Fashion Design Drawing

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A he consciousness or idea of rhythm can not be traced to any period, or
to any artist or group of artists. We know that in 1349 a group of Florentine
artists formed a society for the study of the chemistry of colors, the mathe-
matics of composition, etc., and that among these studies was the science
of motion. But rhythm was not invented. It has been the measured motion of
the Universe since the begining of time. There is rhythm in the movement
of the sea and tides, stars and planets, trees and grasses, clouds and thistle-
down. It is a part of all animal and plant life. It is the movement of uttered
words, expressed in their accented and unaccented syllables, and in the
grouping and pauses of speech. Both poetry and music are the embodiment,
in appropriate rhythmical sound, of beautiful thought, imagination or emo-

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tion. Without rhythm there could be no poetry or music. In drawing and
painting there is rhythm in outline, color, light and shade.

The continuous slow-motion picture has given us a new appreciation of
rhythm in all visible movement. In pictures of pole vault or steeplechase we
actually may follow with the eye the movement of every muscle and note its
harmonious relation to the entire action of the man or horse.

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So to express rhythm in drawing a figure we have in the balance of masses
a subordination of the passive or inactive side to the more forceful and
angular side in action, keeping constantly in mind the hidden, subtle flow
of symmetry throughout.

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