Visual Arts

Notes on Art Elements and Principles

Line

Physical Properties:

• Measurement: Long, short, thick, thin, etc.

• Direction: Horizontal, diagonal, curved, etc.

• Location: Edge, surface, sketch, link, etc.

• Character: Mechanical, controlled, soft, hard, winding, wild, nervous, light, dark, precise, organic, sensitive.

Types of Lines:

• Descriptive: Describe the shape.

• Expressive: Evoke a feeling.

• Static/Dynamic: Feeling of stability or movement.

Uses of Line:

• Can create tone, texture, pattern, rhythm, space, or depth.

Colour

Colour Theory:

• Primary Colours: Red, yellow, blue; cannot be created by mixing other colours.

• Secondary Colours: Orange, purple, green; formed by mixing primary colours. (Red + Yellow = Orange)

• Intermediate Colours: Red-orange, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple, red-purple.

• Tints: Colours mixed with white.

• Shades: Colours mixed with black.

• Intensity: Refers to brightness or dullness of a colour.

Color Groupings:

• Complementary: Pairs include red & green, yellow & purple, blue & orange.

• Monochromatic: Variations of only one colour.

Psychological Effects:

• Warm Colours: E.g. red, orange, yellow; create excitement.

• Cool Colours: E.g. blue, green, lemon green; have a calming effect.

Symbolic Meanings:

• Colours may have different meanings in various cultures. E.g. red symbolizes danger or love.

Shape and Form

• Shape: Two-dimensional area with a recognizable edge; can be natural (organic) or man-made (geometric).

• Form: Three-dimensional shape; includes height, width, depth, and refers to the illusion of volume in 2D works.

• Positive Form: The true form or object.

• Negative Form: The space or background surrounding the positive form.

Value

• Tonal Values: Represent light and dark; forms are defined by light.

• Tonal Shades: Give shapes/forms a sense of three-dimensionality.

Texture

• Texture: Surface quality or feel, either visual (seen) or tangible (felt).

• Surface can be described as coarse, smooth, hairy, sticky, etc.

Space

• Artists create depth using perspective; employing foreground, middleground, and background in 2D artworks.

Principles of Design

Emphasis

• Highlights areas/elements to create importance or a focal point. Can be through contrast or exceptions.

Balance

• Symmetrical Balance: Similar visual weight on both sides.

• Asymmetrical Balance: Similar visual weight but different elements, creating interesting compositions.

• Radial Balance: Arranged around a center point like a sunflower.

Pattern

• Created by repeating an object/shape/line.

Harmony & Unity

• Successful combination of elements into a pleasant whole.

Scale and Proportion

• Scale: Size relationship between objects.

• Proportion: Size and position relationships within a whole; can be intentionally distorted for effect.

Rhythm and Movement

• Shows movement through repetition of elements; guides viewer’s eye through the artwork.

Discussing Artworks: Guidelines

1. Label Information: Artist, title, medium, date, size.

2. Description: State what is seen without evaluation or interpretation; discuss main objects and their positions.

3. Discussion (Analysis): Analyze formal elements (line, shape, etc.), composition, and design principles.

4. Interpretation: Form opinions on meaning based on the previous analyses, considering symbolic meanings where possible.

The Cubist Period

In the Cubist Period, objects and figures are broken up, analyzed,and re-assembled in an abstracted form. The Cubist style emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane,rejecting the traditional techniques of realistic artwork.Cubists refused the idea that art should look like the real world.Cubist painters did not want to feel held back by copying form,texture, colour, and space. Instead, they presented a new reality in paintings that depicted radically fragmented objects.

Characteristics of Cubism

◦ Artworks look flat/two-dimensional (no shading or illusions to create a 3D effect)

◦ Artworks often show multiple perspectives at once (looking at something from more than one angle at a time)

◦ Objects and figures are often simplified into geometric shapes (shapes with straight lines and corners)

◦ Fragmented objects/figures (broken up and rearranged)

◦ Artworks are often abstracted (focus on colours and shapes to express artists’ emotions and ideas instead of trying to look like something in particular)

Guernica is a large Cubist greyscale oil painting. Picasso painted Guernica (1937) in response to the 26 April 1937 bombing of Guernica, a country town in northern Spain which was bombed by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy at the request of the Spanish Nationalists. Upon completion, Guernica was exhibited at the Spanish display at the 1937 Paris International Exposition, and then at other venues around the world. The touring exhibition was used to raise funds for Spanish war relief. The painting soon became famous and widely acclaimed, and it helped bring worldwide attention to the Spanish Civil War.Guernica is one of his best-known works and is regarded by many art critics as the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history.

Why is Guernica so powerful?

It is a composition so compelling that it challenges our most basic notions of war as heroic; unmasking it as a brutal act of self-destruction. Picasso expressed his outrage against war with Guernica, his enormous mural-sized painting displayed to millions of visitors at the Paris World’s Fair. It has since become the twentieth century’s most powerful anti-war artwork, a painting that still feels intensely relevant today.

What does Guernica represent?

Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace.

Picasso does not want us to passively look, but to imagine this terrible moment from the inside. Colours let us off lightly; black and white forces us to think. The use of grey scale was also used in order to mimic the photographs and newspapers which Picasso and other people saw of the bombing. It was supposed to portray the same sort of shock and terror as the actual images of the bombing, except enhanced with the addition of symbolism.

Symbolism in Guernica

The bull is a symbol of the Spanish people and symbolizes the victims of suffering. The bull is a complex figure of symbolism. The bull is masculine, strong and sturdy –a figure of anger and aggression, but all too often also the victim, killed in a show of strength organized by human beings in bull fighting.

The symbols of the horse and the soldier