South Elementary School

ELEMENTS AND PRINCIPLES OF ART


ELEMENTS OF ART

•  Dot:  (This is my addition to the list!) A basic mark or point made on a single spot.  Can be large or small or grouped in patterns.     
   
• Line:  The path of a moving point.  It can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved, angular, zigzag, bent, straight, interrupted, thick, or thin.
   
• Color:  What the eye sees when light is reflected from it.  Hue is the color in its most intense form.  Value refers to the differences in hue ranging from lightest to darkest.  Primary colors (red, blue, yellow) cannot be produced by mixing other colors together.  Secondary colors (orange, violet, green) are created by mixing primary colors.
   
• Shape:  The area enclosed by an outline; the flat area created by lines, colors, and tones; geometric; organic, natural, or amorphous (without clarity).  Shapes can be indicated by line or color.
   
• Form:  Shape with three dimensions – height, width, and depth.  Form can be realistic, abstract, idealized, naturalistic, or non-representational.
   
• Value:  The gradual change of lightness or darkness, white to black, used to suggest roundness or depth.
   
• Texture:  Surface treatment ranging from very smooth to quite rough.  It can be real or implied.
   
• Space:  Actual (open air around sculpture or architecture) or implied (can be shown by control of size, color, overlapping.)

PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
 

• Movement:  Visual movement may be achieved with lines, edges, shapes, values or colors, etc.  These help to direct the viewer through a work of art, often to a focal area.  Actual movement can be seen in the various positions of a mobile or other forms of kinetic sculptures.
   
• Contrast:  Differences between the elements of art: texture, color, value, line, shape, etc.
   
• Emphasis:  The center-of-interest; one feature is most important and everything else works with it.
   
• Pattern and repetition:  Use of line, color, or a motif in more than one place in a composition.
   
• Rhythm:  Repeated use of similar elements such as color, line, or shape.  The smooth transition from one part to another.
   
• Balance:  The equilibrium of various elements in the work of art.  It can be symmetrical or asymmetrical.
   
• Unity:  the harmony of all the visual elements in a composition.