Elements of Art
ARTS 105 – ART APPRECIATION
Session 2
Elements of Art
• The elements of art are the “elements”
or formal tools that artists use to create a
work of art.
•Line
•Shape
•Value
•Form
•Space
•Color
•Texture
LINE
• Line is a tool that we use to define the
edges of a 2-D Shape (flat) or a 3-D Form
(in the round)
• Line has a beginning and an end
Egon Schiele, Portrait of Eduard Kosmack, Frontal, with Clasped Hands, 1910,
Charcoal
Contour Line
-defines the edge of a shape or object
Alice Neel
Implied Line
Alberto Giacometti, Falling Man, 1950, Bronze, 60 x 22 x 36 cm
-shows direction and/or movement
Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889, oil
Expressive Line
allows the viewer to read into the expressive, emotional,
and/or intellectual qualities of a work of art
Jackson Pollock's ‘Convergence’ (1952), oil
Self-Portrait by Käthe Kollwitz, 1921
SHAPE
Shape defines a 2-dimensional flat area
measured in height and width
• Shape is formed when two points of a
line connect
• Shapes can be geometric (straight or
angled) or organic (free form or natural)
Shape
Alexander Calder
Shape
Underground Railroad Slave Quilt
Negative Shape/Positive Shape
Presenting Negro
Scenes Drawn Upon My
Passage
Through the South and
Reconfigured for the
Benefit of
Enlightened Audiences
Wherever Such May
Be Found,
By Myself, Missus K.E.B.
Walker,
Colored
Wassily Kandinsky, Unbroken Line, 1923
LINE
SHAPE
How can a 3-Dimensional shape be represented
on a 2-D flat surface?
“by adding value”
Remember this…
“God does not build in straight lines”-Charlie Holloway
There are no “lines” in space
VALUE
Value is the lightness or darkness of a color
“Color” (also called “Hue”)
Color + White = “Tint”
Color + Black = “Shade”
VALUE SCALES
INTENSE LIGHT
(WHITE)
TO
TOTAL DARKNESS
(BLACK)
Value
Harvest Talk,
Charles White.
Charcoal, pencil and
graphite, with
stamping and erasing
on ivory wood-pulp
laminate body
(1953)
Value
Detail of the Mona Lisa
Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Date: c.1504
Media: oil on panel
Dimensions: 53 x 77 cm
Form
• A form has 3-dimensions – height, width,
and depth
• Form is visualized
by depicting the
changes in value
Form
Alexander Calder
Martin Puryear, Self, 1978, Stained and painted red cedar
and mahogany, 69 x 48 x 25"
SHAPE
VALUE
FORM
SPACE
• Space is the area around,
above, below, between,
and within an object
• Space can divided into
positive space and
negative space
• Negative Space – empty
spaces that acquire a
sense of volume and
form by means of the
outline or frame that
surrounds them.
Negative Space/Positive Space
Presenting Negro
Scenes Drawn Upon My
Passage
Through the South and
Reconfigured for the
Benefit of
Enlightened Audiences
Wherever Such May
Be Found,
By Myself, Missus K.E.B.
Walker,
Colored
How can a 3-Dimensional space be represented
on a 2-D flat surface?
By using
Linear
Perspective
(Implied Line)
“One Point
Perspective”
Two-Point Perspective
COLOR
• Sir Isaac Newton first discovered that color
is a direct function of light. He found that sunlight
breaks into bands of different colors known as the
spectrum. Newton reorganized the visible spectrum
into a circle known as the color wheel.
•
Color is light reflected off of an object
•
The sunlight (or a light source) hits an object with the entire color spectrum.
•
Color Spectrum = ROY G BIV
•
The object ABSORBS all of the colors that it IS NOT
•
The object REFLECTS the color that IT IS.
•
White is a reflection of all colors at once
•
Black is the absorption of all colors at once
ROY G BIV
• Red – Orange – Yellow – Green – Blue –
Indigo – Violet
• There are only 3 pure colors – RED,
YELLOW, BLUE (primary colors)
• Primary colors can not be made or
mixed.
Color Wheel
Color
Composition with Red Blue Yellow
Piet Mondrian
Oil painting on Canvas,
100 x 100 cm
Color
“Monochromatic” – one color
(plus its tints and shades)
Pablo Picasso
The Tragedy
1903
oil on wood
105.3 x 69 cm
(41 7/16 x 27 3/16 in.)
Color
Romare Bearden
The Train
Lithograph with
Aquatint
1975
Color & Perspective
What are the “rules” of atmospheric, or
aerial, perspective?
• An object’s appearance changes
depending on how much atmosphere lies
between it and the person viewing it.
• That change can be depicted using color
via changes in value.
Claude Monet, Grainstack (Sunset), 1891, Oil on Canvas
Texture
• Texture is the tactile quality of an object
or surface, in other words…how it FEELS
• On a 2-D surface texture is visualized by
using value
• Texture can also “built up” using art
media to create and actual tactile surface
2-D Texture
Tactile Surfaces
“Impasto”
Elements of Art
• The elements of art are the “elements”
or formal tools that artists use to create a
work of art.
•Line
•Shape
•Value
•Form
•Space
•Color
•Texture
Focus - Line
• Feature Artist –
Vincent Van
Gogh
•
•
http://www.artbabble.org/vi
deo/ngadc/self-portrait1889-vincent-van-gogh
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=nKtFM3J_At8
Vincent Van Gogh
Self-Portrait
1889
Oil on canvas
The Starry Night
Vincent Van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889, oil
Detail, The Starry Night, Van Gogh