Elements And Principles Of Design

Artist Tony Couch is the host for this informal and very informative overview of the elements and principles of design in painting. Using the work of masters both early and contemporary, Couch enumerates the seven elements (line, shape, size, direction, color, value, and texture) and the eight aesthetic principles (balance, contrast, gradation, harmony, alternation, variation, dominance, and unity) using examples from the works of Van Gogh, Matisse, Mary Cassat, Degas, Georgia O'Keefe, Edward Hopper, and by Couch himself. Couch, whose earlier tapes--Painting Barns in Watercolor and Painting Streams, Rocks, and Trees inn Watercolor--received lukewarm reviews in our January 1990 issue, here excels at providing an easy to follow foundation for aspiring art students as well as a good review for more advanced artists. Too many art tapes on the market are of the "this is how I paint a house" variety. This one gives viewers an excellent theoretical base with which to begin their art work without coming off like some Greenwich Village ozone case. Highly recommended. (Available from: Crystal Productions, P.O. Box 2159, Glenview, IL 60025; 1-800-255-8629.)