Art Appreciation123 Prelim Week 3

BASIC ELEMENTS OF ARTS

FINE ARTS MUSIC LITERATURE

Elements of the FINE ARTS

1. SUBJECT- provides the answer to the question: “What is the painting or piece of sculpture about?”

Henry Moore’s Family Group

2. MEDIUM- refers to the materials that the artist uses

A. Fresco- the most noble and monumental; is adapted to large surfaces; done quickly while
the plaster is wet, and once applied cannot be changed; (mural)

ST. MARTIN OF TOURS PARISH DOME

B. Tempera- requires the meticulous skill of a craftsman. The color is applied with tiny strokes of
tiny brushes dries immediately.

Prepared by: Karen Santiago-Villanueva

College of Arts and Sciences (DYCI)2019-20
Art Appreciation123 Prelim Week 3
St. Martin of Tours Parish Altar( Retablo)

C. OIL- is the most popular medium today because the pigment comes ready-mixed in tubes. It dries
slowly, so that if the artist is dissatisfied he can repaint his errors or scrape all off for a fresh start.

Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh, (1889)

-the painting depicts the view outside his sanatorium room window at night, although it was painted
from memory during the day.

3. LINE- is the foundation of all drawing. It is the first and most versatile of the visual elements. Line
in an artwork can be used in many different ways. It can be used to suggest shape, pattern, form,
structure, growth, depth, distance, rhythm, movement and a range of emotions.

- Implied line is the path that the viewer’s eye takes as it follows shapes, colours and form
along a path, but may not be continuous or physically connected, such as the line created by
a dancer’s arms, torso, and legs when performing an arabesque

• We have a psychological response to different types of lines:

• Curved lines suggest comfort and ease

Prepared by: Karen Santiago-Villanueva

College of Arts and Sciences (DYCI)2019-20
Art Appreciation123 Prelim Week 3
• Horizontal lines suggest distance and calm

• Vertical lines suggest height and strength

• Diagonal lines suggest movement or lack of stability.

• Zigzag lines convey action and excitement, as well as restlessness and anxiety.

• The way we draw a line can convey different expressive qualities:

• Freehand lines can express the personal energy and mood of the artist

• Mechanical lines can express a rigid control

• Continuous lines can lead the eye in certain directions

• Broken lines can express the ephemeral or the insubstantial

• Thick lines can express strength

• Thin lines can express delicacy

Prepared by: Karen Santiago-Villanueva

College of Arts and Sciences (DYCI)2019-20
Art Appreciation123 Prelim Week 3
Sample Art that uses different lines

4. COLOR- pertains to the use of hue in artwork and design

Defined as:

• PRIMARY COLORS (red, yellow, blue) which cannot be mixed in pigment from other hues

• SECONDARY COLORS (green, orange, purple) which are directly mixed from combinations of
primary colors.

• TERTIARY COLORS are further combinations or primary and secondary colors and more hues

• Color is one of the most important elements of design because they can evoke certain
emotions. It’s well-known that the color red is usually associated with love, passion, or
anger.

• Color has three different properties:

• Hue, which is the color name;

• Saturation refers to how intense the hue is;

• Value refers to the lightness and darkness of the hue.

• You can use color as a background, or to support other elements in your design. Combining
colors between them is the key to creating a visual that matches your brand.

The Color Wheel

Prepared by: Karen Santiago-Villanueva

College of Arts and Sciences (DYCI)2019-20
Art Appreciation123 Prelim Week 3
5. TEXTURE-refers to the surface quality of a design, which can be smooth, rough, glossy, etc. It can
be physical or visual.

• Clean designs are nice and all but adding a little bit of texture can make it pop even more.
You can use it to accentuate a specific part of your visual, so you draw people’s attention to
the dominant part.

• The use of a font or a background image that mimics a particular texture is going to help you
create a memorable design.

6. VALUE- or tone refers to the use of light and dark, shade and highlight in an artwork; is
directly related to contrast

• It is a strategy used by an artist to break up a work of art, and alter or even shatter its unity
by inserting variation. In many ways, contrast is the opposite of the element of unity, in that
it commands the viewer's attention by sheer force of its differences.

7. SPACE- refers to the distances or areas around, between, and within components of a piece.
Space can be:

• positive ( refers to the space of a shape representing the subject matter )

• negative, (refers to the space around and between the subject matter (background)

Prepared by: Karen Santiago-Villanueva

College of Arts and Sciences (DYCI)2019-20
Art Appreciation123 Prelim Week 3

7. SHAPE- pertains to the use of areas in two dimensional space that can be defined by edges,
setting one flat specific space apart from another
Shapes can be:
1. geometric (square, circle, triangle, hexagon, etc.); or

2. organic (shape of puddle, leaf boomerang, etc.) in nature

Negative space is the space between, within and surrounding an object in an image. The
positive space is the focus of the image, the object itself, but the negative space is just as
important. It shares edges with the positive space, defining the outline of the object and
creating proportion.

Prepared by: Karen Santiago-Villanueva

College of Arts and Sciences (DYCI)2019-20
Art Appreciation123 Prelim Week 3
9. FORM- is the element of art that is three dimensional and has volume (length, width and height)

Form can be:

1. Organic- are those that are free-flowing, curvy, sinewy, and are not symmetrical or easily
measurable or named. They most often occur in nature, as in the shapes of flowers,
branches, leaves, puddles, clouds, animals, the human figure, etc., but can also be found in
the bold and fanciful buildings of the Spanish architect

2. Geometric- are forms that are mathematical, precise, and can be named, as in the basic
geometric forms: sphere, cube, pyramid, cone, and cylinder. A circle becomes a sphere in
three dimensions, a square becomes a cube, a triangle becomes a pyramid or cone.

Prepared by: Karen Santiago-Villanueva

College of Arts and Sciences (DYCI)2019-20