Art Element Refers to a 2 Dimensional Area Defined in Some Way and Has Both a Height and Width

i. Line

There are many different types of lines, all characterized past their length existence greater than their width. Lines tin can be static or dynamic depending on how the creative person chooses to employ them. They assistance determine the motion, direction and energy in a piece of work of art. We see line all around us in our daily lives; telephone wires, tree branches, jet contrails and winding roads are just a few examples.

The Nazca lines in the barren coastal plains of Peru date to nearly 500 BCE were scratched into the rocky soil, depicting animals on an incredible scale, and so big that they are best viewed from the air. Let's expect at how the different kinds of line are made.

Diego Velazquez'due south Las Meninas from 1656, ostensibly a portrait of the Infanta Margarita, the girl of Male monarch Philip Iv and Queen Mariana of Spain, offers a sumptuous amount of creative genius; its sheer size (almost ten feet square), painterly style of naturalism, lighting effects, and the enigmatic figures placed throughout the canvas–including the creative person himself –is one of the great paintings in western fine art history. Let's examine it (below) to uncover how Velazquez uses bones elements and principles of fine art to achieve such a masterpiece.

Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas, 1656, oil on canvas, 125.2" ten 108.seven". Prado, Madrid. CC BY-SA

Actual lines are those that are physically nowadays. The edge of the wooden stretcher bar at the left of Las Meninas is an actual line, as are the picture show frames in the background and the linear decorative elements on some of the figures' dresses. How many other actual lines tin can yous find in the painting?

Unsaid lines are those created by visually connecting 2 or more than areas together. The gaze to the Infanta Margarita—the blonde cardinal figure in the composition—from the meninas, or maids of honor, to the left and right of her, are implied lines. Implied lines can also be created when two areas of dissimilar colors or tones come up together. Can you identify more unsaid lines in the painting? Where? Implied lines are found in three-dimensional artworks, as well. The sculpture of the Laocoon below, a figure from Greek and Roman mythology, is, forth with his sons, being strangled by sea snakes sent by the goddess Athena as wrath confronting his warnings to the Trojans not to accept the Trojan horse. The sculpture sets implied lines in motion equally the figures writhe in agony against the snakes.

Laocoon Group, Roman copy of Greek original, Vatican Museum, Rome. Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen. CC By-SA

Straight or classic lines provide structure to a composition. They can be oriented to the horizontal, vertical, or diagonal axis of a surface. Straight lines are by nature visually stable, while still giving direction to a composition. InLas Meninas, yous tin can encounter them in the sail supports on the left, the wall supports and doorways on the correct, and in the background in matrices on the wall spaces between the framed pictures. Moreover, the pocket-sized horizontal lines created in the stair edges in the background assistance anchor the entire visual blueprint of the painting. Vertical and horizontal direct lines provide the nigh stable compositions. Diagonal straight lines are usually more than visually dynamic, unstable, and tension-filled.

Directly lines, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC BY

Expressive lines are curved, calculation an organic, more dynamic character to a piece of work of art. Expressive lines are often rounded and follow undetermined paths. In Las Meninas you tin see them in the aprons on the girls' dresses and in the dog's folded hind leg and coat pattern. Look again at the Laocoon to see expressive lines in the figures' flailing limbs and the sinuous form of the snakes. Indeed, the sculpture seems to exist made up of cipher just expressive lines, shapes and forms.

Organic lines, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC By

At that place are other kinds of line that encompass the characteristics of those higher up yet, taken together, assist create additional artistic elements and richer, more varied compositions. Refer to the images and examples below to become familiar with these types of line.

Outline, or contour line is the simplest of these. They create a path around the edge of a shape. In fact, outlines ofttimes ascertain shapes.

Outline, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC BY

Hatch lines are repeated at brusque intervals in generally one direction. They requite shading and visual texture to the surface of an object.

Hatch, xi July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC Past

Crosshatch lines provide additional tone and texture. They can be oriented in whatsoever management. Multiple layers of crosshatch lines tin requite rich and varied shading to objects past manipulating the force per unit area of the drawing tool to create a large range of values.

Crosshatch, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC BY

Line quality is that sense of character embedded in the way a line presents itself. Certain lines have qualities that distinguish them from others. Hard-edged, jagged lines accept a staccato visual motion while organic, flowing lines create a more comfortable feeling. Meandering lines tin can be either geometric or expressive, and you tin can come across in the examples how their indeterminate paths breathing a surface to different degrees.

