The Elements of Design

Subtitle
 The Elements of Design
• Line – a visual or recognizable path created by a point in space. It is one-
dimensional and can vary in length, thickness or width, direction, curvature, and
color. It is a mark, guide, or boundary that leads the eye and defines the edges of
a figure. Add your second bullet point here

• Shape – an area enclosed by one or more lines. It can also be produced by colors
and textures. Shapes are two-dimensional, and they can be geometric (square,
circle, oval, triangle, and others) or organic (all other shapes).
 The Elements of Design
• Form – a three-dimensional shape with length, width, and height. Things with
form occupy space or give the illusion that they occupy the space. Like shapes,
forms can also be geometric (i.e., cube, sphere, cylinder, cone, pyramid, etc.) or
organic (i.e., table, chair, animals, people, and others).

• Color – one of the most dominant and expressive design elements. It is the
particular wavelength of light seen by the eye when an object reflects or emits
light.
 The Elements of Design
• In the color wheel, there are three primary colors (red,
blue and yellow), three secondary colors (orange,
green and violet) and six intermediate or tertiary
colors (red violet, red orange, blue green, blue violet,
yellow orange, and yellow green).
• Each primary color has a complementary secondary
color. In the color wheel, they are directly opposite
each other. The complementary color of blue is
orange. Yellow and violet are also complementary
colors, as are red and green. In a watercolor painting,
a darker tone of blue is achieved when a small amount
of orange is added to blue.
• On the other hand, analogous colors are a group of
three colors that are next to each other in the color
wheel. An example is red (primary), orange
(secondary), and red orange (tertiary).
 The Elements of Design

• Space – the area around, within, or between images. It is used to create the illusion of depth
on a two-dimensional surface.

Application of the Design Elements in Art

• Now that you know the elements of design, how do you suppose they can be applied?

- Just like in the example at the beginning of the lesson, every artist who starts painting on a
canvas must know what subject he intends to paint later on.
 The Adobe Photoshop Workspace

• At the very top of the Photoshop interface is the Application bar, which contains the logo of
Adobe Photoshop, the application controls, and the workspace switcher.
• You can apply textures such as brush strokes, mosaics, pixelation, ripples, waves, lens flares,
charcoal, grain, and patchwork, among many others. You can also manipulate colors by
adding an adjustment layer under Layer (more on this later), or by changing the mode to
Greyscale under Image. Try clicking on each of them and seeing what options they provide.
 The Photoshop Panels

• History Panel – displays the last several

edits that you made on your current
document. At the top you will find your
original image with the file name, and
directly below it are the edits that you
made listed in order.
• Layers Panel – displays the layers of
your current project. Layers are akin to
transparencies or acetate sheets
placed on top of your document. You
can perform different actions and edits
on one layer without affecting the
contents of other layers.
 The Photoshop Panels

• Colors Panel – is made up of three

parts: the Foreground/Background
Color boxes, the Color Sliders, and the
Color Ramp. There is a menu on the
upper right that lets you choose which
color model you want to work with.

• Swatches Panel – is similar to the

Color panel, but instead of showing
sliders, it displays a variety of common
colors, along with some shades and
tints
 The Photoshop Tools

• The Selection Tools

• If you look at the toolbar, you will notice that the tools are divided according to
their functions. In the division on the very top of the toolbar, you will find the
four selection tools, namely the Move, Marquee, Lasso, and Quick Selection
tools, right next to each other.
 The Photoshop Tools

• The Selection Tools

• If you look at the toolbar, you will notice that the tools are divided according to
their functions. In the division on the very top of the toolbar, you will find the four
selection tools, namely the Move, Marquee, Lasso, and Quick Selection tools, right
next to each other.

• Marquee
• • The Rectangular Marquee too creates a rectangular selection.
• • The Elliptical Marquee tool creates a circular or oval selection.
• • The Single Column Marquee and Single Row Marquee tools create a selection
of a single-pixel line going either vertically or horizontally.
 The Photoshop Tools
• Lasso tools are also used to create selections in
other shapes, such as polygons and free-forms.
• Quick Selection
• The Quick Selection tool is the default tool of
this button. It enables you to create a selection
while dragging your mouse or pen like you would
a brush. (Many tools in Adobe Photoshop are
used like a brush.) Also much like a brush, you
can adjust the size of the tool to create more
accurate selections.
• The alternate tool is the Magic Wand tool . This
enables you to select an entire area that consists
of similar colors with only one click. This tool is
best used for images that have clearly defined
divisions between areas of different colors.
 The Photoshop Tools
• The Crop and Slice Tools
• The tools under the Crop tool are all related to
dividing a whole image into smaller sections.
Each tool, however, has its own specific
functions:
• •The crop tool is used to make your overall
canvas smaller by only selecting a part of it and
deleting the rest. It is often used when only a
section of image is needed for the final output.
• • The slice tool is used to divide an image into
multiple smaller images, like jigsaw puzzles but
with straight edges. After dividing your image,
you can even save each section separately. You
can move and resize your slices by using Slice
Select tool .
 The Photoshop Tools
• The Utility Tools
• The utility tools are simply a set of features that aid in the
manipulation process. They can also be called measurement tools
because they are usually used to measure, note, or quantify things.
Marks left by these tools disappear from your canvas the moment
you select another tool to use.
• •The Eyedropper tool lets you select a color on your current canvas to copy
as your foreground color. Click directly on the area that is in the color you
want to copy it.
• •The Color Sampler tool is used to view and record color values in particular
spots of your current image. Clicking on a color leaves a number and mark on
your canvas as shown in the following image. The values are displayed on the
Info tab on the right of your workspace, and you can select different modes to
determine the color values, such as RGB and CYMK.
• •The Ruler tool measures the length and angle of the elements that you have
on your image. Just as with the Color Sampler tool, information yielded by this
tool is also visible in the Info lab.
 The Photoshop Tools
• The Retouching Tools
• Adobe Photoshop is one of the primary software used for correcting
images, especially pictures. When doing this, the retouching tools are
often used. There are two sets of tools used for retouching: Healing
and Patch tools, and the Stamp tools.
• Healing and Patch
• • The Spot Healing Brush tool removes blemishes and small
imperfections on an image.
• • The Healing Brush tool samples a section of an image in order to
perform retouches.
• • The Patch tool repairs an image by selecting a part of it and
replacing it with a different pattern or sample. It is often used in
conjunction with a selection tool.
• • The Red Eye tool corrects discoloration of the eyes caused by the
flash of a camera.
 The Photoshop Tools
• The Retouching Tools
• Stamp
• • The Clone Stamp tool also samples a section of an image, like the
Healing Brush tool.
• • The Pattern Stamp tool paints a pattern or a texture onto the
image. There are preset patterns available in Adobe Photoshop, but you
can also create your own pattern from an image. In this example, the
camera was made into a pattern of its own.

• Eraser
• The Eraser tools are used to erase parts of your images, revealing either
a background color or a transparent background. The three tools
function in different ways:
 The Photoshop Tools
• The Retouching Tools
• Stamp
• • The Clone Stamp tool also samples a section of an image, like the
Healing Brush tool.
• • The Pattern Stamp tool paints a pattern or a texture onto the
image. There are preset patterns available in Adobe Photoshop, but you
can also create your own pattern from an image. In this example, the
camera was made into a pattern of its own.

• Eraser
• The Eraser tools are used to erase parts of your images, revealing either
a background color or a transparent background. The three tools
function in different ways:
 The Photoshop Tools
• • The Eraser tool removes everything that the tool is dragged over,
leaving a solid background color.
• • The Background Eraser tool erases the background of a particular
object on the image, revealing a transparent background. It is often used
by clicking on one spot at a time.
• • The Magic Eraser tool erases an entire area of similar colors upon
clicking once, revealing a transparent background. It leaves areas that
are of a different color on the canvas.

