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 bottom
image 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 = Plane = Mass =
Width or Height Width and Height 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
Primary Primary
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).
Secondary Secondary
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.
Red and white paint make pink Red and white stripes make pink
Example: pink is a tint of red.
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-yellow
complementary color pairing
Attention-getting red-green
complementary 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
Complementary
Color
Harmony
Analogous
Color
Harmony
Texture
Two types:
Actual texture: the actual tactile characteristic of a surface.
Implied texture: the appearance of texture given by an artist
to an implied 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:
Mihrab in Shah’s Mosque, Isfahan, Iran, 1300s Anni Albers, Eclat, 1974 Andy Warhol, Green Coca Cola Bottles, 1962
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
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.
Chester Chien, Hand, 2011
Foreshortening
Images from Artinko; artists not identified
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.
Atmospheric Perspective:
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
