Elements of Art

Line

Value

Form

Shape

Color

Line

The Elements of Art

Texture

Space

How to Look at an Artwork

The elements of art are essential when looking at an artwork. Understanding how the artists use: line, shape, form, value, space, texture and color can help understand the context of the artwork.

Elements of Art

Line

Shape

Form

Value

Color

Space

Texture

Line

A mark left by a moving point, actual or implied, and varying in direction, thickness, and density.

Elements of Art: Line Video

Brush up on your visual literacy as we breakdown the wide variety of lines that visual artists use. Through the lens of the self-portrait, we look at how line is a way for artists to express their individual style and also a tool to control the messages they wish to communicate.

Types of Lines

Implied Lines

A line where no continuous mark connects one point to another, but where the connection is nonetheless visually suggested.

What type of line do you see?

What type of line do you see?

What type of line is this?

Where do you see the following: Long Continuous Straight Diagonal Vertical Horizontal Now, look closely at these lines. Which group of words best describes them? (1) Solid, serious, organized, planned OR (2) Silly, energetic, dynamic, in motion, chaotic

Where do you see the following: Straight Short Long Zigzag Curved Look closely at these lines. Which group of words best describes them? (1) Busy, topsy turvy, active OR (2) Serious, calm, quiet

Now, look closely at these lines. Which group of words best describes them? (1) Calm, serious, quiet OR (2) Energetic, fun, dynamic

Click for artwork information

Click for artwork information

Click for artwork information

Is this boat moving fast or slow? It looks like it is standing still. Does the water seem calm or churning? How hard is the wind blowing? (No sails up = very little wind!) Are there any diagonal lines in this painting? (Very few—mostly straight lines here, vertical and horizontal. Without diagonal lines, the artist created a quiet, calm scene with a slow moving boat.)

Can you find the hidden lines in this painting? This painting of a fast-moving sailboat is full of diagonal lines. Why? Artists use diagonals to show energy and movement. Diagonals also lead the viewer into the painting. Try to imagine the boat without the diagonals, sitting flat on the water—horizontally—with the mast going straight up—vertically—into the sky. Would the boat be moving, or sitting still, without the diagonals?

Winslow Homer

Fitz Henry Lane

VS

Winslow Homer American, 1836–1910 Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), 1873-1876 oil on canvas, 61.5 x 97 cm (24 3/16 x 38 3/16 in.) National Gallery of Art, Gift of the W. L. and May T. Mellon Foundation

Fitz Henry Lane American, 1804–1865 Lumber Schooners at Evening on Penobscot Bay, 1863 oil on canvas, 62.5 x 96.8 cm (24 5/8 x 38 1/8 in.) National Gallery of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Francis W. Hatch, Sr.

Lets Review

Shape

A two-dimensional area, the boundaries of which are measured in terms of height and width.

Elements of Art: Shape Video

Continue gaining fluency in the language of the Arts with the second installment in our Elements of Art series. Still life paintings of fruit provide the window into artists' individual style and approach to making shapes

Implied Shapes

Like line, there are implied shapes. These are the spaces between objects that are placed in relationship to each other. We see those spaces as shapes, even though they are not meant to be.In this image, the shapes are placed in a way that causes us to "see" a circular shape in the center, although it is not actually a shape.

What kind of shapes did the artist use?

What kind of shapes did the artist use? (1) Geometric OR (2) From nature/biomorphic

What kind of shapes did the artist use? (1) Geom etric OR (2) From nature/biomorphic

What kind of shapes did the artist use? (1) Geom etric OR (2) From nature/biomorphic

Positive Shape

Negative Shape

VS

In two-dimensional art, a shape that we perceive as dominant, significant, the actual object.

In two-dimensional art, a shape that we perceive as being in the background or empty.

The space within the arches is the negative space.

The structure is the positive space.

Figure Ground Relationship

Figure, Ground and Picture Plane

The two dimensional surface on which the image is made is called the picture plane. The shape or form placed on it is called the figure. The space around the figure is the ground. An easy way to remember this is to think of a portrait. The person in the portrait is the figure. The space around the person (you might think of it as the background) is the ground. The surface on which it is made (paper, canvas, etc) is the picture plane.

Here, the evening gown on the mannequin is the figure, and the space around it is the ground.

Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel Evening dress, 1938 Black silk net with polychrome sequins

Is this positive or negative shape?

Sometimes, as in the 20th century Dutch artist M.C. Escher's Sky and Water I, the figure-ground relationship is confusing. At top, birds fly on a white ground. At bottom, fish swim on a black ground. In the center, the figure and ground becomes ambiguous. Figure-ground reversal occurs when the negative and positive shapes continually flip. Day and Night depicts a day landscape merging into a night scene. White and black birds blend, appear, and disappear. Which bird our eye notices depends on which landscape we focus on. If we concentrate on the day landscape, the black birds appear -- they become the positive shapes and the daylit land becomes the negative space. If we stare at the dark landscape, the white birds stand out, making them into the positive shapes in our view, with the darkened land being the negative space. Many of Escher's artworks play with optical illusions.

Learn more about M.C. Escher

M.C. Escher's unique take on Dutch landscape, melting reality through tessellations. Ian Dejardin, Sackler Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery, describes.

Three artist that used shape as a very significant aspect to follow in their artwork.

Henri Matisse

Kara Walker

Pablo Picasso

Optional Enrichment link

Optional Enrichment link

Optional Enrichment link

Assignment Inspiration Artist: Henri Matisse

An artist that loved to explore the possibilities of mixing geometric and biomorphic shapes was Henri Matisse. In the last few decades of his artistic career, he developed a new form of art-making: the paper cut-out. Still immersed in the power of color, he devoted himself to cutting colored papers and arranging them in designs. “Instead of drawing an outline and filling in the color…I am drawing directly in color,” he said. Matisse was drawing with scissors! Matisse enjoyed going to warmer places and liked to watch sunlight shimmering on the sea. He often traveled to seaports along the French Mediterranean, also visiting Italy, North Africa, and Tahiti. Beasts of the Sea is a memory of his visit to the South Seas. In this work of art, Matisse first mixed paint to get all the brilliant colors of the ocean. Then he cut this paper into shapes that reminded him of a tropical sea. Lastly, he arranged these biomorphic shapes vertically over rectangles of yellows, greens, and purples to suggest the watery depths of the undersea world.

Form

The literal shape and mass of an object or figure.

Element of Art: Form Video

Study up on the different ways visual artists create Form in the third installment of our Elements of Art series. Through the eye-fooling genre of Trompe L'oeil, we look at techniques artists use to transform shapes into form.

What kind of forms did the artist use?

What kind of form did the artist use? (1) Geometric OR (2) From nature/biomorphic

What kind of form did the artist use? (1) Geom etric OR (2) From nature/biomorphic

What kind of form did the artist use? (1) Geom etric OR (2) From nature/biomorphic

Turning Shapes into Forms

Learn how to draw shapes and turn them into forms in this video demonstration. Visit http://thevirtualinstructor.com for more free art lessons.

Value and Light

Value deals with the lightness or darkness of a color. Light is a kind of energy that travels in waves.

Elements of Art: Value Video

Artists are able to create the illusion of light by being able to produce a wide variety of values. In our fifth episode on the Elements of Art, we explore how artists produce and use different color and tonal values.

Light Hitting Three-Dimensional Opaque Objects

Because light travels only in straight lines, when it hits a three-dimensional, opaque object, the result is in different value areas:

Successful Artwork has a Full Range of Value

Using a value scale, you can be sure that you create a full range of value. Many artists use a value scale as they work, identifying specific values and adding them in appropriate spots.

Chiaroscuro

During the Reniassance in Italy, the period during the 15th and 16th centuries, artists invented chiaroscuro. This technique uses contrasts in light and dark values to model the illusion of three-dimensional forms on a flat surface, thus creating the impression that objects are real.

The light creates a highlight across her face that is depicted in a light value.

Her cheek is not hit as directly by the light and is depicted in a darker value.

The back of her neck is blocked from the light and is completely dark.

As the surface behind her is cut off, we do not see a shadow.

Head of a Woman Looking to Upper Left Annibale Carracci, Luodovico Carracci 1590-1600

The contrast of the light with these dark values in the rest of the room seems to give the painting a strong, chlling effect.

Both women are caught in light-valued, dynamic diagonals that echo down Judith's face, the curve of her arm, the bend of her knee, and the servant's face.

