Hayna Marie D.

Aguilar BSA-2B October 4, 2021

REFLECTION: LESSON 3

As stated in the learning materials given to us, we will begin to learn the “language of
art” through a structured approach to terms and examples used to describe and analyse any work
of art. The basis of this language is the artistic elements– the irreducible and abstract ingredients
that generate creative form.
Just as spoken language is based on fundamental letters, sounds and grammar, visual art
is based on elements and principles that, when used together, create works that communicate
ideas and meaning to the viewer. We can refer to them as the building blocks of composition in
visual art. A composition is the organized layout of an image or object according to the rules of
design. The best way to understand the elements and principles is to study them within a variety
of artworks.
Understanding the formalist method helps us to look at art in a new way. It’s important
to understand the method of looking at artwork because it will allow us to understand STYLE,
the aesthetic values or physical techniques used in making art, and MASS or FORM, the way a
work of art looks, the visual element upon which all others are based which is the POINT.
QUALITIES OF LINE, they help determine the motion, direction and energy in a work of art.
The POSITIVE shapes, NEGATIVE shapes & PLANAR ISSUES. A PLANE is defined as any
surface area in space. In two-dimensional art, the picture plane is the flat surface an image is
created upon. Clearly artists are as concerned with SPACE in their works as they are with, say,
colour or form. There are many ways for the artist to present ideas of space. Remember that
many cultures traditionally use pictorial space as a window to view realistic subject matter
through, and through the subject matter they present ideas. VALUE is the relative lightness or
darkness of a shape in relation to another. The value scale, bounded on one end by pure white
and on the other by black, and in between a series of progressively darker shades of grey, gives
an artist the tools to make these transformations.
In other words, the different artistic elements are great help to make a ‘new art within the
art’. They give life to the artwork, the colour, shapes, texture and other that was mentioned
above. Artwork will not become art if those elements are not present.