PART TWO

CHAPTER 4:
THE VISUAL ELEMENTS
THE VISUAL ELEMENTS OF ART INCLUDE:
LINE
SHAPE AND MASS
LIGHT
COLOR
TEXTURE AND PATTERN
SPACE
TIME AND MOTION

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KEY TERMS
Line: contour, outline
Shape and Mass: geometric/organic shapes,
figure/ground, positive/negative shapes
Light: value, modeling, chiaroscuro, stippling, hatching,
cross-hatching
Color: reflected/refracted light, hue, value, intensity, tint,
shade, monochromatic, complementary, analogous,
triadic, simultaneous contrast, afterimage, pointillism
Texture and Pattern: actual/visual texture
Space: picture plane, perspective (linear, 1-point, 2point, atmosphere, isometric), foreshortening
Time and Motion: kinetic art

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Eliazbeth Murray, The Moon

and Stars, 2004-05, Oil on
panel mounted on wood

THE VISUAL ELEMENTS

The visual elements help us analyze our
visual experiences. These 7 terms are
also used as the fundamental language
for the discussion about works of art.

If art is a language, the elements

of art are like the vocabulary
that we use to communicate.
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LINE: CONTOUR AND

OUTLINE

Line is defined as the path of moving

point.
Outline: Defines a 2-dimensional shape.
Contour lines: Record boundaries and define
more specifically what shapes represent.

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1.2a A modern photo of the Ducal Palace and Piazzetta in Venice

Chapter 1.1 Art in Two Dimensions: Line, Shape, and the Principle of Contrast

PART 1
FUNDAMENTALS

Ducal Palace and Piazz

Venice, Italy
This photograph shows the
Ducal Palace in Venice
It shows the division
between the top of the
building and the blue sky
But there is no line to
indicate the division
between the two

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

1.2b Canaletto, The Maundy Thursday Festival before the Ducal Palace in Venice, 1763/6. Pen and brown ink with gray wash,
heightened with white gouache, 15 x 21. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Lines to separate
forms from
background
Lines to express
emotion and feeling
Lines outline shapes

Keith Harring,
Untitled, 1982,
Vinyl paint on vinyl
tarpaulin

Line in 3
Dimensions

Sarah Sze, Hidden Relief, 2001, Installation at the Asia Society (mixed media)

Contour Line
Contour lines can suggest a volume in space by giving us
clues about the changing character of a surface

Contour lines tell us about the

surface an texture of the
womans dress, as well as the
form of her body underneath
the fabric.

1.15 Egon Schiele, Portrait of the

Artists Wife, Standing, with Hands
on Hips, 1915. Black crayon on
paper, 18 x 11. Private
collection

LINE: DIRECTION AND

MOVEMENT

Artists use line to direct and move our

eyes around a work of art.
Vertical lines seem assertive, or denote
growth & strength.
Horizontal lines appear calm.
Diagonal lines are the most dramatic and
imply action.
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Chapter 1.1 Art in Two Dimensions: Line, Shape, and the Principle of Contrast

PART 1
FUNDAMENTALS

1.16 Communicative qualities of line

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

4.7 Linear Analysis of The Biglin Brothers Racing

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LINE: IMPLIED LINES

Dotted lines and directional cues such as

a finger pointing in a specific direction
creating a line of sight are examples of
implied lines in action.

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Chapter 1.1 Art in Two Dimensions: Line, Shape, and the Principle of Contrast

PART 1
FUNDAMENTALS

1.9 Actual and Implied Lines

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Implied Lines- Figures and gestures

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Suggestion: 4.1 Jean-Antoine Watteau, The

Embarkation for Cythera, 1718-19, Oil on canvas

1.13 slide 1: Francisco Goya, The Third of May, 1808, 1814. Oil on canvas, 84 x 113.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

1.13 slide 2: Francisco Goya, The Third of May, 1808, 1814. Oil on canvas, 84 x 113.
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

SHAPE AND MASS

Shape and mass can be created by line,
texture and color change.
Shape: 2-dimensional form that occupies an
area with identifiable boundaries.
Mass: 3-dimensional form that occupies a
volume of space with identifiable boundaries.

