MARTINEZ_2015
ART 8 FINAL STUDY GUIDE
ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES OF ART:
ELEMENTS OF ART:
Color = HUE
• Primary colors: Colors that cannot be made by mixing any colors together. Red, yellow,
blue.
• Tertiary Colors: made by mixing a primary and a secondary color together (red-orange,
yellow-green, blue-violet, red-violet, blue-green, yellow-orange.)
• Secondary Colors: Colors made by mixing two primaries together (orange, green, violet)
• Complementary Colors – colors that are across from each other on the color wheel.
Complementary colors contrast one another (make each other look brighter)
Red and green; blue and orange; violet and yellow.
• Analogous colors: colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. Analogous colors are
like a family of colors (yellow, yellow green, green)
• Monochromatic colors: A color scheme consisting of one color
• Warm colors: red, orange, yellow
• Cool colors: blue, green violet
• Neutral Colors: Go with everything (black, white, brown, gray)
• Shade: When you add black to a color it become darker.
• Tint: When you add white to a color it becomes lighter.
Line - A line is an identifiable path moving in space. It can vary in width, direction, and length.
• Contour lines – define the edges and surface ridges of an object.
• Gesture lines: Lines that are quickly drawn to capture the expressive movement of a person.
• Blind Contour: The practice of creating a drawing by looking only at the object and not your
paper.
Value is defined as the lightness & darkness of an area.
• Shading – A technique where the artist uses a drawing pencil to create dark and light values.
This technique uses gradation and creates the most realistic rendering.
• Gradation: When the artist shades gradually from light to dark. This technique creates a
realistic look.
• Highlight: The area receiving the greatest amount of light.
A value scale demonstrates values ranging from dark to light
Form: An element of art that is 3-dimensional having height, width and depth.
• Sculpture: a 3-dimensional object
• Relief Sculpture: a type of sculpture that is flat on the back and raised from the front.
Space - The distances or areas around, between or within components of a piece.
Space can be positive or negative, open or closed, shallow or deep and two-dimensional or threedimensional.
Sometimes space isn't actually within a piece, but the illusion of it is.
• Positive Space – the subject matter of a piece of artwork (the buildings in your perspective
drawings, the letters in your name design, the instruments in your jazz collage)
• Negative Space – The empty area that surround the objects in a composition
Shape: This element of art refers to an enclosed space. Shape has two dimensions – height and width.
• Geometric Shapes: Any shape or form having a mathematical design – square, rectangle, etc.
• Organic Shapes: Shapes more closely related to nature.
Texture - An element of art that describes the way an object feels.
Actual Texture – The way an object ACTUALLY feels.
Implied Texture - This type of texture looks like it has texture but does not.
ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE: creates the illusion of 3-dimension.
Artists use one point perspective to show depth or space in their work.
Vanishing Point: A term used in perspective to describe the point on the horizon where parallel lines
appear to meet. At the vanishing point, objects appear smaller and disappear.
Horizon Line: Where the land (or sea) and sky meet.
Parallel Lines: Lines that will never intersect (cross) one another.
Orthogonal Lines: Lines that converge at the vanishing point.
Vertical Line: A line that goes up and down and is perpendicular to the horizon line.
Birds-eye view: Where the observer would be stationed above the subject, looking down.
Worms-eye view: Where the observer would be stationed below the subject, looking up.
Atmospheric Perspective: In landscape drawing, the foreground would be rendered darker, the
background is lighter, because of gases and pollution in the air.
Foreground: The part of the picture plane closest to the viewer. The foreground is rendered darker in a
landscape.
Middleground: The part of the picture plane between the foreground and the middleground.
Background: The part of the picture plane furthest from the viewer. The foreground is rendered lighter
in a landscape.
ARTISTS, TECHNIQUES and MORE TO KNOW!
Overlapping – When one thing lies over, partly covering something else.
Shaun Tan created the illustrative book called The Arrival
Composition – the arrangement of the elements of art.
Thumbnail Sketch – a small sketch used for planning
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