Elements of Visual Art

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Elements of Visual Art

• English III Pre-AP

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• Aesthetics The study of artistic composition as
  it relates to visual effect.

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Line

• The continuous mark made on some surface by a
  moving point.

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Shape

• An enclosed space defined and determined by other
  items such as line, color, value, and texture.
• Distinct from form, which has depth
• May be described as
• Definite / amorphous
• Simple / compound

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Color

• A quality determined by hue, saturation, and
  value.
• Hue The property or wavelength that gives a
  color its name.
• Saturation The purity or concentration of a
  given hue
• Value The relative lightness or darkness of a
  color.

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Perspective

• The technique artists use to project the illusion
  of a 3-dimensional world onto 2-dimensional
  space.
• Created by use of
• Converging/receding lines
• Variation of object sizes
• Overlapping objects
• Height within the picture plane

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Proportion

• The relationship of one part to another or to the
  whole with respect to size, quantity, or degree.
• Associated with emphasis

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Space

• Refers to the distance or area between, around,
  above, below, or within things.
• Associated modifiers
• Two-dimensional / Three-dimensional
• Flat / deep
• Closed / open
• Positive / negative
• Actual / ambiguous / illusory

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School of AthensRaphael
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The Great MigrationPanel 18Jacob Lawrence
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The Prison CourtyardVincent Van Gogh
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Street OratorJacob Lawrence
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Les Demoiselles dAvignonPablo Picasso
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The Great Migration Panel 52Jacob Lawrence
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Jacob Lawrences Style

• Aesthetics
• Elemental, flattened shapes
• Opaque and highly saturated color
• Repeating patterns w/ emphatic breaks
• Frequent use of grouping
• Frequent use of limited space
• Critics unsophisticated and barbaric
• Content
• The African-American experience
• The plight of the poor
• Family values
• Manual labor (builders)

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• Technique
• Classified as expressive cubism or dynamic
  cubism
• Stresses simultaneity of action or experience (as
  opposed to simultaneity of being)
• Influences
• African abstraction
• Rhythms of jazz and oratory
• Mexican muralists
• Artistic goal
• For me, a painting should have three things
  universality, clarity, and strength.