BASIC ELEMENTS OF VISUAL ART

INTENDED LEARNING OUT COMES

After Completing this lesson, students will be able to

• Name the basic elements of visual art.

• Identify the three properties of color.
• Use complementary colors in an art work.
• Name the different kinds of line.
• Explain the difference between shapes and forms.
• Explain the two ways we experience texture.
• Experiment with the elements of art.
BASIC ELEMENTS OF VISUAL ART
Elements of art are stylistic features that are
included within an art piece to help the artist
communicate. The seven most common
elements are line, color, shape, texture,
form, space, and value

THESE ELEMENTS ARE ACTUALLY THE

PERCEPTIBLE THINGS SEEN IN AN ART
 LINE is defined as path of a moving
point through space. Line is the
simplest, the most primitive and
most universal means of creating
visual arts. (Dudley)…the linear
marks with a pen

Line is found in all the

arts
Vertical lines give the impression of height and
strength and often have a spiritual connotation

In art, vertical lines

appear to be at
attention. Artists use
them to show dignity,
formality, or strength.
Horizontal lines create the feeling of stability and
calm.

Horizontal lines
make the viewer feel
comfortable, calm,
and relaxed.
Diagonal lines give movement and
dynamism to a composition.

diagonal lines
signal action
and
excitement.
Since they
appear to be
either rising or
falling,
diagonals
sometimes
make a viewer
feel tense and
uncomfortable.
Curved lines change direction gently with no sharp angles
and suggest comfort and ease to the viewer. Curved lines
most often relate to the natural world.
Like diagonal lines,
curved lines, express
movement, though in a
more graceful, flowing
way.
Zigzag lines alter direction fast and create
feelings of unrest, turmoil and movement.

They suggest action

and nervous
excitement.
Sometimes zigzags
move in even
horizontal patterns,
like those at the top
of a picket fence.
These are less
active than the
jagged lines in a
diagonal streak of
lightning.
Color is present in painting and is one
of its most important elements.
However, it is of less importance in
sculpture where black or white, natural
wood, marble, stone, or metal can be
used as well.
ATTRIBUTES OF COLOR

Hue
 Hue is a color’s name. Red,
yellow, and blue are the primary hues.
They are always equally spaced on
the color wheel. They are called
primary, or first, because they can be
used to mix all the other colors but
cannot themselves be made by the
mixing of other colors.

 The secondary hues are green,

orange, and violet. The place of each
on the color wheel – between the
primary hues – tells which hues can
be mixed to make it. To get orange, for
example, you mix equal parts of red
and yellow. Can you identify the colors
that you would mix to obtain the
remaining secondary hues?

 Intermediate hues are made by

mixing a primary hue with its
neighboring secondary hue. When
you mix the primary hue yellow with
the secondary hue green, you get the
intermediate hue yellow-green.
ATTRIBUTES OF COLOR

 Value is the lightness or darkness of a

hue.

 You can change the value of a hue by

adding black or white. In art, a light (or
whiter) value of a hue is called a tint. Pink is
a mixture of red and white. Pink could be
called a tint. A dark (or blacker) value is
called a shade. Maroon is a mixture of red
and black. It could be called a shade. Be
careful when using these terms. In everyday
language, the word shade is often used to
describe both light and dark values of a hue.
ATTRIBUTES OF COLOR

 Intensity
the brightness or dullness of a
hue. A bright hue is said to be high
in intensity. A dull hue is said to be
low in intensity. Bright yellow is
high in intensity. Mustard yellow is
low in intensity.
 The element of art that refers to an area
SHAPE clearly set off by one or more of the other
elements of art.

The world we live in is made up basically of two things: objects and

space. Each object – a car, an apple, a book, even you – has a
shape or a form. Often you are able to pick out objects by their forms
or shapes alone. Sometimes you can spot a friend in the distance just
by recognizing his or her shape. With your eyes closed you could feel
an object and tell that it has a round form.

When a line meets up to enclose a space, a shape is

formed
 SHAPES CAN BE
Geometric They are made with a ruler or drawing tool. The square, the circle,
Shapes the triangle, the rectangle and the oval are the five (5)
geometric shapes

Organic shapes
also called free
form
Shapes are 2-dimensional, i.e. they have height
and width but no depth e.g. a square. The best
way to remember the shape element is to think
of an outline.

Positive or Negative Shapes

The object you draw on your page is a shape enclosed in a frame. This
frame may be a box you drew to designate the edges of your drawing
area or the edge of the page if you didn’t draw a box. The object you
draw is the positive shape. The rest of the space in your box (or if you
didn’t draw a box then the rest of the page) is called negative shape.
FORM Form is the next step up from shape as we now
add depth to it to create a three dimensional form.

Form encloses volume

i.e. height, width as
well as depth.

Architecture and Sculpture are both three – dimensional,

occupying space while painting is only two dimensional; a
flat surface.
 Like shapes,
forms can be
geometric or
organic.
Organic forms
are common in
nature while
geometric forms
are more
characteristic of
architecture and
man-made
items.

Here you can see how shading has been used to create the
illusion of 3-dimensional objects on a flat wall:
 This element pertains to the distance
SPACE
between, around, above, below and within
things or objects
In both two and three-dimensional
works of art, the shapes or forms are Positive Main object
Space

The empty spaces between

the shapes are Negative Space Objects around the main
object
How do artists create this feeling of space between objects?
Overlapping
When an object is drawn or painted on top of another
object the viewer’s eye interprets this as one object being
in front of another implying there must be a space
between them.
Placement
Objects higher up in the picture plane will seem to the
viewer’s eye to be further away than objects placed low down
in the picture frame.
Size
Smaller objects look as if they are further away than larger
objects. Notice how much smaller the house is in relation to
the flowers.
Detail
The further away an object, the less
detail is visible to the viewer. By
purposely reducing the amount of
detail in an object it will appear further
away than an object with greater detail.
Color and Value
Objects in the distance usually appear cooler (bluer) and lighter in
color. Close up objects appear warmer and darker in value.
 Generally referred to as the tactile element or the use of
TEXTURE the sense of touch
It has something to do with character of
surface
Rough Smooth Shiny Dull Plain irregular
In painting, texture can be felt with the artist’s thick paint and in modern
time added objects such as screws and bolts to scraps of cloth or metal.
Texture may also reveal itself when it catches or reflects the light.
Norberto Carating
Value is how light or dark
something (subject) is.

There is a scale of light and dark from pure white through to pitch black.
The value of a color depends on how light or dark it is compared to the
value scale.
Getting the values right is more important than getting the colors right in
painting. Value is what makes it possible to show 3-dimensional forms in
a 2-dimensional surface.
If a painting is done on the lower (darker) edge of the value scale it
is called a “low key” painting. Low key paintings give rise to a heavy,
mysterious, dramatic, sometimes brooding feeling in the viewer.
By contrast “high
key” paintings
take their range
of values from
the upper end of
the value scale
and create
emotions of
lightness,
quickness,
spirituality etc.
If there’s a gradual transition in value it conveys to the
viewer that the surface is gently rounded. This is called a
smooth edge.
If however there is a rapid transition between values it
means there is an edge. This is called a hard edge.