A Brief History of Philippine Art
I. Pre-conquest
II. Islamic Colonial (13th century)
III. Spanish Colonial Period (1521-1898)
IV. American Colonial Period (1898-1940) to the Postwar Republic (19461969)
V. 0s to Contemporary
Pre-conquest-In art historical terms, we refer to art before the coming
of the first colonizers as “pre-conquest.” In stylistic terms, we refer to
it as “indigenous” to emphasize the idea of our ancestors that have
been making art before colonization.
It is also described in cultural terms as “pre-colonial” as a term to use
for the general way of life before colonization. Although the terms are
interchangeable, it is also useful to keep these distinctions in mind
when studying the art of the past.
 Prior to colonization, art of the ancient Filipinos were Woven into
fabric of everyday life.
 Our ancestors, just like all others in the world during those times,
were hunter-gatherers. They imitated the movement of animals
and prey, and the sounds that they made. This simple activity
evolved rituals, music, dance, theater and even literature.
 These rituals are consider as the earliest forms of theater that
are still alive in various regions.
 Mayvanuvanua in Batanes, Canao or Kanyaw in Cordillera
Autonomous Region, Cashawing in Lake Lanao in Mindanao and
Tagbanwa in Palawan.
Kanyaw (Cordillera Autonomous)
 Officiated by a shaman or mumbaki
 Involves animal sacrifices
Kashawing
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In Lake Lanao in Mindanao
 Ritual to ensure abundance during rice planting and
harvesting is observed and performed.
Tagbanwa
 In Palawan
 Believe that every 13th moon, 3 goddesses descend from
heaven to bless the planting rice
 Every expression were all integrated within rituals marked
significant moments in a community’s life like: Planting and
Harvesting, Funerary Ceremonies and Weddings.
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Long before the coming of the Spaniards, the pre
colonial people of the Philippines already
possessed a varied and vibrant musical culture. The
country’s indigenous cultures through the existence of ethnic
musical instrument such as:
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Christianized communities in Laguna and Pampanga are known for
carving Santos as well as other wooden sculptures of secular or nonreligious orientation.
In Southern Philippines, curvilinear decorations called the Okir
(termed ukkil in Tausug/Samal/Badjao) are employed in
woodcarving.
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Pangalay from Sulu archipelago
Mimetic of the movement of seabirds.
The Mandayas’kinabua, the banog-banog of the Higaonon and of the
B’laan communities, and the man-manok of the Bagobos of
Mindanao imitate the movements of predatory birds.
Talip Dance (Ifugaos)
 Used in courtship
 Mimetic of the movements of wild fowls
Inamog of the Matigsalugs, and the Kadaliwas dance of the T’bolis
represent the comedic movements of monkeys.
 Tinikling popular Tagalog folk dance often showcased for
tourist, is evocative of the movements of the crane,
balancing itself on stilt-like legs or flitting away from the
clutches of bamboo traps.
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Pre-colonials Filipinos have been making images before
colonization. This is exemplified by the country’s rich tradition in
carving.
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People of the Cordilleras carve the bulul, regarded as a
granary god that plays an important role in rituals.
The Ifugaos also produce the Hagabi, wooden bench that marks the
socioeconomic status of the owner.
Manunggul Jar, discovered at Manunggul Cave, Lipuun Point,
Palawan is dated to the late Neolithic period. It is a secondary burial
vessel, where buried and exhumed bones are placed.
Another cherished living tradition is weaving. According to Respicio,
textile weaving has a long history that Philippines ethnolinguistic
groups have a rich textile weaving tradition. Textile are not only
functional, they also impart knowledge about people’s belief system.
A backstrap loom or a pedal loom is used to weave designs that
hold special meaning for a particular cultural group. Examples of
woven textiles includes the pis siyabit, a headpiece woven by the
Tausug of Sulu and malong with exquisite tapestry panels called
langkit woven by the Maranao of Lanao del Sur.
The colorful doudled-layered tepo mat of the Samal of Tawi-Tawi
made of pandan leaves is a remarkable example of mundane or
everyday object with high artistic value.
Weaving techniques are also applied in creating tools for agricultural
purposes. In Ilocos region, sturdy bamboo strips are woven to create
fish traps called bubo.
