Hi Gary,

Yes, I'll dig around and soon post some examples of what I'm talking about. Since the bonsai aspect of what we're talking about is obviously not so easily understood by all, I'll try and find an illustration that uses another, more widely understood artform.

Good suggestion!

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
zone 8, Texas

Okay, here is an example of how one may employ the "rules" of art to improve one's work. Let's imagine that Tom is a painter. Tom is very skilled, technically. His trees are breathtaking, his mountains look as if you are really there and his skies are like a photograph.

However, Tom ignores the "rules" of art composition. His "beautiful" painting is below:

I'll follow up with an improved version...

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
zone 8, Texas

Attached Images

landscapebad.gif (12.3 KB, 213 views)

Now, in this attempt (below), Tom DOES employ the "rules" of art. He composes his wonderfully rendered elements in a far more artistic manner. He obeys the laws of human perception and presents his components (trees, mountain, sky) in a way that is perceived to be more beautiful by humans.

Note that in the first image, his horizon is in the middle of the canvas (bad), as is his sun and his mountain. His road starts in the middle, too. All of these may be exacly as he saw them out in the wild, but they don't necessarily translate to the viewer of his art as being beautiful.

His latest version is far more beautiful - far more artistic.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
zone 8, Texas

Attached Images

landscapebetter.gif (13.5 KB, 207 views)

Followup:

I hope that you can begin to realize the correlations between this example and a bonsai example. How being able to make great ramification or to be able to make the silhouette of a tree look appropriate does not necessarily mean that the composition as a whole is very artistic.

This is just one example of an artistic convention (rule) that assists us in conveying beauty and simple understanding to the viewer.

Kind regards,
Andy Rutledge
zone 8, Texas

Tom walked on, and encountered a pharoah. Tom made Pharoah a gift of his sketch of the mountains, but was surprised when Pharoah called Tom's art "primitive," adding that it looked like something one of the royal daughters might scribble!

Tom defended his work and pointed out that the elements harmonize and the effect is natural and artistic. "Who cares how trees grow in nature?" Pharoah roared, and decreed that Tom should study with the palace artisans until he understood how trees should grow, how mountains should stand, and how the sun should shine, if it were fit to shine on Egypt.

After some years of study, Tom produced this sketch using the same elements of trees, sun and mountain, which pleased Pharoah a great deal. In it, Tom depicted Pharoah's twin daughters picking dates, accompanied by a servant woman. Tom understood that this new method of painting was very different than what he had learned earlier. Some of the rules had changed, and others remained the same. He wondered if there was a way to produce a painting that would conform to the various systems of rules he had learned, yet still be pleasing to both Pharoah and himself?

Attached Images

pyramid.jpg (25.3 KB, 173 views)

Pharoah had very tall daughters…

...So Tom got the heck out of Egypt and went to the big city, where he traded in his art supplies for a Pentax K-1000 camera. He wandered around the city taking black & white pictures of manhole covers and discarded fast food wrappers soaking in puddles. He found after a very short time that it was impossible to make everything in his new pictures look like something Pharaoh would like, or even like something that adhered to his earlier ideals of artistic expression, but that, by carefully studying his subject before pressing the button to open the shutter, and by paying attention to the development, projection, and printing of his photos, he could make pictures that were completely original and pleasing to his own eye, and reflected the true nature of the things he took pictures of. Tom shrugged and then went and had a beer.

What can I say, I started feeling sorry for the guy...

I don't know much about art, but I know what I like !

A parable................interesting and understandable.

I hope the Pharoah isn't too hard to please and is willing to give a little bit of artistic freedom to Tom but that isn't always the case with Pharoahs. Now if it was another artist.................

ANDY:

I like both your sketches ,could you say that the second sketch is better because it is more artistic or realistic ??




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