Elements of Art
7 Elements of Art Line Value Texture Shape Form Space Color
Line A continuous mark with length and direction. A line is a dot that went for a walk. -Paul Klee
Untitled 1960 George Morrison
Untitled 1981 Paul Sharits
Tapa Cloth American Samoa 1960-1970
Value The darkness or lightness of a surface.
Bear Bull-Blackfoot. Edward Curtis. From The North American Indian. 1926.
Carp. Utagawa Hiroshige 1830-1844
Texture The way a surface feels to the touch or how a surface appears to feel. Real Texture You can feel it. Implied Texture It appears to have a texture.
Vessel 9-12 th century Cat. Tsugouharu Foujita 1929
Shape Lines that meet to enclose a space. 2-dimensional (height and length) Geometric Manmade, named (square, circle, etc.) Organic Freeform shapes often in nature, no names
Colonial Cubism. Stuart Davis. 1954. Landscape: Surrealist Forms. George Morrison. 1984.
Form Any 3-Dimensional (length, height, depth) object that can be measured has form.
Quartet. Richard Smith. 1964.
Spoonbridge and Cherry. Claus Oldenburg. 1985-1988.
Vase. Lucian Gaillard. 1900.
Space How an artists uses space or chooses NOT to use space adds a great deal to a work of art. Space is so important, that we have names for the types of Space in a work of art: Positive Space is the space created by an image or a sculpture. Negative Space is the Space around and between parts of an image or a sculpture.
The Cathedral. Auguste Rodin. After 1908.
Long-tail on Drooping Cherry Tree. Utagawa Hiroshige. 19 th Century
Color PRIMARY COLORS: Make up all other colors: Red, Yellow and Blue SECONDARY COLORS: Made by mixing two primaries
Buoy Landscape II Sam Gilliam. 1982. Tzute Mayan First half of 20 th Century
Warm and Cool Colors Can be one of the most powerful Elements of Art There are many names for the groups of colors, including WARM and COOl colors. Warm colors tend to create an intense reaction of warmth, happiness or anger in an artwork. Cool colors tend to create a calm, relaxing or sad reaction.
PRINCIPLES OF Design
7 Principles of Design Balance Emphasis Pattern Unity Contrast Movement Rhythm
BALANCE Balance is one of the principles of art which describes how artists create visual weight. Artists think about how to make their works balanced by using elements such as line, shape and color. There are several ways to balance an artwork:
Symmetrical (formal) balance means both sides of an imaginary line are the same. Asymmetrical (informal) balance means each side of an imaginary line are different yet equal. Radial balance means lines or shapes grow from a center point.
Dress. Lakota. 1880-1890.
Dining Room in the Country. Pierre Bonard. 1913.
Dinner Plate. Henry van da Velde. 1904.
EMPHASIS Artists use emphasis to make certain parts of their artwork stand out and grab your attention. The center of interest or focal point is the place the artist draws your eye to first.
Verve, De la couleur. Henri Matisse. 1945.
PATTERN Pattern is one of the principles of art. Artists create pattern by repeating a line, shape or color over and over again.
Untitled. David Root. 1976
Moccasins. Lakota. Artist and date unknown.
UNITY Unity is the feeling that everything in the work of art works together and looks like it fits.
No. 334 Anne Ryan. 1948.
CONTRAST Contrast is one of the principles of art which creates excitement and interest in artworks. Two things that are very different have a lot of contrast. White and black have the greatest contrast. Complementary colors (opposite on color wheel) also have high contrast.
COMPLEMENTARY COLORS: Across from each other on the color wheel
Untitled. John Newman. 1986. Goldfish. Komori Soseki. 1920s. Velvet Panel. JB Martin Company, Inc. 1970-75.
Dwight D. Eisenhower Richard Avedon. 1964.
MOVEMENT Placement of line, shape, etc. creates movement within an artwork, meaning it moves your eye throughout the piece. Movement does NOT have to be an image of something actually moving! It is how the viewers eye moves throughout the artwork.
Dovima with Elephants Richard Avedon. 1955.
Coming and Going. Douglas Binder. 1970.
RHYTHM Rhythm is one of the principles of art. Visual rhythm makes you think of the rhythms you hear in music or dance. What FEELING does the artwork evoke?
Springtime of Life. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. 1871.
Gertrude Rösslerová. Jaroslav Rössler. 1923.