The Language of Art

Basic Terms Formal Elements

Principles of Composition

Form• Media & technique• Art elements• Principles of organization• Unity

THE FORMAL ELEMENTSTHE FORMAL ELEMENTS

→line

→light and value

→color

→texture and pattern

→shape and volume

→space

→time and motion

Some works also contain :

→chance

→improvisation

→spontaneity

→engaging senses

other than sight

Line

2.4 Paul Klee. They’re Biting, 1920. Drawing and oil on paper, 121/4" × 91/4". Tate Gallery, London.

Lines have direction:

→horizontal

→vertical

→diagonal

→curved

→meandering

Implied Line

Line Quality

Light and Dark=Value

• Achromatic• Chromatic• Shading• Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro

Color

• Color combinations or schemes

• Emphasis • Evoke emotions

Subtractive color systems

• Pigments• Primary colors• Secondary colors• Tertiary colors• Analogous• Complementary

Texture

• Tactile quality of a surface

• Actual• Visual

Shape

• Regular-geometric• Irregular-organic or

biomorphic

Volume

• Any solid that occupies a three-dimensional volume

• mass

Space

• Perspective• Atmospheric perspective• Linear perspective

• parallel lines receding into the distance converge at a vanishing point on the horizon line

Atmospheric Perspective

Time & Motion

Chance/ImprovisationSpontaneity

Engaging the Senses

Practice

• See if you can identify the following in the next slides:

1. Abstract, representational, or non-objective?2. How many art elements can you identify in the

art?3. what is the most dominant art element in the art

work?

Principles of CompositionPutting the Ingredients Together!

Composition

• the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art.

• The result of how you put together all the “ingredients”.

Balance

• Placing elements so that visual weights seem evenly distributed.

Symmetrical Balance

Asymmetrical Balance

Can you see how this image is asymmetrically balanced?•Figure to the left of the composition

•The figure and the white of the dress dominate the canvas, yet the bright colors of the vases on the right and the flowers coming in on lower right help to balance the picture.

•The woman and the placement of her arms are also helping to balance the painting.

•Also her reflection is part of that visual balance.

Radial Balance

Emphasis & Focal Point

• emphasis • focal point

Scale & Proportion

• size• Proportion. The

size relationship of parts to the whole.

Repetition & Rhythm

Unity & Variety

• Variety:differences by contrasting, changing elements in a composition to add interest.

• Unity: bringing the elements of art into a sense of oneness.

Practice

1. Identify the main principles of design that are most dominant in the following slides of art.

2. And what art elements do they use?

Structural Systems in Architecture

• Traditional Building Methods: load bearing construction: all areas of the walls support the structure above them

Colonnade

Wood Frame ConstructionCantilever

Arches, Vaulting

Arcade

Buttressing

Domes

Steel Frame Construction

Reinforced Concrete

Truss and Geodesic Construction

Suspension and Tensile Construction

Summary

• ART ELEMENTS: ingredients of art• PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATION:

arrangement of the elements • ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURES: building

methods