Elements of Design

Before you can start competing with Rembrandt, you need to know the language of art. The language of art is spoken in terms of elements and principles. With these key words, you will be able to understand artists and their work much more clearly, and even have an intelligent conversation with them.

A design is an arrangement, a way of organizing something. In arts and crafts, even though we use many different materials, the visual appearance (that is, what our eye sees and our brain decodes) can be reduced to seven elements of design. They are color, line, shape, form, space, value, and texture. These seven elements are the tools with which we organize.

Elements of Design

Color - also known as "hue." This word represents a specific color or light wavelength found in the color spectrum, ranging circularly from red to yellow, green, blue and back to red. Warm colors are red, orange, and yellow. They may remind you of a desert, fire, or the sun. Cool colors are blue, violet, and green. These may be associated with ice, mountains, and cool grass.

Line - a mark with greater length than width. Lines can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal; straight or curved; thick or thin. Also known as a point in motion, with only one dimension—length. Line has both a position and a direction in space.

Shape - a closed line. Shapes can be geometric, like triangles and rectangles, or organic, like free-formed shapes or natural shapes. Shapes are flat (2-D) and can express length and width.

Form - three-dimensional shapes, expressing length, width, and depth. Balls, cylinders, boxes, and pyramids are forms. Paintings usually have the illusion of form, made up of shapes with shading.

Texture - surface quality that can be seen and/or felt. Textures can be rough or smooth, soft or hard. Textures do not always feel the way they look; for example, a drawing of a cactus may look prickly, but if you touch the drawing, the paper is still smooth.

Space - area between and around objects. The space around objects is often called negative space. Space can also refer to the feeling of depth. Real space is three-dimensional; in visual art, when we can create the feeling or illusion of depth we call it space.

Value - light and dark contrast on a scale, which moves from white to black. Color has value also. Pretend you've taken a black and white photo or Xerox to figure out the value ranges.

Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1937, Reina Sofia National Museum - Madrid

Ideally, I'd like you to be able to describe a piece of artwork using the elements and principles of design. I'll talk you through Guernica, 1937 by Picasso, shown above, to show you how it is done.

Color - Picasso used a very short range of color: sepias, browns, whites and blacks. Perhaps if he had added more color the composition would have been too busy for the viewer.

Line - Provides movement and direction for the eye in this composition. I've shown you below with a red line starting in the bottom left hand corner...

The eye has a tendency to read from left to right in the western culture; Picasso has used this tendency in his painting. From the bottom left corner, the hand is the first thing that catches your eye, it being outstretched, you have a tendency to follow it to his other arm. The knee and foot capture your attention next and the harsh line of the knee and the arms of the woman throw your attention up. The corner of the rectangle curbs you and your eyes go the same direction of the head to the left. The shape of the head also points you to the gore below, your eyes follow the direction of the horse's head to the eyes of the bull and down through her pony tail for a replay of the whole adventure. See what a powerful tool line is? Ideally, you always want to lead a viewer. Random shapes/figures in random places are rarely visually successful.

Shape - Picasso has distorted his figures into shapes that help the viewer's eye travel throughout this piece. For example the knee in the bottom right corner is grotesque as well as an excellent arrow up.

Form - Only the illusion of form is presented here, because form is 3-dimensional while shape is 2-dimensional.

Space - Picasso's use of positive and negative shapes is very powerful, as you can see below. Positive shapes (represented by the white) are made up of figures or objects, while the space between them is the negative (represented by the black). His ratio of positive to negative space is nearly 1:1. His negative shapes are as interesting as his positive, and equally balanced.

Value - With such a limited palette, he made up for it in his value ranges. At least 20 value ranges preside within one of Picasso's most famous works. With 1 being the lightest and 20 being the darkest, you can see how spread out his values are. Notice also how balanced they are. Where you see a 7 on the left you can balance it with a 7 on the right.

Texture - In Guernica, 1937, texture is limited to smooth surfaces such as flesh, hair, bricks, and wood. These textures are primarily made up of lines that lead the viewer where Picasso wanted. The bricks on top force the eyes down. The horse's tail takes you to the man on the ground. Too many textures often boggle and puzzle the eye and must be delicately balanced.

Now it's your turn! Fill in the blanks with the appropriate element of design for Salvador Dali's Persistence of Memory.

Salvador Dali, 1931 (C) 2002 Salvador Dali, Gala-Salvador Dali Foundation/Artist's Rights Society, MOMA http://www.moma.org

Fill in the blanks using the elements of design.
Each will be used only once: shape, color, line, form, space, value, and texture
After you've looked through the paragraph below, please complete the following worksheet: Dali's Fill-in-the-Blank

Dali's use of ___________________ranges from blues and yellows to siennas and blacks. The tree pointing to the mountains and the shelf pointing to the draped clock are excellent examples of _____________ and how it can direct your eye around a picture. The ants crawling over the clock in the left-hand corner and the rough mountain could be examples of __________________. Dali's range of _____________ is demonstrated through his dark siennas under his self portrait and the light and bright sea in the background. The shadows often form subtle flat ________ s to help guide the viewer through the composition. The illusion of _______________ is given through modeled shapes and shadows. The use of positive and negative _________________ is well balanced, with his self portrait, clocks, shelf and mountains being positive.

Now, come up with your own paragraph, using the elements of design, for Seurat's La Grande Jatte. At least one sentence on each element is expected. Please submit your essay here: La Grande Jatte Paragraph

Georges Seurat, 1884-1886 Scan by Mark Harden, Artchive

In my mind, value is the most important element in drawing. Atmosphere, perspective, realism... it all has to do with the element of value. So I'd like you to fill in the blank value ranges from 1-20. Remember, 1 is the lightest, 20 is the darkest. I sometimes pretend that I've taken a black and white Xerox of the picture to figure out the values. In this case, the picture is already black and white so you've been saved some work. Using M.C. Escher's High and Low, shown below, fill in the blanks by taking this quiz: Values of Escher's High and Low

M.C. Escher, 1947 (c) 2002 Cordon Art - Holland. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Please review the above lesson and then take the Elements of Design Quiz.

You will be finished with this lesson after you've completed the Dali worksheet, the Seurat paragraph, the Escher quiz, and taken the Elements of Design quiz. When done, go on to Principles of Design.