The Elements of

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The Elements of
ART
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What are the Elements of Art ?
Every language has its own word system, or
vocabulary. Before you can speak the
language, you must know the vocabulary. The
Elements of Art are the part of this vocabulary.

• An Element of Art is a basic visual symbol an
  artist uses to create visual art

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What are the Elements of Art ? (cont.)
There are 7 Elements of Art
Color Line Shape
Form Space Texture
Value
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COLOR

• What the eye sees when sunlight or some other
  light bounces off an object
• Hue is a colors name
• In the 18th century, Sir Isaac Newton organized
  colors into a color wheel

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COLOR (cont.)

• The color wheel consists of 3 groups of color
• primary colors
• secondary colors
• intermediate colors

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COLOR (cont.)

• PRIMARY COLORS
• Red, yellow, and blue
• They are used to mix all of the other colors, and
  cannot themselves be made by the mixing of other
  colors.
• Primary colors are placed equal distance apart on
  the color wheel.

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COLOR (cont.)

• SECONDARY COLORS
• Orange, green, and violet
• mixed by combining 2 primary colors.
• Their placement on the color wheel (between 2
  primary colors) tells which colors can be used to
  mix it.

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COLOR (cont.)

• INTERMEDIATE COLORS
• made by mixing a primary color with its
  neighboring secondary color.
• the name of the primary color always comes first
• yg, bg, bv, rv,ro,yo.

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COLOR SCHEMES

• COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME
• 2 colors that are directly across from each other
  on the color wheel
• Pairs of colors (r/g, b/o, y/v ) have equal
  light intensity when you mix them together, they
  dull each other

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COLOR SCHEMES
(cont.)

• MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEME
• different values of a single color from the color
  wheel
• tint / white added / lighter value
• shade / black added / darker value

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COLOR SCHEMES
(cont.)

• ANALAGOUS COLOR SCHEME
• group of colors that are side by side on the
  color wheel, and share a color in common
  (neighbors)
• example o, yo, o, and ro all share the color
  yellow.

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COLOR SCHEMES
(cont.)

• WARM COLOR SCHEME
• yellows, reds, and oranges
• the colors of sunshine and fire
• on the left half of the color wheel.

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COLOR SCHEMES
(cont.)

• COOL COLOR SCHEME
• blues, greens, and violets
• the colors of the sky and grass
• on the right side of the color wheel.

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COLOR SCHEMES
(cont.)
Triadic 3 colors that are equal distance apart
on the color wheel and form a triangle. Example
yellow, blue, and red are both triadic and
primary.
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COLOR SCHEMES(cont.)

• Neutral Colors
• These colors are not on the color wheel.
• They include white, black, and gray.
• Addition of a neutral color will change the value
  of a color from the color wheel (white/lighter,
  black/darker)

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Value

• the lightness or darkness of a color.
• To change value with paint lighter
  values can be made by adding white (tint), or
  darker by adding black (shade)
• To change value with drawing materials
  with drawing materials, values can also be
  changed by the density of lines (closer together
  darker value, further apart lighter value),
  layering, or just pressure on the material
  (harder pressure darker value, lighter pressure
  lighter value)

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COLOR SCHEMES
(cont.)
Look at the this painting and the ones in the
next slide. Describe them in terms of color
groups and color schemes.
Sunflowers Vincent Van Gogh
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COLOR SCHEMES
(cont.)
Blue Horse Surprise in
the Jungle Franz Marc
Henri Rousseau
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LINE

• A line is the path of a point through space
• Because a line moves through space, your eye
  usually follows it
• There are 3 different types of lines
• curved straight zigzag

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TYPES OF LINES
curved straight
castle
zigzag
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LINE DIRECTION
Lines can appear on a picture plane in one of the
directions below vertical horizontal
diagonal
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LINE QUALITY
Line quality refers to the unique character of a
line. They may appear smooth or rough, sketchy or
controlled, continuous or broken. Line variation
refers to the thickness, thinness, lightness or
darkness of a line.
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SHAPE
A shape is an area clearly set off by one or more
of the other 5 visual elements of art.
circle set off circle set off
circle set off by
line by color
by texture
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SHAPE (cont.)

• are flat
• have only 2 dimensions, length and width.
  Therefore, they are called two-dimensional. They
  belong to one of 2 classes

• GEOMETRIC SHAPES
• Precise shapes that look as if they were made
  with a drawing tool.
• 5 basic geometric shapes square, circle,
  triangle, rectangle, and oval .

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SHAPE (cont.)

• ORGANIC SHAPES
• shapes that are not regular or even, with their
  outlines curving to make free-form shapes
• often found in nature.

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SHAPE (cont.)
Broadway Boogie Woogie
Nature Symbolized 2
Piet Mondrian
Arthur Dove
Compare and contrast the 2 paintings in terms of
shape
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Form
A form is an object with 3 dimensions length,
width, and depth. Therefore, they are called
three-dimensional. You can put your hands around
a form. They are also grouped as either organic
or geometric. Think about examples of both.
Shapes and their corresponding forms
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Form (cont.)
Enaks Tears Human
Concretion
Both artworks are by Dutch artist, Jean Arp.
Which one is a shape, and which one is a form ?
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Space

• Space is the distance or area between, around,
  above, below, and within things.
• Positive space is space in an artwork that is
  filled with something, such as lines, colors,
  textures, or shapes.
• Negative space is the empty space in an artwork,
  the void.

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Space (cont.)
Romance Thomas Hart Benton
The Boating Party Mary Cassatt
Describe the areas of positive and negative space
in these paintings.
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TEXTURE
Texture is the way things feel, or look as
though they might feel if touched. visual
texture- when you experience texture through the
sense of sight actual, or real texture- when you
experience texture through your sense of
touch Describing words used might include rough,
smooth, slimy, prickly, knobby, and others.
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TEXTURE (cont.)
As you look at this photograph of tree bark, the
patterns of light and dark bring back memories of
how it might feel. But, if you actually touched
the photograph, you would not experience the same
texture.
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The End