Lines, xi July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC By

Although line as a visual element more often than not plays a supporting role in visual art, in that location are wonderful examples in which line carries a stiff cultural significance as the primary subject field matter.

Calligraphic lines use quickness and gesture, more akin to paint strokes, to imbue an artwork with a fluid, lyrical character. To run across this unique line quality, look up the work of Chinese poet and artist Dong Qichang, dating from the Ming dynasty (1555-1637). A more than geometric example from the Koran, created in the Arabic calligraphic mode, dates from the 9^th century.

Both these examples show how artists use line as both a form of writing and a visual art form. American artist Mark Tobey (1890–1976) was influenced by Oriental calligraphy, adapting its form to the deed of pure painting within a mod abstract style described every bit white writing.

2. Shape

A shape is defined as an enclosed expanse in ii dimensions. By definition shapes are e'er apartment, but the combination of shapes, color, and other ways can brand shapes appear three-dimensional, as forms. Shapes can exist created in many ways, the simplest by enclosing an area with an outline. They can as well exist made by surrounding an area with other shapes or the placement of unlike textures next to each other—for instance, the shape of an island surrounded by water. Because they are more complex than lines, shapes are unremarkably more than important in the organization of compositions. The examples below requite us an idea of how shapes are made.

Referring back to Velazquez's Las Meninas, it is fundamentally an arrangement of shapes; organic and hard-edged, light, nighttime and mid-toned, that solidifies the composition within the larger shape of the canvas. Looking at information technology this way, nosotros tin can view any piece of work of art, whether two or three-dimensional, realistic, abstract or non-objective, in terms of shapes lone.

Geometric Shapes vs. Organic Shapes

Shapes can be farther categorized into geometric and organic. Examples of geometric shapes are the ones we tin recognize and proper name: squares, triangles, circles, hexagons, etc. Organic shapes are those that are based on organic or living things or are more free form: the shape of a tree, face, monkey, cloud, etc.

3. Form

Class is sometimes used to describe a shape that has an unsaid 3rd dimension. In other words, an artist may try to make parts of a flat paradigm appear iii-dimensional. Detect in the drawing below how the artist makes the dissimilar shapes appear iii-dimensional through the use of shading. It's a flat image but appears three-dimensional. Form is used to make people, animals, trees, or anything appear iii-dimensional.

This image is gratuitous of copyright restrictions.

When an prototype is incredibly realistic in terms of its forms (too as color, infinite, etc.) such as this painting by Edwaert Collier, we call that trompe l'oeil, French for "fool the eye."

Edweart Collier, Trompe fifty'oeil with Writing Materials,
oil on canvass, c. 1702.
This image is in the public domain.

iv. Space

Infinite is the area surrounding or between real or implied objects. Humans categorize infinite: at that place is outer space, that limitless void nosotros enter beyond our sky; inner infinite, which resides in people'south minds and imaginations, and personal infinite, the important just intangible expanse that surrounds each individual and which is violated if someone else gets also close. Pictorial space is apartment, and the digital realm resides in internet. Fine art responds to all of these kinds of space.

Many artists are as concerned with space in their works equally they are with, say, color or course. There are many ways for the creative person to nowadays ideas of space. Remember that many cultures traditionally use pictorial space as a window to view bailiwick matter through, and through the subject matter they present ideas, narratives and symbolic content. The innovation of linear perspective, an implied geometric pictorial construct dating from fifteenth-century Europe, affords us the accurate illusion of iii-dimensional space on a flat surface, and appears to recede into the distance through the use of a horizon line and vanishing signal(s) . You tin can see how one-point linear perspective is set upward in the examples beneath:

1-Point Linear Perspective, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC BY

1-bespeak perspective occurs when the receding lines appear to converge at a single point on the horizon and used when the flat front of an object is facing the viewer. Note: Perspective can be used to testify the relative size and recession into space of whatever object, just is about effective with hard-edged three-dimensional objects such as buildings.

A archetype Renaissance artwork using 1 signal perspective is Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper from 1498. Da Vinci composes the piece of work by locating the vanishing signal direct behind the head of Christ, thus drawing the viewer's attention to the centre. His arms mirror the receding wall lines, and, if we follow them equally lines, would converge at the aforementioned vanishing point.

Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1498. Fresco. Santa Maria della Grazie. Work is in the public domain.

Two-point perspective occurs when the vertical edge of a cube is facing the viewer, exposing two sides that recede into the altitude, one to each vanishing point.

