ELEMENTS OF

VISUAL ARTS
INTRODUCTION
• There are several things which we always seem to notice
in art works like shape, lines, colors, texture, and the like.
• All of these are called elements of visual arts.
LINE.
• Line is an important element for a painting or sculpture
which is used to represent figures and forms.
• Lines are directional.
• Lines are always moving.
• They may be either straight or curved.
• Straight lines are always associated with the ideas of
steadiness and force.
• Curved lines with flexibility, buoyancy, and grace.
• Straight lines move only in one direction which may
either be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal.
• Horizontal lines are lines of repose and serenity. They
express ideas of calmness and quiescence. They are
found in reclining person, in landscapes, calm bodies of
water and the distant meeting of earth and sky called
horizon.
• Vertical lines are lines poised for action. They are poised,
balanced, forceful, and dynamic.
• Vertical lines are seen in a person standing, a tall tree,
and statues of saints and heroes give and expression of
dignity.
• The Gothic cathedrals possessed the sentiments of
inquietude and exaltation.
• Diagonal lines suggest action and movement. They give
animation to any composition in which they appear.
• Almost any object in action assumes a diagonal line.
• Curved lines suggest grace, movement, flexibility, and
joyousness.
• They are never harsh nor stern since they are formed by
a gradual change in direction.
• Lines may be classified into three groups:
1. Repetition lines.
2. Opposition lines.
3. Transitional lines or lines which modify or soften the
effects of others.
COLOR.
• Delight in color is a universal human characteristic.
• Color is a property of light. When light goes out, color
goes out with it.
• There are three dimensions of color:
1. Hue
2. Value
3. Intensity
1. Hue.
• Hue is the dimension that gives color its name.
• Blue, red, and yellow are the primary hues.
• If two of these primary hues are mixed in equal parts, the
secondary hues are produced. These colors are orange,
green, and violet.
• Tertiary hues.
Warm and Cool Colors.
• Red, orange, and yellow are warm hues.
• They are associated wit the sun, fire, and other sources
of heat.
• They are conspicuous, cheerful, stimulating, vivacious,
joyous, and exciting.
• They are suggestive of impetus or instinctive action.
• Sometimes they are called advancing colors.
• The cool colors are those where blue predominates like
green, blue-green, blue-violet, and blue.
• They cause the surfaces they cover to appear to recede.
• They suggest distance.
• They are calm, sober, restful, and inconspicuous.
• Red, the color of fire and blood, is the warmest color. It’s
the most vigorous and most exciting among the colors.
• Yellow, the color of light, is the most brilliant, cheerful,
and exultant of all.
• Blue, the color of the sky and of deep sea water, is the
coolest and most tranquil of the colors.
Color Harmonies.
• There are two kinds of color harmonies:
1. Related Color Harmonies
2. Contrasted Color Harmonies

