ISSN (online): 2582-7472 ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts

Fundamentals of Art, 2021, Vol 2(1 SE), 40 – 46

DOI: https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v2.i1(SE).2021.19

FUNDAMENTALS OF ARTS

Dr. Richa M.L. Raghuwanshi *1

*1 Art Teacher, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhkosh.v2.i1(SE).2021.19

Article Type: Research Article ABSTRACT

Art means creation. This ability of creation is the highest and invaluable
Article Citation: Dr Richa M.L. gift given by God almighty to mankind. From the very beginning art has
Raghuwanshi. (2021). been the strongest medium of expressing emotions. World’s great pieces of
FUNDAMENTALS OF ARTS.
art have been created by the ability to express the basic emotions of human
ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and
Performing Arts, 2 (1 SE), 40-46. heart like joy, sorrow, faith, aesthetic sense etc. in various forms.
https://doi.org/10.29121/shodhko
sh.v2.i1(SE).2021.19

Received Date: 6 May 2020

Accepted Date: 11 February 2021

Keywords:
Primitive Fertility
Animism
Stylized Form

1. INTRODUCTION

Over the period of time as human being developed so did art. In this journey of evolution some rules were laid
down for systematic development. In the field of art these rules are called fundamental / basic elements of art. There
are many types of art forms in the world but if we talk about drawing and painting specifically we come across 9
popular basic elements as:
• Line
• Shape
• Form
• Value
• Space
• Texture
• Perspective
• Anatomy Gesture
• Composition

In order to learn art one must have the knowledge of these fundamental elements. Of course it is not impossible
to create an artwork without having knowledge of these elements but having their knowledge certainly helps an

© 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 40
 Fundamentals of Arts

artist to create a good work / attain excellence in the subject. Thus knowledge of fundamental elements gives a touch
of perfection to the work.

2. LINE

God created this universe but man is the creator of line – the first and the most important part of a drawing. Line
is a one dimensional figure. According to mathematics a line is the shortest distance between any two points whereas
in Art a line is defined as a point moving in space or a series of points clubbed together. A line can be smaller or
bigger, thin or thick, moving or stationary. The most basic concept of lines defines two types of lines – straight line
(horizontal, vertical, slant) and curved line and then there are spiral lines which is nothing but a chain of curved lines
and then zigzag lines chain of straight lines.
A line is the most important part of the language of drawing and the biggest example of it are the cave paintings
of prehistoric period where all the pictures are made up of lines only. Different lines shows different emotions such
as Horizontal lines gives the feel of rest, distance, width, calmness, stability, Vertical lines adds a sense of height,
strength, Diagonal lines shows movement, Curved lines gives a feel of comfort, ease and sometimes sensuality and
Zigzag lines shows action, excitement, restlessness and anxiety. Emotions like sympathy, hatred, softness, hardness
can be shown with the help of moving lines whereas stationary or non moving lines does not give firmness and a
certain shape to anything. Light lines shows uncertainity, confusion, weakness and distance, Dark and clear lines
shows closeness, power, strength and certainity.
With the help of lines one can create the effect of shading. There are few popular techniques of shading like
parallel hatching and cross hatching where different tones are created with the help of small parallel or cris-cross
lines. If small lines are made too close to each other they create an effect of darkness whereas if the lines are made
keeping little distance between them they create the light tonal effect.

Cross Hatching Parallel Hatching

Happy Quite Sad

The importance of knowledge of lines for an artist is described very well in a shloka of an old Hindu scripture
VISHNUDHAMOTTAR PURAN as

सु�ं च चेतनायु� मृतं चैत�विज�तम्।

43।।29।।

The above shloka means a brilliant artist is the one who can draw the line work for a sleeping man and a dead
man so differently that any viewer can easily distinguish between the two.

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 Dr. Richa M.L. Raghuwanshi

3. SHAPE

Shape is a two dimensional figure which is formed by matching the ends of a continuous line. It is two
dimensional means it has only width and length so we can also call it a flat figure. It can be described through colours
or texture also and not necessarily with lines only. There are two types of shapes:
• Geometric Shapes
• Organic Shapes

Geometric Shapes are simple mathematical shapes like triangle, square, rectangle, circle, polygon etc. These
shapes have perfect uniform measurements and are often man-made. They can easily be made with the help of
simple mathematical tools like scale, protector, compass etc.
Organic Shapes are just opposite to geometric shapes as they have no defined shape i.e. they are asymmetric
and irregular. These shapes are found everywhere in nature like leaves, flowers, animals, humans, clouds, plants,
trees, hills etc. and there are no defined tools available to create these shapes as they don’t have a defined shape..
These shapes are an artist’s delight.
If we go through the history of art and different important and popular movements of art we find that in Cubism
great artist’s like Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp played with both geometrical shapes as well as organic shapes
together in their works brilliantly.

