elements of art

elements of art

Exploring the Elements of Art: A Comprehensive Study

1. Introduction to the Elements of Art

The primary focus of this study is the elements of art. A comprehensive exposition of these elements will be presented. Suggestions for activities to exploit the potentials of continuity, line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and finally, space will also be provided. This study has been written for the purpose of assisting the student and educator in understanding the elements of art and in learning how to work creatively with these elements. The elements presented should serve to stimulate meaningful and lasting creative activity in art classrooms. Moreover, the student’s everyday observation of the environment around him/her should be sharpened not only through concept formation but also through the manipulation of the elements, the building blocks of visual art.

The visual arts are a form of revelatory expression. Most of us have stood before a work of art or a piece of sculpture and marveled at its ability to speak to us, to convey something of great and lasting significance. Art, capable of saying what cannot be said in words or through other elements of communication, orchestrates the elements of line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and space, with the principles of design, to create visual harmonies that respond to the senses. These elements and principles work like words and grammar in the making of a sentence. Skill in their use means realizing the full range of possibilities by which visual ideas and feelings are given clarity and power.

2. Understanding Line, Shape, and Form

An element of art that is defined by a point moving in space. Line may be two- or three-dimensional, descriptive, implied, or abstract. Descriptive lines such as illustrational lines are commonly used in visual art and include stick figure outlines and feature outlines of such recognizable objects as the PlantinGreet Chart. The largest number of illustrational lines are outline zigzag, outline curly, outline wavy, thick lines filled in with horizontal and vertical lines, thick lines filled in with a combination of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines, and thick lines filled in with fancifully arranged dots.

The basic elements of art include: line, shape, form; value, color, and texture. The principles of art are more complex and include emphasis, balance, contrast, rhythm, unity, and pattern.

The elements of art are important concepts in a work of art that can be explored. Understanding and appreciating them can be enhanced by manipulating them according to the different principles of art. We will examine these elements and principles more thoroughly and apply the wealth of knowledge that can be gained from the analysis and hands-on demonstration of art, and the messages that it can elicit from us all.

3. Exploring Color Theory and Its Applications

In physics, a subtractive process may be used to create secondary colors, which are the three of the six primary empirical colors that can be made by mixing a primary color with a secondary color, omitting the third primary color. Instead of creating a product when mixed, as is the case for the primary colors red, green, and blue, the opposite seems to occur. For instance, adding red light to green light seems to filter out color, producing a gray shade. When red is mixed with blue, the green seems to be absorbed, producing an orangeish or yellow tint. When blue and yellow are mixed, the red is absorbed, producing a more neutral tint. Systematic experiments focused on the nature of color vision have identified the three primary empirical colors: red, green, and blue. These colors, however, have proven to be useful only when consumed in conjunction with two types of pigments—additive dyes that appear black until all the possible colors have been combined, and subtractive dyes that can remove some or all of the unwanted color present in printed or painted works.

Different ways of categorizing the colors on the spectrum result in different ideas about how secondary colors are created. Children are often taught about the color wheel, which consists of six colors: three primary and three secondary. The primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) supposedly can be used to create all other colors, as seen on the color wheel. There is also a warm version of this wheel that consists of the colors red, orange, yellow, yellow-green, and green. Moreover, the complement to a particular color is the color directly across the wheel. The use of all the colors on the color wheel would be analogous to using the tonal range of valued gray in drawing or painting. Artists recognize, however, that creating black with cadmium red and ultramarine blue results in a flat, boring black. Instead, artists have experimented with a triad of more closely related colors, adding burnt sienna to the black mix to give it life. In addition, artists expand their palettes from the color wheel to include more nuanced pigments.

4. Texture, Value, and Space in Art

Space Space is the area in which objects exist. There are the actual three dimensions and then a variety of cues that enable the artist to reconstruct this sense on the flat picture plane. These cues again enable the artist to create depth on the flatness of the picture plane. Form cannot exist without a space to occupy. It is therefore the interrelation between the forms and the aperture of the forms, considered an important aesthetic quality in any work of art. It is only through this interaction of forms that rhythm and unity can be achieved. The perception of space in art is a unique aesthetic experience due to this visual perception where clear ideas about formal organization, action, space, time, and space-time are not in human consciousness. This is an area that is of most interest for aesthetic research and education in art. The principles can be taught, but the quality of this visual experience tends to be somewhat private.

Value Value is called the lightness or darkness of a color. This characteristic enables the artist to create the sensation of distance while remaining on the flat picture plane. Since all value changes are actually changes in the relative darkness or lightness of a color, it is to this aspect of color that artists respond. A darker picture (called a flat tint) can also be produced by adding a tint to the original color. The artist is responsible for manipulating these qualities in order to produce effects of the recession, where there is in reality none.

Texture In consequence of man’s tactile senses, texture plays an especially important role in realistic representation of scenes, figures, or things. This is because various optic characteristics are capable of being used to suggest tactile qualities though, and many two-dimensional designs have employed texture as a central element of design. Artists are given the challenge of adapting techniques to create designs and rhythm on flat surfaces. Common textures can be imagined.

Texture, value, space – only three of the many elements in the artist’s bag of building blocks to be used in creating a powerful artistic statement on the landscape of that blank wall space. The elements of art have been a focus for discussions and investigations by art educators, art critics, artists, and philosophers alike for centuries. A variety of taxonomies have been proposed as classifications of these elements. The elements most agreed upon by an author who is writing for elementary art educators seem to include line (which becomes shape), form, color, texture, value, and space. This is called a formal classification since these are the elements of design.

5. The Importance of Composition and Balance

We shall return to the question of color and furniture when we deal with color, but the arrangement in space of various areas of color and texture can now be stressed. These areas may in turn contain lines or texture sequences. As a matter of fact, all the elements combine to varying extents in all areas to form the overall composition in space. It can be seen that composition includes all these aspects, so that the message of the picture can be very clear indeed. Five ways of unifying an evolving form have been suggested in transition. We may complement this unstable form by adding, at the end of each structural line, a varying area of width and transparency. Embrace the lubricant of changing the form possibly directly or indeed indirectly, possibly forming complete circuits ending in points of re-enforcement. The elements carry out a very fine and selective design of a particular circuit. It is possible to go into considerable detail regarding any of these five considerations.

Before considering the usefulness of design and balance in the field of art, let us first attempt to understand the word composition itself. Composition refers to the arrangement and suggestion of relationships of parts, or to the act of combining or composing parts to form a whole, providing these parts with an order and purpose. The structure of a work of art is built up by the lines or shapes, the contours or boundaries. These are arranged, balanced, and organized to provide a logical rather than a simple pattern—thus form does evolve from lines and shapes. The subject motif (main focus) and interspersed motifs (the rest of the design) are placed on a background; foreground shapes are designed around and in conjunction with background shapes, and all are integrated in terms of color and texture. This process of combining the elements to form an entire composition culminates in a work of art.

4.1. Composition

Color, texture, and design alone, then, do not make a pleasing picture. There is a need for a useful and meaningful arrangement of these elements—that is what the term composition means. An added aspect of composition is balance; as with design, we will find that each of the other elements has a special role to play in composition and balance.