Golden Section & Fibonacci Series in art

[Cynthia Daniel]

There was a series on one of the educational channels regarding the subject of beauty and the Golden Section entered into it. The research of Dr. Stephen Marquandt was part of the basis behind the series.

He has a very interesting web site at http://www.beautyanalysis.com. In there, he also discusses the Golden Section in relation to faces and which Karin talks about above in relation to a painting.

Especially fascinating is the section on Marquandt's site that shows how the less symmetrical a face, the less aesthetic we consider it to be and he gives examples with his "map" placed over the faces.

[Cynthia Daniel]

I was always surprised this topic never really took off since I find it fascinating.

Here's an interesting page about Leonardo da Vinci and his use of the Golden Rectangle. Be sure to mouse-over the images and you'll see the golden rectangles.
http://library.thinkquest.org/27890/applications6.html

That page is within a larger dicussion on the Fibonacci Series. Here is an introduction: http://library.thinkquest.org/27890/theSeries1.html

And, here is about the Fibonacci series in nature: http://library.thinkquest.org/27890/theSeries1.html

Perhaps this explains why four people in a painting are difficult in terms of creating an aesthetic composition. The number 4 is not a number in the Fibonacci series.

[Cynthia Daniel]

What I can't believe, Michele, is that I got to this age in my life and only heard of the Fibonacci series last week. It was never mentioned in school, but absolutely fascinating!

[Cynthia Daniel]

The Science Channel is the first place I go on the TV and I heard about the Fibonacci series last week on TV. I was so fascinated by this show, I had to go find out about it. So, of course, I looked on the internet and managed to find it even though I didn't know how to spell Fibonacci at the time.

I think it's fascinating beyond belief! Food for my mind!

[Cynthia Daniel]

I was blessed with a great Harvard-educated writing teacher in high school who pretty cleanly stated the case that math and science are in fact just different ways of discussing art, our perception of the real world.

Mari, I found this statement particularly interesting. It rings a bell of something I read long ago and perhaps you, or someone else, can fill in details because my memory has faded. It was along the lines that in the past (I'm not sure how distant), learning was not as segregated as it is now and therefore the student gained a more holistic view of the world and education, and was aware of such things that math and art are different ways of expressing the same thing.

I'd be interested in more information on this subject, how it was in those earlier times and how, why, when it changed.

I suppose this could start to majorly veer off the main subject of this thread, or perhaps it will only be a slight meandering. But, I had to ask.

[Cynthia Daniel]

Michele,

What you say makes sense. I consider myself to be artistic even though I'm not a painter. I could have easily been an interior designer, for example. I love working with color and form. However, I have books on quantum physics and it's one of my favorite subjects.

[Cynthia Daniel]

I think I'm going to try and find a reasonable place to break this thread away into the Cafe and call it Art and Science. We are getting philosophical here, so it's where part of it should go. But, the evolution of the topic will make it difficult.

Ok, I've moved the whole thing over and called it "Golden Section discussion becomes Art & Science discussion". Let's post any more philosophical things there. http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...s=&threadid=91

Anything technical should continue here.

[Karin Wells]

To locate the center of interest with the Golden Section: Divide the height of your canvas by 2.62 and determine a horizontal line through this point.

Then divide the width of your canvas by 2.62 and draw a vertical line through this point.

The intersection of these two lines is a magical spot for your center of interest. (i.e., 8.5 divided by 2.62 = 3.2

[Karin Wells]

The intersection of the two lines described above is the exact point of the kiss in my painting below.

I tried different compositions with this, but I think it worked best with the Golden Mean.

[Michele Rushworth]

Aaahhh, the Fibonacci series. I couldn't stand math class in high school and had to pick a topic for a presentation. As you might guess, my favorite subject in high school was art. So.... I did a presentation on the Fibonacci series. I remember it to this day!