Elements and Principles

Elements of Art and Principles of Design

Ballenger

THE ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES OF ART

• Elements of Art: the basic components or building blocks: color, value, line, shape/form, space, and value.

• Principles of Art: describe the different ways artists can use each of the elements of art. The principles organize the elements: balance, emphasis, harmony, variety, unity, movement, rhythm, and proportion.

ELEMENTS: COLOR• Color is an element made up of three distinct

qualities: hue, intensity, and value. Hue refers to the name of a color. The term is

used to point out the difference between; a blue and a green, or a red and a yellow.

ELEMENTS: COLOR - Intensity

• When looking at colors, some seem to be brighter, or purer than others. Such qualities are referred to as a color’s intensity, or quality of brightness and purity.

High Intensity Low Intensity

ELEMENTS: COLOR - Value

• When describing a hue, the term value refers to that hue’s lightness or darkness.

• Value changes are often obtained by adding black or white to a particular hue. Adding black creates a shade, adding white creates a tint. Added Black Added White

Color Wheel

Complementary Colors: Direct opposites on the Color Wheel, when mixed create neutral colors

Primary Colors: red, blue, and yellow – from which it is possible to mix all other colors

Secondary Colors: The colors obtained by mixing equal amounts of two primary colors – orange, green, and purple

Warm Colors: Reds, oranges, and

yellows, advance towards viewer, stimulating and

passionate

Cool Colors: Greens, blues, and

violets, recede from viewer, calming and

depressive

Neutral Colors: Browns, blacks, grays, and white,

colors not associated with a hue

Analogous Colors: Colors next to each other on the color wheel

Value

• The lightness or darkness in a work even when color is absent.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Untitled,Figure and boat, Gelatin silver print,1961/print 1974.

• Line is a continuous mark made on a surface with a pointed tool or implied by the edges of shapes and forms.

• Line is used to define shape, contours, and outlines, also to suggest mass and volume.

• Different effects/feelings are obtained by using different types of line.

ELEMENTS: LINE

Characteristics of Line:• Width: thick, thin, tapering, uneven • Length: long, short, continuous, broken • Direction: horizontal, vertical, diagonal,

curving, perpendicular, oblique, parallel, radial, zigzag

• Focus: sharp, blurry, fuzzy, choppy • Feeling: sharp, jagged, graceful, smooth

ELEMENTS: LINETypes of Line

• Outlines: Lines made by the edge of an object or its silhouette.

Andy Warhol, Red Lenin, 1987,Screenprint on Arches paper

Wayne Theibaud, Supine Woman, 1963, oil on canvas.

ELEMENTS: LINE• Contour Lines: Lines that describe the shape of an

object and the interior detail.

Paul Signac, Still Life with Pitcher, 1919, Watercolor and graphite

ELEMENTS: LINE• Gesture Lines: Line that are energetic and catches the

movement and gestures of an active figure.

Kathe Kollwitz, “Woman with Dead Child”1903, etching.

Element: SHAPE • Shapes a two-dimensional area clearly set off

by one or more of the other visual elements.• Shapes are flat and are limited to only two

dimensions: length and width.

Element: Form

• Form has three dimensions: depth, length, and width. Form is also an object with three dimensions.

SPACE

• Space can be thought of as the distance or area between, around, above, below, or within things.

• Two types of space:– Positive Space: filled with

something – Negative Space: empty space,

a void

Alberto Giacometti, The Cage, 1930-31, Wood

SPACE

• Space can also show perspective– the technique of projecting an illusion of the 3-D

world onto a 2-D surface– creates a sense of depth — of receding space.

• There are two main types of perspective:– Linear Perspective– Aerial Perspective

SPACE

• Linear Perspective: follows consistent geometric rules for rendering objects as they appear to the human eye. For instance, we see parallel lines as converging in the distance, although in reality they do not.

Dorothea Lange, The Road West, 1938,

Photograph

SPACE

• Linear Perspective– Vanishing Point: points on the horizon line where

receding lines / planes converge.

SPACE

• Linear PerspectiveRaffaello Sanzio (Raphael), The School

of Athens, 1510-11, Fresco

SPACE

• Aerial Perspective: achieved by using less focus, along with bluer, lighter, and duller hues for the distant spaces and objects depicted in a picture – also called “atmospheric perspective”

Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Ruins, Pastoral

Figures, and Trees, 1643/1655

SPACEDepth Strategies:• Overlap• Position on the

picture plane• Relative size• Foreshortening

John Sloan, South Beach Bathers,

1907-08, Oil on canvas

Tom Uttech, Enassamishhinjijweian, 2009, Oil on Canvas, 103x112

TEXTURE

• Texture is the element of art that refers to the way things feel, or look as if they might feel if touched.

• Texture can be broken up into two parts:– Physical Texture/actual is the texture you can actually feel with

your hand. The build up of paint, slipperiness of soft pastel, layering of collage - all the things that change the nature of the work’s surface.

– Visual Texture/implied is the illusion of physical texture, created with the materials you use. Paint can be manipulated to give the impression of texture, while the paper surface remains smooth and flat.

TexturePhysical Texture/actual Visual Texture/implied

Jasper Johns, Target with FourFaces, 1930, mixed media.

Ralph Goings, “Ralph’s Diner,” 2008, Oil on canvas.