• Blur/Sharpen/Smudge
• The tools under the Blur tool are mostly concerned with manipulating
the clarity of parts of an image.
• • The Blur tool reduces the clarity of parts of an image.
• • The Sharpen tool increases the clarity of parts of an image.
• • The Smudge tool blends colors of an image together to distort the
image.
 The Photoshop Tools
• The Painting Tools
• These tools are used to draw the main picture when creating digital illustrations. They are
composed of the different kinds of brushes, the Gradient tool, and the Paint Bucket tool.
• Brush
• The tools under the Brush tool are used to paint colors onto your canvas. There are four tools
under this:
• • The Brush tool is the basic brush. You can use a number of different brushes from the presets,
and many of them replicate actual brush strokes. In addition, there are brushes that take the shape
of different objects, like flowers, leaves, and stars. Furthermore, you can get even more brushes,
whether for free or for a price, on the Internet and add them to the selection you already have on
Photoshop.
• • The Pencil tool is essentially the same as the Brush tool but paints with harder edges.
• • The Color Replacement tool is used to replace colors on your image with your selected
foreground color.
• • The Mixer Brush tool simulates the techniques of traditional painting, such as varying the
wetness of a brush.
 The Photoshop Tools
• The Drawing and Type Tools
• These tools are related to the painting tools in that they allow you to create
different kinds of lines and shapes in different colors.
• The tools under the Pen tool work with points that allow you to easily
manipulate the direction of the lines that you draw. These lines and points are
called paths.
• • The Pen tool lets you draw straight paths. You can also make shapes with this tool.
• • The Freeform Pen tool lets you draw paths in any shape you like. You can also make
freeform shapes with this tool.
• • The Add Anchor Point and Delete Anchor Point tools are used to create and
remove vectors or anchor points. Anchor points are small square points that you can
drag to change the size of your paths or shapes.
• • The Convert Point tool lets you change the anchor points in curved areas to straight
lines and vice versa.
 The Photoshop Tools
• Type
• As can be inferred from the name, the Type tools are used to input text
into your image.

• • The Horizontal Type and Vertical Type tools enable you to input
regular text into your image. They will appear in the selected
foreground color.
• • The Horizontal Type Mask and Vertical Type Mask tools enable you
to input text into your image as a mask, or as a selection. From there,
you can decide how to display your text. One example is by painting a
texture into the selection. Another is by using a gradient.
• Path Selection
• The Path Selection tools are directly related to the paths that you draw with you Pen tools.
• • The Path Selection tool lets you select and entire path and move it around your workspace.
• • The Direct Selection tool lets you select particular segments of your path, such as anchor points.

• Shape
• The Shape tools are used to create the most basic geometrical shapes. They can be drawn as shapes (on
their own layer), as paths (with anchor points you can manipulate), or as pixels (displayed as they are).
• • The Rectangle tool makes squares and rectangles. The Rounded
• • Rectangle tool makes versions of these that have rounded corners.
• • The Ellipse tool makes circles and ovals.
• • The Polygon tool creates shapes of any number of sides. You can choose whether they have smooth
corners or are shaped like stars.
• • The Line tool is used to create lines of varying thickness.
• • The Custom Shape tool allows you to create other kinds of shapes, such as hearts, arrows, and
specific symbols.
• The Navigation Tools
• The Navigation tools make looking at your work easier. There are three main
tools that aid in navigating your document:
• Hand
• The Hand tool lets you “grab” a part of your canvas and drag in order to move
from one area to another. It is best used when you only want to move very
slightly to one direction. The alternate tool is the Rotate tool , which lets your
flip your canvas clockwise or counterclockwise. It shows a compass in the
middle of your document to guide you.
• Zoom
• The Zoom tool allows you to zoom in and out of your image. Zooming in lets
you reach the parts of your image that cannot be clearly seen from afar, and
zooming out lets you make quick changes to an entire document in just a few
actions.
• A Concise List of Keyboard Shortcuts

• Adobe Photoshop uses many, many

keyboard shortcuts, and these
shortcuts are vital in working quickly
and efficiently. Although some
shortcuts may already be familiar if
you have used other computer
programs, many are particular to
Photoshop. Refer to the following
table for a list of the essential ones: