elements of design elements are the building blocks of all two and three dimensional work. they are...

Elements of Design Elements are the building blocks of all two and three

dimensional work. They are the basic visual vocabulary that is used to build complex pieces of art

Knowing the elements allows us to get under the surface appearances of a piece of art and grasp its structure.

In other words: Elements are the things that make up the painting, drawing, design etc.

Elements of Design - Line

Line is the path of a point moving through space. Contour lines define shape, repeated lines make texture or modeling and converging lines (like in the image to the right) give the illusion of space.


Lines can be emotional: geometric lines are tense and mechanical, organic ones are fluid and natural.


Line can be considered in two ways: either the linear marks made with a pen or brush, or the edge created when two shapes meet

Line is a mark on a surface that describes a shape or outline.

Types of line can include actual, implied, vertical, horizontal, diagonal and contour.

In the image below, Leonardo da Vinci used a soft, sensitive soft line to create a graceful image.

Leonardo da Vinci – 'Angel for the Madonna of the Rocks' ca. 1383-85


This image has the same subject as the Leonardo da Vinci image seen in the last slide...However, the artist Willem DeKooning has created a very different feeling by using a heavy, gestural line.

Woman 1 by Willem de Koonin

1950-52 - Oil on canvas


The woman's face in this image is created with a mechanical line creating an emotionally detached feeling.

Although the subject matter is the same in all of the three works we just looked at, the differences in line quality have created works with very different impact.

How you use line is one of the most important decisions to be made in creating a work of art


How is line being used in this photo?

Elements of Design - Shape/Form

Shape is a closed two-dimensional area that has a definite outline created by a line, colour, texture or value that separates it from the background.

Form is a shape given 3-dimensional volume by using texture, colour or value.

A circle is a shape, a sphere is its related 3-D form.

Shapes can be created by line, or by colour and value changes which define their edges. As with line, the decisions you make concerning shape are important!


Which fish is depicting Shape vs. Form?


The forms in the image on the right (ocean liner) are clearly defined. The image looks 3D.

By contrast... the ship's shape on the bottom right by William Turner, is barely discernable. This difference in clarity of shape is part of the meaning of these works - one conveys a sense of orderliness and confidence, while the other communicates a sense of vulnerability and uncertainty.

Snowstorm by William Turner1842; Oil on canvas

Elements of Design - Texture

Texture refers to the actual surface of any object, natural or manufactured. There are three types:

Simulated – A realistic rendering or photograph of texture

Actual – A collage of the actual objects

Invented – A texture made by the artist with tools or a pattern made with the media.

Texture - surface quality. We experience actual texture when we touch objects and feel their roughness, smoothness or patterns, which we can simulate or imply in digital imagery.

Elements of Design - Texture

In the 1930s, many Surrealist artists were arranging found objects in bizarre combinations that challenged reason and summoned unconscious and poetic associations.

Meret Openheim – Object (Paris 1936)

Texture is the dominant element in this work. The work takes advantage of our expectations of how texture should be used: fur may delight the touch but it repels the tongue. A cup and spoon, of course, are made to be put in the mouth.

Elements of Design - Colour/Value

Colour is our visual response to the wavelength of light reflected from a surface. Colour has three properties: hue, value and intensity. Colours can be used in a wide variety of combinations called harmonies. Some of these are monochromatic, complementary or analogous. Colours also

have symbolic and emotional associations. Associations are culturally based.

(i.e. Red=anger

White = purity)


Colour harmony combinatiations: Which is which?Monochromatic? Complementary? Analogous?

Sunflowers by Vincent Van Gogh

Barlett Pears by John Olin Gardner

by Christine Taylor2007


The painting by Phyllis Bramson (left) has intense, complimentary colors that equate to strong conflicting emotions. The other work, “Zodiac” by Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), uses subdued, analogous colors to create a very different feeling.

Elements of Design - Value Value - relative light and darkness. The

overall lightness and lack of contrast in the left image conveys a sense of spirituality and harmony. This is a light value work.