In the 16th century, the illustrated manuscript called the Boxer
Codex featured representations of various ethnolinguistic groups.
As jewelry, painstaking attention to detail is manifested in metalwork,
such as the lotoans or betel nut boxes in various shapes, made of
brass or bronze produced chiefly by the Maranao of Lanao del Sur.
Textured designs of rhombuses, spirals, circles, and tendrils swarm
over the exterior of functional containers.
The design is achieved through a special technique of metal casting
called the lost wax or cire perdue process which involves the use of
moulds filled liquefied metal that eventually hardens.
Other vessels that employ the same techniques are the brass kendi
and the gadur, which are used in ceremonies and are cherished as
status symbols or as heirloom pieces. The kendi is a vessel used for
pouring liquids.
 Islam was embraced as a religion and as a way of life by the
people of Mindanao, among them, the Tausug, Maranao,
Maguindanao, Yakan, Samal, Badjao, as well as some areas
in Palawan.
 Filipino Muslims recognize that they belong to an ummah or
a community of believers. Central to the Islamic faith is the
doctrine of Tawhid or unity of God. This belief emphasizes
the impermanence of nature and the incomprehensible
greatness of the divine being.
II. Islamic Colonial
 How Philippine Muslims organize space in architecture is
also telling to their adherence to the Tawhid and other
Islamic beliefs.
Even before the coming of Spanish colonizers, Islam was already
well-entrenched in Southern Philippines, where it continues to be
dominant and strong. Islam was said to have gained significant
grounding in Sulu as early as the 13th century.
 We can see this upward orientation of design elements in
the panolong and elaborately carved protrusion akin to a
wing attached to the torogan or the royal house of the
Maranao..
However, it was significant in the arrival of Sayyid Abubakar of
Arabia in the 15th century that led to a significant turn of events. He
married Princess Piramisuli, daughter of Rajah Baguinda. When his
father-in-law died, Abubakar succeeded the throne and established
the Sultanate of Sulu.
 Aside from the mythical sarimanok, the burraq, a horse with
the head of a woman, is also an important figure believed to
carry the prophet in his ascension to heaven.
III. Spanish Colonial Period
Aside from introducing holy texts via the holy book of Quran and
building a house of prayer, Abubakar was recognized for building a
religious school, also known as the madrasa that facilitated the
teaching of Arabic writing in the 16th century.
 As the Islamization process in Mindanao strengthen , Islam
became the driving force that enabled the natives to resist
centuries of Spanish colonization.
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While the south remained resistant to Spanish colonization,
the colonizers gained power in the central part of the islands
whose inhabitants we now refer to as “Lowland Christians.”
Art that flourished during the Spanish colonial period conformed to
the demands of the church and the colonial state. The art forms from
this period are refer to stylistically and culturally as religious art,
lowland Christian art, or folk art.
Espana y Filipinas by Juan Luna
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Baroque style characterized by grandeur, drama and
elaborate details that purposely appealed to the emotions.
Images of saints and interpretations of biblical narratives were
considered essential to worship. Under the strict watch and
patronage of the church, images were produce through painting,
sculpting and engraving. The images of the Santo can be made of
ivory or wood.
The Greek and Roman Classical can be
seen in the portion employed as well as the formality of expression
while the trace of the Baroque is evident in the expressive and
emotional characteristics of the santos are displayed in a decorative
altar niche called retablo.
Painting (Nuestra Senora del Rosario in Bohol)
Heaven, Earth, Hell (A mural by Jose Dans in Paete Church,
Laguna )
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The Via Crucis is an important inclusion in colonial churches
which are presented either as a series of 14 paintings or
relief sculptures depicting Christ’s crucifixion and
resurrection.
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Plateria the organic designs of hammered silver. The
plateria technique is also applied in the body of the carroza
where santos are paraded during town processions.
