Visual Arts

What is art?
• Is God an artist or are artists like God?
God Artist
Something out of nothing Something out of something
Creation of nature Imitation of nature

• The “Art” in Artificial

• Art is man-made
• Art is a reaction to nature
• Borrowing elements from nature and then changing/transforming.
What Constitutes Art?
• The work
• The Artist
• The Audience
• The Universe
The Code
• The Code Medium

The Artist The Audience

Message
Sender/ Catalyst Receiver

The Context/ Universe

Background, Setting
What They Say Art Is
• Life is short, art endures. – Hippocrates
• True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist. –
Albert Einstein
• Art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the
touchstone of our judgment. –John F. Kennedy
• Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. – Pablo
Picasso
• It is through art, and through art only, that we can realize our
perfection; through art, and art only that we can shield ourselves from
the sordid perils of actual existence. – Oscar Wilde
What they say Art Is

Every genuine art in its own way is a path to the inmost reality of man
and of the world. It is therefore a wholly valid approach to the realm of
faith, which gives human experience its ultimate meaning.
-Pope John Paul II
Values of Art
• Intellectual – appeals to our mental faculty/mind

• Suggestive – appeals to our feelings

• Spiritual – appeals to our soul (moral values)

• Aesthetic – appeals to our sense of beauty

Principles of Art
Proportion - refers to the relationship of certain elements to the whole
and to each other in terms of size.
• Greek proportion of the human body: 8 heads tall
Unity and Harmony - refers to the relationship of certain elements to
the whole and to each other.

Economy – the use of only necessary elements.

Emphasis – placing more focus on central object.

Rhythm - indicates movement, created by the
careful placement of repeated elements in a
work of art to cause a visual tempo or beat.
Vincent Van Gogh – The Starry Night (1889)
Balance - the concept of visual equilibrium, and relates to our physical
sense of balance. It is a reconciliation of opposing forces in a
composition that results in visual stability.
• Symmetrical/Formal

• Asymmetrical
Jan Van Eyck – The Ghent Altarpiece (1432)
Katsushika Hokusai - The Great Wave off Kanagawa (1832)
Organization/Plan – how the objects in the piece are arranged

• Radial - major lines radiating from a center point.

• Pyramidal - has main elements that form a triangle.

• Vertical/Columnar - has a main object that forms an upright

or vertical rectangle or column.

• Parallel/Symmetrical - has two sides that are parallel to each other,

almost as if the basic lines were drawn on one side in wet ink, and
then the side were folded over to impress the same ink lines on the
right side.
North Rose Window (Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris)
Leonardo da Vinci - The Virgin and Child with St. Anne (c. 1503)
Thomas Gainsborough - The Blue Boy (1779)
Raphael - The School of Athens (1511)
Elements of Visual Arts
Line – used to lead the viewer’s eyes throughout the art work.
• Vertical • Diagonal • Zigzag
• Horizontal • Curved
Shapes - An element of art that is two-dimensional, flat, or limited to height and
width.
• Geometric • Free-form
Form - An element of art that is three-dimensional and encloses volume; includes
height, width AND depth (as in a cube, a sphere, a pyramid, or a cylinder).
Form may also be free flowing.
Texture – roughness or smoothness of the image
• Tactile • Visual
Space - An element of art by which positive and negative areas are defined or a
sense of depth achieved in a work of art.
Color – results from the reflected light waves coming from objects to your eyes
• Warm Colors: Red, Orange, Yellow (Seem to be moving closer to viewer)
• Cool Colors: Blue, Green, Violet (Has a receding effect)
*Three properties of color* - These rely on one another to create all the colors around us.
Hue – The name of a color starts by identifying which of the twelve colors on the
color wheel corresponds most closely to it, regardless of how light or
dark, or bright or dull it is.
Primary hues/colors – Red, Yellow, Blue
Secondary – Orange, Green, Violet
Intermediate colors – Mix of primary and secondary. Red-Orange, Yellow-
Orange, Yellow-Green, Blue-Green, Blue-Violet, Red-Violet.

Value – refers to the lightness or darkness of a color. It indicates the quantity of

light reflected. When referring to pigments, dark values with black added are
called “shades” of the given hue name. Light values with white pigment added are
called “tints” of the hue name.

Intensity - also known as Chroma or Saturation, it refers to the purity of a hue. The
highest intensity or purity of a hue is the hue as it appears in the spectrum or on
the colorwheel.