Golden Rule or Aural Proportions for Aquascaping
Greeks discovered / invented a rule to come out with the exact and better proportions for everything they built, painted or sculpt, in fact they even applied it to the human body and well almost anything their creative little minds wanted. This is the golden rule which consists on a line pattern which uses intersection points to mark the most important focal points on any composition.
Leonardo DaVincci also used this rule later in renaissance and proofed it again. It worked. Ever since artists, architects, designers, etc. have been using this to achieve good compositions.
How it works
In any format (this means any surface, bi-dimensional or tri-dimensional), you cross it with diagonal lines (Fig.1), where the lines intersect, that is the center of your format. Then draw straight vertical and horizontal lines that should cross where the diagonals intersect (Fig. 2).
More intersections have been created after this (Fig. 3 and 4), so this could go on and on, that’s the beauty of it, it’s endless but that’s another story. If you draw lines on the intersections this will give you the 4 principal focal points (Fig. 5), this means, that in these 4 points in particular, the human sigh would be captured, and will travel in the same order though any format (Fig. 6). So, all elements that you want to have more relevance in the composition, should be positioned in this focal points.
Note: This is much more complicated, but I’m only covering the
basics.
Applying Golden Rule or Aural
proportion to your tanks
Ok so now with the basics covered, lets get practical and apply
this to a real tank.
Lets say this is your tank, already with the substrate and all,
you should consider the front view of it as your format, it’s
what you and all the people will look at. So you start crossing
from corner to corner. (the first time I did this on a tank I
actually used tape to mark it, just to prove myself).
Then you draw the vertical and horizontal lines that will give
you the center of the format.
Then you draw the diagonals to each center
You cross through the intersections with vertical lines
Cross through the intersections with horizontal lines
And there you have it, your 4 aural focal points
Time to get wet and wild
Ok so you have your tank divided with aural composition, you
have your focal points set up, it’s time for the fun stuff. Half
fill the tank, and let’s start scaping!
What you want to do is to place the important piece of your tank
(plants, stone, driftwood, etc), in your first focal point, or
an element that will guide you visually to your second focal
point.
This is where it gets a little bit tricky, yes focal points have
an order of importance, at the end, it’s how you will visually
travel the format, but all 4 of them are important, so this
could have variations according to your taste, for example I
like really heavy planted tanks, but you can keep it simple, it
works as well.
I chose some petrified wood in this case, put in the tank in an
descending order in size toward the center, this will help me
capture the viewers sight and bounce it again to the 3 focal
point.
I decided to plant this tank as a community species tank, so I
planted with some tall elodea and cabomba and vals in the back
planting mid ground species toward the front of the tank, this
will add depth and also an visual angle towards the 4th focal
point.
Hen I really want to take advantage of that 4th focal point so I
place a really nice sword in the front of the petrified wood to
add even more depth and capture the sight of the viewer and let
it stay there for a while. Then do a carpet through the middle
of the tank that will guide my viewers sight back to focal point
1.
So now I have all my important elements in position, then all
I’ll do is add more plants to emphasize this focal points, in
other words, to frame them.
Now it’s just to play with different kinds of shades of greens,
add more rocks (small ones), and play around and experiment with
depth and texture.
Voila! there you have it, aural proportion applied to a tank
Remember that the taste factor is which all depends on, that’s
the great thing about this, you can DIY and experiment, remember
also that most rules can be broken, but you have to know them
first.
This has made my aquascaping easier, then again this is a
professional vice, since I deal with this on a regular basis at
my job, composition and image. The fun part of it, is that if
you analyze any image that you really like or a tank, and you do
the aural proportions on lit, you’ll find most of the times that
it matches the focal points or comes really close, it’s human
nature.