Rhythm can seem as well-behaved as a parade formation or as chaotic as a swarm of bees. Rhythm is borne out of our experience with the flow and pacing of the natural world, and serves as a means to understand underlying patterns that intrigue and engage us. This phenomenon doesn’t need a title or a name, however, we do. Several modes of rhythm will be discussed in this module, both individually and collectively. The section, Just the Videos, sheds additional light on the topic. To gain the most out of your experience, it is recommended that the reader:
■ View the Unity & Composition modules, study the lessons; complete the exercises.
■ View the Rhythm modules (where you’re right right now) study the lessons; complete the exercises.
■ View the Videos & Exercises movies; study the lessons contained there; complete the exercises.
Please note that if you have any hesitations with any of the exercises, get back to them after you’ve gone through and complete those items which you can complete.
© Copyright 2023 Howard Schneider, all rights reserved.
- 1.0 The simplest of all rhythms: an uninterrupted sequence Exercise Completed
An uninterrupted sequence can be about as simple as a rhythm can get. All rhythms involve a sequence. Repeating shapes can create a pattern that – depending on which kind of sequence it assumes – may result in a sense of movement, generally referred to as rhythm.An uninterrupted sequence is as simple as it gets. Depending on the nature of what’s being repeated, movement can result as well. It’s hard to find movement in static patterns, that’s why not all patterns have rhythm. Patterns with even the slightest degree of variation can still produce a rhythm.
A series of uninterrupted sequences arranged in a series of coordinated columns; 13th-14th cent, the Alhambra; Granada, ES.
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- 2.0 Interrupted sequence Exercise Completed
Creating a more dynamic rhythm. Revisit the uninterrupted sequence example shown in Lesson 1.0 and this time imagine removing one circle at a time in order to create and sustain an implied horizontal line. Try it on a piece of paper with pencil and eraser. How many circles did you end up removing until the line finally fell apart? Five? Six? More?Notice how the line or sequence seems to continue despite the fact that some of its circles are missing. (FYI, this effect is called Closure. Find out more in the video on Unity.)
The main point is that the interruptions create their own rhythm among the remaining dots. The missing circles (aka, open or negative space) now affect their own sort of pacing or rhythm as well. Conventional swiss cheese is noted for its flavor but also its holes. Shouldn’t open space have its own dynamic as well?
It’s your turn! Create your own version of an interrupted sequence through the medium of your choosing: photography, painting, drawing, digital tools, mixed media, etc. Details: Find or create two images: (1) a group of people, and (2) a group of spheres. The spheres could be marbles, golf balls, meatballs – anything round. Combine the spheres imagery with the crowd imagery to create an interrupted sequence of rhythm. Take pix. When you’re done, post your pix to Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
- 3.0 Altered sequence Exercise Completed
Creating an Altered Sequence. Now let’s explore an additional form of a rhythm; one where a sequence starts to alternate in a variety of modes.The varied “pulse” within the each of the two thumbnail sequence of circles has wide reaching, interesting consequences. What if just a few alterations are involved? Or just one? Black, white and gray are cool, but also think about how this can apply in the use of color; different proportions such as large vs. small (and in-between), heavy vs. light, strong vs. weak; varying textures, alternating spacings, etc. How many unique applications can you come up with?
Repeating and varying visual elements creates rhythm. The possibilities are quite limitless.
It’s your turn! Create your own version of an altered sequence through the medium of your choosing: photography, painting, drawing, digital tools, mixed media, etc. Details: Take your exercise from the previous lesson 2.0 and modify it. In this altered sequence version, use a dramatically different contrast of scale than in the previous exercise. For example: vary the sizes of any of the balls or any of the people; vary the color or intensity; vary a personage. The goal is to create a rhythm based on stronger variations than in the previous exercise. Take pix. When you’re done, post your pix to Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
Walker Evans, Flood Victims, Arkansas; LOC.
- 4.0 Progressive Sequence Exercise Completed
A progressive sequence involves a logical sequence of alterations not only in size but potentially in color, value, shape, texture, space, time, etc., individually or in combination with each other. It’s your turn! Create your own version of a progressive sequence through the medium of your choosing: photography, painting, drawing, digital tools, mixed media, etc. Details: Create a progressive arrangement of clouds. (Could be progression by size, color range, complex to simple, etc.) Add into your cloud layout, a flock of birds in a somewhat different progressive arrangement than with your clouds. Try at least three versions. Take pix. When you’re done, post your exercises to Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
Johannes Vermeer. The Love Letter, 1669/70. The Rijksmuseum
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- 5.0 Altered-Progressive Sequence Exercise Completed
Altered-Progressive Sequences are everywhere. Cross your fingers. Watch water come to a boil. View clouds going by. This could be the stuff that dreams are made of – though the stranger the dream, perhaps the more altered the sequence. It’s all about the scrambling of an otherwise rational, gradual sequence of visual elements whether by one degree or by several. It’s your turn! Create your own version of an altered–progressive sequence through the vehicle of your choosing: photography, painting, drawing, digital tools, mixed media, etc. Details: Using whichever media you prefer, arrange two right-angled triangles and one arc (as in a sliced off portion of a circle) to create a simple sailing ship. Create five of these simple sailing ships ranging from small to very large and in-between – even changing the proportionate sizes of triangles to arcs if so preferred. None of these sailing vessels need to be engineered to sail. Have some fun! Add patterns to the sails if you’d like. The key rhythm is the relationship amongst the primary objects – your sailing ships.
Arrange your sailing ships to create an altered-progressive arrangement. Try overlapping your sailing ships as well. Also consider the final cropping (aka, trimming) of your composition. Which cropping approach creates the best positive/negative results: tight trim or open? Think about color. Or not.
When you’re done, post to Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
- 6.0 Symmetrical Sequence: 2 Elements (advanced) Exercise Completed
Now let’s changes things up a little bit and add another layer of elements to coordinate.Symmetry is a relatively precise form of balance. It typically involves a center axis, whether actual or implied. The left half looks like the right half; upper half like the lower half and so on. Think mirror-like. Multiple layers of symmetrical items may actually begin to form their own coordinated type of carefully crafted rhythms, potentially making compositions far more dynamic and interesting.
It’s your turn! Create your own version of a multi-symmetrical sequence through the vehicle of your choosing: photography, painting, drawing, digital tools, mixed media, etc. Details: Fast food for the sake of experimentation. Buy a french fries and burger/sandwich combo. On a plate, disassemble the burger/sandwich and rearrange it’s contents into a symmetrical formation. Next, arrange your fries in a symmetrical formation, relative to the burger/sandwich arrangement.
Alternately, start with a symmetrical french fries arrangement and then add the symmetrical burger/sandwich arrangement. If you’re not that hungry, do both. In any case, take pix. When you’re done, post to: Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
Been Dancing, 2019; Wayne Hunt
- 7.0 Symmetrical Sequence: 2 Elements, 1 Altered (advanced) Exercise Completed
Opposing sequences working in harmony. This type of exercise relies on similar qualities such as combining individual symmetries getting contrasted, but to a slight degree. We’re talking about a slight degree of order vs. intuition, precision vs. chance, or chaos vs. stability – that kind of thing.It’s your turn! Create your own version of a multi-symmetrical rhythm with one altered sequence in which one sequence is altered and a bit restless, while the other sequence is entirely rational. Details: Order a bagel (or a donut; English muffin) sliced in half and a cup of coffee to-go with a lid and a couple of stir sticks. ■ Place the bagel slices on a plate or on an unfolded napkin. ■ Take the coffee cup lid and add it to the bagel slices. Arrange the trio of circles symmetrically. ■ Next, arrange the stir sticks in a symmetrical manner. ■ Arrange with the cluster of circles you’ve just created to effect an overall composition. ■ Last step: take a bite out of one of your bagel slices. Return the newly bit bagel slice to your plate. Consider the bite as part of the composition. Take a photo. ■ Take more bites and after each bite, take another photo.
