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Understand the purpose of the elements and principles of art and design. See a list of elements and principles of art and learn how to identify them using examples.Updated: 11/21/2023
Table of Contents
- What Are the Elements and Principles of Art?
- Understanding the Elements and Principles of Art
- Lesson Summary
- FAQs
- Activities
Elements, Principles, and You
In ''The Basic Elements & Principles of Art'' lesson, you learned about the seven basic elements and the ten basic principles of visual art. Now it's your turn to apply your new knowledge using the activities below.
Write Your Own Definitions
Explaining what you've learned in your own words is an effective way to retain that information in your brain in the long run. This lesson introduced you to a lot of new vocabulary words. In a paragraph, explain the purpose of the elements and principles of art in your own words. For example:
- Why are they important?
- How do they help us to understand art?
Research an Artist
Choose any visual artist whose work you enjoy. Pick one or more pieces of art that they created. In a descriptive list, a paragraph, or an essay, examine how those pieces embody the elements and principles of art. For instance:
- Are some principles and elements more obvious in the work than others?
- Which ones does the artist use most effectively?
- How does all of this come together to create unity?
Create Your Own Work of Art
You know the principles. You know the elements. You've done the research. Now it's time to put your skills to the test. Using the visual medium of your choice, create a work of art. Allow the basic principles and elements of art to guide you and influence your style. Think about creating unity in your work. Which artists inspired this particular work of art? Write an artistic statement to go along with your work.
What are the seven elements and the eight principles of design?
The 7 elements of art are shape, space, texture, form, color, line, and value, and the 8 principles of art are balance, unity, variety/repetition, perspective, proportion, harmony, emphasis, and rhythm/movement.
What are the elements and principles of art?
The elements and principles of art are the tools that artists use to create art and the ways in which they use them. They can be found in all pieces of art.
Table of Contents
- What Are the Elements and Principles of Art?
- Understanding the Elements and Principles of Art
- Lesson Summary
Artists use many tools to get their jobs done- paintbrushes, pens, pencils, easels, canvas, etc.- but what most people don't see are the principles and elements that guide the use of these tools. If pencils and paintbrushes are the tools of art, then the principles and elements are how one uses these tools. They give artists structure and balance, which is key to creating a beautiful art piece. So, what are the elements and principles of art? There are seven main elements and eight main principles that guide all art forms. The elements are shape, space, texture, form, color, line, and value. The principles are balance, unity, variety/repetition, perspective, proportion, harmony, emphasis, and rhythm/movement. All art uses some blend of many or all of these aspects in order to be pleasing to the eye or to communicate its message. For example, Grant Wood's Fall Plowing uses a blend of color, repetition, line, shape and balance to bring his piece to life. He uses bold greens, yellows and reds, hard, flowing crop lines, and repetition of fun shapes to guide the viewer's eye over what seems to be a fairly serene scene of a freshly plowed field.
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One may notice that the elements and principles of art are fairly general, non-specific terms. This is on purpose. Each of the elements and principles have the capacity to be broken down into several smaller, more specific terms to give the artist more options and freedom to use each of the elements and principles as they see fit or as they fit into the piece of artwork. Texture, for example, could be referring to the type of canvas used, different painting techniques, or even different materials used. It can be in reference to any form of change to touch that affects the reception of the painting. Proportion could be in reference to how big a house looks against a horizon on a landscape piece or how big a nose is on a portrait. A good example of how proportion can be used effectively is Joseph Keppler's Thanksgiving- a Study in Proportion. In this piece, Keppler creates a cognitive dissonance for the viewer by painting every-day objects such as a turkey and golf clubs to be much bigger than a church that is sitting nearby. He blows up the proportions of these things to make a whimsical image and perhaps to illustrate a point on consumerism.
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What makes the elements and principles so important is that they act as a guide and as a tool for artists to create effective and memorable art. They can be used and bent as needed, but these things can be found in all art, no matter the material used or the genre or if it is basic art or professional.
Elements of Art
The elements of art reference the mental tools that artists have at their disposal to create art. For a more detailed breakdown, reference the graph below.
| Element | