ELEMENTS OF THE VISUAL LANGUAGE

Elements of ART

Index

LINES

SPACE

COLOR

TEXTURE

SHAPE

VALUE

FORM

DEFINITIONS

Words to describe art

The seven elements of art

Words to describe art

color

Think about your overall impression of the colors used in the painting, how they look and feel, how the colors work together (or not), how they fit with the subject of the painting, and how the artist has mixed them (or not). Are there any specific colors or color palettes you can identify?

Natural, clear, lively, stimulating, subtle. Artificial, clashing, depressing, discordant, garish, gaudy, jarring, violent. Bright, brilliant, deep, earthy, harmonious, intense, rich, saturated, strong, vibrant, vivid. Dull, flat, insipid, pale, mellow, muted, subdued, quiet, weak Cool, cold, warm, hot, light, dark Blended, broken, mixed, muddled, muddied, pure Complementary, contrasting, harmonious

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The Dot and The Line; a romance in lower mathematics (1965) Directed by Chuck Jones.

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The Dot and The Line; a romance in lower mathematics (1965) Directed by Chuck Jones.

DOT

Dot is a small round mark, rather the smallest point that is usually created with any pointed instrument. In art and designing, dots are considered the basic building block of an artwork. It is the simplest element of art and drawing. Dots establish relationship with the space around it. All other art work such as painting, drawing etc is a combination of dots and lines. Pointillism is a painting style in which a picture or a drawing is made using small colored dots.

Georges-Pierre Seurat (París, 1859 – 1891)

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'' Circles in a circle''

WASSILY KANDINSKY

'Everything starts from a dot'

Wasily Kandinsky was born on December 4, 1866, in Moscow.

A trained musician, Kandinsky approached color with a musician’s sensibility. An obsession with Monet led him to explore his own creative concepts of color on canvas, which were sometimes controversial among his contemporaries and critics, but Kandinsky emerged as a respected leader of the abstract art movement in the early 20th century.

ROY LICHTENSTEIN

Does it look like something from your favourite comic? Roy Lichtenstein was born in New York in 1923. He became famous for his bright and bold paintings of comic strip cartoons as well as his paintings of everyday objects. He was one of a group of artists making art in the 1960s who were called pop artists because they made art about 'popular' things such as TV, celebrities, fast food, pop music and cartoons. Although best known as a painter, he made different types of art including sculpture, murals, prints and ceramics. Lichtenstein chose colours carefully, to imitate the four colours of printers’ inks. He also used Ben Day dots, a system invented to increase the range of colours available to newspaper printing. Look closely at his work – can you see how the colours are clear from a distance, but look like tiny dots and dashes close-up?

YAYOI KUSAMA

WHO IS SHE? Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who is sometimes called ‘the princess of polka dots'. Although she makes lots of different types of art – paintings, sculptures, performances and installations – they have one thing in common, DOTS! WHAT'S WITH ALL THE DOTS? Yayoi Kusama tells the story of how when she was a little girl she had a hallucination that freaked her out. She was in a field of flowers when they all started talking to her! The heads of flowers were like dots that went on as far as she could see, and she felt as if she was disappearing or as she calls it ‘self-obliterating’ – into this field of endless dots. This weird experience influenced most of her later work. By adding all-over marks and dots to her paintings, drawings, objects and clothes she feels as if she is making them (and herself) melt into, and become part of, the bigger universe. She said: ‘Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity. When we obliterate nature and our bodies with polka dots, we become part of the unity of our environment’.

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LINE

PAUL KLEE

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LIN

LINE

A line is a series of dots. There are many different types of lines: thick, thin, straight, curved, zig-zag etc. Artists can also use the line to create different values or tones. This technique is known as cross hatching.

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Vídeo (the line)

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CHOOSE THE CORRECT ANSWER

• DIAGONAL LINES

Are lines that slant in any direction except horizontal or vertical .

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• HORIZONTAL LINES

These lines move from left to right.

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• VERTICAL LINES

These lines are perpendicular to horizontal lines.

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• HORIZONTAL LINES

They suggest width, distance, calmness and stability.

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• VERTICAL LINES

These lines are straight up and down

• VERTICAL LINES
• CURVED LINES
• DIAGONAL LINES
• HORIZONTAL LINES
• ZIGZAG LINES

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These lines can convey the feelings of comfort and ease, as well as sensual quality as they remind us of the human body.

• CURVED LINES

These lines can convey the feelings of comfort and ease, as well as sensual quality as they remind us of the human body.

• VERTICAL LINES
• CURVED LINES
• DIAGONAL LINES
• HORIZONTAL LINES
• ZIGZAG LINES

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They suggest movement or lack of stability.

• DIAGONAL LINES

They suggest movement or lack of stability.

• VERTICAL LINES
• CURVED LINES
• DIAGONAL LINES
• HORIZONTAL LINES
• ZIGZAG LINES

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They can convey action and excitement, as well as restlessness and anxiety.

• ZIGZAG LINES

They can convey action and excitement, as well as restlessness and anxiety.

VARIACIONES DE LA LÍNEA

LONGITUD: las líneas pueden ser largas (altas, fuertes, lejanas) o cortas (pequeñas, cerradas). ANCHURA: pueden ir desde las delgadas (delicadas, finas, ligeras) a las gruesas (con fuerza, pesadas, poderosas). PESO: se refiere al cambio contínuo de anchura. Variando el peso de la línea podemos captar energía y movimiento. TEXTURA: en las líneas define su suavidad o rugosidad. Sus variaciones pueden consistir simplemente en cambiar la técnica (por ejemplo, de rotuladores a carboncillo o a un pincel digital). ESTILO: se refiere a si son contínuas, punteadas, de trazos,... Las línas contínuas ayudan a dirigir la mirada del espectador en la dirección deseada. Las líneas contínuas o punteadas son buenas para crear patrones, transmitir energía y llamar la atención.

