Visual Arts: Elements & Principles

The Elements and Principles of Art 

In order to understand, deftly critique, and practice your chosen art form, you need to know the key concepts that it is built upon. Familiarity with elements of art like color and line and principles of art (proportion, rhythm, and contrast among others) is what gives artists that fluency.

Lasquite, M. (2016). What Makes Good Design?: Basic Elements and Principles | Visual Learning Center by Visme. Retrieved from
https://visme.co/blog/elements-principles-good-design/

Elements and Principles of Art and Design 

The Tyler Museum of Art contains artwork that exemplifies each of the elements and principles of art and design. The examples discuss how selected artworks from the collection exhibit each element and principle of design, e.g. Line (element)

In Ancel Nunn’s painting, Landscape with Victorian Cottage and Gazebo, line is found in the following locations:

• The cottage is made with parallel horizontal lines to identify the wooden boards of the cottage.
• The blue-green windows are made from horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines that intersect at each corner.
• The thin columns of the cottage are made from vertical lines that help balance the horizontal lines of the cottage.
• The boards of the gazebo are horizontal lines, and the roof of the structure is held up by vertical lines.
• The tan grass that surrounds the cottage and gazebo are considered curved lines. Each blade of grass curves towards the right side of the composition.

There are seven programmes in this series e.g. Line, Shape, Texture, Colour, Form, Value and Space.  You will need to watch the subsequent videos on YouTube.

How the Elements of Art Shape Creativity: 

In order to understand any field, it's important to have a solid foundation from which to grow. For visual art, this means understanding the elements of art. These creative building blocks are essential and having a grasp on how they work is important both for artists and for lovers of art.

The Visual Elements: The Building Blocks of Composition in Art

The Visual Elements of line, shape, tone, color, pattern, texture and form are the building blocks of composition in art. When we analyse any drawing, painting, sculpture or design, we examine these component parts to see how they combine to create the overall effect of the artwork.

The 7 Principles of Art and Design

The principles of art represent how the artist uses the elements of art to create an effect and to help convey the artist's intent.

What are the Principles of Art (or the Principles of Design)? 

The principles of art (or the principles of design) are essentially a set of criteria which are used to explain how the visual elements are arranged in a work of art. These principles are possibly the closest thing we have to a set of objective criteria for analysing and judging art.

Principles of art

The “principles of design” are mechanisms of arrangement and organization for the various elements of design in artwork. Please note that different sources might list slightly different versions of the “Principles of Design,” but the core fundamentals are essentially the same.

Principles of Art: Composition in Art

Ideal composition draws in the viewer, encourages them to take in all aspects of the painting, and then finally leaves them focused on the main subject.