Portrait of the Quiazon Family by Simon Flores
Virgenes Christianas
Resurreccion Hidalgo
Spoliarium by Juan Luna
Expuestas
al
Populacho
by
Felix
With the coming of the Spaniards, they brought western musical
instrument like:
Pipe Organ
Piano
Violin
Guitar
Philippine musical forms also took on a very European flavor with
new rhythms, melodies, and musical forms, that Filipinos adopted
and make their own. Catholic liturgical music was introduce in 1972
when arcbishop of Manila, Juan Rodriques Angel, established a
singing school at the Manila Cathedral that taught western church
music.
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Musical form was based on the Catholic faith would emerge
in the pasyon or pabasa or biblical narration of Christ’s
passion chanted in an improvised melody.
Secular music form was flourished such as the awit and the
corrido.
 Kundiman and Balitao, balitao-sentimental love songs and
lullabies also evolved.
 Zarzuelas or Sarsuwela was an operetta which features
singing dancing interspersed with prose dialogue which
allowed the story to be carried out in song.
Severino Reyes and Hermogenes Ilagan, who wrote zarzuela in
Tagalog were the most distinguished playwright of their day with
Honorata “Atang” dela Rama (National Artist for theater and music,
awarded 1987) as their most celebrated leading actress.
 Senakulo or Passion Play written in 1704 by Gaspar Aquino
de Belen. It narrates Christ passion and death on the cross
and it is adapted into verse form and translated into local
language.
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Komedya depicts the conflict between the Muslims and
Christians.
 Among Mangyans of Mindoro, bamboo poles are cut into
smaller nodes and are etched with the Baybayin script used
to compose short poems that tell of courtship and other
emotional concerns. In the town of Ticao, Masbate, a huge
stone was discovered writing believed to be an invocation for
safe journey by sea.
Applying the technique of xylography or woodcut printing, Doctrina
Christiana (teaching of Christianity) was printed in 1593 in Spanish
and Tagalog by Dominican Priest.
Domestic families tended to their altar comprised of delicate santos
placed in virina, a bell-shaped glass case; or urna, a humbler often
attributed to the craftsmanship of artist from the Visayan region.
IV. American Colonial Period (1898-1940) to the Postwar
Republic (1946-1969)
The independence that the Philippines gained after the revolution of
1896 was cut short with the establishment of the American colonial
government in the bound by the Treaty of Paris in 1898, Spain
surrendered the Philippines to United States.
With the coming of the Americans, Filipino playwrights who had just
undergone the Philippines Revolution of 1898 against Spain now
found themselves confronted by censorship with the issuance of the
Sedition Law which banned the writing, printing and publication of
materials advocating Philippine independence and engaging in
activities which championed this cause.
 Plays such as Juan Abad’s Tanikalang Guinto or “Golden
Chain”,1902.
1902 Juan Matapang Cruz’s Hindi ako Patay or “I am Not Dead”,
1903 and Aurelio Tolentino’s Kahapon Ngayon, at Bukas or
“Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow”, 1903 echoed not only the
nationalist sentiments of their playwright but also served as political
protest, openly attacking the Americans.
 Aurelio Tolentino’s Kahapon Ngayon, at Bukas
 In 1915, Lino Castillejo and Jesus Araullo authored “A
Modern Filipino”, the first Filipino play written in English.
Unlike the latter’s pastoral images, Edade’s The Builders, showed
distorted figures of toiling workers using dull colors; a shift treatment
of form and subject matter.
Carlos “Botong” Francisco is known for his magisterial murals,
particurly, Filipino Stuggles Through History in 1964, one of the
largest and most ambitious in scope, which he did for the Manila City
Hall.
Inspired by the City Beautiful Movement introduced in 1893 at the
Chicago World Fair, the new urban design employed Neoclassic
architecture for its government edifices and integrated parks and
lawns to make the city attractive by making its building impressive
and places more inviting for leisure amid urban blight.
De la Rosa was known for his naturalist paintings characterized by
restraint and formally in brushwork, choice of somber colors, and
subject matter, as seen in the works Planting Rice, 1912 and El
Kundiman, 1930.
Edades, Francisco, and Ocampo have been regarded as the
“triumvirate” of modern art after having worked on several murals
together. A collaborative work that survives to this day is Nature’s
Bounty, which portrays a group of women harvesting fruits in a field.
A prolific artist, Amorsolo had produced numerous portraits of
prominent individuals; genre scenes highlighting the beauty of
dalagang Filipina, idyllic landscapes; and historical paintings.
