Elements of Art

Art

An expression of our thoughts, emotions, intuitions, and desires, and sharing the way we experience the world as an extension of personality. In its broadest sense, art is a form of communication that means whatever the artist intends it to mean, shaped by materials, techniques, forms, ideas, and feelings created in viewers.

Line, Shape, Form, Space, Value, Color, and Texture

The 7 Elements of Art

Two elements

Presence of Elements in Art

Line

The most basic element of art that serves as the foundation for other elements. It can be thought of as a moving dot, has a beginning and an end, and creates an edge by its existence. If dots overlap, it forms a solid line; if they don't, it forms a dotted line.

Long or short, and thick or thin.

Line Dimensions

Curved Line

A line that changes direction gently with no sharp angles, suggesting comfort and ease to the viewer, and most often relates to the natural world.

Zigzag Line

A line that alters direction fast and creates feelings of unrest, turmoil, and movement.

Horizontal Line

A line that creates the feeling of stability and calm.

Vertical Line

A line that gives the impression of height and strength, often carrying a spiritual connotation.

"Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk"

An artwork example created by Leonardo da Vinci in 1510 that demonstrates the use of line.

Shape

An element formed when a line meets up to enclose a space. Can be geometric or organic, and positive or negative.

Geometric Shape

Regular, structured shapes such as circles and defined mathematical forms.

Organic Shape

Free-form, irregular shapes often found in nature.

Positive Shape

The object you draw on your page enclosed in a frame or page edge.

Negative Shape

The rest of the space in your box or page surrounding the positive shape object.

Form

An element that adds depth to shape to create a three-dimensional object with volume, having height, width, and depth.

Form in 2-Dimensional Media

Form can only be implied in flat media like drawing and painting using tricks such as value (shading), color, and contour lines to create the illusion of depth.

Trompe l'oeil

A technique used by artists to fool the viewer's eye into seeing a 3-dimensional form on a 2-dimensional surface using value, color, and contour lines.

"Fallingwater"

An architectural artwork example featuring form, created by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1936 and 1939.

Space

The element that lies between, around, or within an object.

Overlapping

A space-creating technique where drawing or painting one object on top of another leads the viewer to interpret one object as being in front of another, implying space between them.

Placement

A space-creating technique where objects higher up in the picture plane seem further away to the viewer than objects placed lower down in the picture frame.

Detail

A space-creating technique where reducing the amount of detail on an object makes it appear further away, because further objects display less visible detail.

"Geese Over a Beach"

An artwork example demonstrating space created by Maruyama Okyo in the 18th century.

Value

How light or dark something is, measured on a scale from pure white to pitch black. It is what makes it possible to show 3-dimensional forms on a 2-dimensional surface and is more important than getting colors right in painting.

Value Contrast

Increasing differences in value increases contrast (a highlight appears brighter when surrounded by dark), whereas decreasing contrast makes objects visually recede and draw less attention.

Low Key Painting

A painting created on the lower (darker) edge of the value scale, giving rise to a heavy, mysterious, dramatic, and sometimes brooding feeling.

High Key Painting

A painting taking its range of values from the upper (lighter) end of the value scale, creating emotions of lightness, quickness, and spirituality.

Full Range Value

The technique used in most paintings that utilizes the complete scale of values from light to dark to portray light and form, where values get darker further from the light source.

"The Tetons and The Snake River"

A photograph example demonstrating value created by Ansel Adams in 1942.

Color

An element created when light is reflected into the viewer's eye, made of three components: hue, intensity, and value.

Hue

The name given to a color, such as red, yellow, or blue.

Intensity (Chroma / Saturation / Purity)

The vividness, brightness, or dullness of a color. A color is more intense or saturated when it is purer with fewer other colors mixed in.

Color Value

The lightness or darkness of a color.

Color Wheel

An arrangement of colors in a circle created by Isaac Newton by bending the color spectrum.

Primary Colors

Red, yellow, and blue colors that cannot be mixed or created from any other colors.

Secondary Colors

Colors made by mixing two primary colors together, resulting in orange, green, and violet.

Tertiary (Intermediate) Colors

Colors made by mixing one primary color and one secondary color together.

Color Models / Schemes

Sets of primary colors used in art, such as the common Red-Yellow-Blue model or the Cyan-Magenta-Yellow model.

Aggressive (Warm) Colors

Colors including reds, oranges, and yellows that appear to advance toward the viewer.

Receding (Cool) Colors

Colors including greens, blues, and violets that appear to recede from the viewer.

Tint

A color mixed with white.

Tone

A color mixed with gray.

Shade

A color mixed with black.

Key Color

The dominant color in a color scheme or mixture.

Neutral Gray

A combination mixture of black and white.

Texture

How an object looks or feels, which can be actual (felt physically as in sculpture) or implied (visual representation like sketching sheep's wool). Described with words like soft, hard, rough, brittle, fluffy, or smooth.

"Oriental Poppies"

An artwork example demonstrating texture created by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1927.

First, a person cannot create art without utilizing at least a few elements. Second, knowing the elements enables us to describe what an artist has done, analyze what is going on in a piece, and communicate thoughts and findings using a common language.

Importance of the Elements of Art