The Elements and Principles of

Art

The elements and principles can be applied to

discuss any of the visual arts including:

painting, photography, set design, graphic

design, sculpture, and architecture.

Elements Colour

Line

Shape

Form

Space

Texture

Value/Tone

The elements are the

building blocks of art and

what the artist uses to

create the artwork.

Elements are also what

the critic uses to talk

about the work.

COLOUR

• If an artist chooses to use all shades of

one color from dark to light, the work is

MONOCHROMATIC.

• If the artist chooses a variety of hues,

the work is POLYCHROMATIC.

Primary Colours

Primary colors are the only colours that cannot be made

by mixing two other colours together.

Yellow + Red = ?

Red + Blue = ?

Blue + Yellow = ?

Artist: Piet Mondrian

Secondary Colors Mixing primary colours will create secondary colours

Yellow

Blue

Green

Orange

Red Purple

Tertiary Colors Mixing secondary colors will create tertiary

colours

Yellow-Orange

Red-Orange

Violet Indigo

Blue-Green

Lime Green

What are complementary colors?

Complimentary colors are directly across from each other on the color wheel.

Yellow and Purple

Red and Green Blue and Orange

Complementary Colours

• Complementary colours are

opposite one another on

the colour wheel, they

create contrast.

• They have the most visual

impact if there is a lot of

one colour and a little of

the other colour

What are analogous colors? Adjacent hues, colors that are right beside each other on the wheel.

Cool and Warm Colours

• Cool Colors

– Blues

– Greens

– Purples

• Warm Colors

– Reds

– Oranges

– Yellows

To the eye… -Warm colours come forward

-Cool colours recede (go backwards)

Warm and Cool Colours

Limited Colour Palette

• is when a small number of colours are used

• Creates unity in the work

Where in these works by Van Gogh

can you see the following use of colour?

- Warm and Cool Colours

- Complementary Colours

- Limited Colour Palette

LINE a mark on a surface

Vertic

al

Horizontal

Curvilinear

Types of Lines

A diagonal line can imply movement.

A vertical line can imply strength and growth

A horizontal line can imply stability and rest

A curved line can imply grace

-Geometric shapes are ‘man-made’ or machine made

shapes, mathematically deduced, with clear sharp

edges.

-Organic shapes are natural, free flowing shapes

SHAPE 2-dimensional line with no form or thickness

Speaking of shapes…

• One can refer to the shapes in

relationship to each other by using terms

like: adjacent and juxtaposed.

• A d j a c e n t shapes are right

beside each other.

• Shapes that are juxtaposed are

overlapping or interconnected.

-What shapes can you see in this art work?

-Where can you see adjacent shapes?

-Where can you see shapes that have been juxtaposed?

FORM A 3-dimensional object. It can be both the illusion of a 3-D effect that can be implied with the use

of light and shading techniques

or it can be real 3-D form with a sculpture or textured painting.

SPACE Making art is a process of organizing and arranging space

Space refers to the area between, around, above, below,

or within objects

Open and Closed Space In a painting, if subject matter is both in the frame and leaving the

frame, the space is open.

If the viewer’s eyes are kept in the center of the canvas and all the

subject matter and elements are within the edges of the frame, the

artist has composed a closed space.

-The positive space is the

material

- The negative space is the

absence of material.

Positive and Negative Space

What is the POSITIVE space?

What is the NEGATIVE space?

Illusion of Space As painting, printmaking and photography is created on a

flat surface. Any depth (3 Dimensionality) in space is

usually an illusion (it does not really exist).

• To create the illusion of space artists use…

• Perspective- created by using lines that recede (go back) to a vanishing point

• Foreground, Middleground and Background

TASK:

1) What do you see in the

-Foreground

-Middleground

-Background

2) Using s_________ by creating a

fore, middle and background and

/ or using perspective space

creates d_ _ t _ in a composition

TEXTURE Texture refers to what the surface feels like as well as

the representation of texture.

The smooth texture of skin in this close up of

a marble sculpture by Bernini is remarkable.

• Texture can be both REAL and IMPLIED

REAL TEXTURE IMPLIED TEXTURE

VALUE/TONE Value is the lightness and darkness in a work of

art present in colours or black and whites.

Tint and Shade

Tint means to add white to make the color lighter.

tint

shade

Shade means to add black to make the color darker.

Principles Movement

Emphasis

Unity

Variety

Balance

Contrast

Proportion

Pattern

Principles are the

effects that can be

created by how the

elements are placed in

an artwork.

MOVEMENT Is caused by using elements

to give the feeling of action

and

to guide the viewer's eyes

throughout the artwork.

EMPHASIS -The emphasis of an

image is the place

where your eyes are

drawn to first.

-Usually this focal point

will contrast with

nearby elements so

that it stands out.

Where is the

emphasis in this

painting?

Why does this area

stand out?

Does this painting have a focal point?

RULE OF THIRDS

If the focal point is on the rule of thirds it:

• works with the eyes natural tendency to look

at the intersections of the thirds

• allows you to create balance in your

composition as there is room to have a

another point of emphasis somewhere else in

your composition.

• keeps the viewer’s eye on the composition

longer as the eye is being led around the

image to the next focal point.

UNITY -Unity brings a composition together by using

elements in a similar way

How has unity been created in the following

works?

VARIETY Creates interest by using elements in a range of ways.

Unbalanced

composition

BALANCE When elements are arranged so that

no one part of a work overpowers, or

seems heavier than any other part.

Symmetrical Balance Is where the image can be folded in half and both

sides would match up

Asymmetrical balance A range of differing elements are placed in the frame

unevenly but equal weight or interest is present on

both sides of the composition .

CONTRAST Occurs when there is a large difference in the

way an element is used.

-High contrast refers to a great difference

between elements.

-Low contrast refers to a slight difference

between elements.

Very dark tone

Very light tone

High contrast image Low contrast image

A small range of tones

Chiaroscuro (,

Italian: "light-dark") in art is "an

Italian term which literally means

'light-dark'. In paintings and

photography the description refers to

clear tonal contrasts which are often

used to suggest the volume and

modelling of the subjects depicted".1

Further specialized uses include

chiaroscuro woodcut, for coloured

woodcuts printed with different

blocks, each using a different coloured

ink; and chiaroscuro drawing for

drawings on coloured paper with

drawing in a dark medium and white

highlighting. Similar effects in the

lighting of cinema and photography are

also chiaroscuro.

PROPORTION Is the relationship created by the different

sizes of elements in a composition.

Proportions are often

normal and expected.

They can also be

exaggerated and distorted.

PATTERN

There is visual effect in pattern and emphasis

created in the variation on that pattern.

Where does your eye go first?

Andreas Gursky b1955

Bahrain I 2005

Colour photograph on paper

face-mounted on Perspex

2800 x 1975 mm

This image depicts the Formula 1 racetrack in Bahrain as seen

from a helicopter. Andreas Gursky works with a medium-format

camera, taking pictures which he then scans into a computer

where he can manipulate them. His aim in using digital

technology is not to create fictions, but rather to heighten the

image of something that exists in the world. Unlike some of

Gursky’s more elaborately composed images, this photograph is

a minimally manipulated shot of the racetrack spiralling through

the desert. The human figure, represented by the race cars visible

on the track, is dwarfed by the man-made landscape. The image

draws attention to the speed of process and the might of

technology. Bahrain I also represents a tendency in Gursky’s work

towards abstraction; the sinuous lines of the racetrack in this

image evoke gestural abstract painting.