Elements of Art (Description)

Part II: The Formal Elements and Their Design (Describing the art you see)

Elements of Art

(Language of Art)

The subject matter of Paul Cezanne's Still Life with Basket of Apples is an arrangement of fruits and objects.

The composition formally is a complex organization of lines, shapes, light and color.

To the casual eye the work appears full of mistakes, but it is deliberately arranged to "reanimate" or give life back to the "still life."

Cezanne has taken liberties with the composition making it dynamic, rather than static.

LINE

Varieties of Lines: Line is one of the most fundamental elements of art.

Outline: Line that directory or indirectly indicates the edge of two- or three-dimensional shapes or forms.

Contour Line: Lines that surround and establish a volume

Implied Line: Lines that we perceive, even though they neither exist in or mark the edge of our visual field. We visually “follow,”for instance, the line indicated by a pointing finger. (the line of sight)

Qualities of Line: Intellectual, emotional, and/or expressive qualities

Expressive Line: Lines that express powerful emotions.

Analytic & Classical Line: Lines that are precisely controlled, mathematically rigorous, logical, and rationally organized.

SPACE

Shape: A two-dimensional area with boundaries that can be measured in terms of height and width.

Mass: A solid that occupies a three-dimensional volume. (height, width, and depth)

Three-dimensional space: Positive & Negative spaces (shapes)

Two-dimensional space: A flat space, possessing height and width, but no depth.

A sense of depth, of three dimensions, can be achieved only by means of illusion.

• Linear Perspective: One-point & two-point linear perspective
• Isometric Projection: All the measurements – height, width, and depth – are to the same scale. (e.g. the sketch of architecture)
• Oblique Projection (bird’s-eyes view picture): The space is depicted in oblique perspective. (e.g. Traditional Japanese hanging scrolls)
• Distortions of space (Out-of-proportion): The way one draws exactly what one sees rather that what one has to see. (e.g. Pearlstein’s figure paintings)
• Foreshortening: The dimensions of the closer extremities are adjusted in order to make up for the distortion created by the point of view.

*Important Factors of 2-D Space:

Relative density

Relative size

Relative position

Overlapping

LIGHT

Atmospheric (aerial) perspective: Unlike linear perspectives, these rules state that the quality of the atmosphere (the haze and relative humidity) depends onthe distance between large objects and us.

For example, objects further away from us appear less distinct, often cooler or bluer in color and the contrast between light and dark is reduced.

Chiaroscuro (light & dark): The balance between light and shade. (Especially, the gradual transition around a curved surface from light to dark.)

Modeling: The use of chiaroscuro to represent light falling across a curved or rounded surface.

Hatching & Cross-hatching: The linear methods of modeling. An area of closely spaced parallel lines, or hatches.

Key (Value): The gradual shift from light to dark. This characterizes both chiaroscuro and atmospheric perspective.

Hue (Color: tint & shade):

• A tint of color: To add white to the basic hue (or color)
• A shade of color: To add black to the basic hue (or color)

COLOR

Spectrum: The bands of different colors which appear when sunlight pass through a prism

Color wheel: The visible spectrum arranged in a circle

Primary colors: Red, Yellow, and Blue

Secondary colors: Orange, Green, and Violet

Intermediate colors: (YO, YG, BG, BV, RV, and RO): Colors mixed by using a primary and a neighboring secondary color.

Intensity (Saturation): A function of a color’s relative brightness or dullness.

Analogous color schemes (Cool & Warm temperature): Four adjacent colors on the color wheel.

Complementary color schemes (O/B, Y/V, and R/G): The combination of opposing colors on the color wheel.

Simultaneous contrast: In a combination of complementary colors, each color will appear brighter than if it appears alone.

Monochromatic color schemes

Polychromatic color schemes

Color mixtures of pigment (R.Y.B): Subtractive process

• In mixing two primaries, the secondary that results is of a lower key and seems duller than either of the original two primaries because each given primary absorbs a different range of white light.

Color mixtures of light (R.G.B): Additive process

• If we mix two primaries of colored light, the resulting secondary is higher in key and seems brighter than either primary. Our most usual exposure to this process occurs when we watch television.

Color in Representational Art

Local color: the colors we “know” an object to be. (E.g. a banana is yellow or a fire truck is red)

Perceptual color: the colors that natural light renders an object to your eyes (e.g. Monet’s artworks)

Optical color: the colors that your eyes mix and create on the artwork. (e.g. Seurat’s or Signac’s artworks)

Arbitrary color: the color artists use expressively. (e.g. Bonnard’s artworks)

Symbolic color: the color artists use in symbolic meaning. (e.g. Van Gogh’s or Kandinsky’s artworks)

OTHER FORMAL ELEMENTS

Texture: the surface quality of a work which describes certain tactile sensations and feelings.

• Actual texture (e.g. impasto)
• Visual texture (e.g. frottage):
• Visual illusion which appears to be actual but is not

Pattern: a repetitive motif or design

Time and Motion (Movement)

• Painting & sculpture (plastic arts) = Spatial media
• Music & literature (written arts) = Temporal media
• Op Art (Optical painting): artwork that has the illusion of movement
• Kinetic art: artwork that has actual movement which is driven motors.
• Action Painting: Jackson Pollock - Art work which the lines prompt the eye of the viewer to follow the action and the work as a whole serves to document the action or movement of the artist.