The lines that you create in your wedding bouquets and arrangements are the backbones of your designs. They determine the shape and structure of your design and they create visual movement by encouraging your eyes to travel along them.
The lines that you create in your wedding bouquets and arrangements are the backbones of your designs. They determine the shape and structure of your design and they create visual movement by encouraging your eyes to travel along them.
Lines can be used in your arangements and bouquets in 3 ways - actual lines, implied lines, and psychic lines.
An actual line is just that - an actual physical line that you can see. Your eyes will naturally follow this line to the outer edge of the design and then come back again to the focal point.
An implied line gives your eyes a path to follow, but no actual line is there. The line is implied by careful placement of similar flowers and foliage.
A psychic line is not implied and it doesn't actually exist, but we mentally connect the elements of the design. For example, you can have birds of paradise of different heights facing a taller main stem. Your eyes will automatically travel from the bird of paradise to the main stem because of the way the flowers are pointing.
You can create interest and movement or rhythm in your wedding bouquets by using line direction. You can use 4 different patterns - vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and curved.
Vertical lines cause rapid and continual eye movement because they stress height and therefore are dominant.
Horizontal lines are the opposite of vertical because they cause less eye movement and therefore are more relaxed or peaceful.
Diagonal lines create more eye movement than horizontal ones. Sometimes they are combined with either vertical or horizontal. Be careful that you do not use too many of these. Too much of a good thing can become too busy.
Curved lines cause eye movement as well, but they are gentler and softer than diagonal lines. Curved lines in a design, if done well, create a soft, beautiful look.
If you create your wedding bouquets and arrangements effectively, they will have lines that create shape and structure and cause your eye to travel throughout your design.
Nadine Visscher has arranged flowers for over 15 years and has written The Beginner's Guide to Wedding Flowers found at www.WeddingFlowerDirections.com
