Definitions of Visual Art
Seven Elements of Design
Elements of art or elements of design - The basic components used by the artist when producing works of art. Those elements are color, value, line, shape, form, texture, and space. The elements of art are among the literal qualities found in any artwork.
1. Color
Produced by light of various wavelengths, it reflects back to the eyes when light strikes an object. An element of art with three properties: (1) hue or tint, the color name, e.g., red, yellow, blue, etc. (2) intensity, the purity and strength of a color, e.g., bright red or dull red; and (3) value, the lightness or darkness of a color.
When the spectrum is organized as a color wheel, the colors are divided into groups called primary, secondary, and intermediate (or tertiary) colors; analogous and complementary; and warm and cool colors.
Objectively, colors are saturated, clear, cool, warm, deep, subdued, grayed, tawny, mat, glossy, monochrome, multicolored, particolored, variegated, or polychromed.
Some words used to describe colors are more subjective (subject to personal opinion or taste), such as: exciting, sweet, saccharine, brash, garish, ugly, beautiful, cute, fashionable, pretty, and sublime.
Sometimes people speak of colors when they are actually referring to pigments, what they are made of (various natural or synthetic substances), their relative permanence, etc.
Photographers measure color temperature in degrees Kelvin (K).
2. Value
An element of art that refers to luminance or luminosity — the lightness or darkness of a color. This is important in any polychromatic image, but it can be more apparent when an image is monochromatic, as in many drawings, woodcuts, lithographs, and photographs. This is commonly the case in much sculpture and architecture, too.
3. Line
A mark with length and direction(s). An element of art which refers to the continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. Types of line include: vertical, horizontal, diagonal, straight or ruled, curved, bent, angular, thin, thick or wide, interrupted (dotted, dashed, broken, etc.), blurred or fuzzy, controlled, freehand, parallel, hatching, meandering, and spiraling. Often it defines a space, and may create an outline or contour, define a silhouette, create patterns, or movement, and the illusion of mass or volume. It may be two-dimensional (as with pencil on paper), three-dimensional (as with wire), or implied (the edge of a shape or form).
4. Shape
An element of art, it is an enclosed space defined and determined by other art elements such as line, color, value, and texture. In painting and drawing, shapes may take on the appearance of solid three-dimensional object even though they are limited to two dimensions — length and width. This two-dimensional character of shape distinguishes it from form, which has depth as well as length and width.
Examples of shapes include circles, ovals, and oblongs; polygons such as triangles, squares, rectangles, rhombuses, trapeziums, trapezoids, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons, octagons, nonagons, decagons, undecagons, dodecagons, and other kinds of shapes such as amorphous, biomorphic, and concretion.
5. Form
In its widest sense, total structure: a synthesis of all the visible aspects of that structure and of the manner in which they are united to create its distinctive character. The form of a work is what enables us to perceive it.
Form also refers to an element of art that is three-dimensional (height, width, and depth) and encloses volume. For example, a triangle, which is two-dimensional, is a shape, but a pyramid, which is three-dimensional, is a form. Examples of various forms include cubes, spheres, ovoids, pyramids, cones, and cylinders.
Also, all elements of a work of art are independent of their meaning. Formal elements are primary features which are not a matter of semantic significance — including color, dimensions, line, mass, medium, scale, shape, space, texture, value; and the principles of design under which they are placed — including balance, contrast, dominance, harmony, movement, proportion, proximity, rhythm, similarity, unity, and variety.
6. Texture
An element of art, texture is the surface quality or "feel" of an object, its smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. Textures may be actual or simulated. Actual textures can be felt with the fingers, while simulated textures are suggested by an artist in the painting of different picture areas, often in representing drapery, metals, rocks, hair, etc.
7. Space
An element of art that refers to the distance or area between, around, above, below, or within things. It can be described as two-dimensional or three-dimensional; as flat, shallow, or deep; as open or closed; as positive or negative; and as actual, ambiguous, or illusory.
Source: ArtLex Art Dictionary at www.artlex.com