Elements of Art Overview

Elements of Art

• Visual components of art include color, form, line, shape, space, texture, and value.
• These are the building blocks artists use to create artwork.

7 Elements of Art

• Line: A continuous mark made on a surface (straight, zigzag, curved).
• Shape: A two-dimensional area defined by boundaries.
  • Geometric shapes (squares, circles, triangles).
  • Organic shapes (irregular, freeform found in nature).
• Form: A three-dimensional object or representation (height, width, depth).
  • Examples include sculptures, architecture, or the illusion of 3D in paintings.
• Color: Hue, value, and intensity used to create mood and contrast.
  • Types of colors:
    • Primary (red, blue, yellow)
    • Secondary (green, orange, purple)
    • Tertiary (mix of primary and secondary)
• Value: Lightness or darkness of a color or shade.
  • Creates depth, mood, and contrast.
• Texture: The surface quality.
  • Tactile texture: actual surface quality (rough, smooth).
  • Visual texture: the illusion of texture on a flat surface.
• Space: The illusion of depth or areas around and between objects.
  • Types of space:
    • Positive space: space occupied by objects.
    • Negative space: space around objects.

Principles of Art

• Guiding principles that help artists create artwork.
• Principles of art help artists navigate contrast, unity, balance, etc.

7 Principles of Art

• Balance: Distribution of visual weight.
  • Types of balance:
    • Symmetrical balance: even distribution on both sides.

Pre-Historic Art

• Characterized by cave paintings, petroglyphs, and megaliths.
• Prehistoric art reflects the experiences of early humans.
• Existed between 40,000 and 3,000 BCE.
• Archaeologists study objects from the past.
• Forms:
  • Small sculptures and large paintings.
  • Engravings on cave walls.
• Created using natural substances:
  • Charcoal
  • Animal blood
  • Colored minerals
  • Ochre
• Periods:
  • Paleolithic Period: Earliest period of the Stone Age.
  • Cro-Magnon artists: European early modern humans.
• Famous cave: Lascaux Cave in Southwestern France.
• Includes animals, human figures, abstract signs.

Classical Art

• Art from Ancient Greece and Rome.
• Pursued ideals of beauty, harmony, and realism.

Art of Ancient Greece

• Focus on idealized human forms, realism, and harmony.
• Development of sculptural techniques like contrapposto.

Methods of Greek Painting

• Fresco: Water-based pigments on freshly applied plaster (walls).
• Encaustic: Heated beeswax with colored pigments.

Art of Ancient Rome

• Adaptation and expansion of Greek art.
• Realistic portraiture, monumental architecture, civic structures.
• Subjects included animals, daily life, portraits, landscapes, and mythology.

Mosaic

• Art process creating images using colored glass, stone, or materials.

Byzantine Art and Medieval Art

• Highly religious and symbolic.
• Used iconography, gold backgrounds, flat figures, mosaics, and emphasis on spiritual themes.

Romanesque Art

• Revival of stone architecture (thick walls, rounded arches).
• Decorative carvings, religious themes in sculpture and paintings.

Gothic Art

• Characterized by height and light in architecture (stained glass windows, flying buttresses).
• Greater realism in sculptures, detailed, colorful artwork in cathedrals.

Explore the seven essential elements of art that serve as the foundation for creating visual works. This quiz covers line, shape, form, color, value, and texture, explaining their definitions and applications in art. Test your understanding of how these components interact to enhance artistic expression.