Element and principles of

art
Elaine grace dizon
The elements of art

 The building blocks of Composition in Art

 Line - Shape - Tone - Color - Pattern - Texture - Form
 LINE

 LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519)

 Line is the foundation of all drawing. It
is the first and most versatile of the
visual elements of art. Line in an
artwork can be used in many different
ways. It can be used to suggest shape,
pattern, form, structure, growth, depth,
distance, rhythm, movement and a
range of emotions.
psychological response to different
types of lines
 Curved lines suggest comfort and ease
 Horizontal lines suggest distance and calm
 Vertical lines suggest height and strength
 Jagged lines suggest turmoil and anxiety
a line can convey different expressive
qualities
 Freehand lines can express the personal energy and mood of the artist
 Mechanical lines can express a rigid control
 Continuous lines can lead the eye in certain directions
 Broken lines can express the ephemeral or the insubstantial
 Thick lines can express strength
 Thin lines can express delicacy
Line as Tone and Form

 The vocabulary of scribbled and

hatched lines that Moore
developed for these drawings is
very compatible with their subject.
His swirling scribbles correspond
perfectly to the bouncy texture of a
fleece. He gradually builds up the
density of line to render the darker
areas of tone and reduces it to
suggest the lighter. In the
background of the work he uses
hatched lines to draw the row of
trees and the gate but any
inconsistency in their style is
immediately concealed in a haze
of scribbles.
Line as Texture
Line as texture

 This is a vast postmodern landscape that draws on many different artistic

influences and ideas. You can see its Canadian heritage in the art of Tom
Thomson and the Group of Seven. The painting is as much about surface as
it is about depth, recalling the woodland scenes of Paul Cézanne and
Gustave Klimpt; it is as much about abstraction as it is about representation,
evoking both the dense dribble and spatter of a Jackson Pollock and the
isolation and emptiness of an Edward Hopper; and it is as much about the
relationship between man and his environment, with nature reclaiming its
own habitat as the architecture is menacingly encircled by the
encroaching forest.
Line as texture
Line as Structure
Line can be used to generate the fundamental forces
in the composition of an artwork. In Robert Delaunay's
image of the Eiffel Tower, one from a series of eleven
painted between 1909-11 when the tower was the
tallest man-made structure on the planet, the artist
uses the rhythmic lines of its structure to suggest its
staggering power as it ascends into the skies. The
contrasting curves of the clouds double up as
billowing dust as this colossal construction bursts
through the municipal buildings to become the global
symbol of modernity at the onset of the Modernist
age.
Line as Movement
All the lines in Hokusai's woodcut sweep with
tremendous force, rising to a crescendo on the crest
of the 'Great Wave'. The swell of each wave is
reinforced by the contour lines that describe the
density of its wall, while the breaking surf claws the air
to maintain its seismic energy. The power of this
movement is further amplified by the helpless boats,
cast adrift on the merciless sea. To heighten the
drama, Hokusai freezes the action just at the critical
point where the 'Great Wave' breaks, threatening to
engulf the distant peak of Mount Fuji.
 Line As Emotion
PABLO PICASSO (1881-1973)
Weeping Woman, 1937 (oil on
 It symbolized the grief and suffering of canvas)
the innocent victims of Guernica, the
Basque town that was bombed by
the German Luftwaffe and the Italian
Fascist Aviazione Legionaria in support
of General Franco during the Spanish
Civil War.
 In 'Weeping Woman', Picasso combines a synthetic cubism with a stained glass like
structure.
 Jagged lines, fractured shapes and acid colors set the despairing tone of the work.
The desolate woman's tortured emotions are heightened by the artist's careful
balance of bold lines, exaggerated color and simplified drawing.
 Picasso uses strong dark lines to pull the fragmented image together and to subdue
the optical shock of opposite colors (red/green, yellow/purple, blue/orange).
Despite this, his heavily laden pigments can still generate enough chromatic
intensity to provoke a state of alarm.
 The woman's eyes are like shattered leadlights, pierced by the fractured shards of
the handkerchief; her chattering teeth gnaw convulsively on its cloth. These
combine in a pale aqueous blue - a dramatic contrast of monochrome against
color. Her coat is a cloak of thorns and all is sharp and angular in this visual definition
of despair.
Line as Energy
 This sketch by Rembrandt is a masterful study in line done for the simple joy of the
subject. To be able to capture the sensitivity of this tender moment with such
economy of means is not only a remarkable testament to the power of line as an
expressive force but also an illustration of Rembrandt's outstanding drawing skills.
 Although it does not contain a great deal of detail, this is a work of intense
observation and energy. In a quick sketch that took less than a minute to complete,
Rembrandt manages to capture the unsteady balance, the emotional bond and
the generational relationship of the figures. He also achieves remarkable accuracy
in the drawing of the child's hat which has been recognized as a contemporary
model designed to protect young children from falls. In the hands of a great master
like Rembrandt, a simple line sketch can communicate more in a minute than the
average artist can convey in a month.
Line as Form
 Before Alexander Calder developed a reputation as one of the great abstract
sculptors of the 20th century, he created figurative works with wire and pliers. He
would bend, twist and crimp wire to form three-dimensional portraits of celebrities
and friends that had all the vitality and spontaneity of a line drawing in space. These
works had an element of caricature about them but they still retained a remarkable
likeness to their subjects who often received them as tokens of friendship.
Line as Abstraction
At the top of this page we said that line was the first
visual element in an artwork. In Picasso's 'Bull' it is also
the last. This drawing is the last in a series of eleven
studies that lead you through a process of
abstraction, refining form, tone and texture to extract
the essence of the 'Bull' in a single line. You can follow
the entire process on another of our pages: Pablo
Picasso - Bull: a Masterclass in Abstraction
SHAPE AS A VISUAL ELEMENT OF ART
The Visual Element of Shape can be natural or man-
made, regular or irregular, flat (2-dimensional) or solid
(3-dimensional), representational or abstract,
geometric or organic, transparent or opaque, positive
or negative, decorative or symbolic, colored,
patterned or textured.

