Following An Algorithm for Visual Harmony

Following an Algorithm for Visual Harmony

It wasn’t too long ago that I read an article by Iwo Zaniewski on social media that purported to explain an algorithm for visual harmony:

∀ei ∈ Sn C(ei, Sn\ei) = Cmax (Sn)

Now the article was long and since social media rather encourages short attention spans I just started skimming it. As an artist, I was interested to read enough to get what I think was the gist of it: For every element in your composition, you want to maximize the contrast between that and the other elements. Maybe this is where my recent interest in painting things with strong shadows came from. Anyway, in this latest painting I am working on, I am again exploring shadows and light. It was an interesting challenge painting the face completely in shadow, then adding the points of light. Two times during cherry blossom season I tried to get out there and paint them in person, but got rained out both times. So I’m working on this in the studio from a photo I took of beautiful granddaughter number two.