Japanese Occupation (1941-1945)
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He was also a graphic artist who rendered drawings or the textbooks
series The Philippine Readers as well as illustrations for the
newspapers The Independent.
Amorsolo’s logo design for Ginebra San Miguel, won for him a grant
that enabled him to study Fine Arts in Spain.
Guillermo Tolentino was Amorsolo’s counterpart is sculpture. He is
credited for the iconic Oblation (1935, original/1958, bronze cast
found at the UP Oblation plaza) of University of the Philippines and
the Bonifacio Monument, 1933 in Caloocan.
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Under the Japanese occupation the Modern Art project slow
down in pace. Early moderns and conservative alike
continued to produce art and even participated in KALIBAPI
(Kapisanan sa paglilingkod ng Bagong Pilipinas) sponsored
art competition.
In 1943 and 1944, Purugganan and Francisco won
KALIBAPI awards. Art production once again tilted to fulfill
the agenda and demands of the new colonial order.
The Japanese forces led the formation of the Greater East
Co-Prosperity Sphere, a proganda movement that sought to
create a Pan-Asian identity that rejected western traditions.
Slogan such as “Asia for Asians” made its way to the public through
posters, ephemera, comics and Japanese sponsored publication
such as Shin-Seiko and in newspapers and magazines such as
Liwayway and Tribune.
In music, the composer National Artist Felipe P. De Leon was said to
have been “commanded at the point of the gun” to write Awit sa
Paglikha ng Bagong Pilipinas. Declared as anthem specially for
the period, it conveyed allegiance to the nation reared in East Asia,
where Japan was actively asserting its political power.
If art was strictly policed during the Second World War II, it brings us
little surprise that Amorsolo’s paintings, many of which showed little
or no indication of war’s atrocities, continued to be favored.
Examples include Harvest Scene and Rice Planting, 1942.
These paintings that evoke a semblance of peace, idealized work in
the countryside and promoted values of docile industrious. Such
mood is echoed by Sylvia La Torre’s hit song Sa Kabukiran, written
in Tagalog in the 1940’s by the acclaimed composer Levi Celerio
(National Artist for Music and Literature, awarded 1997)
Ruins of the Manila Cathedral, 1945
As examples, they draw attention to the elegant of value in the
billows of smoke or the pile of ruins rather than the urgency of the
disaster itself. Works which depicted the horrors of war such as
Diosdado Lorenzo’s Atrocities in Paco and Dominador Castañeda’s
Doomed Family were painted after 1945.
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The period looked promising for the development of modern
art. A group of artist who exemplified a new kind of
modernism emerged, and this was observed by the artistwriter E. Aguilar Cruz who named the Movement NeoRealism.
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Using modernist figuration, many of these artists explored
folk themes and also crafted commentaries on the urban
contidion and the effects of the war. Manansala, Legaspi and
HR Ocampo were among the National Artists associated
with the Neo-Realism.
La Torre’s operatic singing along with an energetic tempo offered an
escape from the troubles of war. Commissioned portraits of high
officials such as His excellency, Jorge B. Vargas, Chairman of the
Philippine Executive Commission,1943 and “Independence this
Year,” said His Excellency, Premier Tojo,1943 were also produced at
this time.
Portraits representing different ethnolinguistic groups were produced,
and this is exemplified by Crispin Lopez’s Study of an Aeta, 1943.
Although scenes from the war were also made, the imagery
remained neutral, focusing rather than the aesthetic qualities of ruin
and disaster.
Take Amorsolo’s Bombing of the Intendencia, 1942
Many of Manansala’s paintings are characterized by transparent
cubism, a style marked by the soft fragmentation of figures using
transparent planes instead of hard-edges one’s.
As exemplified in the painting Tuba Drinkers,1954, Legaspe’s
Gadgets II 1949 depicts half naked men almost engulfed in the
presence of machines.
Both employed concrete as primary material and experimented with
rounded or parabolic forms. Another remarkable example is the
Chapel of St. Joseph the Worker in Victorias, Negros, built by CzechAmerican architect Antonin Raymond.