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SHAPE AND MASS

The 2 broad categories of shapes
and masses are geometric and
organic.
Geometric forms can be
mathematically defined.
Organic forms are irregular and
suggest forms found in nature.
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Shape:

Geometric and Organic Shapes

Shapes can be classified into two types: geometric and
organic
Organic shapes are made up of unpredictable, irregular
lines that suggest the natural world
Geometric shapes are mathematically regular and precise

1.19 Geometric and Organic Shapes

Illustrates the
differences
between
organic and
geometric
shape .
Creates
pattern
repeating
organic and
geometric
shapes.

1.20 Miriam Schapiro, Baby

Blocks, 1983. Collage on
paper, 29 x 30. University
of South Florida Collection,
Tampa

Shapes:
Defined by lines, shifts in texture,
shifts in color
Forms- positive shapes/figure
Background space- negative
shape/ground

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4.13 Emmi Whitehorse, Chanter, 1991,

Oil on Paper

Mass: The implied

weight and volume
of an object.
Volume: How much
physical space the
object takes up
Sculptural forms are
defined by shapes in
3 dimensions

Bill Reid, The Raven

and the First Men,
1980, Laminated
Yellow Cedar

SHAPE AND MASS

The figure and the ground are how
we perceive shapes and masses
within a work of art.
Figure: the positive shape on which
visual focus is placed.
Ground: the negative shape or area
sometimes considered the background
of a work of art.
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Positive and
Negative
shapes and
Figure/Ground
Relationships:
Yellow figures on
dark green ground
Dark Green figures
on yellow ground

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4.14 circular shield

with stepped fret
design, Aztec,
before 1521

Contrast
Contrasting white
positive shapes and
black negative space.
Intensifies the design of
the poster.
Why might it be
important for a street
artist like Shepard
Fairey to consider and
utilize high contrast?

1.23a Shepard Fairey, Obey,

1996. Campaign poster

Street artists use strong

contrast to capture
viewers attention quickly
as they pass by.

1.23b Shepard Fairey, Obey,

1996. View of the posters as
they were installed in public

SHAPE AND MASS

Artists use implied shapes to help
unify their compositions. Implied
shapes can help to create a sense of
order in a work of art.

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Implied Shape
Implied shapes are shapes we can see where no continuous
boundary exists

1.21 Implied shapes

Implied Shape:
Triangle of light valuesMarys foot, Marys face,
young John the Baptist

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4.16 Raphael, The Madonna of the

Meadows, 1505, Oil on Panel

LIGHT
The fundamental purpose of light
is to show us the material world.
It helps us understand forms and
spatial relationships.

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Installation all about light and space

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4.17 Doug Wheeler, D-N SF 12 PG VI 14, 2012,

Installation at the Palazzo Grassi

LIGHT
Both actual and illusionistic light are
used and are important for artwork.
Actual light: existing light either natural
or man-made.
Illusionistic light: the impression of
light created by the artist.

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LIGHT: IMPLIED
There are several value techniques that artists
use to imply light within works of art. These
techniques result in the illusion of shape and
mass of objects.
Shading/Modeling: Using chiaroscuro or values to create mass.
Value: Relative lightness or darkness.
Chiaroscuro: Italian for light/dark; contrasts of light and shadow.

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Value- refers to the lightness or

darkness of an area
Shift in value- used to imply form
Chiaroscuro- Italian for light-dark
Highlight, light, core shadow,
reflected light, cast shadow

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4.20 Leonardo da Vinci,The Virgin and

Saint Anne, 1499-1500, Charcoal, black
and white chalk on brown paper

Chiaroscuro
Italian for light-dark

An effect that creates an illusion of solidity and depth

by using five defined values

Chapter 1.1 Art in Two Dimensions: Line, Shape, and the Principle of Contrast

PART 1
FUNDAMENTALS

1.50 Diagram of chiaroscuro

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

LIGHT: IMPLIED
There are several value techniques that artists
use to imply light within works of art. These
techniques result in the illusion of shape and
mass of objects.
Hatching: Closely spaced parallel lines.
Cross-hatching: Parallel lines intersect like a
checkerboard.
Stippling: Dots spaced close or far apart to suggest
darker or lighter areas.
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1.54 Michelangelo, Head of a

Satyr, c. 152030. Pen and ink on
paper, 10 x 7. Muse du
Louvre, Paris, France

COLOR: COLOR THEORY

Color Wheel: Based on the refracted colors observed by
Sir Isaac Newton when light was directed through a
prism.
Primary Colors:
Yellow, Red, Blue
Secondary Colors:
Orange, Green, Violet
Intermediate Colors (total of 6):
Also called tertiary; Mix a primary
and adjacent secondary together

