Module 3

ELEMENTS
OF
ARTS
 THE ELEMENT AND
ORGANIZATION OF ART.

• It refers to the expression and

communication of an artist
• The vision on his environment
using shapes, colors, texture and
space.
I. The Lines
• It is man’s invention

Controls eye Delineate

movements shapes Texture
Rough,smooth,
volume
Heavy lines drawn close to
each other create an
impression of roughness.

Light strokes can give

a sensation of
softness and delicacy.
Zigzag Curved
Straight Line
 Direction
and
Movements of Lines
a. One direction-straight line
• It express
emotional
states or
evoke
emotional
responses
 b. Horizontal

• It express
serenity,
perfect
stability.
 c. Vertical Line
• poise,
stability, and
confidence
Arnolfini Portrait
Jan Van Eyck

The crucifixion
Grunewald Mathias
 d. Diagonal
• It implies
• action,
• movement,
instability,
• feeling of
unrest
• uncertainty
 e. Curved
• It implies
gradual
change
• direction,
• fluidity,
• Grave
movement,
serenity
• stability.
e.1. Plane Surface - Solid

Pyramid
Matchupicho
 e.2 . Single –curve

• Cones
• Cylindrical
 e.3. Warped
• curves in
several
direction,
• parallel.
 e.4. Double curve
• curved in all
direction
 f. Angular
• It implies
abrupt
direction of
changes,
• creates
tension,
• impression
of chaos,
• confusion
• conflict.
 2. Shape
Visual Arts
They simplify space
• It is a two-dimensional area
• A plane that may be organic or
inorganic
• It maybe free-form or geocentric,
open or closed, natural or of
human origin.
• A line defines the inside or
outside edge of a shape.
 1. Natural
• Are those we
see in
nature, such
as shapes of
men, animals
or tree.
• They may be
interpreted
realistically
or distorted
 2. Abstract
• Forms, the artist
drawn out the
essence of the
original object and
made it the subject
of his work.
 3. Non-Objective Shape
• shape that have reference to
recognizable objects, and show a
similarity to some organic forms.
• It is also known as BIOMORPHIC
SHAPES.
 Biomorphic Shape

[Curtain of CCP Main Theatre]

 3. Geometric Shape

• They are structure

that looks like
geometrical solid –
pyramids,
cylindrical towers
and box-like office
buildings.
Marcel Duchamp's "A Nude Descending a Staircase" shows
the repeated use of geometric shapes
 4. Negative Shape
• Shapes not
occupied by
any form.
• It is the
distance
between
objects
(whitespace).
Rubin’s Vase
 SHAPE
IN
SCULPTURE
•MASS
• It is any matter that has weight and
solidity.
• It can be lifted, push or viewed in
the round.
•Volume
• It is a mass that is structured or has
a definite shape.
V
O
L
U
M
E M
A
S
s
• Single Volume
it is the
fundamental unit
in sculpture.

• Group Volume-
when it has more
unit in sculpture
3 TRANSITION
It is the passage
from one part to
the other.
 Abrupt
• The intersection of
forms shows a clearly
defined lines.

• The abrupt changes

produce shadow and
highlights which
reveal the three
dimensional qualities
of the figure
Smooth
• It is achieve
when one
form flows
into or blends
with another
element w/o
any sudden
interruption
in the
Henry Moore – Reclining Figures
continuity of
the surface.
The Art Gallery of Ontario's
Henry Moore collection is the
largest public collection of his
works in the world.
4. TEXTURE
• It refers to the feel or tactile of the
surface of an object, rough, smooth,
ridged, furry or silky.
• It reflects intricacy in the artwork.
• It reflects the smoothness, sensation, as
it is stroke.
• It provides the description.
• It clarifies space, volume, spatial depth.
Vincent Van Gogh, Bedroom at Arles
 Sand Sculpture

Auguste Rodin
The Thinker
 5.THE
COLORS
• It is not a permanent
property of things we see
around us.
• It is derived from light.
• It is a series of
wavelengths, which strike
our retina.
The Colors, their meanings and virtues
Colors Emotions Virtues
Red Angry, intense, Passion, violence
exciting
Blue Depressed, serene, Loyalty, honesty,
dignified nobility
Sad.
Yellow Cowardice, energy Jealousy
Black Death elegance
Green Life and hope
White Surrender, serenity Purity and
innocence
Purple Wealth Royalty
Orange danger
 Neutral Colors
It contain equal
parts of each of the
three primary
colors - black,
white, gray, and
sometimes brown.
Georgia O'Keeffe - Black Iris III - 1926
a. PHYSICAL
PROPERTIES
 Hue
• It refers to the
quality that gives
color its name.

• [The colors that

they are when not
mix with other
colors].
 Value
It refers to
the lightness
and darkness
of a color.
Rembrandt the master artist of value

"The Anatomy Lesson" Night watch

b. INTENSITY
AND
SATURATION
 Intensity
• The brightness or
dullness of a color
• It is the strength of the
color hue.
• It refers to the quality of
ligh in a color.
• Red is red if the rays is
light.
• Red is dull if green is
use.
Monochromatic
It refers to a one
color

Tamara de Lempicka –
Marquis Sommi - 1925
Analogous
• colors that contain
a common hue and
are found next to
each other on the
color wheel,
• e.g., violet, red-
violet, and red
create a sense of
harmony. 
Claude Monet - Water-Lilies
-1914
Complimentary

two colors opposite

one another on the
color wheel, e.g.,
blue and orange,
yellow and purple,
red and green
Henri Matisse - Woman with
the Hat, Paris - 1904-5
 Triadic
• a color triad is
composed of three
colors spaced an equal
distance apart on the
color wheel.
• The contrast between
triad colors is not as Piet Mondrian, Composition
with Red, Yellow and Blue
strong as that between -1921
complements.
Intermediate
• colors are
created by
mixing a
primary and
a secondary.
Secondary
When mixed
two primary
colors.