Arturo Luz’s works is the use of stark linear elements, as seen in
Street Musicians, 1952 which pared down the figures into lines and
basic shapes.
Most of Legaspi’s figures in this period are distorted by his
elongating or making rotund forms in a well-ordered composition, as
seen in the painting Bar Girls, 1947, HR Ocampo’s The
Contrast,1940.
Ocampo’s painting Genesis, 1968, which puts together warm-colored
shapes, became the basis of the stunning tapestry hanging at the
Man Theater or Bulwagang Nicanor Abelardo of the CCP.
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Support institutions like the Art Association of the Philippines
(AAP) were established in 1948 under the leadership of artist
Purita Kalaw-Ledesma; while the Philippine Art Gallery
(PAG), which provided and laid out programs for modern art,
was put up in 1951 through the efforts of the artist –writer
Lydia Arguilla.
Also during this time, when there was little support for the
graphic artist, the printmaking workshop of Manuel
Rodriguez, Sr. was opened. Part of AAP’s initiative is to
support contests to encourage art production.
The 1950,s also saw the construction of modern Architectural
structures, particularly churches that modified or veered away from
traditional cruciform design. Within UP Diliman campus include the
Church of Holy Sacrifice,1955 and the Church of the Risen Lord.
V. 70’s to Contemporary
Under the helm of Ferdinand Marcos and Imelda Marcos beginning
in 1965, many cultural projects ensued amid the backdrop of poverty
and volatile social conditions. Amidst claims of national chaos of
emergency proportions, Martial Law, Marcos envisioned a New
Society or Bagong Lipunan, which worked toward the rebirth of a
long lost civilization, on one hand, and aspiration to modernization
and development, on the other.
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This vision was propagated and implemented through an art
and culture program that combined the fine arts,
architecture, interior design, tourism, convention city building
(hotels, theater, coliseums), engineering, urban planning and
health.
The discourse of rebirth can also be discerned in the anthem or
songs the regime sponsored and circulated through the media and
public education channels.
The optimism toward a new beginning was articulated for example,
in Levi Celerio and Felipe Padilla de Leon’s composition for the New
Society titled Bagong Pagsilang.
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National pride was instilled by evoking the pre-modern
through murals, folk festivals, and museums devoted in
collecting and displaying ethnographic artifacts and natural
specimens, among these sites was the National Museum,
which revitalized through Constitutional amendments.
At the center of this arts and culture program was the Cultural
Center of the Philippines (CCP), the premier bureaucratic
entity through which art acquisition, exhibition making,
workshops, grants, and awards were implemented.
For the group exhibition Objects, held at CCP in 1973 Chabet
tore up a copy of a coffee-table book on Philippine contemporary
art and placed it in a trash bin.
The work, entitled Tearing into Pieces, was seen as a
scandalous critique or the art world; in her book The Struggle for
the Philippine Art, artist, collector, critic and founder of the Art
Association of the Philippines Purita Kalaw-Ledesma described
the work as “anti-museum art
Albano (Chabet’s successor) argued that although some
experimental forms seemed wholly foreign, he invoke the
practice of adoring ephemeral and familiar objects in fiestas,
which shared processes and features with installation art.
An early example of installation art is Junyee’s Wood Things,
1981, made of kapok or cotton pods, installed on the walls and
floor of the CCP’s white cube spaces to make these look like
crawlers encroaching on the museum space.
Social Realism
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A significant strand that emerged during the intense political
ferment of the 70’s and the 80’s was Social Realism or SR, for
short. Using various mediums, techniques and styles, SR, is a
form of protest art that exposed the sociopolitical issues and
struggles of the times.
Kaisahan was composed of Antipas Delotavo, Neil Doloricon, Renato
Habulan, Edgar Talusan Hernandez, Al Manrique, Jose Tence Ruiz, and
Pablo Baen Santos.
Kaisahan’s influence as a collective reached organization like the group of
UP Fine Arts Students who eventually became known in the 80’s as the as
the Salingpusa.
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Varied forms of expression can be observed from the period which
spilled over from the previous decades.
In sculpture, Eduardo Castrillo’s gigantic metal work Pieta, 1969,
evoke a strong feeling of anguish and loss through the expressive
poses of Mary the mother and the oversized body of Christ.