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Color Wheel

COLOR: COLOR
PROPERTIES
Hue: Name of the color
Value: Relative lightness or darkness
Intensity: (Chroma, Saturation). Relative purity of a color

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Color, Value, and

Intensity

COLOR: COLOR
PROPERTIES
Warm colors: located on redorange side of the color
wheel
Cool colors: located on the
blue-green side of the color
wheel.
Tint: adding white to a
pigmented color.
Shade: adding black to a
color
Color Wheel
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COLOR: LIGHT AND

PIGMENT
Additive Color: Colors of light mixed to produce still lighter colors.

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Light primaries and their additive

mixtures

COLOR: COLOR HARMONIES

A color scheme is the selective use of 2 or

more colors in a single composition.
Monochromatic: Variations of the same hue.
Complementary: Hues directly opposite on
the color wheel.
Analogous: Adjacent hues on the color
wheel.
Triadic: 3 equidistant hues on the color
wheel.
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Complementary colors-high contrast, creates dramatic effect

1.81 Frederic Edwin Church, Twilight in the Wilderness,1860. Oil on canvas, 40 x 64. Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Analogous Color- low contrast, creates unity and harmony

1.82 Mary Cassatt, The Boating Party, 18934. Oil on canvas, 35 x 46. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

COLOR: OPTICAL EFFECTS

Simultaneous contrast: also called an afterimage.

Complementary color afterimage

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COLOR: OPTICAL EFFECTS

Pointillism: A technique of applying dots of
pure color that are then mixed by our eyes to
produce the illusion of color mixtures.
Optical Color Mixture: Color that is mixed by
the eyes.

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Pointalism

1.86 Georges Seurat,

The Circus, 189091.
Oil on canvas, 6 x 411.
Muse dOrsay, Paris, France

1.87 Detail of Georges

Seurat, The Circus

1.87 Detail of Georges

Seurat, The Circus

COLOR: Emotional Effects

Color affects us on such a basic level the we
all have a direct emotional response to in art.
Emotional responses to color are both
culturally conditioned and intensely personal.
Since color can elicit different emotional
responses, a work of art is interpreted
differently based on cultural and personal
associations with color.
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Color to express emotion:

Red: Horror, sky was like
blood with strips of fire
Color combined with
expressive lines and shapes
carry the emotional meaning

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4.35 Edvard Munch, The

Scream, 1893, tempera
and cesin on cardboard

TEXTURE AND PATTERN

Texture and pattern are the perceived

surface qualities of a work of art. They
can be actual or implied.
Actual texture: A tactile experience.
Implied texture: An illusionary experience.
Pattern: Any decorative, repetitive motif or
design.
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Actual Texture- Contrast

Mona Hatoum, Dormiente, 2008, Mild steel

Subversive Texture: Contradicts our

previous tactile experience

1.44 Mret Oppenheim, Object, 1936. Fur-covered cup, saucer, and spoon, 2 high. MOMA, New York

Pattern (repeated
shapes, textures,
colors) flattens space
and creates visual
interest and rhythm

4.39 Samuel Fosco,The

Chief Who Sold Africa to
the Colonists, 1997,
Chromogenic print
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SPACE
Space interacts with other visual elements and
helps give them definition. There exists both
negative and positive space.
Three dimensional space has height, width, and
depth.

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Architecture, sculpture and

other art forms that exist in
three dimensions work within
actual space.
Suh- using space and form to
evoke a place and a memory
of a place

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4.41 Do Ho Suh, Reflection,

2004, Nylon and stainless
steel tube

SPACE: IMPLIED AND

ILLUSIONISTIC

Two dimensional space has only height and width. There

exists the picture plane and the illusion of the negative
(ground) and positive (figure) space.
Implied Space: Includes overlapping and
position (foreground, middle-ground, background)
Illusionistic Space: Includes foreshortening, linear,
isometric, and atmospheric perspective

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Implied Space: Overlapping Shapes- Mountains, Relative Positioning- placement of

forms on the picture plane
Atmospheric Perspective- Shapes get smaller and less in focus in the distance
John Frederick Kensett, Lake George, 1869, Oil on Canvas

SPACE:
ILLUSIONISTIC

Basic principles of linear perspective

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Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Architectural Perspective, Late 15th century

Orthogonals- Lines used to draw linear perspective

Uses linear perspective to make Jesus the focal point

Vanishing Point- behind Jesus head

Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1495, Fresco

SPACE: ILLUSIONISTIC

Foreshortening: The affect of linear

perspective when applied to objects and
human forms within a work of art.
Atmospheric Perspective: As objects recede
into the distance they become paler, bluer,
and less distinct.