Artemisia Gentileshci. Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes. c. 1623-25. Oil on canvas, 6' 7/16" x 4'7 3/4". Detroit Institute of Arts, Michign

Color

Color is the element of art that refers to reflected light.

Elements of Art: Color Video

Brush up on your knowledge of color in the sixth installment of our Elements of Art series. By considering the vital and vibrant work of the Color Field painters of the 1950s and 60s, we get a glimpse of how powerful a role color plays in art.

The Visible Spectrum

In 1666, Isaac Newton discovered the relationship between color and light. He placed a triangular piece of glass, called a prism, in a stream of sunlight. While colorless sunlight called white light entered the prism, a stream of light that had the same colors and order as a rainbow exited the other side. Newton called the band of colors the visible spectrum.

Have you ever wondered how we see color?

The human eye and brain together translate light into color. Light receptors within the eye transmit messages to the brain, which produces the familiar sensations of color. Rather, the surface of an object reflects some colors and absorbs all the others. We perceive only the reflected colors.

How we see color

When you look at a painting are you actually seeing the real color? To answer that, let's take a look at the electromagnetic spectrum.

Subtractive Color System

Additive Color System

VS

The Color Wheel

Color theorists have arranged the visible spectrum in a circle, called a color wheel, which helps us to see color relationships.

In the color wheel to the left, each primary color form the subtractive color system is shown with a number 1 next to it, each secondary color with a 2, and each teritiary color with a 3.

Primary Colors

Colors that theoretically cannot be made by mixing other colors and that can be used to make all of the other colors.

Secondary Colors

Teritiary colors

Teritiary colors result from mixing the neighboring primary and secondary colors. The teriatary color yellow-orange, for example is formed by mixing yellow and orange and lies between yellow and orange on the color wheel.

Tints

Shades

VS

The Properties of Color

Hue

Value

Intensity

Hue refers to the standard characteristics of color that allow us to group them in families.

Intensity is how bright or dull a color is. When colors are at their most intense , they are at their purest.

Value is how light or dark something is. Just as different tones of gray are lighter or darker.

Color Schemes

Triadic

Analogous

Complementary

Monochromatic

A color scheme that uses three hues that are equidistant on the color wheel.

A color scheme that uses hues that are close to one another on the color wheel and that feel related.

A color scheme that uses hues that are opposite each other on the color wheel and that feel contrasting.

A color scheme that uses only one hue in different values.

Color Temperature

Color Temperature

• Alive
• Energetic
• Enriching

• Calm
• Sad
• Peaceful

Warm Colors

Cool Colors

VS

Paul Klee. Rainy Day. 1931. Oil, crayon and ink on paper. 7 3/4" x 15"

Georgia O'Keeffe.Stump in Red Hills. 1940. Oil on canvas. 2'6" x 2'

The Emotional Qualites of Color

Color Psychology - How Colors Influence Your Choices and Feelings

The Effect of Color | Off Book | PBS Digital Studios

Lets Review

A crash course on color theory where there is talk about color mixing, nerdy vocabulary terms and color schemes!

Interactive Color Review

https://www.canva.com/colors/color-wheel/

Create your own color wheel

You may use a digital paint app or create your tradtional color wheel using traditional art media. Allow yourself to be creative!

Photography

Drawing

Edible!!

Craft

Sculpture

Painting

Digital Art

Optional Enrichment Video: Acrylic Painting TIPS for Beginners - How to MIX COLORS

A guide for bginners- learn how to mix colors with acrylics, secondary colors, warm and cool colors, skin colors.

Space

Space is the area in which forms exist. Space can be both around and within masses and shapes. We exist within three-dimensional space, and art objects do too, but we cannot physically enter into two-dimensional space.

Elements of Art: Space Video

Space is always part of a work of art, sometimes in multiple ways. Follow along with the final installment of our Elements of Art series as we dive deep into the complex role that Space plays in the visual arts. Using site specific art as a starting point, we highlight the specifc techniques that artists use to control and manipulate Space in their work.

Positive and Negative Space

Three-Dimensional Space

Two-Dimensional Space

VS

Three-dimensional art occupies and ecloses three-dimensional space. We can think of three-dimensional space as the area where the air is within and around masses.

The actual space of two-dimensional art is flat. This flat surface is called the picture plane. Some artists create the appearance of three dimensional on the flat surface by employing methods to repesent 3-D techniques such as linear perspective.