The Perspective of Shapes: The angles and curves of

shapes appear to change depending on our
viewpoint. The technique we use to describe this
change is called perspective drawing.
The Behaviour of Shapes: Shapes can be used to
control your feelings in the composition of an artwork:
Squares and Rectangles can portray strength and
stability
Circles and Ellipses can represent continuous
movement
Triangles can lead the eye in an upward movement
Inverted Triangles can create a sense of imbalance
and tension
Two Dimensional Shapes
Two Dimensional Shapes: Most of the art we see is
two-dimensional: a drawing, a painting, a print or a
photograph which is usually viewed as a flat surface.
Most two-dimensional art tries to create the illusion of
three dimensions by combining the visual elements to
a greater or lesser degree.
Three Dimensional Shapes
 Three Dimensional Shapes: Anthony Caro uses industrial beams, bars, pipes, sections
and steel plate which he cuts, bends, welds, bolts and occasionally paints to form
the shapes for his constructed metal sculptures. You can walk around and between
these three dimensional abstract forms to interact with the changing relationships of
their delicately balanced structures.
 Although this sculpture is constructed from heavy gauge steel and probably weighs
about the same as an average family car, it seems to defy gravity. The open
arrangement of its composition and the delicate balance of its component parts
collaborate to lift this sculpture from the deadweight of its materials to its elevated
status as an artwork.
Representational Shapes
Representational Shapes attempt to reproduce what
we see to a greater or lesser degree.
Representational art is the blanket term we use to
describe any artwork whose shapes are drawn with
some degree of visual accuracy.
Realism, however, is not the sole objective of
representational art. It can be stylized with various
levels of detail, from a simple monochrome outline to
a fully rendered form with color, tone, pattern and
texture.
Abstract Shapes
Abstract Shapes, modified by the other visual
elements, are the subject matter of Abstract Art.
Abstract artists attempt to stimulate an emotional
response by arranging the visual elements in a
harmonic or dynamic configuration, much in the
same way that a musician uses sound, pitch, tempo
and silence to compose a piece of music. A musical
analogy has often been used to help describe the
effect of abstract art on the viewer.
Positive and Negative Shapes
Positive Shape: This is the actual physical
form of any shape.
Negative Shape: This the space between
and around the physical form of any
shape.
Geometric Shapes
Geometric Shapes were originally formed
mechanically using a ruler or compass.
However today, even the most complex
geometric forms can be easily created using
digital imaging software. In art they tend to be
used to convey the idea of rigidity, structure,
pattern, perspective and 3 dimensional form
Organic Shapes
Organic Shapes are usually natural, irregular and
freeform in character. You can see them in the
patterns of growth and decay in nature; in the
shapes of seeds, plants, leaves, flowers, fruit, trees,
branches; and in the ephemeral forms of clouds
and water. They are also associated with
anatomical forms such as heart and kidney
shapes.
Organic shapes can convey a sense of formation
and development, and suggest qualities such as
softness, sensuality, flexibility and fluidity.
Symbolic and Decorative Shapes
Symbolic Shapes: A symbol is an object or sign that
represents an identity, a belief, a concept or an
activity. For example, the symbol of a cross can
represent the Christian faith; or be an emblem of the
four classical elements (earth, air, fire and water); or
the four points of a compass (north, south, east and
west); or the flag of Switzerland; or simply a road sign
indicating crossroads.
 Decorative Shapes: All decorative forms are based on either Nature or Geometry or
a combination of both. Within each of these categories lies a huge range of styles
that cross historical, geographic and cultural borders including Egyptian, Greek,
Roman, Arabian, Turkish, Persian, Islamic, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, African, Asian,
Oceanic, Native American, Celtic,
Byzantine, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Arts and Crafts,
Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Modernism and Post-Modernism (the eclectic combination
of any of the aforementioned).
Transparent, Reflective and Opaque Shapes

 Transparent Shapes allow light to pass through so that you are able to see
what lies beyond them.
 Reflective Shapes reflect light to create a mirror image of what is reflected
on their surface.
 Opaque Shapes absorb light but also reflect some of it as color. As light is
not able to pass through them, you are unable to see through them.
The Perspective of Shapes

 Perspective Drawing is the

technique that artists use to
calculate the angles of a three
dimensional shape when drawing
it on a two dimensional surface.