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Foreshortening:
The name for the perspective
used to depict the subject when
it is coming directly at the
viewer in the picture plane

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4.46 Hans Baldung Grien, The

Groom and the Witch, 1640,
Woodcute

Albrect Durer, Draftsman Drawing a Recumbent Woman, wooduct, 1525

This woodcut shows the artist looking through a gridded

panel to make sure he always views his subject from the
same point while he is drawing.
Helps him achieve accurate perspective, proportions, and
foreshortening

SPACE:
ILLUSIONISTIC

Basic principles of isometric perspective

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TIME AND MOTION

Time and motion have become
increasingly important to art during
the 20th and 21st centuries. There is
more thought and emphasis placed
on the nature of time in our modern
world.
Kinetic art: Art that actually moves.
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Actual Motion: Kinetic sculpture- sculpture with actual moving parts

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4.52 Alexander Calder, Southern Cross,

1963, Sheet metal, rod, bolds, paint

Implied Motion

1.98 Gianlorenzo Bernini,

Apollo and Daphne, 16224.
Carrara marble, 8 high.
Gallera Borghese, Rome,
Italy

Chapter 1.1 Art in Two Dimensions: Line, Shape, and the Principle of Contrast

PART 1
FUNDAMENTALS

Gianlorenzo Bernini,
Apollo and Daphne
Illustrates a story from ancient
Greek mythology in which the sun
god Apollo falls madly in love with
the wood nymph Daphne
As Apollo reaches Daphne, Peneius
transforms his daughter into a bay
laurel tree
To convey the action, Bernini uses
diagonal lines in the flowing drapery,
limbs, and hair
At the pivotal moment in the story,
the scene is suddenly frozen in time

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

1.100 Jenny Holzer, Untitled (Selections from Truisms, Inflammatory Essays, The Living Series, The Survival Series, Under a Rock,
Laments, and Child Text), 1989. Extended helical tricolor LED, electronic display signboard, site-specific dimensions.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

Chapter 1.1 Art in Two Dimensions: Line, Shape, and the Principle of Contrast

PART 1
FUNDAMENTALS

Jenny Holzer,
Untitled
Implied Motion
Uses the illusion of motion to enhance
her text-based presentations
Although the text does not actually
move, it appears to spiral up the
ramped circular atrium of the
museum
Tiny LEDs (light-emitting diodes) are
illuminated and
then switched off in an automated
sequence
The intermittent flashing of lights
creates an illusion of
a scrolling series of letters and words

Gateways to Art: Understanding the Visual Arts, Debra J. DeWitte, Ralph M. Larmann, M. Kathryn Shields

Richard Serra,
Inside Out,
2013, Weatherproof Steel

Viewer must physically move through the sculpture to experience it.

Thus, sculpture is experienced over time.

Soundsuits- Part of performances actual time and actual motion are

necessary in order to truly exerience them (although they are striking
sculptures when not in motion).

Nick Cave,
Soundsuits,
2001-2011

Video is a time-based media (a medium that relies on durationthe whole work cant
be experienced in one moment).
Jennifer Steinkamp, Dervish (detail),
2004, Video installation

Performance is also a time-based media.

Marina Abromovic, The Artist is Present,

2012, MOMA

THE VISUAL ELEMENTS:

SUMMARY
Line: contour, outline
Shape and Mass: geometric/organic shapes,
figure/ground, positive/negative shapes
Light: value, modeling, chiaroscuro, stippling, hatching,
cross-hatching
Color: reflected/refracted light, hue, value, intensity, tint,
shade, monochromatic, complementary, analogous,
triadic, simultaneous contrast, afterimage, pointillism
Texture and Pattern: actual/visual texture
Space: picture plane, perspective (linear, 1-point, 2point, atmosphere, isometric), foreshortening
Time and Motion: kinetic art

2016, McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.