Look at your collective sequence of photos, from first bite to the last. As a result of this collective sequence, what other kind of rhythm has taken place?
When you’re done, post your exercise to Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
- 8.0 Symmetrical Altered Sequence of 2 Elements (advanced) Exercise Completed
Symmetrical sequences can act as a dominant sequence in a composition or it can act as a reclusive counterpoint and something to play off of. Opposing rhythms working in harmony, part 2. This type of engagement brings along its own kind of contrasting elements: an agitated orderliness vs. a whisper-quiet orderliness; excitedly precise vs. quietly daring; light-hearted chaos vs. bloated stability. It’s your turn! Create your own version of a symmetrical altered sequence of 2 elements through the media of your choosing. Details: create a symmetrical mask from (1) images of auto parts arranged symmetrically, and (2) a symmetrical arrangement lines either created by you or ones that you’ve found.
Does it have a personality? Is the mask an extension of you, your alter-ego, or does it represent someone you know? Or is it the face of an animal? Take pix. When you’re done, post and share: Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
Dorothea Lange, Untitled. (Workers West Carlton Yamhill County Oregon); 1939, Library of Congress
- 9.0 Asymmetrical, altered sequence: 2 elements (advanced) Exercise Completed
Asymmetrical balance is all about achieving a felt sense of balance. Asymmetric arrangements can be chaotic, random and even playful. They certainly do not embrace an axis of any sort and have nothing to do with mirroring. In fact, just the opposite. Popcorn never pops symmetrically. Water never boils symmetrically. Asymmetrical balance becomes very reliant on an individual’s awareness and sensitivity to the role played by size, value (or color), and location.It’s your turn! Create your own version of an asymmetrical altered sequence of two elements. Find 12 toothpicks or matchsticks. Drop them randomly onto a sheet of white paper placed on the ground. Take a photo or your arrangement. Crop into the image to the point where the negative space appears dynamic and interesting. Make a print if you’re working traditionally.
Take out another sheet of white tracing paper along with a bottle of ink or a cup of black coffee and an ink brush. Spontaneously lay down a pattern of splatters or marks within a short amount of time such as five seconds. (If you’re working digitally, create your pattern of splatters or marks with your eyes closed or where your vision is somehow obscured.)
Overlap your tracing paper splatters upon the toothpick arrangement. Find as many means of creating unity between the two elements as you can discover. Take pics. Which are the most effective ones and why? What adjustments would you make to either image in order to strengthen the results? Is there an opportunity for a repetition and variation between toothpicks and splatters to occur?
Walker Evans. The Church of the Nazarene. Tennessee, 1936. Library of Congress
- 10.0 Symmetrical & Asymmetrical Sequences Combined (advanced) Exercise Completed
Symmetrical and asymmetrical sequences can combine to form greater harmonies. Opposites can attract. Managing their similarities – or their point of interaction – is where design truly becomes an activity and not merely a noun. This is also a good time to review this course’s section on Unity > J1 (Exploring Unity & Composition) once again. The rational meets the dynamic. An explosion inspires a network. Chaos is modified by control.
- It’s your turn! Make a pizza! Explore combining symmetrical grid with an asymmetrical arrangement of ingredients. Start with a 12” round pizza shell and coat it with tomato sauce, pesto, or olive oil. Cheese it up, optional. Cut half an onion into 1/8″ slices and separate into rings. Randomly arrange the onion rings on the pizza shell. Randomly arrange pepperoni and olive slices, capers or other round ingredients for a variety of round sizes. Bake at 450-500°F for fifteen minutes. Take Pix.
