Sketch Book for the Artist

"When all pictorial elements come together in

pleasing and perfect balance, they are just."

ABSTRACT

LINES

Being "Just"

A SENSE OF "JUST" (or rightness) is a difficult concept to a Gardener, the late garden designer Russell Page explains, "I

explain, but an easy one to understand. When moving have experimented endlessly with this idea. Take, for instance,

objects around in your yard, or home, or on a page, there is a glass, a bunch of keys, and an apple, and put them on a tray,

a clear feeling when, after being continuously adjusted, they As you move them around, their impact, the impression you

reach a perfect position. There is a single moment when all receive from them, will change with every rearrangement,

proportions, angles, and elements settle in definitive balance. Many of their inter-relationships will be meaningless, some

This balance is what every artist and designer searches and will be more or less harmonious, but every now and again

feels for when making an image. In his book The Education of you will hit on an arrangement which appears just."

SETTING UP

Justness can be harmonious or deliberately discordant. It is found in

all great art and design, regardless of style, culture, media, or degree

of figuration. It is also found in nature. Seek it when looking at other

artists' work and in your everyday environment. Feel for it when

you draw. This exercise will help you start. Set up a sheet of paper

with a rectangle drawn on it, and ten straight sticks painted black.