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Questions

• What are the seven elements of art?
• What are the two categories of shapes?

SHAPE

Henri Matisse, 'Sorrow of the king'. 1952.

The space enclosed by a line is called a shape. Shapes are two-dimensional, i.e. they are flat. Shapes with straight lines and edges are geometric shapes and shapes with curved edges are organic shapes.

SHAPE

Henri Matisse, 'Sorrow of the king'. 1952.

The space enclosed by a line is called a shape. Shapes are two-dimensional, i.e. they are flat. Shapes with straight lines and edges are geometric shapes and shapes with curved edges are organic shapes.

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FORM

Auguste Rodin, 'The thinker', 1904

Form refers to a three-dimensional object. However, artists can create the illusion of form or three-dimensionality on a flat surface. This illusion is created by adding different tones to their drawing or painting.

5 WAYS TO CREATE FORM IN YOUR PAINTING

• Overlapping. We all know this one: paint a person in front of a tree and the tree recedes. ...
• Dark vs. Light. ...
• Atmospheric Perspective. ...
• Focus. ...
• One and Two-point Perspective.

5ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE

SPACE

Henri Moore, Recumbent Figure, 1938

Space refers to the area within a shape or the volume/mass within a form. Space can be positive or negative. The positive space is the space within the construct and the negative space is the space around the construct.

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Vídeo: Space art challenge

COLOUR

Colour is what the eye sees when light is reflected off an object. Painters mix different colours and make different tones of the one colour. The three colours that they can’t make are the primary colours (red, yellow and blue).

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COLOUR

QUESTIONS

• WHAT IS 2D?
• WHAT ARE THE SEVEN ELEMENTS OF ART?
• WHAT ARE THE THREE PRIMARY COLORS?
• WHAT ARE THE THREE SECONDARY COLORS? WHAT IS 'TINT'?
• WHAT IS 'SHADE'?
• WHAT IS 'TONE'?
• WHAT IS 'MONOCHROMATIC'?
• GIVE EXAMPLES OF 'WARM' COLORS.
• GIVE EXAMPLES OF 'COOL COLORS.

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COLOUR

The secondary colours (orange, green and purple) are created by mixing the primary colours: Red + Yellow = Orange Yellow + Blue = Green Blue + Red = Purple Tertiary colours are made when a colour moves towards the colour of its neighbour on the colour wheel or in the colour spectrum, e.g. a yellow-orange or a red-orange, a yellow-green or a blue-green.

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COLOUR

The complementary colours are colours that complement each other. They appear very vibrant when placed next to one another. They are also referred to as contrasting colours. They are: red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange. Note: - Black is not a colour. It is the absence of colour - There is no such thing as pure white as white reflects the colours around it.

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COLOUR

Another word for colour is 'HUE'. Colours can be very be very pure (with a high intensity). Colours can be lightened or darkened using white or black. This is called the brightness or the 'value of the colour'.

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COLOUR

COLOUR WHEEL

A color wheel or color circle is an abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a circle, which shows the relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, tertiary colors etc.

Color has a huge effect on our daily lives. Everyday our emotions, moods, physical sensation (appetite) are influenced by the colors that surround us. There are three (3) properties to color: Hue: the name we give to a color (red, blue, etc.). Intensity: refers to the strength/vividness of the color. For example, we may describe the color blue as "royal" (bright, rich, vibrant) or "dull" (grayed). Value: meaning its lightness or darkness. Shade and Tint are in reference to value changes in colors.

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TEXTURE

Texture is the roughess or smoothnes. Also called 'surface quality'

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TEXTURES

MATCH WITH LINES

• PELUDO
• PUNTIAGUDO
• GRUMOSO,IRREGULAR
• DURO
• QUE SE DESMIGAJA
• SUAVE, PELUDO
• MULLIDO
• ESPINOSO
• GRANULOSO

• BUMPY/LUMPY
• CRUMBLY
• FLUFFY
• FUZZY
• GRAINY
• HAIRY
• HARD
• POINTY
• PRICKLY

TEXTURES

MATCH WITH LINES

• BUMPY/LUMPY: GRUMOSO,IRREGULAR
• CRUMBLY: QUE SE DESMIGAJA
• FLUFFY: SUAVE, PELUDO
• FUZZY: MULLIDO
• GRAINY: GRANULOSO
• HAIRY: PELUDO
• HARD: DURO
• POINTY: PUNTIAGUDO
• PRICKLY: ESPINOSO

TEXTURES

MATCH WITH LINES

• PEGAJOSO

• ÁSPERO, RUGOSO
• ARRUGADO
• AFILADO, PUNTIAGUDO

• TEJIDO
• LISO
• BLANDO, MULLIDO, SUAVE
• BLANDO
• IRREGULAR

• ROUGH
• SHARP

• SMOOTH
• SOFT
• SQUISHY
• STICKY
• JAGGED/IRREGULAR
• WOVEN
• WRINKLED

TEXTURES

MATCH WITH LINES

• ROUGH: ÁSPERO, RUGOSO
• SHARP: AFILADO, PUNTIAGUDO

• SMOOTH: LISO
• SOFT: BLANDO, MULLIDO, SUAVE
• SQUISHY: BLANDO
• STICKY: PEGAJOSO
• JAGGED/IRREGULAR: IRREGULAR
• WOVEN: TEJIDO
• WRINKLED: ARRUGADO

Thank you!

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Step 3

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Timeline

2010

2012

2014

2016

2018

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