The Elements of Art and Principles of Design

The building blocks or ingredients of art. The Elements of Art The building blocks or ingredients of art.

Composition How the Elements of Art and Principles of Design are arranged to create a piece of artwork

Line An element of art: a mark on a surface with length and direction created by a tool (pencil, pen, brush)

LINE Ansel Adams Gustave Caillebotte

Pablo Picasso

Shape An Element of Art A 2-dimensional area Defined by line or color change Shapes can be geometric or organic

Shape Joan Miro

Gustave Caillebotte

Form An element of art A 3-dimensional object; Shows an object in space, the mass or positive space it occupies.

FORM Deborah Butterfield Jean Arp

Value An Element of Art The lightness or darkness of a color White added to color to create tints; Black added to a color to create shades

Value Scale

VALUE Pablo Picasso MC Escher

Color An Element of Art that consists of Hue (another word for color) Intensity (brightness) Value (lightness or darkness)

COLOR Alexander Calder Henri Matisse

Color Wheel

Tints, Shades and Tones

Color Schemes

Space An element of art The distance or area between, around, above, below, or within things.

Space Positive: the object Negative: the space around the object Robert Mapplethorpe

S P A C E Foreground Middle ground Background (creates DEPTH) Claude Monet

Texture An element of art The surface quality or "feel" of an object, its smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. Actual texture can be felt Implied texture is the way it looks as if it would feel

Real Texture

Implied Texture

The Principles of Design What we use to organize the Elements of Art, or the tools to make art.

Balance The way the elements are arranged to create a feeling of stability in a work

BALANCE Alexander Calder

Symmetrical Balance The parts of an image are organized so that one side mirrors the other.

Symmetrical Balance Leonardo DaVinci

Asymmetrical Balance When one side of a composition does not reflect the design of the other.

Asymmetrical Balance James Whistler

Radial Balance When the design is reflected on all 4 sides

Radial Design

Emphasis The focal point of an image, or when one area or thing stands out the most.

EMPHASIS Jim Dine Gustav Klimt

Contrast A large difference between two elements to create interest and tension.

Contrast Salvador Dali Ansel Adams

Rhythm and Movement A regular repetition of elements to produce the look and feel of movement.

Rhythm and Movement Marcel Duchamp

Vincent VanGogh

Pattern and Repetition Repetition of a design motif Regular Alternating Random

Pattern and Repetition Gustav Klimt Pattern and Repetition

UNITY When all the elements and principles work together to create a pleasing image. Johannes Vermeer

Variety The use of differences and change to increase the visual interest of the work.

Variety Marc Chagall

Proportion The comparative relationship of one part to another with respect to size, quantity, or degree; SCALE.

Proportion Gustave Caillebotte

Proportion

Media The materials an Artist uses to create a work of art

Types of 2-D Media Oil paint Acrylic paint Pastel Oil pastel Pencil Charcoal Watercolor Ink Lithography Etching Silkscreen

Types of 3-D Media Bronze Iron Aluminum Wood Stone Found objects Plastic Plaster Steel

Raft of the Medusa The Raft of the Medusa is an oil painting of 1818–1819 by the French Romantic painter and lithographer Théodore Géricault (1791–1824). Completed when the artist was 27, the work has become an icon of French Romanticism. At 193.3 in × 282.3 in,  it is an over-life-size painting that depicts a moment from the aftermath of the wreck of the French naval frigate Méduse, which ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania on July 5, 1816. At least 147 people were set adrift on a hurriedly constructed raft; all but 15 died in the 13 days before their rescue, and those who survived endured starvation, dehydration and cannibalism. The event became an international scandal, in part because its cause was widely attributed to the incompetence of the French captain 

Raft of the Medusa Critique First Paragraph: Label and background information. Second Paragraph: Detailed description. Include images that you see and discuss the elements of art. Third Paragraph: Analyze how is it organized? Discuss the principles of design. Fourth Paragraph: Reflection. What do you think of this painting? Do you like it or not? Give at least three reasons for your opinion using facts from the second and third paragraphs.

Raft of the Medusa