Two-Signal Perspective, xi July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC BY

View Gustave Caillebotte'due south Paris Street, Rainy Atmospheric condition from 1877 to run across how two-signal perspective is used to requite an accurate view to an urban scene.  The artist's limerick, however, is more complex than just his use of perspective. The figures are deliberately placed to straight the viewer'southward eye from the front end right of the picture to the building'southward front end border on the left, which, like a transport's bow, acts equally a cleaver to plunge both sides toward the horizon. In the midst of this visual recession a lamp post stands firmly in the middle to abort our gaze from going right out the dorsum of the painting. Caillebotte includes the piddling metal arm at the top right of the mail service to direct us again along a horizontal path, now keeping us from traveling off the tiptop of the sail. As relatively spare every bit the left side of the work is, the creative person crams the right side with hard-edged and organic shapes and forms in a circuitous play of positive and negative space.

The perspective system is a cultural convention well suited to a traditional western European idea of the "truth," that is, an accurate, clear rendition of observed reality. Even after the invention of linear perspective, many artists and cultures continued to utilise other ways to show pictorial space, relying on overlapping, size differences (smaller=further), vertical placement (lower=closer; higher=further), aerial or atmospheric perspective (hazy, less detailed-further; clear, well-baked, detailed=closer). THESE ARE Important!  Make SURE You lot UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY MEAN.

Examine the miniature painting of the Third Court of the Topkapi Palacefrom fourteenth-century Turkey to contrast its pictorial space with that of linear perspective. It's equanimous from a number of different vantage points (as opposed to vanishing points), all very flat to the picture plane. While the overall image is seen from above, the figures and trees appear as cutouts, seeming to float in mid air. Observe the towers on the far left and right are sideways to the picture plane. The copse and people occupying the upper parts are meant to be perceived as farther from the viewer as compared to those copse, buildings and people located near the bottom of the painting. This is an instance of vertical placement.

As "incorrect" as it looks, the painting does give a detailed description of the landscape and structures on the palace grounds.

Third Court of the Topkapi Palace, from the Hunername, 1548. Ottoman miniature painting, Topkapi Museum, Istanbul. CC BY-SA

After near five hundred years using linear perspective, western ideas about how infinite is depicted accurately in two dimensions went through a revolution at the commencement of the twenty^th century. A immature Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso, moved to Paris, then western civilisation'southward capital of art, and largely reinvented pictorial space with the invention of Cubism, ushered in dramatically by his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907. He was influenced in role by the chiseled forms, angular surfaces and disproportion of African sculpture (refer back to the Male Effigyfrom Cameroon) and mask-like faces of early Iberian artworks. For more data about this important painting, listen to the following question and answer.

In the early on 20th century, Picasso, his friend Georges Braque and a scattering of other artists struggled to develop a new infinite that relied on, ironically, the flatness of the picture plane to bear and animate traditional subject matter including figures, still life and mural. Cubist pictures, and somewhen sculptures, became amalgams of different points of view, light sources and planar constructs. It was every bit if they were presenting their subject field thing in many ways at once, all the while shifting foreground, heart ground and background so the viewer is not sure where 1 starts and the other ends. In an interview, the artist explained cubism this style: "The problem is now to pass, to go effectually the object, and requite a plastic expression to the outcome. All of this is my struggle to intermission with the two-dimensional aspect*"(from Alexander Liberman, An Artist in His Studio, 1960, page 113). Public and critical reaction to cubism was understandably negative, merely the artists' experiments with spatial relationships reverberated with others and became – along with new ways of using colour – a driving force in the evolution of a modern fine art move that based itself on the flatness of the film plane. Instead of a window to expect into, the flat surface becomes a ground on which to construct formal arrangements of shapes, colors and compositions. For some other perspective on this idea, refer back to module ane'south give-and-take of 'abstraction'.

Yous can run across the radical changes cubism made in George Braque'southward landscape La Roche Guyonfrom 1909. The trees, houses, castle and surrounding rocks comprise almost a single circuitous course, stair-stepping up the canvas to mimic the distant hill at the top, all of it struggling upwards and leaning to the correct inside a shallow pictorial infinite.

George Braque, Castle at La Roche Guyon, 1909. Oil on sail. Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands. Licensed through GNU and Artistic Commons

As the cubist manner developed, its forms became even flatter. Juan Gris's The Sunblindfrom 1914 splays the still life it represents beyond the canvas. Collage elements like newspaper reinforce pictorial flatness.

