Balance
In the previous lesson we introduced the nine principles of good design. Now we begin looking at each one in depth, starting with one of the most fundamental: balance.
Balance is something we understand instinctively, long before we ever pick up a paintbrush. We feel it in our bodies – the sensation of standing upright, of carrying equal weight in both hands, of tipping too far to one side. That same intuitive sense of equilibrium is what we bring to looking at art. A painting that feels balanced puts us at ease. One that doesn't can unsettle us – sometimes intentionally, but often not.
What Is Visual Balance?
In sculpture or installation art, balance can be literal – a structure that isn't physically balanced will fall over. On a flat canvas, the challenge is different. There is no gravity pulling your composition sideways. And yet a poorly balanced painting will still feel wrong to a viewer, as though it might slide off the wall.
This is because visual balance is not physical but psychological. Each area of a painting carries a sense of visual weight – a felt heaviness or lightness that the eye registers automatically. Achieving balance means distributing that visual weight so the whole composition feels stable, settled, and resolved.
Several factors affect how much visual weight an element carries:
- Colour – dark colours feel heavier than light ones; warm colours like red and yellow tend to feel heavier than cool ones like blue and green
- Saturation – a vivid, intense colour carries more weight than a muted or neutral one
- Size – larger shapes feel heavier, though a small, dark shape can easily outweigh a large pale one
- Opacity – solid, opaque areas feel heavier than transparent or loosely painted ones
- Placement – elements near the edge of a composition or far from the centre tend to pull harder on the eye
A useful way to visualise this is to imagine the canvas as a see-saw balanced on a central pivot. Your job as the artist is to arrange the elements so that neither side pulls the whole thing down.
Three Types of Balance
Symmetrical Balance
Symmetrical balance – also called formal balance – is when the visual weight is distributed equally on both sides of a central axis. It is the most immediately legible form of balance, and it carries with it a feeling of calm, solidity, and formality.
There are two variations worth knowing. Pure symmetry means both sides are mirror images of each other – think of a cathedral façade, or the human face viewed head-on. It is stable and authoritative, but can easily tip into monotony if used carelessly throughout a composition.
Approximate symmetry is more nuanced and usually more interesting. Both sides echo each other in weight and feel, but are not identical. Small variations in shape, colour, or detail prevent the eye from switching off. Most portraits and still lifes that feel formally balanced are using approximate symmetry – the similarity is real, but so is the variety.
Asymmetrical Balance
Asymmetrical balance – informal balance – is when two sides of a composition are visually different yet still feel equally weighted. This is balance achieved through contrast and judgement rather than repetition.
For example, a large pale shape on one side of a painting might be balanced by a small, dark, intensely coloured shape on the other. Neither side is a mirror of the other, but the eye accepts them as equal. Asymmetry allows for far greater freedom and dynamism than symmetry, which is why it dominates in contemporary painting and design. The number of arrangements available is essentially infinite.
Developing a good eye for asymmetrical balance takes practice. It is largely a matter of standing back from your work, looking at it fresh, and asking: does something feel too heavy, too light, too crowded on one side? Trust that instinct – it is rarely wrong.
Radial Balance
Radial balance occurs when elements radiate outward from a central point, like the spokes of a wheel or the petals of a flower. It creates a strong sense of energy and movement focused on a single origin. You see it in mandalas, rose windows in Gothic architecture, and any composition built around a circular or spiral structure.
In painting, radial balance appears most naturally in floral subjects, certain landscape compositions, and abstract work. It is less common than horizontal or vertical balance, but when used with intention it can be extraordinarily powerful.
Horizontal and Vertical Balance
It is also worth thinking about balance along two axes separately.
Horizontal balance refers to the distribution of weight left and right of the canvas's vertical centre. This is what most people instinctively check when they step back from a painting.
Vertical balance refers to the distribution of weight above and below the horizontal centre. This is less commonly discussed but equally important. A composition that is top-heavy – with most of the visual interest crowded into the upper half – can feel unstable or anxious, even when horizontal balance is fine. Conversely, a composition that is heavily grounded at the bottom can feel solid to the point of inertia.
In landscape painting, vertical balance is often the key to whether a piece feels grounded and restful or tense and unresolved. The relationship between a heavy foreground and a luminous sky, for instance, is a question of vertical balance.
Balance and the Viewer
It is worth remembering that balance is not an objective property of a painting – it is experienced by a viewer. Two different people may feel differently about the same composition. Cultural conventions, viewing habits, and personal taste all play a role.
What this means in practice is that there is no formula. You cannot calculate balance the way you might calculate the centre of mass of a physical object. You have to feel it, and then learn to trust what you feel. The more you look at paintings – your own and others' – the more quickly and reliably that instinct develops.
A composition does not need to be perfectly balanced to be effective. Many great works of art are deliberately unbalanced in some way – to create tension, direct attention, or suggest movement. But understanding how balance works gives you control over when and how you break it.
A Practical Exercise
Try this with any painting you are currently working on, or one that isn't quite resolving:
Squint at the canvas until the details blur and you can only see the distribution of light and dark masses. Does one side feel heavier? Does the top feel unanchored from the bottom? Note what you observe, then consider what small adjustment – a darker shadow here, a lighter passage there, a shift in the placement of a key element – might bring the whole into equilibrium.
Balance is not something you add at the end. It is something you build throughout, checking and adjusting as the painting develops.
Course Navigation
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