ART AS VISUAL LANGUAGE MODEL

ELEMENTS OF VISUAL LANGUAGE

Components used to create a work of art:

LINE: It's an identifiable path created by a point moving in space. They are use to define the edges of a form, so they are basic and essential elements in representations. It's one-dimensional and can vary: width, direction, length, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, straight, curved, thick, thin... 

Artist Wassily Kandinsky. In this artwork we can see how,
by the orientation of the lines, he represented
geometric elements

SHAPE AND FORM: It is used to define objects in space. While shape has two dimensions (height and witdth), form has three dimensions (height, width and depth).

FORM

SHAPE

SPACE: It makes sense of depth (real space in 3D). These illusion is achieved through perspective drawing techniques and shading in Western tradition, using the area within the picture plane.

Françoise Neilly uses in her painting
of Marilyn Monroe many colours.

COLOUR: Reflected light. Its main characteristics are hue, value (brightness: light or dark) and intensity (strength: bright or dull). Making use of these techniques, you can bring different moods.

Darío Cortés 

VALUE: It's the lightness or darkness of tones or colors. That is, degree of light and dark, therefore, contrast between black and white and all the tones.

Claudio Trezzani

TEXTURE: It's the way things feel or look as if they might feel if touched. The surface queality of an object that we sense through touch. Artist can convey texture visually in two and three dimensions (hard, soft, rough, smooth, hairy...) It is achieve using colors, lines and shading.












PRINCIPLES OF ART AND DESIGN

Describe the ways that artists use the elements in an artwork. They are interdependent.

El hombre vitruvio

BALANCE: Visual equalization. Distribution of the visual weight of objects, colours, textures and space. The elements should be balanced to make a design feel stable (symmetrical) or not (asymmetrical)

EMPHASIS: Focal point. It catches the viewer's attention. It could contrast different areas in size, colour, texture, shape...

RHYTHM: Organized repetition of elements.
The three methods that make sense of rhythm are:
repetition, alternation and progression






PROPORTION: Describes the size, location or amount of one element to another (or to the whole).
It's the relationship of components according to their size.











UNITY AND VARIETY:

Unity is described as a sense of wholeness or oneness that is present when all parts work together.
Varitety stresses the differences between elements. Contrast of colours, shapes, lines, textures...





COMPOSITION: Orderly arrangement of elements, plan and organize, using the principles of desing.