Juan Gris, The Sunblind, 1914. Gouache, collage, chalk, and charcoal on canvas. Tate Gallery, London. Image licensed under GNU Free Documentation License

It'due south not so difficult to understand the importance of this new idea of infinite when placed in the context of comparable advances in science surrounding the plow of the nineteenth century. The Wright Brothers took to the air with powered flight in 1903, the aforementioned year Marie Curie won the first of two Nobel prizes for her pioneering work in radiation. Sigmund Freud's new ideas on the inner spaces of the heed and its effect on beliefs were published in 1902, and Albert Einstein'southward calculations on relativity, the idea that space and time are intertwined, first appeared in 1905. Each of these discoveries added to human being understanding and realligned the way we expect at ourselves and our earth. Indeed, Picasso, speaking of his struggle to define cubism, said "Even Einstein did not know it either! The condition of discovery is outside ourselves; merely the terrifying thing is that despite all this, we can only find what we know" (from Picasso on Art, A Selection of Views by Dore Ashton, (Souchere, 1960, page 15).

five. Value and Contrast

Value (or tone) is the relative lightness or darkness of a shape in relation to another. The value scale, divisional on one end past pure white and on the other by blackness, and in between a series of progressively darker shades of grey, gives an artist the tools to make these transformations. The value scale below shows the standard variations in tones. Values near the lighter terminate of the spectrum are termed high-keyed, those on the darker end are low-keyed.

Value Calibration, xi July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison, CC BY

In two dimensions, the use of value gives a shape the illusion of class or mass and lends an entire composition a sense of low-cal and shadow. The two examples beneath show the effect value has on changing a shape to a course.

second Form, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison, CC By

3D Form, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison, CC BY

This aforementioned technique brings to life what begins as a uncomplicated line drawing of a young human'southward caput in Michelangelo's Head of a Youth and a Right Hand from 1508. Shading is created with line (refer to our discussion of line before in this module) or tones created with a pencil. Artists vary the tones past the corporeality of resistance they employ between the pencil and the paper they're drawing on. A drawing pencil's leads vary in hardness, each one giving a unlike tone than another. Washes of ink or color create values determined by the amount of water the medium is dissolved into.

The apply of loftier contrast, placing lighter areas of value confronting much darker ones, creates a dramatic result, while low contrast gives more subtle results. These differences in effect are axiomatic in 'Guiditta and Oloferne' by the Italian painter Caravaggio, and Robert Adams' photograph Untitled, Denver from 1970-74. Caravaggio uses a loftier contrast palette to an already dramatic scene to increase the visual tension for the viewer, while Adams deliberately makes use of low contrast to underscore the drabness of the landscape surrounding the figure on the bicycle.

Caravaggio, Guiditta Decapitates Oloferne, 1598, oil on sail. National Gallery of Italian Art, Rome. This work is in the public domain

vi. Color

Color is the most circuitous creative element because of the combinations and variations inherent in its use.  Humans respond to colour combinations differently, and artists study and use color in part to give desired direction to their piece of work.

Color is fundamental to many forms of fine art. Its relevance, use and role in a given piece of work depend on the medium of that work. While some concepts dealing with colour are broadly applicable across media, others are not.

The total spectrum of colors is contained in white light. Humans perceive colors from the light reflected off objects. A red object, for example, looks cherry because it reflects the ruby function of the spectrum. It would be a unlike color nether a different lite. Color theory first appeared in the 17^th century when English mathematician and scientist Sir Isaac Newton discovered that white low-cal could exist divided into a spectrum by passing information technology through a prism.

The study of color in art and design often starts with color theory. Colour theory splits up colors into three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary.

The basic tool used is a colour wheel, adult by Isaac Newton in 1666. A more circuitous model known every bit the color tree, created by Albert Munsell, shows the spectrum made up of sets of tints and shades on connected planes.

In that location are a number of approaches to organizing colors into meaningful relationships. Most systems differ in structure only.

Traditional Model

Traditional color theory is a qualitative attempt to organize colors and their relationships. It is based on Newton'southward colour bicycle, and continues to exist the most common system used by artists.

Blue Yellowish Red Color Wheel. Released under the GNU Gratuitous Documentation License

Traditional color theory uses the aforementioned principles as subtractive color mixing (see below) but prefers different primary colors.

