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).
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. |
Darío Cortés |
Claudio Trezzani |
PRINCIPLES OF ART AND DESIGN
Describe the ways that artists use the elements in an artwork. They are interdependent.
El hombre vitruvio |
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.