In the 90’s, when support from the state was practically non-existent,
artist were empowered to initiate projects like regional festivals.
Meanwhile, as galleries began to spring up inside mall spaces,
equally intriguing were the budding of alternative and artist-run
spaces that supported experiments and D-I-Y (Do It Yourself)
projects of young artists.
Contemporary Philippine Arts from the Regions
Arts
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Art is a natural human behavior
Art is communication
Art tells our story
Art is a shared experience
Art is healing
 Contemporary art is a statement that an artist makes
about life, thoughts, ideas, beliefs and many other things
that define human life.
 Contemporary art is the art of today, produced by artists
who are living in the twenty-first century. It is integrative,
collaborative and process-oriented.
 Working in a wide range of mediums contemporary artist
often reflect and comment on modern day society.
Sculpture- is a kind of art that is done through modeling, casting,
welding, molding or carving a three dimensional subject using solid
medium such as stone, wood, metal, plastic, paper and other related
solid media.
 Napoleon Abueva, Father of modern Filipino sculpture, and
the youngest artist to receive the honor-is credited with
leading the way for the nation’s sculptors, and serves as a
living legend of the Filipino art world.
Architecture- is a form of art which involves planning, designing and
construction of buildings and other related structure which is said to
be a representation of society’s culture.
 Ildefonso P. Santos Jr. The father of Philippine landscape
architecture. It deals with parks, plazas, and green spaces.
Santos becomes National Artist for Architecture in 2006.
Kinds of Art
Painting- is an art activity that applies pigments or other forms of
medium (normally in liquid form) in the surface or base.
 In 2011, Ronald Ventura broke the record for highestgrossing Southeast Asian painting at Sotheby’s Hongkong
when his graphite, oil and acrylic work titled Grayground sold
$1.1 million. Ventura’s painting and sculpture feature multiple
layers of multifaceted national identity of the Philippines-a
country that, throughout history ,has been colonized by
United State, Spain and Japan.
Theater- is a form of art which uses live performances that
communicates through dances, dialogue, song or physical
movements.
Cecile Guidote-Alvarez-the Filipino “culture caregiver”. In 1967 this
young woman, who studied in USA, came back to her country and
created one of the most significant Filipino theatre group. The
Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA).
 PETA- an organization of creative and critical artist teachercultural workers committed to artistic excellence and
people’s culture that foster both personal fulfillment and
social transformation.
Dance- is an expression of a body language done in an artistic way.
Often the movement is accompanied by music and is done by taking
scenes using motion picture camera or a video camera.
Alice Reyes- newly-named National Artist for Dance. Founder of
Ballet Philippines and contemporary dance, the multi-talented
dancer, choreographer and artistic director.
Contemporary music in the Philippines usually refers to composition
that have adopted ideas and elements from twentieth century art
music in the west, as well as the latest trends and musical styles in
the entertainment industry.
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Ryan Cayabyab
Jose Mari Chan
Nilo Alcala
Francisco Buencamino
Nicanor Abelardo
Literature- refers to the art of written works.
Film- often called as motion picture refers to the recording of scene
whether rehearsed or not which depicts a story.
The New Golden Age: Contemporary Philippine Cinema
Norte, the end of History. 2013
Directed by: Lav Diaz
On the job.2013 Directed by Erik Matti
Thy Womb. 2012 Directed by Brillante Mendoza
Aparisyon.2012. Directed by Isabel Sandoval
Photography- is a kind of art which scientifically speaking refers to
the making of durable images through electromagnet radiation.
 BJ Pascual- he’s the city go-to-celebrity fashion
photographer whose work has featured on countless
magazine covers and high profile advertising campaign and
popular TV show, Asia’s Next Top Model.
Music- is the art of arranging a series of tones that creates a
pleasant and desirable melody.
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The work of:
Nick Jouquin
Amador Daguio
NVM Gonzales
Jose Garcia Villa
Edith L. Tiempo
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Elements of Art
Line
6. Color
Shape
7. Texture
Form
Value
Space
Line - an element of art defined by a point moving in space. Line
may be two-or three-dimensional, descriptive, implied, or abstract.