Ellsworth Kelly - Red Blue

Green - 1963
Split Complimentary
• the combination
of one hue plus
the hues on each
side of its
complement

Frederick Carl Fries eke –

Through the Vines - 1908
Double complementary
it uses two to four
colors adjacent,
arranged into two
complementary
color pairs.

Claude Monet - Houses of

Parliament, London, Sun
Breaking Through Fog
1904
 Spot Color

It results from
adding a specific
second color to
the single color
normally used
(black is the
traditional single
color).
C. USE
OF
COLORS
1.It give spatial
quality to the
pictorial field.
• 2. It create
counterbalance
of backward
and forward
movement
• 3. It may create
a mood,
symbolize ideas
and express
personal Light, bright colors – happy and
emotions. gay.

Cool, somber – sad, depress.

Two types of Spaces in
Painting
 a). Decorative Space
• It is the depth less
space.
• It exists across the
plane.
• It is cut, divided or
re-arrange into a
smaller or ideal
space.
 Plastic Space

• there is no single
formulas for
creating the
illusion of space
Methods of Creating
an Illusion
of
Depth.
 A. Overlapping Planes

• A way of suggesting
depth.
• It gives the observer
the impression that
one object has a
particular
thickness or
Mural to Honor Kenner
breadth, and that it Products Cincinnati
is in front of the
others.
Francis Picabia Hodaka Yoshida
Vicente Manansala – Landscape
 B. Variations in Size

• Largeness of size is
interpreted by
nearness and a
diminishing size as an
indication of size.
• Size sometimes
indicates power and
struggle, rather than
distance from the
viewer.
 Ankor Wat
Tower of Paris Cambodia
Anita Magsaysay-Ho
Batanes
 C. Spatial Depth
• The rise of the visual
units up to the horizon
line and beyond it
indicating spatial
positions.
• The repetition of gently
curved horizontal lines
suggesting a series of
planes reaching up to
the eye level.
 D. Perspective
Perceptual Perspective
• when an artist
attempts or
present to show
space
relationships of
things as they
appear in real
life by using both
aerial and linear
 d.1. Linear Perspective

It is a mathematical
system of creating the
illusion of space and
distance on a flat
surface such as canvas
or wall.
It is where we are in a
highway.
[Converging lines and
diminishing size ]
 d.2. Conceptual Perspective

When an artist
present his objects
not as they or we
see it in real life.

When an artist
shows them as the
sum total of his
experience
 d.3 Aerial Perspective
• When the distant
objects are
lighter, of lower
contrast, and
bluer than nearer
objects.

Frans Koppelaar, Landscape near

Bologna, 2001
 d.4. Reverse Perspective

•The lines
converge
towards the
viewer as if the
horizon line
where behind it.
d. 5. New Spatial Dimension

• It is the incorporation
• of motion and
• Static Art,
• or the fourth
• dimension –
3D shadow rotating in 4D
• time or motion plane
7. PRINCIPLES
OF DESIGN
• 1. t is the over-all
visual structure of
a work of art.
• 2. It is how an
artist makes
comprehensible the
ideas he wishes to
express and
communicate Church – inspires religiosity
• 3. It makes our
environment
more readily
comprehensible
• 4. Movements
more achieved.
Houses
privacy and peace
8. HARMONY
• It is one important principles of design.
• In visual art, it refers to the adaption
of the visual element to each other, the
agreement between the parts of a
composition, which result in unity.
• It is achieve by the repetition of
characteristics similar in nature,
shape, size and color
9. VARIETY
• Achieving harmony through repetition
 10. RHYTHM
(VISUAL ARTS)
• It is the
continuance, Simple

• a flow or
• a feeling of
• Movement Composite

achieved by
the
repetition of
regular
Complex
units.
Four types
Random Regular
Progressive
 MOTIF
• It is an element or a combination of
element repeated often enough in a
composition to make it the
dominating feature of a work.
• It is equivalent of the “theme” in
music.
• Once the rhythmically organization is
present, a certain pattern is present.
Sistine Chapel -Michelangelo
11. PROPORTION
• It deals with the
ration of one part
to another and of
the parts to the
whole.
R
• Ratio – it implies A
a comparison T
between parts. I
• It is express in o
size, number and
position.
 low ceiling makes us feel of
being buried.

A high ceiling like the church –

A picture
freedom dwarfed by the
wall
 12. EMPHASIS
AND
SUBORDINATION
• Principle concerns the giving of
proper importance to parts and
to the whole.
• Basic to life’s activities.
• It involves the differentiation
between the more important and
the less important. [Monotony]
13. BALANCE
• It is a feeling of equality in weight,
• attention or attraction of the various
elements.
• It is inherent in nature.
• It is more felt than seen.
• Factors that contributes to a sense of
Balance: Position, Size, Proportion,
Quality and Directions.
 Kinds
of
Balance
1). Symmetrical –Formal Balance

• It is achieve by the use of

identical compositional units on
either side of an imaginary
vertical axis within the pictorial
space.
• When one-half of a work mirrors
the image of the other half.
Presidential Mansion Cathedral in Baguio
Baguio
2). Asymmetrical or Occult Balance/Informal Balance

• When the visual units on either side

of the axis are not identical, but are
placed in positions so equated as to
produce a “felt” equilibrium.
• Harmony is obtained between two
foreseen image/objects in opposition.
 3). Radial Balance

• It is
compositions,
with everything
arranged
around at a
center
 4. Form
• A three-
dimensional
volume or the
illusion of
three
dimensions
• It is related
to shape
(which is 2-D