The Visual Elements

Definitions and Study Images

Line: A path made by a moving point.

Implied Line: The outlines, silhouettes, or edges of objects are also often called ”lines” because they imply lines.

In the illustration above, the upper image shows an actual horizontal line. The bottomimage shows implied horizontal and vertical lines formed by the edges of rectangles.

Actual Line: Implied Line:

Even a person’s gaze can imply line:

The Three Dimensions:Height, Width, Depth

Line =Width or Height

Plane =Width and Height

Mass =Width and Height and Depth

Shape: A two-dimensional area with clear boundaries made by lines, edges, colors, textures, or by some combination of these.

Common shapes:

Geometric shapes: Shapes based on the mechanically drawn line, including the square, rectangle, circle, and triangle.

Geometric shapes:

Organic shapes: Shapes based on the forms of nature, which are rounded (but not usually perfectly circular), irregular, or curving.

Organic shapes:

Geometric mass: Mass based on the mechanically drawn line, including the square, rectangle, circle, and triangle.

Geometric Mass

Geometric mass:

Organic Mass: Mass based on the forms of nature, which are usually rounded (but not usually perfectly circular), irregular, or curving.

Organic mass

(Sculptures by Jean Arp)

Value: The intensity of light we see, from black to white and all shades of grey in between.

Modeling: In two-dimensional art, modeling is done to give the illusion of three-dimensional mass. It is done by implying “light” falling on implied “objects.”

A drawing using line

A drawing using modeling

Four Common

Hatching Cross-hatching Blending Stippling

Color Wheel: A circle in which colored sections are arranged to teach the optical nature of, and relationships between, colors.

Primary colors: Colors that cannot be made by a mixture of other colors. The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.

Primary

PrimaryPrimary

Secondary colors: Colors made by combining two primary colors in equal amounts. The three secondary colors are orange (yellow + red), green (yellow + blue) and violet (red + blue).

SecondarySecondary

Secondary

Tertiary colors: Colors made by mixing a primary and its adjacent secondary in equal amounts.

Tertiary colors are named by placing a hyphen between the name of the primary and the name of the secondary of which they are a mixture of. Examples:

Red-violet Yellow-green Blue-violet

All colors found on the color wheel that are not primary or secondary colors are tertiary colors.

Tint: a color with white added.

Example: pink is a tint of red.

Red and white paint make pink Red and white stripes make pink

Shade: A color with black added.

Example: burgundy is a shade of red.

Tone: A color with grey added

Blush is a tone of red.

Complementary colors: Colors directly opposite one another on the color wheel. Because of the Law of Simultaneous Contrast (see next slide), complementary color pairs can create intense optical effects. Commonly used complementary color pairs are red-green, yellow-violet, and blue-orange.

Law of Simultaneous Contrast: The phenomenon whereby two complementary colors placed next to each other (not mixed) will seem more intense and brilliant than they do separately.

Ready to see the law of simultaneous contrast in action….?

Attention-getting blue-orange complementary color pairing

Attention-getting violet-yellowcomplementary color pairing

Attention-getting red-greencomplementary color pairing.

Color Harmonies allow artists to work with color in ways that help convey content. There are three color harmonies:

• Monochromatic harmony: A color harmony composed of one hue, or of the tints, tones and shades (different values) of one hue.

• Complementary harmony: A color harmony utilizing the law of simultaneous contrast, combining colors directly opposite one another on the color wheel.

• Analogous harmony: A color harmony that uses hues that are adjacent to one another on the color wheel, and thus related.

Monochromatic Color Harmony

ComplementaryColorHarmony

Analogous Color Harmony

TextureTwo types:

Actual texture: the actual tactile characteristic of a surface.

Implied texture: the appearance of texture given by an artist to a surface.

Actual

texture

in life:

Actual texture in art:

Actual texture in art:

Implied texture in art:

Pattern: a repeated decorative design covering a surface.

Patterns:

Andy Warhol, Green Coca Cola Bottles, 1962 Anni Albers, Eclat, 1974Mihrab in Shah’s Mosque, Isfahan, Iran, 1300s

Perspective: the art of representing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to convincingly imply mass, height, width, depth, and position relative to the viewer.

Linear Perspective: a method of giving the illusion of depth on a flat surface by having all parallel lines (orthogonals) converge in a single vanishing point on the composition's horizon line.

Photo Drawing

Linear Perspective:

Maurice Utrillo, Church, c.1930, Rue Saint-Rustique

Chester Chien, Hand, 2011

Foreshortening: gives the illusion of an object receding into, or coming out of, the distance. The illusion requires manipulating the object to make it appear more compressed than it is in reality.

Images from Artinko; artists not identified

Foreshortening

Foreshortening:

Gustave Caillebotte, Les raboteurs de parquet (“The Floor Planers”) 1875

Atmospheric Perspective: When very large forms (like mountains) are shown as blurred, indistinct, misty, and often having a bluish tone, much as the eye perceives large distant forms in nature.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters (detail), 1565

Atmospheric Perspective:

William Keith, California Pines, 1878

Atmospheric Perspective:

Vincent van Gogh, Bridge in the Rain(after Hiroshige) 1887

Atmospheric Perspective: