Design Elements

Quick Overview

• The elements of art are the building blocks of art/design creation.

• They are the VISUAL LANGUAGE of art. • What are they?

– Line– Shape– Color– Space– Value– texture

Line

• Lines can communicate an idea or express a feeling. • They can appear static or active. • Lines define objects. • Look at the following example

Ben Shahn (Lithuanian) 1889-1968, Supermarket, serigraph in black,1957, 25 1/4 x 38 3/4"

Line exercise• In your sketchbooks, divide one page into 12

small sections (4 rows of 3) and demonstrate the following (and label):

•Active

•Broken

•Furious

•Climbing

•Dancing

•Falling

•Bouncing

•Growing

•Random

•Echoing

•Spiraling

•One of your choice

Shapes

• Lines come together to make shapes• Categorized as

– Geometric• Circle

• Square

• Triangle

– Freeform

Piet Mondrian, (Dutch) 1872-1944, Boogie-Woogie, 1942-43. Oil on canvas, 50 x 50" (127 x 127 cm) . The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Joan Miro (Spanish) 1893-1983, The Policeman, Oil on canvas,1925, 248 x 194.9 cm, The Art Institute Of Chicago

Shape exercise

• Complete Black Square Problem

• Place in sketchbook when completed

Space

• How an artists uses Space or chooses NOT to use Space adds a great deal to a design

• Space is so important, that we have names for the types of Space in a design– Positive Space

• The space created by an image or a sculpture.• The main subjects of the work/design.

– Negative Space • The space around, between and behind parts of

an image or a sculpture

Salvador Dali (Spanish) 1904-1989, The Deterioration of The Persistence Of Memory1952-54, Oil on Board, Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL

How is space used?

Ben Shahn (American) 1898-1969

Salvador Dali (Spanish) 1904-1989, The Deterioration of The Persistence Of Memory1952-54, Oil on Board, Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL

Space and Perspective

• Artist used rules or perspective to create a sense of three-dimensional space while designing on a flat, two-dimensional surface.

• Why are your eyes drawn to the sides of the paper. Do you know why?

• A diagonal line is read by the human eye as a movement line. The eye is drawn up the diagonal direction and "into" the drawing.

Your Task

• Complete Black & White problem– Choose 3 of the following items to sketch only

using the NEGATIVE space– Salt, ghost, clouds, Moby Dick, Jaws, sugar, polar

bear, smoke, vanilla ice cream cone, or steam

• Place in sketchbook when completed

Review

• What types of lines communicate these feelings?– Anger– Happy – Movement

Texture

• Visual texture is the illusion of a three-dimensional surface

• The goal is to imitate the look and feel of real texture in designs

• Texture can be– Physical– Visual – Which will we deal with?

Texture

• What are some texture descriptors?– Smooth– Rough– Soft

• How can we use texture?

Value

• Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color• Very useful when attempting to create a sense of

three dimensions• Typically thought of as a range from black to white,

but it can also be used with color– The range of the values can be changed by adding white to

lighten or tint a color. Adding black will create a shade of the original color which will appear darker.

Value

• In your sketchbook, create the following– 3 rows of 5 squares each– Be neat!– Label

• Value scale gray

• Value scale (your choice)

• Value scale (your choice 2)

– Left side = very dark; right side = very light

The Third Dimension

• Review– Perspectives– Sketching 3D shapes

• Cube

• Parallelepiped

• Cone

• Pyramid

• Sphere

The Third Dimension

• How can you simulate 3D?

•Placement•Size•Overlapping•Shading•Shadows

•Contour lines•Horizon•Density•Foreshortening