The Visual

Elements
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xt)

.htm
The Vocabulary of Art  "The Visual Elements"
The major groupings are:
Line, shape and mass, light-value-color, texture, space, and time & motion

I. Line

What are the functions of line?

1. to outline a shape - like Kelly's Apples

2. to create movement and emphasis - like Cezanne's trees that create
and hold eye movement within the Bather painting.
3. to develop pattern and texture - Steinberg's Hen
4. to shade and model using hatching, crosshatching and stippling.
What are types of lines?

1. actual line - is a visible mark made by a pencil or paint or any other medium. 2.
psychic line - is where there is no real line yet we feel a line.
a. eyes looking in a direction
b. a hand pointing in a direction
3. lines formed by edges - the edge of a solid object reads as a line.
4. Implied Line - a series of dots or broken line can read as a line.
What are the characteristics of line/direction and quality?

1. line direction
a. horizontal lines seem placid b. vertical lines give stability and upward
thrust. c.  diagonal lines imply action
2. line quality influences the overall emotional impact of the art work - they
can be thick, thin, straight, curved or angular - these are the emotional qualities
of the line itself.
Ii. Shape And Mass

Shape is a two dimensional area with identifiable boundaries.

Mass is a three-dimensional solid with identifiable boundaries.
Volume may be synonymous with mass except that volume can also refer to a void as in an empty enclosed
space.

What are the two broad categories of both shape and mass?

1. Geometric shapes - mechanically drawn lines, squares, rectangles, circles, -

2. Organic shapes - are shapes based on forms of nature, which are usually rounded, irregular and curving.
Iii. Light, Value And Color

1. Light -

artists use natural light in architecture and sculpture to create shadow patterns
over the course of the day to create dramatic effects. Painters use these same
shadow patterns to also create a dramatic focal point in their paintings as seen
in Thomas Eakin's "The Concert Singer".

2. Value - Rembrandt The Money

Changer
is the lightness or darkness of a color
a. High Key is when the predominant values are light.
b. low key is when the predominant values are dark.

3. Color

- is a function of light
Color affects us both psychologically and physiologically in our response to it.

Explosion of Joy
Painting - Manas Roy
Picasso The
Tragedy
What responses do you get from color?

a. cool colors recede in space.

b. hot colors come forward in space.

c. cool colors generally are calm.

d. hot colors evoke active emotions.

What are the properties of the color wheel?

1. Primary colors

a. Red b. Yellow c.  Blue

2. Secondary Colors

a. Orange b. Green c.  Violet

3. Tertiary Colors
a. Red-violet b. Red-orange c.  Yellow-
orange d. Yellow-green e. Blue-green f. 
Blue-violet

4. Complementary Colors
Those directly opposite to one another on the
color wheel - those colors compliment or work
well together.

Be sure you can draw and label a color wheel!

Color Properties are hue, value and intensity

1. Hue - is the name of the color e.g. red yellow  blue

2. Value - is the lightness or darkness of the normal color. (Tint- adding white to colour or colour to white/shade adding
black)

3. Intensity - is the purity of the color, you can only lower intensity, to do so you add black, gray, or the complementary
color.

Color Harmonies - or color scheme is the use of two or more colors in a single composition.

What are the types of color harmonies?

1. Monochromatic - all the same hues or colors, though the value and intensity can be different

2. Complementary Harmonies - hues of directly opposite values on the color wheel are used, i.e.: Red and Green.

3. Analogous Harmonies - color adjacent to one another on the color wheel are used, red and red-orange.

4. Triadic Harmonies - the use of three colors equidistant on the color wheel.

5. Emotional Qualities - color effects emotions and conveys symbolism

A. green-envy. B. blue-sadness. C. red-anger. D. yellow-cowardice. E. warm colors are active and happy -
red, orange. F. cool colors are passive - blue and green.
Iv. Texture - Refers To Surface Quality.

What are the two types of texture - Actual and Visual.

1. Actual refers to tactile or sense of touch - Impasto technique of thick point, i.e.: Van Gogh's Starry
Night.

2. Visual texture - refers to an illusion of texture.

Vincent Van Gogh Starry Elfin Cove Oil Painting by William

Night Whitaker

http://www.artgraphica.net/free-art-lessons/free-art-tutorials/william-whitaker-oil-painting.
htm
V. Space - The Two Types Of Space Are Three Dimensional And Two
Dimensional. 

1. three dimensional space - is the actual space an object takes up, our body, a house, a
can or a sculpture. An example is the Frank Lloyd Wright, Guggenheim Museum.

2. two dimensional space - refers to the space in a painting, drawing, print or other type of
flat art.

What are the six elements used in two dimensional space?

1. spatial organization.

2. illusion of depth.
Rodin The Thinker
3. linear perspective. (sculpture)

4. isometric perspective.

5. atmospheric perspective.

6. foreshortening. 
Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal), The Campo di
Rialto

hristo Morto nel

Sepolcro e Tre
Dolenti
by Andrea
Mantegna.
Vi. Spatial Organization - 

refers to how we place forms in the picture to keep unity and balance in the
composition, i.e.: Degas' Dance Rehearsal

Illusion of Depth - the illusion of three dimensional

space in the picture plane - the two ways are
overlapping and positioning.

a. Overlapping is to place one figure over the other

and stacking them in space.

b. Position - is that pictorial figures meant to be further

away are placed higher in the composition, i.e.: the
closet in the foreground and the farthest higher in the composition.

c. Linear Perspective - the most realistic, a science of

vision created in the 15th century in Italy. 

d. Size -forms that are far away from the viewer seem smaller. "The Dance Rehearsal"
"Degas
e. Parallel lines recede into the distance and converge or meet at a vanishing point, i.e.:
Da Vinci's Last Supper.

1. one point perspective 2. two point perspective 

f. Isometric Perspective - Where distant forms are made smaller and placed higher on the picture plane and parallel
line stay parallel, i.e.: Kumano Mandala's Japan "ideal city".

g. Atmospheric Perspective - this means that forms meant to be farther away in the distance are blurred, become
indistinct and misty.

h. Foreshortening - that proportions are either shortened or lengthened to create an unusual angle of vision to
increase the illusion of depth, ie: Mantega's Death of Christ. 
Vii. Time And Motion

Two dimensional art freezes time, i.e.: Suzanne Valados Reclining Figure.

Three dimensional art, demands that you can walk around it and see 360' of different imagery - i.e.: El Corbusier,
Notre Dame du Haut, the Illusion of Motion is represented in OP Art or other works that repeat a figure to show
motion, i.e.: Giacomo Balla's Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash.

Note: This file was submitted by a Getty TeacherArtExchange Member