- Cut up your pizza into 8 or 12 slices. Rearrange the individual slices back into a circle, making sure no two slices end up in the same original sequence. Take pix. Post on your social media sites. Finally, enjoy your altered progressive, symmetrical and asymmetrical dinner pizza with your beverage of choice!
- 11.0 Focal Point (advanced) Exercise Completed
- A focal point can give rhythm a starting (or a culmination) point. A focal point can be created by some form of distinguishing event: contrast of color, size, value, texture, pattern, location, containment, and inference – just to name a few. Directing one’s attention to where the cascade of activity begins or to where it ends up – is a valuable way in which focal points support underlying compositional dynamics.
- 12.0 Rhythm & Pacing (advanced) Exercise Completed
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Good rhythm has pacing. Pacing surrounds us. The tempo of a walk, the pulse of a dance, the movements found in nature; ■ the layering of a sunset. ■ Sometimes pacing is vertical. Sometimes it’s horizontal. Sometimes it spirals. Sometimes it meanders. ■ Sometimes chaos finds contrast and balance with symmetry, asymmetry or other forms of pacing. ■ Sometimes pacing is as seemingly innocent as a random counterpoint. ■ Sometimes pacing is progressive and predictable.
■ Sometimes pacing can sneak up on you while hiding in plain sight before quietly delivering a surprise. ■ Sometimes pacing can compress and recede inwardly. ■ Pacing can expand; it can recede; it can also do both at the same time! ■ Pacing can be serpentine, wandering, interrupted and resumed. ■ The pacing of an open space can replace a lot of words.
■ Pacing can be about how the eye travels around, within and throughout a frame. Does the viewer get abandoned or are they induced to continue? ■ Sometimes pacing grunts, squats and stumbles. ■ Sometimes pacing emerges boldly and gracefully. ■ Sometimes pacing is continually self-referencing. ■ Sometimes pacing fractures, interrupts, then reassembles. ■ And sometimes pacing reflects an open spirit, never conclusive, always evolving.
■ Pacing can be rollicking, frolicking, tumbling, and very much in motion – and sometimes pacing is layered from front to back to middle. ■ Sometimes pacing advances, sometimes it recedes, while sometimes displaying both qualities at the same time. ■ Pacing can complete a narrative. It can finish a statement; ■ it can set up ironies as well as the “punch line” at the end of a joke.
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- 13.0 Each sequence with it's own rhythm (advanced) Exercise Completed
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The above composition is broken down into two color sequences seen below: black/grayish tones and white.
Multiple rhythms can and do occupy art and design. Each sequence can produce it’s own pattern and pacing. When combined with other sequences that produce their own pattern and pacing, a layering of rhythms becomes the newly achieved net affect. Unity become a factor in how sequences engage with each other, whether intentionally or reflexively. Negative space or figure/ground may become even more robust or more of a challenge. (Tip: to get a better sense as to the movement or balance of figure/ground and whether rhythm is well-engaged, view your work upside down.)
Rhythm of black/grayish strokes
Rhythm of white and whitish strokes
Vermeer’s Lady in Blue Reading is broken down into two color sequences: blueish and brownish. An additional sequence reveals the resulting negative space when both sequences are combined.
Death of the Great Bull Market is broken down into two color sequences: red and black. An additional sequence reveals the resulting negative space when both sequences are combined.
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- 14.0 Culminating Exercise Exercise Completed
Create a poster for a bicycle race. Repetition and Variation will be on full display in this culminating exercise. Using wheels, arcs, lines, bicycles and the placement of at least one person (or more), create a poster for the Tour de France. Text is optional. Any size format. Images can be a photo or an illustration. Optional text: Tour de France and the year. Additional text is up to you.
Your composition must express unity and rhythm through any of the types of rhythm and unity discussed and presented. Repetition and variation should be utilized. A line, a shape and/or a color must repeat at least once. Include a focal point (refer back to the sections on Proportion).
When you’re done, post your poster to Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram.
