THE ELEMENTS OF VISUAL ARTS

A report by the Group III of the Humanities 11 class, SLCB.

When we say the ELEMENTS of visual arts, we mean its QUALITIES or PROPERTIES.

With the book entitled The Humanities authored by Louise Dudley, Austin Faricy and James G. Rice as our reference
and with the help of some facts from the internet, here are Seven Elements of Visual Arts that we found:

1. Line

*Straight Lines 5. Texture

*Curved Lines 6.Volume

*Shapes and Form 7. Space

2. Value (Light & Dark) *Perspective

3. Chiaroscuro (Light & Shadow)

4. Color

*Hue

*Value

*Intensity

1. LINE the simplest, most primitive and most universal means for creating visual arts. Lines are of many different
kinds. They may be broad, or they can be so faint we can hardly see them. Often times, lines are felt, sometimes not
seen, as when an object or a person points to something we do not see.

Lines have direction. They are always active and they always seem to be moving. We follow them by our fingers,
gestures or with our eyes.

It is an element of art defined by a point moving in space. It may be two-dimensional or three-dimensional, descriptive
or abstract. www.vocubulary.pdf

It is a path of a moving point through space. It may indicate direction, texture, contours or movements-
www.homeofbob.com

Lines has two kinds:

Straight Lines- these are horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines.

Curved Lines- They show action and life energy. They are never harsh or stern.
Lines make Shapes and often times we are conscious of line primarily as the shapes are turned to Form.

2. VALUE (Light & Dark)- this element has to do with the amount of light in a given painting or a graphic work of
art. Value is the name given to relative degrees of light. In ordinary speech, the term light and dark is rather used
instead of Value.

White is recognized as the highest value and Black as the lowest value. A point halfway between can be called
Medium. Let us observe the pattern below:

White Light Medium Dark Black

*Values in painting- Values are fixed in painting depending on how the painter makes an area dark or light.

3. CHIAROSCURO (Light & Shadow) Italian word for Light and Shadow.
-It should be distinguished from Value. It is a means of modeling a figure in depth, a means of articulating the
form.

-A treatment of light and shade in drawing. An effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or
from a particular direction.

In Three-dimensional art, Shadows occur naturally under almost all light conditions.
4. COLOR- all the effects obtained through line and value alone may be increased by the use of color. Colors may be
warm or cold, light or heavy, attractive or repulsive, in tension or in suspension.

-Colors have three qualities or attributes:

a.) Hue- it is a quality by which we distinguish one color from another. Primary Hues are Red, Blue and Yellow.
Secondary hues are Green, Violet, Orange.

b.) Value- degree of lightness or darkness of the color.

c.) Intensity- amount of pigment or saturation. The brighter a color, the more pigment it contains.

Let us observe the color wheel below:

Discussion Add-ons:
Are black and white colors? Why?

In Physics, a color is visible light with specific wavelength. Black and White do not have specific wavelengths instead;
white light contains all wavelengths of visible light. Black on the other hand, is the absence of visible light.

In the Visual Art world, white and black may sometimes be defined as distinct colors. This is different from the concept
of spectral color in Physics.

For some artists, black is a color, white is not. For scientists, White is a color, black is not.

Which is which? Either way, it all depends on your perception. One thing is for sure, White and Black are of Value (Light
and Dark .)

5. TEXTURE- Has to do chiefly with the perception of touch. It is the element that appeals to our sense of feel on
things- rough or smooth, bumpy or slippery. It is the difference we feel in things we touch.

Texture is the character of a surface and is both Tactile and Visual- visualartspdf.blogspot.com

Tactile Texture is the tactile quality of a surface such as rough, smooth, sticky, fuzzy, soft or slick. A real texture
is one you can actually feel with your hand, such as a piece of sandpaper, a wet glass, or an animal fur. It can also be
created by artists by doing a collage.

Visual Texture is a visual quality of a surface. It is the result from painting or drawing such as the real texture.
Visual Texture is an illusion of texture created by an artist. Paint can be manipulated to give the impression of texture,
while the paper surface remains smooth and flat.
6. Volume- otherwise called the solidity. It is that quality of an object which enables us to know that it has thickness
as well as length and breadth.

Using our eyes; we perceive volume primarily in two ways: 1. By Contour lines, by outlines, or shapes of objects. 2. By
surface light and shadows.

7. Space- the two arts in which space is of great importance are architecture and painting. Architecture is an art of
space. It uses space as one of its elements. Paintings too uses space as one of its element. When an artist paints, he
would also consider spacing in his work.

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

Perspective- it is a technical means by which we perceive distance in painting, by which we are made to see the
position of objects in space.

Linear Perspective-direction of lines and size of objects.

Aerial Perspective- has to do with changes in appearance due to atmosphere.

Creating perspective in art relies on the judicious use of space. In a linear perspective drawing, for instance, artists
create illusion of space to imply that the scene is three-dimensional. They do this by ensuring that some lines stretch to
the vanishing point. In landscape, a tree may be large because of its foreground while the mountains in the distance are
quite small. Though we know in reality that a tree cannot be bigger than a mountain, this use of size gives the scene
perspective and develops the impression of space.- thoughts.com

---END OF REPORT---

Group III Members:

Diane Faith F. Chokowen