Implied Motion in Art

There are many different things that can potentially affect how a finished piece of art is going to look like. From the color palette used by the artists, to the shape, to the lines created, a single little thing can change the whole vibe of the piece of art, and one of these things, is movement.

It might sound weird to think pictures, paintings and images have movement, when they are still to our eyes. However, the truth is, there is movement in paintings and pictures, and it’s related to the way objects or humans are supposed to ‘move’ in the frame.

Today, we’re going to talk about the implied motion in art, the principle of movement, and how you can create the illusion something or someone is moving to give more of a realistic touch to your work of art. Let’s begin!

What is movement?

Before we continue, we need to define what is movement in art, and how it is perceived. Like we said, things don’t actually move in paintings and works of arts, but whole idea of movement is to create the impression there’s a certain action being performed in the scene.

In shorter words, movement in art refers to the techniques and rules used by artist to make it seem as if their object/person is performing an action, such as dancing, walking, swimming or simply waving to someone else.

Of course, printing the idea of movement in a piece of still art can be quite difficult, since it depends on other factors to actually work. Meaning that if you want to create the illusion your object is performing an action, other elements of the painting such as colors, rhythm and lines have to come together to make it work.

The principle of movement

Now that we are aware of what movement in art means, let’s talk about principles. You see, there are different principles of arts such as balance, color, perspective and more, which are simply a compound of rules and techniques to help the artist create a better, more realistic work of art.

That being said, there’s a principle of movement, and it’s based on the basic techniques and rules used to create the illusion of movement in any painting, and they are applied alongside other techniques to create a better result.

It’s also important to notice the principle of movement is used to direct the person’s eyes to a point on their painting, meaning movement is not used randomly on a work of art, but it has a purpose and a reason to be done.

To put it another way, movement is used for three main reasons: One, to catch people’s eyes or trick their sight; two, to help the viewer navigate their work, and three, to focus on a specific area of the paint and direct them straight to where you want to them to see.

Now, to achieve any of those goals, painters use a variation of different techniques and ways to illustrate movement in art, and today we’re going to see a few of the most popular way’s artist create movement, and how you can do this too.

Creating implied movement

There are four main ways anyone can create the illusion of movement in a painting. There is no wrong way to do this, and each artist can try out or pick the technique that better first the vibe of their painting.

#1: Movement with lines

Creating lines to represent movement is probably one of the oldest tricks in the book and it works perfectly fine in cartoons and animated works of arts. It’s also very simple once you get the hang of it, and can be very easy to implement.

Keep in mind, all paintings are basically lines, so, in order to use lines to represent a movement, you must work with dynamic lines, NOT static ones. In other words, use diagonal lines to imply there’s a movement happening.

These types of lines are often used to represent the person/object doing an action such as jumping, dancing around or falling, and are put in a way they ‘represent’ where the movement is coming and going.

#2: Movement with optical illusions

We have all seen those famous images where it seems as if everything is movement if you look them for too long. Well, those are called optical illusions, and it’s actually one very effective way to create movement in a work of art.

However, don’t think these illusions are just created randomly. Artist who use optical art to create movement actually depend on elements such as contrast, shapes and perspective to create the perfect illusion and trick the human eye.

#3: Movement with color

Again, all paintings have colors (yes, even black-and-white ones), but just as it happens with lines, if you learn how to use colors to create the illusion of movement, you’ll get the result you want. Keep in mind, however, that using color to represent movement won’t necessarily be as dramatic as in the other two examples.

Basically, to create movement with colors you’ll need to play around with the contrast of your color palette and learn how to mix and juxtapose bright, shiny colors against paler and dull ones.

#4: Implied movements

Last, but not least, you can create movement in a work of art without actually representing it with lines or colors. How do you do this? Well, you do so by understanding how things move and change when they are in action.

This technique is in fact a classic take on movement, and it has been used throughout the years in paintings that have people dancing and walking, in which the artist focuses on changing the posture/balance of the person to simulate that they are actually dancing, even if you’re just looking at a still painting.

As you can see, there are many ways artists can create movement. Which one they chose, depends entirely on what they want to create, and the feeling they want to evoke from the public.

Russell Thomas is the Founder and Creative Director at 3DAllusions Studio a subsidiary of 3DAllusions LLC which includes sites such as 3DAllusions and MrMaterials which are resources for the CG artist, helping them hone their craft.