The dramatic mood of “Paradise Lost” by Gustave Dore (1866) is created, in large part, by the high contrast of light and dark. This is a dark value work.

Elements of Design - Space

Space is created by using other elements and principles.

In visual art, space can be real (as in architecture) or a three dimensional illusion (perspective).


An artist can create the illusion of depth using overlapping, diminishing scale, atmospheric perspective, linear perspective, warm and cool colours and vertical location.

Raphael's School of Athens - 1509


Although his use of linear perspective is not accurate, the painting by Vincent Van Gogh still implies an illusion of space/ depth.The Bedroom at Arles, c. 1887

Vincent Van Gogh

Elements of Design Which Elements of Design do you see?

Elements of Design Which Elements of Design are most prominent?

Principles of Design When two or more elements are used in a

composition, they begin to interact. The ability to control this interaction is the main task of the artist or designer.

The Principles of Design are the laws that govern the way that line, colour or other elements combine for certain emotional or aesthetic effects.

By comparison, the elements of design are the components of design themselves, the objects to be arranged.

Principles of Design

Why is this building famous?

Bonnano de Pisa. Bell Tower of the Cathedral at Pisa. Begun 1174.

Principles of Design - Balance

Balance is a physical or visual equilibrium. There are three main types in art: formal (symmetrical), informal (asymmetrical) and radial.

A sense o f balance is innate; as children we develop a sense of balance in our bodies and observe balance in the world around us. Imbalance disturbs us. Balance makes a design or painting more comfortable for viewers. In assessing pictorial balance, we always assume some sort of vertical axis. We usually expect to see some type of equal visual weight distribution on either side of the centre line.


The second illustration is balanced because bright colours have more visual weight than dark ones – thus it takes two dark squares of the same size to balance one red square of the same size.


Giotto. Madonna Enthroned.

C. 1310. Uffizi, Florence.

This painting shows asymmetrical/informal balance – objects are not exactly the same on the right and left side, yet the painting still appears to have the same amount of visual weight on the right and left side.


Frank Stella. Gran Cairo. 1962. Whitney Museum of American Art

New York.

Symmetrical / Formal Balance


Giovanni Paolo Pannini. The Interior of the Pantheon. 1750.

In this painting of the Pantheon, you can see that this famous building is based on radial balance.

Radial Balance - In radial balance, all the elements radiate or circle out from a common central point. It is used frequently in architecture, and seldom in painting because it creates an obvious focal point.


Inside coffers on ceiling of the Pantheon – radial balance in architecture.

Principles of Design - Emphasis

Emphasis is the creation of visual importance through the use of selective stress.

Emphasis is often created through contrasting one of the elements like colour. It is used to attract and guide the viewer’s attention or to convey action or emotion.


To create emphasis in art: Arrange most elements vertically and insert a few

horizontal forms. Have most elements in your design as irregular

spontaneous forms and insert a geometric form, as in Sam Francis’ Facing Within.

Sam Francis. Facing

Within. 1975.


Build a work of mainly flat planes of colour, and contrast that with a detailed, linear, multicoloured area, as in Georges Braques’ Musical Forms. Georges Braque. Musical Forms

(or Guitar and Clarinet). 1918. Philadelphia Museum of Art


Create a work in which many objects are approximately the same size, and one is much larger.

Emperor Otto II from the Registrum Gregorii. Trier, 985. Manuscript illumination. Musee Conde, Chantilly.


Make a work of art in which most natural forms are distorted, but there is one occasional recognizable section.

Lucas Samaras Photo-Transformation

November 22, 1973.


Create a work in which most colours are dark, and contrast with bright colours.

Lucas Samaras. Large Drawing #45. 1966.

Museum of Modern Art, New York.


Emphasis through Isolation

There are many more ways to create Emphasis. These were just a few examples.

Principles of Design - Rhythm

Rhythm is a flow or movement in a design through patterns in timing, spacing, repeating or accenting of one of the elements.

In visual art, rhythm is basically related to movement. As a design principle, it is based on repetition.


The repetition in this work creates a sense of movement.

