ELEMENTS

OF FINE ARTS
Lines
 Visual path
 Boundaries
of shapes
and figures
SERENITY

STABILITY
STRENGTH

STURDINESS
 INSTABILITY
ACTION

UNREST
MOVEMENT
UNCERTAINTY
FLUIDITY
GRACE

GRADUAL CHANGE OF
DIRECTION
ABRUPT CHANGE OF
DIRECTION

TENSION CONFUSION
CHAOS CONFLICT
Sandro Boticelli’s The Birth of Venus
Edvard
Munch,
The
Scream.
SHAPES
ORGANIC
GEOMETRIC
 Piet
Mondrian,
Broadway
Boogie
Woogie.
SPACE
Manipulations of Space

Figure-
Ground
Relations
hip

POSITIVE – space created by an image or sculpture

NEGATIVE – space around and between parts of an
image or sculpture
Use of Tesselation

M.C. Escher,
Regular Division of
the Plane with
Horsemen
Source:
http://f98.middlebury.edu/
Manipulations
of Space

Spatial
Organization
Edgar Degas,
Dancers Practicing
at the Bar (1877)
Source:
http://www.metmuseum.org
 Suzanne Valadon,
Reclining Nude on a Sofa (1928)
Source: http://www.flickr.com
Manipulations of Space

Overlapping
Planes

Marie Laurencin,
Group of Artists
Manipulations in Space

• Perspective
Vanishing point

Linear Perspective
Egyptian
Art:
No perspective
Pierro della Francesca, View of an Ideal City (1460)
Meindert Hobbema, Avenue at Middleharnis (1689)
 Canaletto, View of Venice: Grand Canal,
Looking Southwest from the Chiesa degli Scalzi to the Fondamenta della Croce (1738)
Nachi Mandara with buildings, people, and waterfall depicted.
Kamakura Period (c. 12th-13th century)
Source: http://gensem.net/
Andrea Mantegna, Lamentation Over the Dead Christ (c. 1490)
Manipulations in
Space

• Variations in size

Raphael,
St. George Killing the Dragon
Manipulations in Space
Positions on the Picture Plane

Hokusai, Boy Viewing Mt. Fuji

FOREGROUND
 Large size
 Low in the picture
 Parallel lines far apart
 Overlapping other forms
 Sharply defined forms
 Intense colors
 Rough textures
SUMMARY: Manipulations in
Space
BACKGROUND
 Small size
 Set high in the picture
 Parallel lines converging
 Overlapped by other forms
 Blurred forms
 Grayed colors
 Smooth textures
COLORS
PIGMENTATION
• The property that
enables things to
absorb and reflect
only one color
from the spectrum
COMPLEMENTARY
ANALOGOUS

PRIMARY
TRIAD
SECONDARY
TRIAD
INTERMEDIATE
THE TRIADS
COOL & WARM
Water
Lily
Pond
by
Claude
Monet
Sunrise by Claude Monet
 ORANGE

Flesh,
warmth,
life,
informality,
approachability

Flaming June
Lord Frederic Leighton
BLUE

Coolness
Reserved
Elegance
Distance
Sadness
RED
Passion
Erotic
Anger
Danger

Little Red Dress

Julia Schwartz
THE THREE COMPONENTS
OF COLOR
1. Hue
Hue is another term for the names of color –
in other words, it is how we call the actual
color of a pigment or object. Strictly, there
are only seven (7) hues: those of the rainbow.
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and
violet.
THE THREE COMPONENTS
OF COLOR
2. INTENSITY (aka CHROMA OR SATURATION)
This is the brightness or dullness of a hue
created by mixing a color with its
complement (e.g., red with green). The
chroma or saturation of a color is a measure
of how vibrant or intense it is. Think of it as
“pure, bright color,” compared to a color
diluted with white, or darkened by black or
grey.
THE THREE COMPONENTS
OF COLOR
3. VALUE (aka TONE)
Value or tone is the quality and depth of a color,
particularly the gradations from light to dark. A color
may be “toned down” to make it less vivid, or
“toned up” to make it more solid or brighter.

It is a measure of how light or dark a color is,

without any consideration for its hue. Value may
further be classified as the shade of a color,
composed by adding more black pigment, or a tint,
composed by adding more white pigment.
VALUE
Relationship
between
blacks,
whites and
grays

INTENSITY
Degree of lightness and
darkness in a color
THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
INTENSITY AND VALUE:

• With intensity you’re considering how pure or

intense the hue is; with value, you’re not
considering what the hue is at all – just how light
or dark it is.
• Intensity is either bright or dull; value is either
light or dark.
• You create intensity by adding more or less of its
complementary hue; you create value by adding
black or white to a pigment.
NEUTRALS (black, white and grey)
 Rembrandt, TENEBRISM
Christ in the – heightened
Storm on the chiaroscuro
Sea of Galilee
(interplay of
light and
shadow)
 Caravaggio,
The Conversion
on the Road to
Damascus
 Magdalen
by
Georges de La Tour
TEXTURE
TEXTURE
• clarifies
space
• creates
spatial
depth and
volume
• Impasto
Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night
Source: http://www.art.com
 VINCENT And now I understand what you tried
to say to me
Don McLean How you suffered for your sanity
How you tried to set them free.
Starry , starry night
They would not listen
Paint your palette blue and grey
They did not know how
look out on a summer's day
Perhaps they'll listen now.
with eyes that know the
darkness in my soul.
Starry, starry night
Shadows on the hills
flaming flowers that brightly blaze
sketch the trees and the daffodils
swirling clouds in violet haze
catch the breeze and the winter chills
reflect in Vincent's eyes of China blue.
in colors on the snowy linen land.
 VINCENT
Don McLean
Colors changing hue
morning fields of amber grain
weathered faces lined in pain are soothed
beneath the artist's loving hand.
And now I understand what you tried to say
to me
how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free,
perhaps they'll listen now.
For they could not love you
But still your love was true
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry starry night.
You took your life as lovers often
do;
But I could have told you, Vincent,
this world was never meant
for one as beautiful as you.
VINCENT
Don McLean
Starry, starry night And now I think I know what you
portraits hung in empty halls tried to say to me
how you suffered for your sanity
frameless heads on nameless
how you tried to set them free.
walls
They would not listen
with eyes that watch the world they're not list'ning still
and can't forget. perhaps they never will.
Like the stranger that you've met
the ragged men in ragged clothes
the silver thorn of bloody rose
lie crushed and broken on the
virgin snow.
Vincent Van
Gogh,
Road with
Cypress and
Star.
Georges Seurat, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island
of La Grande Jatte (1886)
Seurat, Grande
Jatte (detail)