4. FORM

Form is an important element of art. In one word a form can be described as three dimensional shape. A shape
has two dimensions length and width but in forms we have a third dimension of depth also and this third dimension
of depth gives the artist an opportunity to create the illusion of a realistic object on a simple flat two dimensional
surface. When we add third dimension in a triangle it becomes a pyramid or cone, when the third dimension is added
in a square it becomes a cube, rectangle becomes cuboid and a simple circle becomes a sphere.
As we know all the fundamental elements of art are closely related to each other and upto a certain extent
depends on each other so to create the illusion effect of third dimension on a flat two dimensional surface or in other
words to convert a shape into form we need to add some volume in it i.e. the effect of light and shade. When an artist
adds the effect of light and shade with the help of different tones a simple flat shape gets the depth and this depth
makes the object look three dimensional. The viewer feels as if the object is raised from the flat surface.
To understand it in a better way we can take an example: suppose you want make drawing of a cube kept on a
plain surface and you want to create an illusion so that the viewer will feel as if a real cube is kept on a surface. To
achieve this target first you need to draw a simple square, turn it into a cube by adding a third dimension of height
in a simple two dimensional shape of a square and then you need to add some value in it or in other words you need
to do shading to create the illusion of depth. Here to keep our work simple / easier we will be doing shading work
using three basic tones of shading light, medium and dark. While adding volume firstly you need to see the direction
of light and on which portion of the cube it’s falling directly on. Now the portion on which the light is falling directly
will get the lightest tone to get the bright look in comparison to the other portions of it. Then the portion which is
neither directly exposed to the light source nor on the opposite side of it will actually have the medium light and so
has to be made with the medium tone and finally the portion of the cube which is hardly getting any light will look
darkest and so has to be made with the dark shade. In addition to all this near the base of the cube some dark shade
has to be made on the surface in the opposite direction of the light source just to create the effect of shadow and
once this is done the simple shape of a square will start looking like a realistic three dimensional object little raised
from the plain surface on which it is kept. Similarly any flat shape can be turned into a form.
Given below the images of (a) a circle shape getting form of a sphere and (b) a square shape getting form of a
cube.

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 Fundamentals of Arts

Just like shapes forms are also of two types: Geometric and Organic. Geometric forms are well defined,
symmetric and easily measurable mathematical objects like cube, pyramid, sphere etc. Whereas Organic forms are
asymmetric, irregular natural objects like flowers, leaves, clouds, animals, humans plants etc. Organic forms are not
easily measurable or named.

5. VALUE

Light Middle Dark

In the above picture three different tones of black colour are shown. Here on the extreme left side the lightest
tone is shown whereas on the extreme right hand side darkest tone is shown and in between both of these tones the
one which is seen is called middle tone / medium tone. Likewise we can create more tones of black

This way the process of creation of tones / values of a colour can be taken to infinite. To create lighter tones of
any colour we need to add white in it and to create darker tones black colour has to be added in it. Lighter tones of a
colour shows energy, happiness, anthusiasm whereas darker tones shows mystry, depression and middle / medium
tone depicts a mixed effect of both the tones.
Nowadays 3D paintings are extremely popular and Value / Tone is actually the key factor of a 3D painting. In
other words we can also say that value is the backbone of a 3D painting. Without adding value in a painting it’s
impossible to create the illusion of realism in any 3D painting because to make a work look realistic you need to add
depth to it and the effect of depth can only be created with value. Here the middle tone plays an important role as
after light tone, dark tone can not come suddenly but there has to be a middle tone which helps light tone to get
merged with dark tone smoothly and this smooth movement of tones from light to dark actually creates the required
effect of third dimension to a painting by providing depth to it. Value creates contrast in a painting that helps an
artist to create the effect of depth which makes the work looks more and more realistic.
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 Dr. Richa M.L. Raghuwanshi

6. SPACE

The literal meaning of the word Space is a continuous area which is free, available or unoccupied / the physical
universe beyond the earth’s atmosphere / an interval of time / distance / the portion of a text or document available
for writing whereas in art Space means the area around or between or within the constituent of any art work.
In drawing / painting / artwork space is nothing but how the area within the drawing / painting surface is used.
The area occupied by the main object is termed as positive space whereas the area surrounding the main object is
negative space. Appropriate use of positive and negative space has a big impact on the overall appearance of the
painting / drawing / artwork. The space may be created with the use of shading techniques or use of colours in an
appropriate manner or by adding texture or with the help of the combination of shading, colours and texture.

7. TEXTURE

It is an important element of art. Texture is nothing but the feel that one gets either on looking at or touching
the surface of any object. The surface can be natural or man-made. In other words we can say Texture is nothing but
the character of a surface which can be soft, smooth, silky, hard, rough, furry, wet etc. Every object has some or the
other texture. In art texture plays an important role. Texture provides balance and effectiveness to a piece of art.
Artists incorporate texture in their paintings / artworks to break the monotony, creating a focal point and sometimes
just for adding contrast.
An artist works on two types of surfaces to create their artworks - natural or artificial. Natural surfaces are
wood, stone etc. and artificial surfaces are handmade sheets, canvas, cloth, paper etc. Sometimes an artist creates an
illusion of texture and makes the surface look like something it is not. The success of this type of illusion work solely
depends upon the ability of an artist, how brilliantly he / she can play with colours. With simply the use of colours,
brush, spong, knife, cotton, nib, toothbrush, string, comb, sack and many more easily available things an artist can
create the illusion of a desired texture. A brilliant artist always knows where and how a texture can be placed in a
painting to make an ordinary work look good.

