Arts Elementsand

Visual Principles

ELEMENTS OF ART

• Are the visual, tactile, spatial (and sometimes the sonic) sensory qualities used when creating or talking about 2D, 3D and time based artworks.

• Arts elements are traditionally associated with particular arts disciplines and art forms. In visual arts, these elements include…

LINE

• Line is a mark on a surface that describes a shape or outline. It can create texture and can be thick and thin.

• ‘Cataract 3’ by Bridget Riley, 1967. PVA on canvas.

Ellsworth Kelly. From series of plant drawings.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. Portrait of Mme. Hayard and her

Daughter Caroline. 1815

Alberto Giacometti. Self-Portrrait. 1954

Rembrandt. Sketches for Christ Healing the Sick. 1647-49

SHAPE

• Shape is a 2D line with no form or thickness.

• Shapes are flat and either ‘geometric’ (eg. a square) or ‘organic’ (eg. A swirl or ripple)

Richard SerraJoe

Richard SerraJoe

SPACE

• . • There are 2 types of space, positive and negative.

• Positive space is the space taken up an object in the area.

• Negative space is the space around the object, or space that is not taken up by an object.

SPACE

• Depth is created by a visual perspective used to give the illusion of depth or distance on a flat surface. Sometimes depth is included as part of space.

– Linear Perspective is a way of showing depth where distant objects are made proportionally smaller than nearer ones.

– Horizon Lines and Vanishing Points determine the scale of objects within the artwork.

TEXTURE

• There are 2 types of texture used to talk about the surface qualities of artworks, used to describe the roughness or smoothness in objects and surfaces

Detail of ‘Sunflowers’ by Van Gogh, (1888, oil on canvas) showing texture of impasto technique.

VISUAL TEXTURE

• Visual Texture is the illusion of texture, created on a flat surface.

Graphite pencil drawings of fur.

Graphite pencil and charcoal drawing of glass

by Koo Hyunhee, a year 12 student from Westfield High

(America)

TACTILE TEXURE

Tactile texture is the roughness or smoothness of a surface.

In this image the ridges and peaks of thickly applied paint in works using a technique called impasto.

Detail of ‘Sunflowers’ by Van Gogh, (1888, oil on canvas) showing texture of impasto technique.

COLOR

• Refers to specific hues (pure colors without tint or shade, which are created by adding white or black pigments respectively), and has three properties

CHROMAINTENSITY

VALUE

CHROMA/INTENSITYChroma is about how

vivid colors are

perceived.Essentially,

it’s a measure of

a color’s purity

compared to grey.

CHROMA/INTENSITY

The brightness or dullness of a color is referred to as the color’s intensity.

A pure color is high intensity, whereas a color that has been mixed with it’s complementary color is called a low intensity color.

VALUE

Value (sometimes called ‘tone’) is concerned with the LIGHTNESS and DARKNESS of a color and is achieved by adding white or black to a color to create tints (by adding white) and shades (by adding black).

Irving Penn

Artemesia GentileschiJudith Decapitating Holofernes

c. 1620

Michelangelo Drawing

Caravaggio. Supper at Emmaus. 1601.

FORM

• Form is a 3D object having volume and thickness.

• The illusion of form (volume and thickness) can be implied with light and shade, but true 3D form can be viewed from multiple angles, as an object in physical space.

MOVEMENT• Refers to a visual

sense of motion used to establish the flow of the composition from one area to another.

• In this sculpture the artist makes effective use of movement. The eye is drawn through the form by the angles of the arm, legs and torso, and the direction of the subjects eye line.

COMPOSITION• The arrangement/placement of

arts elements according to visual principles. Examples of formal compositional devices are the ‘rule of thirds’, and the ‘golden section’.

• The image at the top depicts a photograph composed using the traditional ‘golden mean’ compositional framework. In this type of composition, places where the guidelines intersect are key points for placing important elements of your image.

• The image at the bottom depicts a photograph composed using the ‘rule of thirds’ compositional framework.

PRINCIPLES OF ART

The ways that art elements are used, arranged, or organized to create artworks.

Arts principles are also referred to as ‘compositional’ or ‘structural’ devices or conventions. They include:

BALANCE• Refers to the way in which

visual weight is distributed throughout the art piece. A composition can be symmetrically or asymmetrically balanced, which means that both sides of an image are visually equal, or unequal, respectively.