• Related color harmonies are either monochromatic or

adjacent.
• Monochromatic harmony is made up of several tones of one
hue.
• They are the simplest and easiest to use since they have
something in common so that they agree.
• In adjacent or neighboring harmony, two or three
neighboring hues on the color wheel are used together.
• Good adjacent harmonies can be produced by using
other groups of neighboring colors.
• Contrasted color harmonies.
• These are colors which lie directly opposite each other in
the color circle (wheel) which are also called
complementary colors like for instance red and green,
orange and blue, violet and yellow.
• The contrast each other strongly; therefore they are
more difficult to use harmoniously than the related color
harmonies.
• But, once they properly harmonized, they create very
lovely effects.
2. Value.
• This refers to the lightness or darkness of a color.
• It is a quality that depends on the amount of light and
dark in color.
• An understanding of values will help the artist use the
colors to the best advantage.
• As suggested, in a room the darkest should be the floor
for it suggests solidity of foundation. The wall must have
the lighter value of color and the lightest should bewith
the ceiling.
• Tints are values above the normal like pink is a tint of
red.
• Shades are values below the normal like maroon is a
shade of red.
• The value of a hue can be changed by adding more light
or reducing the light it can reflect.
3. Intensity.
• It refers to the brightness or darkness of color.
• It gives color strength.
• Colors differ in intensity.
• Intensity differences can be:
a. Full intensity
b. Two-thirds intensity
c. Two-thirds neutral
d. Neutral
• Two objects may have the same color, yet, they may
differ because one is more intense than the other.
• When a hue is in its vivid form, it is said to be in full
intensity. While when it is dulled, it is partly neutralized.
TEXTURE
• Texture is the element that deals directly with the
characteristic of surfaces which can be rough or smooth,
fine or coarse, shiny or dull, plain or irregular.
• A painting, a building, or a piece of sculpture have
features which are felt and described in a variety of
ways.
• Primarily, texture is due to differences in medium; e.g. in
architecture, there is a different feeling with wood,
concrete, and metal.
• In painting, texture is used to represent the skin, clothes,
jewelry, furniture, and others.
• It adds richness and vitality to paintings.
• The aesthetic value of texture lies first in the fact that it makes
gradation of color possible. Flat (lacking gloss) colors are never
beautiful.
• Unevenness of surface gives color of the surface to be broken
into gradations of light and shade.
• Texture is very real to the sculptor and architect due to
different feel to the touch.
• To the painter texture is an illusion for he makes it appear like
it has a different feel when one touches it.
PERSPECTIVE
• Perspective deals with the effect of distance upon the
appearance of objects, by means of which the eye
judges spatial relationships.
• It enables us to perceive the distance and to see the
position of objects in space.

Two kinds of perspective:

1. Linear Perspective
2. Aerial Perspective
1. Linear Perspective.
• It is the representation of an appearance of distance by
means of converging lines.
• Linear perspective has to do with the direction of lines
and with the size of objects.
• Painters use the effect of space and distance through
lines and diminishing size.
• Parallel lines below the eye level seem to rise to a
vanishing point in the horizon, while those above the eye
level seem to descend to the vanishing point.
• Objects appear smaller as they recede into the distance.
• In painting, people or objects at the background seem to
be shorter than those in front.
• A facet of linear perspective is applied chiefly to the
human figure known as foreshortening.
• Foreshortening is the representation of objects or parts
of the body as smaller from the point of view of the
observer.
• The more nearly an arm, limb, or body is placed at right
angles to the observer, the shorter it looks.
2. Aerial Perspective.
• It is the representation of relative distances of objects by
gradations of tone and color.
• Objects become fainter in the distance due to the effect
of the atmosphere.
SPACE.
• In architecture, the exterior of a building is seen as it
appears in space, while the interior is seen by one who is
inside an enclosing space.
• Painting does not deal with space directly. It only
represents space on a two-dimensional surface.
• Sculpture has very limited space relationship or
perception of space.
FORM.
• Form applies to the over-all design of a work of art.
• It describes the structure or shape of an object.
• All the visual arts are concerned with form.
• There is a guiding principle which says “form follows
function”. This means that the inner content of purpose or
function governs the outer appearance.
• Aside from function that determines the form is the way
in which a building is constructed. The skyscrapers are
built the way they are due to rising values due to urban
congestion.
• In painting, the form usually represented by a line stands
out because of difference in color, value, or texture.
VOLUME.
• This is the amount of space occupied in three
dimensions.
• It refers to solidity or thichkness.
Volume is perceived in two ways:
1. By contour lines or outlines or shapes of objects
2. By surface lights and shadows
• This is the primary concern of architects because a
building always encloses space.
• The outlines or shadows change every time the viewer
shifts his position. Hence, it is very important to have
everything neatly in place from different angle.
• The sculptor is also concerned with volume because his
figures actually occupy space and can be observed from
any direction.
• For the painter, volume is an illusion because the surface
of the canvass is flat and the illusions of thickness, light
and shadow are just created by the strokes of his paint
brush.