A crash course in the Elements of Art (minus value and color)

The building blocks for all art objects.

Lets begin with lines…

STRAIGHTHORIZONTAL

DIAGONAL

VERTICAL

Barnett Newman, Dionysius, 1944, 67x49in.

Barnett Newman, Untitled (The Cry), 36x24in., ink on paper

IMPLIED LINES

Meaning they are not really there but they guide the eye or organize the image…

Diego Rivera, The Flower Carrier, 1935, 48x48 in.

Note lines implied by directional

gazes

A VENETIAN WOMANJohn Singer Sargent (American, b.1856, d.1925)1882oil on canvas93 3/4 x 52 1/2 in. (238.1 x 133.4 cm)

A VENETIAN WOMANJohn Singer Sargent (American, b.1856, d.1925)1882oil on canvas93 3/4 x 52 1/2 in. (238.1 x 133.4 cm)

Lines used to create emphasis

Caravaggio

The Calling of

St. Matthew,

1599-1600

Clyfford Still, 1957, No.1

Georgia O’Keeffe, Red, White and Blue, 1931

This “artless” scribble defines an area and creates an illusion of depth

Brice MardenCold Mountain 2, 1989-1991Oil on linen, 108 1/8 x 144 1/4 in.

What lines lurk in

this texture?

Which brings us to texture…

Jackson Pollock, Lavendar Mist No. 1, 1950

Texture

Jesus Bautista Moroles Granite Weaving Playscape 1995 granite

Texture is the element of art that refers to how things feel, or look as if they might feel, if touched.

You perceive texture with two of your senses; touch and vision.

Infants learn about their environment by touching objects and by putting them in their mouths.

Toddlers are attracted to all objects that are within their reach.

When you look at surfaces, you are able to guess their texture because you have learned how textures feel.

As an element of art, texture may be real, or implied or suggested, like in a photograph, or in a painting.

Reuben Miller

Janet Fish Oranges 1973 Pastel on Sandpaper

Janet Fish used pastels to create visual textures in this work. In some areas she has combined different kinds of visual textures, such as shiny-rough, and shiny smooth, and matte smooth.

Space refers to both outer space and inner space.

Shapes and forms exist in space.

Space is the element of art that refers to the emptiness or area between, around, above, below, or within objects.

All objects take up space.

Shapes and forms are defined by the space around and within them. They depend on space for their existence. This is why it is important to understand the relationship of space to shapes and form.

In art, the shapes or forms are called the positive space. The empty space between the forms are called negative space or ground. Look below… Leaves and branches- positive spaceWhite- negative space Positive and

Negative Space

Remember…Positive space is the space that an object occupies.Negative space is the space around an object. Take a look at the

picture on the left.

The picture on the far left shows the positive space, the ram. To the right of that, the negative space is shown in black.

Positive Space?

Negative Space?

The darker area; Tree and ground

The lighter area; Sky

Shapes and Form

A shape is a two dimensional area that is defined in some way. In other words, it may have an outline or a boundary around it. If you draw the outline of a square on a sheet of paper, you have created a shape. All shapes can be classified as geometric or free form shapes.

There are three basic geometric shapes that can be defined with precise mathematical formulas.

square circle triangle

All other geometric shapes are variations or combinations of these basic shapes

oval rectangle octagon parallelogramhexagon

trapezoid pentagon

Free-form shapes are irregular and uneven shapes. Their outlines may be curved, angular, or a combination of both. Another term that is often used by your instructor is organic. Organic is used when we talk about silhouettes of living things, such as animals, trees, people, ect.

FormsUnlike shapes, forms are three dimensional objects. Like shapes, they both have length and width, but forms also have depth. YOU are a three dimensional form, so is a tree or a table.