are red and later turns green. Add to that the pots the trees are in and you have a lot of color. So how do we know what color pot to use?

What part of the tree do you want to emphasise? Is it a red berry? Orange leaves in the autumn (called fall in the U.S.)? Is it the bark, leaves, deadwood? Choose what you want to emphasize? Once you decide what you want to emphasize then you will have to apply color theory.

Color theory may seem somewhat difficult to understand but i'll try to make it painless. Every color has a complimentary color. Complimentary is just that, the two color together make each other look better. They compliment one another.

Finding the compliment of a color is easy. All you need is a color wheel. First, start with the primary colors which are red, blue, and yellow. All the rest of the colors come from a mix of these three colors.  

Primary colors

If red and yellow had a baby it would be orange.

If red and blue had a baby it would be violet.

If yellow and blue had a baby it would be green.

The color wheel

All these children colors are called secondary colors. Now we can get to more intense color theory. It just so happens that complementary colors are each other's negatives. If you are good with the concepts up to now keep reading if not skip the next paragraph.

Everybody who was born from 1985 back still remembers film cameras. Remember looking at the developed film? That was called a negative. Remember how the colors were all weird? They were not flesh tones, but seemed greenish. The darks in the real world were light in the negative and vice versa. That film was called a negative because it had captured the negative (opposite) colors. Are you still with me? To make it easier you can call them opposite colors instead of negative, but on the exam at the end of the post please call it a negative color.

The compliment of red is green. The compliment of orange is blue. The compliment of yellow is violet. Do you see a pattern emerging? Do you see how sport teams use complimentary colors in their uniforms?

Black and white are each others compliment. However, they are not colors. Black and white are values, they are light and the absence of light.

So, How can we use all this information? Well, like i said before choose something that you want to emphasise. Do you love how your green maples leaves turn orange in the autumn? If you do put it in a blue pot.

Pick your favorite out of the tree pictures.

Most people are going to pick the blue pot and now you know the reason why. Lets try one more. Let's do pink blossoms.

Again, most will pick the green pot to match up with the pink blossoms. Pink is a lighter red, and red and green are complementary.

Ok, last part of this color theory. Analogous colors. Analogous colors are colors in the same family. These would be red, yellow, orange, or red, violet, blue. Also, blue, green, yellow.  

There are color wheels out there in the interworld that break things down more, but this is a great beginning. The more you mix colors the more complementary combinations. 

One more thing to keep in mind is that you might want to mix up the value. You might not want to keep the color intense and bright. Play around with darks and lights. This will give an extra layer of thoughtfulness. Cheers.  

Artistic Aesthetic elements cont..., Shapes and forms

Shapes are two dimensional and geometric. When you draw a circle, square, or triangle you are drawing a shape. Forms are three dimensional and geometric. These include cylinders, pyramids, and cones. I would say that the most prevailing shape in bonsai is conical.

conical

Semi spherical

Spherical form

Besides the obvious silhouette made by a form they are important in that they can add to motion. In sculpting rhythm is important. Adding forms to sculpture gives rhythm. Repetition of shapes in varying sizes creates rhythm.

The trunk and foliage are two different cones

Rhythmic design

Shapes and forms are easier to understand than some other elements. The key is to use them to guide the eye. Cheers.

Artistic aesthetic elements in bonsai, or making bonsai pretty

It might be presumptuous of me to tell other people how to fix aesthetic flaws in their bonsai. After all I am a novice. Like I have said before, bonsai is a living sculpture. Sculptures are art, and I know something about art. I will explain the fundamentals of art theory and relate them do bonsai aesthetics. Yes these are my opinions, you are welcome to disagree. I already stated that bonsai is art (http://bonsai-misadventures.blogspot.com/2016/03/bonsai-what-should-they-look-like.html). Now I will delve deeper.

I will focus on the following elements: line, shape, form, space, color, texture, and balance. So as not to bore you I will make separate posts for each element. We will begin with line. Lines are everywhere. Where dark and light meet you have a line. Where two colors meet you have a line. Trunks branches and leaves make lines. The silhouette of a tree makes a line. Lines are ever so important in art.  

Lines guide the eye

The lines in your bonsai will show the eyes what direction to move. The most interesting lines are the ones that vary in thickness and direction. Some people say that a bonsai needs a tapering trunk to suggest age. I say, maybe. However a tapering trunk is a line that varies in thickness and that my friends is very pleasing to the eye. A wide base and thin apex gives the illusion of a vanishing point. The more pronounced the further the perceived distance.

The trunk is a line of varying width

Some lines are suggested. Like under and above a pad of foliage. I love white pine. The reason is that the needles are little lines. They vary in value (shade) and give the tree texture.

suggested lines under and above the foliage

Lines tell the viewer what to feel. Vertical lines are rigid and stern. Horizontal lines are calm. Diagonal lines are action and tense. 

Take the formal upright style. Most of the lines are horizontal. In the center there is the main line which is vertical. These lines make the formal upright style seem traditional and comforting.  

Vertical and horizontal lines

I may offend some readers by saying that these horizontal and vertical lines are boring. What is keeping this style from making the trees look like topiary is the silhouette. The silhouette is composed of two suggested lines that are diagonal. Don't misunderstand me. Chokkan or formal upright is a very difficult style to make.

Suggested diagonal lines

The windswept style can be very dynamic. I saw this chinese elm at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. I was awe stricken. Not only are the lines diagonal, but they move in one direction and then go the opposite way. There is a lot of movement for the eye to perceive.

Diagonal lines

Lines, in road ways or art, they take us on a journey. Cheers.