Elements of Visual Arts

Continuation...

Mr. John Riel B. Labiang

Elements of Visual Arts
❑Line
❑Curved lines
❑Color
❑Light and Shadow
❑Shape
❑Texture
❑Space
❑Movement
 Line
 A line can be defined in various ways: It is the
path made by a moving point; a series of dots; a
prolongation of points or according to Paul Klee’
a dot that went for a walk.’
 One definition of line however, that captures its
essence in the visual arts is it being an intended
mark made by the artist to convey meaning
beyond its physical description.
 Kinds of Lines
❑Straight lines
a. Horizontal lines
b. Vertical lines
c. Diagonal lines
d. Zigzag lines

❑ Curved lines
 Kinds of Lines
 Straight lines – are geometric and impersonal
and differ in the direction that they take. The
straight lines may move from left to right, start
from going down, slant or move up and down
forming angles. Whatever is the direction, each
kind indicates a specific type of emotion.
 a. Horizontal lines
 Move from left to right or vice versa.
 It is a line that appear to be laying down.
Horizontals in visual art imply calmness, serenity
and rest.
 Paintings and picture of landscape and seascapes
are primarily horizontal.
 b. Vertical lines
 Start from the bottom going up or vice versa.
 It is a line that appears to be standing.
 Verticals in the visual art suggest balance,
strength, and stability.
 It is also indicates poise and independence.
 Monuments and statues of heroes in sculpture are
presented as verticals.
 c. Diagonal lines
 Are slanting lines. In the visual art, diagonals
suggest two meanings, a positive and negative
one.
 On the positive, diagonals indicate action and
movement i.e. To go forward and act.
 On the negative, it conveys a feeling of
uncertainty, stress or defeat.
 d. Zigzag lines
 Are angular lines that resulted because of abrupt
change in the direction of a straight line thus
forming angles.
 The lines are unpleasant and harsh which portrays
tension, conflict, chaos, or violence.
 Kinds of Lines
Curved Line
 Are technically curvilinear lines.
 These lines are found in the nature particularly in
living organisms.
 Curve lines suggest grace, movement, and
flexibility indicative of life and energy.
 Color
 Color is a property of light. So when light goes
out, color goes with it. Color composed of a
series of wave lengths which strike the retina of
the eyes. A ray of light contains all the color of
the visible spectrum – red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo and violet (ROY G BIV).
 The visible spectrum discovered by Sir Isaac
Newton through the use of a prism. Passing white
light through a prism breaks it into a band of the
visible colors (just like a rainbow).
 Properties of Color
❑Hue
❑Value
❑Intensity
 Hue
 Is the name given to the color, for example: Red,
Green, Violet and Blue. For pigment, Red,Yellow
and Blue.
 They are considered primary because these hues
cannot be produced from combining any hues.
 When two primary hues are mixed in equal
amounts, secondary hues are produced.
 The secondary hues are Orange, Green and Violet
 Mixing equal amounts of the primary and
secondary hues produces intermediate hues, Red
orange, red violet, yellow orange, yellow green,
blue green and blue violet. Combining in equal
mixture any two secondary hues produces the
tertiary hues.
Primary Colors
Secondary Colors
 Value
 Refers to the lightness or darkness of a color.
 The value of any hue can be changed by adding a
neutral such as black or white.
 This results in changing the quantity of light the
hue reflects. When black is combined with a hue,
a shade is produced; when white is added to it, a
tint results. Thus, maroon is a shade while pink is
a tint.
 Intensity
 Denotes the brightness and dullness of a color.
 It gives color it’s strength. Color differ in intensity or
vividness.
 Hues become less intense (dull) when white is added
because the color becomes lighter in value. When black
is added, the intensity diminishes, as the value darkens.
When gray is added, the result will be a variation in
intensity without any change in value. The color becomes
less bright but neither lighter nor darker in its tone.
When a hue is in its most vivid form, it is said to be full
intensity.
 How Colors Relate
 One method of establishing color quality in a
composition is by creating color harmony.
 There are several ways of creating harmony that
an artist can use. The most common are the
monochromatic, complementary, analogous color
harmonies and color temperature.
 Monochromatic Harmony
 Results when a single color in the composition is
varied in intensity and value by adding white or
black.
 Ex. Green Monochromatic Harmony
 Complementary harmony
 Results when two colors that are opposite each
other in the color wheel are placed side by side.