Marcel DuChamp. Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2. 1912. Philadelphia Museum of Art.


Piet Mondrian. Broadway Boogie-Woogie. 1942-43. Museum of Modern Art, New York.


Rhythm can always be achieved through patterning. Artists can use exact AAA patterns to create rhythm.

Andy Warhol. Campbell’s Soup Cans. 1962.


Artists can also use alternating ABAB rhythms, or varied ABC ABD ABE rhythms. Large complex rhythms are called patterns.

Can you see the ABAB pattern this Greek temple dedicated to the patrons of Arts and Crafts?

Theseum (Hephaestum), Athens, Begun 449 BC. (Before the Parthenon)

Principles of Design - Unity

Unity occurs when one or more of the elements are similar across the design. It creates a sense of dignity and cohesion.


An easy way to gain unity- to make separate elements look as if they belong together- is by proximity, or simply putting these elements close together. Think about it: in the hallway at lunch, can you see which groups of people are friends (unified), by how they sit and stand together in the hall?

Audrey Flack. 1977-78.Wheel of Fortune.

Audrey Flack. 1975-76.Queen.


Unity can be achieved by repetition In this painting, viewers can see unity through the repetition

of shape. Rectangles, triangles and circles repeat, and in addition, viewers can see an amazing number of parallel diagonals.

Pablo Picasso.The Studio. 1927-28.


An example of unity through repetition and overlapping

Audrey Flack.Crayola.1972-73.


Unity can also be achieved through continuation. Continuation is a more subtle device than proximity or repetition. Continuation means, naturally, that something continues – usually a line, an edge, or a direction from one form to another. The viewer’s eye is carried smoothly from one element to another by the artist’s careful placement of just touching or continuous contours from one to the next.


In this pastel drawing, there are many places where the eye is carried from one form to another by placement. The line of the round tub starts at the bather’s hairline, meets at her fingertips, and joins the vertical line of the shelf where the brush handle overlaps. The circular shape of the bather’s hips is just tangent to the same shelf edge. Notice the careful arrangement of the objects on the shelf- how each item barely touches or carries the eye to another.

Edgar Degas. The Tub. 1886.

Principles of Design - Variety

Variety occurs when changes in the elements are used to create interest or express energy and emotion. The differences give a design visual and conceptual interest. Often, variety involves the unexpected use of contrast in size, colour, or texture.

Rene Magritte. Golconde. 1953.

Surrealist artists often use the concept of variety to create interest in their work.

Principles of Design - Variety

Salvador Dali. The Temptation of St. Anthony. 1946.

Principles of Design - Proportion

Proportion is the relationship of parts to the whole or one thing to another. Proportion refers to relative size, size measured against some mental norm or standard.


The Surrealist painter Rene Magritte so altered the normal scale relationships that we encounter in life that he created the intriguing painting seen here.

Rene Magritte. La Chambre D’Ecoute.


Some works of art are known particularly for their sheer size

Mount Rushmore.


Viewers have a general idea about what is right and wrong in the proportions of the human body.

Many of our ideas of human proportions were set almost 2500 years ago during the period of Greek Classical art. Although no figure was considered perfect, it was the role of the artist to create the perfection not found in nature.

Polyclitus. The Spear Carrier. Roman copy of Greek original. 450-440 BC.

National Museum, Naples.


In Rubens’ painting, viewers can see that fashionable body proportions change.

Peter Paul Rubens. The Judgement of Paris. 1638. National Gallery, London.


In Picasso’s The Old Guitarist distorted body proportions are evident. The old man has elongated thin arms and legs, enlarged body hands and feet. These distortions, along with the colour, become an expressive statement on the debilitation of old age.

Picasso. The Old Guitarist. 1903. The Art Institute of Chicago.

How can YOU use your knowledge of

the Elements &

Principles of Design

to change your art?

elements of design elements are the building blocks of all two and three dimensional work. they are...

Documents

elements of design elements

line lines

mechanical line

types of line

line quality

gestural line

canvas slide

sensitive soft line