Painting

The Elements of Art

The building blocks

or ingredients of art.
 LINE

A mark with length and direction.

A continuous mark made on a surface
by a moving point.

Ansel Adams Gustave Caillebotte

 COLOR

Consists of Hue (another word for color),

Intensity (brightness) and Value (lightness
or darkness).

Alexander Calder

Henri Matisse
VALUE

The lightness or darkness of a color.

MC Escher Pablo Picasso

 SHAPE

An enclosed area defined and determined

by other art elements; 2-dimensional.

Joan
Miro
 FORM

A 3-dimensional object;
or something in a 2-dimensional artwork
that appears to be 3-dimensional.

For example, a triangle, which is 2-dimensional, is a

shape, but a pyramid, which is 3-dimensional, is a form.

Jean Arp Lucien Freud

 SPACE
The distance or area between, around, above, below,
or within things.

Robert Mapplethorpe
Positive (filled with
something) and Negative
Claude Foreground,
Monet Middleground and
(empty areas).
Background (creates DEPTH)
 TEXTURE

The surface quality or "feel" of an object, its

smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. Textures
may be actual or implied.
The Principles of Art

What we use to organize the

Elements of Art,
or the tools to make art.
 BALANCE

The way the elements are arranged to

create a feeling of stability in a work.

Alexander Calder
 Symmetrical Balance

The parts of an image are organized

so that one side mirrors the other.

Leonardo DaVinci
Asymmetrical Balance

When one side of a composition does

not reflect the design of the other.

James Whistler
EMPHASIS

The focal point of an

image, or when one
area or thing stand
out the most.

Jim Dine Gustav Klimt

 CONTRAST

A large difference
between two things to
create interest and
tension.
Salvador Dali
Ansel Adams
 RHYTHM
RHYTHM
RHYTHM
A regular repetition RHYTHM
of elements to
produce the look and RHYTHM
feel of movement. RHYTHM

and
Marcel
MOVEMENT
Duchamp
PATTERN
and Repetition Gustav Klimt

Repetition of a design.
UNITY

When all the

elements and
principles
work together
to create a
pleasing
image.
Johannes Vermeer
 The use of differences and
change to increase the
visual interest of the work.

VAR TY IE

Marc Chagall
PROPORTIO N

The comparative relationship

of one part to another with
respect to size, quantity, or
degree; SCALE.

Gustave
Caillebotte
 Painting
 The practice of applying color to a
surface such as, e.g. paper, canvas,
wood, glass or concrete.
 In an artistic sense, means the use of
this activity in combination with drawing,
composition and other aesthetic
considerations in order to manifest the
expressive and conceptual intention of the
practitioner.
REALISM
• Describes as accurately and honestly
as possible what is observed
• details seem so natural
Magic Realism
Projects an effect of the fantastic
with an air of mystery or
strangeness by the use of flat color
Possessing mystery and melancholy
Social Realism
Seeks to depict the situations and
concerns of the poor and voiceless
majority
Superrealism
Photographic or photorealism
Paint from photographs,
replicating canvass
Fantastic Realism
Combines diverse elements of
fantasy and imagination with a
strict attention to realistic detail
ABSTRACT
 Means “to move away or separate”
 One phase of a scene

 Does not show subject

ELONGATION

 The character or
the object being
painted is
elongated or
extended to
emphasize a
certain purpose
of the painter.
Mangling…
lacerated, mutilated
Distortion…
mishapen, twisted
Cubism
-the use of a cone, cylinder or
sphere
 EXPRESSIONISM
 Proportion is overridden by the intensity
of the artist emotion
 The artist tries to express certain

feelings about some thing.

Pointillism
 A technique of
painting in
which small,
distinct dots of
pure color are
applied in
patterns to
form an image.
 Pop Art
 An art movement that
began in England,
characterized by
popular images like
those in movies,
politics, advertising,
comic strips,
supermarket products
etc…
IMPRESSIONISM
Subject matter is most
often landscape or scenes
from daily life.
 Impressionists were
interested in the use of
color, tone, and texture in
order to objectively record
nature. They emphasized
sunlight, shadows, and light.
SURREALISM

 Surreal means intense

irrationality or beyond
natural.
 Emphasized the
activities of the
subconscious mind
which pictures out
images in a form of
a dream.
Itshows what is inside man’s
mind
SYMBOLISM

 A symbol is a
thing or a
single object
that stands for
another thing.
Ex: Flying
dove= freedom
FAUVISM
 Fauvism (wild beasts) was
an art movement that
used intense sometimes
clashing or unnatural
colors and bold brush
strokes.
 Usually used to express a
feeling of joy, comfort or
pleasure through extremely
bright colors
Used extremely bright colors
colours are used to express the artist's
feelings about a subject, rather than simply
to describe what it looks like.
simplified drawing and exaggerated
colour
 DADAISM
 A French word meaning
boby horse.
 A protest movement against
the traditional outworn arts
and evils in the society.
 Dadaist artist tries to start

outrage to undermine faith

and dependence to an
established institution.
FUTURISM
 An Italian art
movement celebrating
noise, technology,
machines, war,
photography and
movement,
characterized by
contrast, speed, and
restlessness of modern
Glorifiedthe mechanical energy of
modern life
 PRIMITIVISM
 looks like art that is
done by a child.
Usually the picture is
painted very simply,
and the subjects are
"flat", or two-
dimensional.