 For example: Red and Green, yellow and Violet
or Blue and Orange. The colors are
complementary because they contrast each
other’s brightness.
 Analogous Harmony
 Results when hues that are adjacent or beside
each other in the color wheel is used in a
composition.
 Examples are Red-Orange-Yellow and Blue-Blue
Violet-blue.
 Color Temperature
 Refers to the relative warmth or coolness of a
color. Warm colors are colors that have Yellow as
its dominant component while cool colors have
Blue as their dominant component.
 Thus orange, yellow-green and red-orange are
considered warm while violet, blue-green and
green are cool.
 On the color wheel, colors closest to Yellow are
warm and those closest to Blue are cool colors.
 Shape
 In the visual arts, a shape is formed when two
ends of a line meet to enclose an area.
 Shapes may present themselves as flat or two-
dimensional and solid or three-dimensional on a
picture plane.
 A circle, a square or a triangle are two-
dimensional while a sphere, a cube and a cone are
three-dimensional shapes.
 Three-dimensional shapes on a flat surface gives
the viewers the illusion of mass and volume.
 Classification of Shapes
 Natural or Organic shapes are those seen in
nature like the shape of leaves, animals,
mountains, flowers and seashells.
 Abstract shapes are those that have little or no
resemblance to natural objects.
 Non-objective or Biomorphic shapes
seldom or no resemblance to organic forms.
 Geometric shapes are the triangles, rectangles,
squares, cylinder, cubes.
 Texture
 Refers to the fell or tactile quality of the surface
of an object.
 It has to do with characteristic of surface,
whether it is rough or smooth, fine or coarse,
polished or dull, plain or irregular.
 The element of texture if found in all visual arts.
 Space
 Space is an illusion in the graphic arts. It is
created by techniques that adds depth and
distance to two-dimensional art.
 Methods of creating space:
a. Overlapping planes (interposition)
b. Relative size
c. Position
d. Perspective
 Overlapping planes (interposition)
 Create space when an object covers a part of
another object which is behind it.
 This method gives the viewer the impression that
whole/ complete objects are near and partially
covered ones are far.
 Relative size
 Objects that appear large-big indicate nearness and small
size objects as distant.
 Relative size aside from creating the illusion of space can
also be interpreted as power and import.
 A figure that occupies more than half of the picture plane
will certainly appear overpowering, whereas a small
figure on a large plane will seem quite insignificant
 Position on the picture plane
(relative height)
 In some paintings, spatial representation is based
upon the position of objects relative to the
bottom of the frame.
 Those objects found at the bottom of the frame
will appear closer to the viewer. Farther distance
are indicated by the positions of the objects
higher on the picture plane.
 The point of references is the horizontal line which is the
line art eye level. A picture plane can be divided into
three parts: The foreground (bottom), the middle
ground *where the horizon is and the background
(topmost part). Distance is perceived by the spatial
position of objects on the picture plane.
 Color is also used to give illusion of distance. Warm
colors advance and makes objects look closer while
colors recede making objects look further away. Some
artists have exploited this to deepen or flatten space in
their works.
 In painting, the foreground uses warm colors and the
background cool colors.
 Perspective
 Deals with the effect of distance on the
appearance of objects.
 It enables the viewer to perceive distance and to
see the position of objects in space.
 To depth or distance, an artists uses both linear
and aerial perspective.
 Linear perspective
 Gives the perception distance by means of
converging lines.
 It has to do with the direction of lines and with
the size of objects.
 The painter makes use of converging lines and
diminishing sizes to show the effect of space and
distance i.e. Where the parallel lines move closer
to each other, the sizes of objects decrease.
Linear Perspective
 Aerial perspective (gradient)
 Is the effect of haze, mist or atmosphere on the
object. Near objects are seen in detail with the
full intensity of color and as objects recede,
details are loss and objects appear grayer.
 Movement
a. Actual movement in art, specifically in
sculptures results in kinetic art. Actual
movement may be achieved naturally using
wind and water or mechanically through some
energy source (batteries or electricity).
b. Implied Movement results when a variety of
lines are used together, repeated changed in
position or decreased/increased in size.
Actual Implied
Thank You! ☺