Shape - an element of art that is two-dimensional, flat, or limited to
height and width.
Form - an element of art that is three-dimensional and encloses
volume; includes height, width and depth (as in a cube, a sphere, a
pyramid, or a cylinder). Form may also be free flowing.
Value - The lightness or darkness of tones or colors. White is the
lightest value; black is the darkest. The value halfway between these
extremes is called middle gray. Dark items feel heavier than light
items.
PRINCIPLES OF ART
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Rhythm
Balance
Emphasis
Proportion
Gradation
6. Harmony
7. Variety
8. Movement
Space - an element of art by which positive and negative areas are
defined or a sense of depth achieved in a work of art.
1. Rhythm - a principle of design that indicates movement, created
by the careful placement of repeated elements in a work of art to
cause a visual tempo or beat.
Positive space is the area or part of an artwork’s composition that the
subject occupies. Negative space is the space within, between and
around objects.
2. Balance - a way of combining elements to add a feeling of
equilibrium or stability to a work of art. Major types are symmetrical
and asymmetrical.
Color -an element of art made up of three properties: hue, value,
and intensity. Hue: name of color
Symmetrical balance – with symmetrical balance, you could draw a
line down (or across) the middle of the project to create a mirror
image. This perfect bilateral symmetry feels elegant, formal and
conservative.
Value: hue’s lightness and darkness (a color’s value changes when
white or black is added)
Intensity: quality of brightness and purity (high intensity= color is
strong and bright; low intensity =color is faint and dull). Warm, bright
colors are more eye-catching than cool or neutral, muted ones. Red
is considered to be the “heaviest” and yellow is the “lightest”.
Texture - an element of art that refers to the way things feel, or look
as if they might feel if touched. Objects with texture appear threedimensional and feel physically heavier than objects without texture.
Asymmetrical balance – asymmetrical balance creates tension
through contrast and is much more visually interesting.
Because it’s abstract, there is no symmetry; there are no perfect
mirror images. Instead, you’re arranging elements of all different
visual weights in such a way that each side is still balanced out.
The “heavier” elements will jump forward and catch the eye more
than the “lighter” ones, which will recede. This type of balance feels
casual, free and energetic.
3. Emphasis (contrast) - a way of combining elements to stress the
differences between those elements.
4. Proportion - a principle of design that refers to the relationship of
certain elements to the whole and to each other.
5. Gradation - a way of combining elements by using a series of
gradual changes in those elements. (Large shapes to small shapes,
dark hue to light hue, etc.)
6. Harmony - a way of combining similar elements in an artwork to
accent their similarities (achieved through use of repetitions and
subtle gradual changes)
7. Variety - a principle of design concerned with diversity or contrast.

Perspective – Is the way we look into a particular object.
Perspective is in the eye of the beholder. What is beautiful
for you might not be beautiful for the others or what is
beautiful for the others might not be beautiful for you.
This is the way we look into the object that is, most of the time,
considered as a subject, looking into the subject might be in Linear
or in aerial way.
Variety is achieved by using different shapes, sizes, and/or colors in
a work of art.
Linear perspective deals with the organization of shapes in space.
8. Movement - principle of design used to create the look and feeling
Aerial perspective also called as atmospheric perspective deals with
the atmospheric effects on tones and colors.
of action and to guide the viewer’s eye throughout the work of art.
Subject – refers to the main idea of a work. The subject is the
concentration of the artist and is the element that should come out in
the eyes of the beholder. Often, title or name of a work of art is
actually the subject. Example: Tree and Mother and Child.
Medium – refers to the materials that the artist is using. In painting,
this refers to the coloring materials the artist uses. In drawing, these
are the ones used to illustrate a subject. In sculpture, this refers to
the solid materials that can be used to come up with a subject.
Common example of medium in art
Painting- Oil paint, Acrylic, Plant pigment, water color, poster paint,
Textile, paint, Ink
Drawing/Sketching – Crayon, Charcoal, Pastel, Colored pencil,
colored pen
Sculpture- Marble, Stone, Ice, Wax, Metal, Wood, Fruits, Clay
Plastic – Candies, Junk, Glass, Paper, Concrete, Terra cota