Lessons on Elements of Art

In this page, you will need the fundamental understanding of the Elements of Art to express your ideas and discussions of the artworks. Below are some head pointers for you to refer when you interpret the building elements and artworks provided in Parkview Square. Click on each images for a larger view.

The Elements of Art consist of 6 characteristics that forms the artwork. They are lines, shapes, colours, values, textures, and space.

Lines

- Lines refer to a continuous mark, made on a surface by a moving point.

- Lines can define a space, create a pattern e.g spiral, wavy, curly etc.

- Lines also imply movements

-Lines can create texture, shapes and allude to mass or volume.

Shapes

- Shapes are boundaries where other elements of art e.g lines, texture, colours are enclosed within it.

- Shapes can include geometrical shapes like square, triangle, rectangle, circle.

- Shapes can include organic shapes where the shapes are free form and not well defined.

Colours

- Colour appears when a light strikes on the object, and is reflected into our eyes.

- There are 3 properties to colour 1) hue. Hues are the names we give to colour for example red, blue, yellow etc.

- The second property is 2) intensity. Intensity refers to the strength and vividness of the colour for example we may describe the colour blue as "royal" which is a term for "bright, rich, majestic" looking colours.

- The third property is 3) value. Value refers to the lightness or darkness of the colour. Shades and tint are references to the changes values of the colour for example, from light to dark or dark to light.

     Values

- Value refers to the intensity of the artwork, for example lightness, darkness

- Value can also determine the process of the artwork for example shadings and contrast to show the unlikeness of the pattern.

- Value becomes important to analyze the artwork when the artwork has no other colour other than monochromatic colours like black, white and gray scale.

- A good example of value is for example, a black and white photograph.

   Texture

- Texture is used to describe either how a 3-dimensional work feels like when it is touched or the "visual" sensation, feel of a 2-dimensional work.

- For example, a tree bark. A tree bark has a rough texture(2-dimensional context). It definitely feels rough and hard when it is touched (3-dimensional context).

- The patterns and colours of the tree bark provides the qualities of the texture.
    

 Space

- Space refers to the distances or areas around, between or within components of a piece.

- Space can refer to the positive space(white or light), or the negative space(black or dark).

- Space can also refer to an open or closed space, shallow or deep, 2-dimensional or 3-dimensional.

- Space can be tricky to interpret because sometimes space is not actually within a piece, but the illusion of it is.