An attempt has been made to understand the concept of a balanced asymmetrical composition using 3x3 grids. The entrire space is composed of planar shapes (composed in the grid), where black depicts the figure and white/grayscale depicts the ground. The visual principles of balance and unity is highlighted using the contasting blocks of black and white. One can easily find the visualise the unity in the forms created using the relative elements of position, spacing and orientation.
The shapes in the grids attain visual balance in different ways depending on the orientation of perception. There is balance by mass, balance by attention, balance by hanging mass or a combination of the above. Hence, we realise the importance of perception in understanding a visual composition. Changing the orientation of the grid changes the effective nature of the composition itself, as seen below.
The composition of grids can be further extended to the use of curves to hightlight the figure and ground, resulting in interesting compositions. The patterns are inspired from the Microphotography of David Malin, which clearly illustates the power of composition even at the smallest possible level.
One of the grid compositions was then used to explore the different colour schemes. The shades were used for the figure and the tints for the ground in the compositions. The composition was made in Poster colours.
The next step was to extend the composition to 15x15 grid using a custom colour palette from a photograph. The photograph chosen is that of "Bawshonto Utsav" - a festival of colours held during the Spring season. The following photograph depicts a scene of festivities during this festival at Shantiniketan, captured by Anirban Saha.
This photograph provides the colour palette consisting of the hues, tints, shades and tones for the final composition. However, the final composition deviates from the sharp contrasts (as portrayed in the previous compositions) and tries to achieve a harmony using a distributed use of the colours - while preserving the actual idea of the figure and ground.
