the visual elements

The Visual Elements

When looking at works of art, you see different colors, values, lines, textures and shapes. You see countless ways artists combine and organize these elements so

their ideas and feelings can be communicated and understood by viewers. Looking at works of art, however,

doesn’t mean you “see” them. To fully understand a painting, a sculpture, or a building, you need to

understand a visual vocabulary and recognize how it is used to produce successful works of art.

Line

• Functions of Line

-Outline and Form

Kara Walker

Line

• Functions of Line -Movement & Emphasis

George Seurat

Line

• Functions of Line -Pattern and Texture

Piet Mondrian

• Functions of Line -Shading and Modeling

Rembrandt

Types of Line

• Actual Lines

Types of Line

• Implied Lines

gestalt theory

Types of Line

• Lines formed by an edge

Types of Line

• Active Lines contrapposto

Types of Line

• Static Lines

Types of Line

• Contour lines

-Convention

Henri Matisse

Characteristics of Line

• Direction

Tintoretto

Characteristics of Line

• Direction

-line of sight

-compositional lines

Characteristics of Line

• Linear Quality

-Calligraphic lines

Shape and Mass/Form

• Shape • Form

Types of Shapes and Forms

• Geometric (Hard-edge)

Types of Shapes and Forms

• Organic (biomorphic)

Paul Klee

Light, Value, and Color

Light

• Illusion of Light

-Chiaroscuro -Tenebrism

Georges de La Tour

Value

Color

• The spectrum and Sir Isaac Newton

• Reflected white light

Color Wheel

Primary Colors

Secondary Colors

Tertiary Colors

Intensity

• Value

-Tint

-Shade

Color Harmonies

• Monochromatic

Color Harmonies

• Complementary colors

-Simultaneous contrast

Color Harmonies

• Analogous

Color is relative

It is effected by the colors around it

So that a green next to blue looks more yellow

than the same green next to yellow (which looks

more blue)

The Psychology of Color

• Warm Colors • Cool Colors

The Psychology of Color

• statistics

The Psychology of Color

• Red Light -shown to increase

heartbeats

• Blue Light

-shown to decrease heatbeats

The Psychology of Color

• Local Color • Optical Color

Surface and Space

Texture

• Actual -bronze, stone, wood, glass, etc.

• Visual -trompe l’oeil

• Pattern

Space

• 3D Space • 2D Space

Illusions of Depth

• Overlapping• Placement• Scale• Converging Lines• Color

• Foreshortening

Principles of Art

• Unity• Variety• Balance

• Emphasis• Proportion and Scale

• Rhythm and Movement

Unity

Variety

Balance

• Symmetrical

• Asymmetrical

• Radial

Emphasis

• Focal Point -Golden Section

-Rule of Thirds

Proportion and Scale

• Golden Section

5:8

• Hieratic representation

Composition with the Golden Section

Rhythm and Movement