• The primary colors are cherry-red, blue, and yellowish. You find them equidistant from each other on the colour cycle. These are the "elemental" colors; not produced by mixing whatsoever other colors, and all other colors are derived from some combination of these three.
• The secondary colors are orangish (mix of ruby-red and yellow), green (mix of blue and yellowish), and violet (mix of blue and cherry-red).
• The tertiary colors are obtained by mixing one master color and one secondary color. Depending on amount of colour used, different hues can be obtained such as red-orange or yellow-greenish. Neutral colors (browns and grays) can exist mixed using the three principal colors together.
• White and black prevarication outside of these categories. They are used to lighten or darken a color. A lighter color (made by calculation white to it) is called a tint , while a darker colour (fabricated by adding black) is called a shade .

Color Mixing

Recall about color every bit the upshot of light reflecting off a surface. Understood in this style, colour can be represented equally a ratio of amounts of master color mixed together. Colour is produced when parts of the external calorie-free source'southward spectrum are captivated past the material and not reflected back to the viewer'southward eye. For example, a painter brushes blue paint onto a canvas. The chemical composition of the paint allows all of the colors in the spectrum to be absorbed except blue, which is reflected from the pigment'due south surface.  Common applications of subtractive color theory are used in the visual arts, color printing and processing photographic positives and negatives.

• The primary colors are red, yellow, and bluish.
• The secondary colors are orange, green and violet.
• The tertiary colors are created by mixing a primary with a secondary color.
• Black is mixed using the three primary colors, while white represents the absence of all colors. Note: because of impurities in subtractive color, a true black is impossible to create through the mixture of primaries. Because of this the result is closer to brown. Similar to additive colour theory, lightness and darkness of a color is adamant by its intensity and density.

Subtractive Color Mixing. Released under the GNU Free Documentation License

Color Attributes

In that location are many attributes to color. Each one has an effect on how we perceive information technology.

• Hue refers to color itself, but also to the variations of a colour.
• Value (as discussed previously) refers to the relative lightness or darkness of ane color next to another. The value of a color can make a difference in how it is perceived. A color on a dark background volition appear lighter, while that aforementioned color on a lite groundwork will appear darker.
• Saturation refers to the purity and intensity of a colour. The primaries are the nearly intense and pure, but diminish every bit they are mixed to class other colors. The creation of tints and shades also diminish a color's saturation. Ii colors work strongest together when they share the same intensity.

Colour Interactions

Beyond creating a mixing hierarchy, color theory as well provides tools for understanding how colors piece of work together.

Monochrome

The simplest colour interaction is monochrome. This is the use of variations of a unmarried hue. The advantage of using a monochromatic color scheme is that you get a high level of unity throughout the artwork because all the tones relate to one another. See this in Marking Tansey'due south Derrida Queries de Man from 1990.

Analogous Colour

Analogous colors are similar to one some other. As their name implies, analogous colors can be found next to one another on any 12-part colour wheel:

Analogous Color, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC BY

You lot tin see the effect of coordinating colors in Paul Cezanne'due south oil painting Auvers Panoromic View

Colour Temperature

Colors are perceived to have temperatures associated with them. The colour wheel is divided into warm and cool colors. Warm colors range from yellow to red, while absurd colors range from yellow-greenish to violet.  You tin accomplish circuitous results using just a few colors when you pair them in warm and cool sets.

Warm cool color, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC Past

Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are found directly opposite one some other on a color wheel. Here are some examples:

• purple and yellowish
• green and cherry
• orange and blue

Complementary Colour, xi July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison. CC Past

Blue and orange are complements. When placed near each other, complements create a visual tension. This color scheme is desirable when a dramatic effect is needed using merely two colors.

7. Texture

At the most basic level, Three-dimensional works of art (sculpture, pottery, textiles, metalwork, etc.) and architecture have actual texture which is often determined by the cloth that was used to create it: wood, rock, bronze, dirt, etc. 2-dimensional works of art like paintings, drawings, and prints may attempt to prove implied texture through the apply of lines, colors, or other ways. When a painting has a lot of actual texture from the awarding of thick pigment, we call that impasto.

The first image beneath is a sculpture, and like all three-dimensional objects it has actual texture.

The next two images are details from the painting The Arnolfini Portrait by January van Eyck. Here, the artist has created implied texture. If you were to touch on this painting you would non experience the textile of the clothing and carpet, the wooden floor or the smooth metal of the chandelier, merely our eyes "come across" the texture.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sac-artappreciation/chapter/oer-1-9/

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