Form: Balance Artfully off-balance You have chosen an arrangement that is balanced, but not in the most obvious manner — adding a sense of intrigue to the work. Here the disk is not in the center, the point of maximum balance, but it does lie along one of the diagonal lines and is grounded in the lower left corner. Unsteady as she goes Deborah Barrett A composition where the weight lies in the lower left may seem bottom-heavy and off-kilter without a counterbalance in the upper right. But some artists use this skewed, uneven balance to their advantage. For example, the French Impressionist painter, Edgar Degas, used this off-balance approach to create certain effects, such as accidental or candid viewpoints. In Deborah Barrett's portrait (shown at right), the man that occupies the lower left appears to have popped up suddenly out of nowhere, like a Jack-in-the-box. The added drama of diagonals Some artists emphasize this skewed perspective by making the diagonal between the lower left and upper right more explicit. Below are some examples from NextMonet artists that create a sense of balance and dynamism with a strong diagonal line. Click on either image to learn more about it. Margo Weinstein Peter Ivanoff Next: Proportion