Methods for Representing Three Dimensions on A Flat Surface

Linear Perspective

Atmospheric Perspective

Overlapping

Size and Position

Foreground, Middle ground and Background

Background: the castle on the left, the indistinct row of trees and the hills/mountains in the far distance.

Middle ground: the figure herding with the cattle and the tall trees, also the bridge

Foreground: the seated figure.

Landscape with Apollo Guarding the Herds of Admetus and Mercury stealing them, Claude Lorrain, 1645

Positive and Negative Space

Learn how to use positive and negative space to create successful composition in art.

https://thevirtualinstructor.com/positive-and-negative-space.html

What is atmospheric perspective?

The technique of illustrating distant, three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface in which the artist imitates the atmosphere's effects on light, so that objects that are farther in the distance appear blurrier, lighter and duller.

Creating illusion of space on a 2-D surface

Overlapping, Size and Position

The foreground tree is so big, it doesn't even fit in the painting, while, in the distance, the trees, houses and goats diminish in size.

Term Defined

Term defined

The foreground figures are vertically positioned lower down on the picture plane than the fields that are higher up and farther away.

In the foreground, the people overlap the landscape that is behind them in the background.

Term Defined

Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The Harvesters. 1565. Oil on wood, 3' 9 7/8" x 5' 2 7/8". The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

What is foreshortening?

The Mourning over the Dead Christ, tempera on wood panel by Andrea Mantegna, c. 1475(?); in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan.

Forshortening Samples

Linear Perspective

The mathematical technique of creating the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface in which parallel lines, which recede in the distance, converge at one or more vanishing points.

Introduction to One-point perspective

This lesson introduces and explains the concept of one-point perspective and provides several examples and tips for successfully reproducing the technique of one-point perspective.

Time to play: Linear perspective interactive

Click on the line below for a linear perspective interactive sponsored by Khan Academy.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/early-renaissance1/beginners-renaissance-florence/a/linear-perspective-interactive

One point Perspective

Learn how to draw with one point perspective. Use linear perspective to create the illusion of space in your drawings. A horizon line is defined and then one point is placed on the horizon line. Lines are drawn back to the vanishing point to create 3D forms.

Two Point Perspective

Two point perspective drawing is a type of linear perspective. Linear perspective is a method using lines to create the illusion of space on a 2D surface. Two point perspective uses two points placed on the horizon line.

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/two-point-perspective-drawing-tutorial-1123413

tutorial link

Two Point Perspective

Two Point Perspective Drawing - Learn how to use lines to create the illusion of space using two point perspective, which is a form of linear perspective.

Simple Breakdown of a Form Placed on the Horizon Line

Step Three: Draw lines from each end of the corner to each of the vanishing points.

Step Five: Erase the lines you no longer need to reveal your 3D form.

Step One: Define the horizon line and the vanishing points.

sample

sample

sample

sample

sample

Step Two: Draw the corner of the object in between the vanishing points.

Step Four: Draw parallel, vertical lines to indicate where the object ends.

Optional Enrichment Video

Tintoretto, Last Supper

Texture

The surface characteristic of a work that relates to our experience of touch

Elements of Art: Texture Video

We tend to think of art as mainly something to look at. However, many artists spend a lot of time and effort trying to stimulate other senses. In this fourth installment of our Elements of Art series, we look at how visual artists try to engage our sense of touch. Follow along and discover the myriad ways artists create and use texture.

Chuck Close

Leonardo da Vinci

VS

Detail of da Vinci's Ginevra de' Benci showing his fingerprint

Please click on audio for information about the artworks.

Actual Texture

Simulated Texture

Contemporary Nigerian artist Jimoh Buraimoh created actual texture in his artwork Birds. Buraimoh adhered beads to the surface of his two-dimensional work. Because we would be able to feel the real bumpy bead, the physical material, the piece has actual texture.

Self-portrait with Two Pupils by 18th century French painter Adélaide Labille-Guiard displays textures of stains, feathers, and lace. However, because they are an illusion, these textures are simulated texture.

VS

Actual Texture Samples

Simulated Texture Samples

Read more

How do you think these textures were achieved?

Techniques for developing contrast and definition with texture

Resources

https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/elements-of-art/form.html

https://thevirtualinstructor.com/artfundamentals.html