• The top image shows the difference between symmetrical and asymmetrical balance, while the image at the bottom shows ‘approximate symmetry’

Rose Window. Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Christo. Running Fence Drawing. 1973

Edvard Munch

Richard Diebenkorn.

Ocean Park No. 29.

1970

Lucian Freud

Rachel Whiteread

Alice Neel.Lonliness

1970

Egon Scheile. Portrait of the Painter Anton

Peschka, 1909

Edouard Vuillard

Paula Rego.The Family

1988

Andrew Wyeth. Christina’s World. 1948

David Hockney.Yves-Marie Asleep.

1976

Fra Angelico.The Annunciation.

1442.

Henri Matisse. Bathers with a Turtle. 1908

James Ensor.Self-Portrait Surrounded by

Masks.1899.

Thomas Eakins. The Agnew Clinic. 1889

HARMONY

• When visual elements within an artwork interact well together in an aesthetically pleasing manner.

• This principle is closely related to unity, and often concerned with combining similar art elements to create a pleasing appearance.

CONTRAST• The difference

between two things. • High contrast would

be the difference between black and white or bright yellow and dark purple.

• Low contrast would be the difference between middle value colours and greys.

• Contrast can also apply to size, shape, colour and texture etc.

SCALE

• Scale is the size or apparent size of an object in relation to other objects and it’s environment.

• Relative to other objects.

PROPORTION

• Refers to the way that elements and objects work together in an artwork. Using proportion, artists can make sure that the different parts of an artwork make sense within their composition.

The Vitruvian Man Leonardo DaVinci, C.1487. Pen and ink with wash over metalpoint

Kent Twitchell. LA Marathon Mural. 405 Freeway.

HIERARCY

• Refers to the way objects and figures are placed to show relative importance of those objects or figures.

• In this image, the cyclist is at the top of the visual hierarchy, then the shadows of the other cyclists and then the landscape which serves as the backdrop.

Fra Filippo Lippi.

Saint Lawrence Enthroned with

Saints and Donors.

c. Late 1440s

EMPHASIS• Emphasis is produced

by visually stressing the importance of one element over another in order to create a sense of hierarchy to control where the viewer looks first. Areas of emphasis may be planned using compositional devices such as the ‘rule of thirds’, or created using color and so on.

Henri de Toulouse Lautrec - "At the Moulin Rouge", 1892/1895 Oil on Canvas

VARIATION• A device used to

make key areas stand out, achieved by using differing lines, shapes, and colors within the artwork.

• This principle can be used to create movement and direct the eye of the viewer through the artwork. In this image, the variations displayed are primarily color, shape and texture.

VARIATION (CONT’D)

• For example, if a warm orange dot is placed on an artwork that is mostly cool colors, the eye of the viewer is drawn to the orange spot.

ABSTRACTION

• Refers to the deliberate departure from natural appearances.

• Images are simplified, modified or changed to varying degrees to emphasize certain qualities or content, or to convey meaning.

• DIFFERENT than non-representational art.

The ‘Riesenrad’ ferris wheel at the Prater, Vienna

Abstracted image of ferris wheel- details removed to emphasise line and shape.

CROPPING

• When a selected image is improved by the removal of the outer parts to improve framing, accentuate the subject, mood or drama of a work, or to alter the aspect ratio.

MOVEMENT & RHYTHM

• By creating movement, you are able to control where the viewer looks in your image, and keep them looking at your image for longer.

• How has the artist led our eyes around the image?

‘Reptiles’, M. C. Escher, 1943, Lithograph.

Bridget Riley. Arrest 2.

1965

Beatriz Milhazes

What Arts Elements and Principles Can You

Identify?

Cave paintings of Hyenas, Chauvet caves, estimated to be around 32,000 years old.

Ansel Adams, ‘The Tetons and the Snake River’ (1942),

photograph.

Caravaggio, ‘David with the Head of Goliath’ c. 1610, Oil on canvas

Banksy, ‘Graffiti Removal’, May 2008, spray paint (removed in August 2008)

Bridget Riley, “Cataract 3”, 1967. PVA on canvas

M C Escher, “Drawing Hands”, 1948, Lithograph

Meret Oppenheim, “Object”, 1936, mass produced tea set and fur.

Francisco de Goya“The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”c. 1797 Etching

“Ejiri in the Suruga Province”, Hokusai, 1832, woodblock print

Pablo Picasso, “Guernica”, 1937. Oil on canvas

Hokusai, “Great Wave off Kanagawa”, 1832, woodblock print.