8. PERSPECTIVE

Perspective is one of the key fundamentals of art. It is a technique of creating three dimensions on a two
dimensional surface and this third dimension of depth makes a drawing / painting look more interesting and
realistic. We know a simple fact that when we look at objects from near they appear to be bigger in size but when we
look at the same object from distance it looks comparatively smaller in size depends upon the amount of distance. In
mathematical language we can say that the size of any object is inversely proportion to it’s distance from the viewer.
There are different types of perspective but before we discuss types of perspective we need to get a little bit of idea
about two important terms related to perspective and they are
• Vanishing Point
• Horizon line

Vanishing point - It is the point in perspective drawing where the parallel lines appears to converge

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 Fundamentals of Arts

Horizon line - It is essential in an art work. This line is important because it gives the viewer an idea of their
relative position with the scene depicted in an art work as above ,below or on the same level with the subject. This
actually gives an exact idea about the correct proportion of subject which makes the art work look realistic.
Now let us try to understand the types of perspective and there are 4 popular types of perspective which are as
follows:
• Linear Perspective
• One-Point Perspective
• Two- Point Perspective
• Atmospheric Perspective

Linear Perspective - This can be understood as creation of depth with the help of positioning of objects and
their relative size( variation in size in relation to distance). In simple language we can understand it as objects looks
larger in size when they are placed near to the viewer whereas they look smaller when placed at distance from the
viewer.
One-Point Perspective - This type of perspective has only one vanishing point along the horizon line and so it
is called one-point perspective. The most common example of such perspective are drawing or painting showing
railway lines and roads.

Two-Point Perspective - As the name clearifies this kind of perspective has two vanishing points on a horizon
line. This technique is usually shown when an artist creates a scene showing corner of a building on a street where
both left and right sides of the building will have their own vanishing points on the horizon line. For example

Atmospheric Perspective - This is a technique of creating third dimension of depth on a two dimensional
surface with the help of colours. When we talk about adding depth in a painting through colours we know that
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 Dr. Richa M.L. Raghuwanshi

colours get fade away with increasing distance. In other words when objects are near their colour / colours look
bright and when they are at distance their colour / colours look faded or blurry. This simple concept is used in this
technique.

9. ANATOMY GESTURE

The word anatomy gesture is made up of two words anatomy and gesture. Both these are related to each other
as ‘Anatomy’ is the complete study of human body (bone structure, details of muscle structure, nervous system)
where as ‘Gesture’ means capturing the action of body for a particular pose or for different poses. The study of
anatomy gesture is very important for an artist.
To draw a human figure firstly you should have the knowledge of human body structure so that when you start
drawing a human body/figure every part of the body can be drawn in proper proportion on the contrary if you don’t
have the knowledge of the exact proportion you will end up with a completely disproportionate figure which will
make your drawing look either artificial, funny or ugly and this concept is true for the drawing of all the living beings
whether it’s human or animal or bird’s body. In short if we are trying to make the drawing of any living being,
knowledge of it’s anatomy is the essential requirement.
Gesture is also as important as the study of the structure and proportion of the body parts. Gesture gives life to
the body. Drawing of any living being without gesture makes it look like lifeless and artificial only. Gesture can be
shown with the help of either movement in body parts or through facial expressions. We can also understand the
meaning of gesture as body language.
Anatomy and Gesture needs each other to complete themselves. They are so tightly bonded with each other that
only one of them will not be able to lead you to make a proper figure full of life.

10. COMPOSITION

Composition is one of the fundamentals of art and it’s a very important element. Composition is the arrangement
of visual elements in an art work / painting. According to a great artist HENRI MATISSE “Composition is the art
of arranging in a decorative manner the diverse elements at the painter’s command to express his feelings.”
Every painting abstract or realistic or representational has a composition. A good composition is the one which
when seen by a viewer allows his / her eyes to move all around the art work or painting and finally brings back the
attention to it’s focal point / main subject. While arranging the visual elements in an art work an artist must see
whether in the arrangement between the elements proper unity, balance, movement, rhythm, focus, contrast, pattern
and proportion is present or not because these are the important factors which makes a composition successful.
All the other elements of art like – line, shape, value, space, texture, perspective and anatomy gesture works well
only if the composition i.e. the final arrangement of visual elements is good. So we can say that composition is the
final cherry on the cake.
• Images included in this article are taken from google and they are not subject to copyright

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ShodhKosh: Journal of Visual and Performing Arts 46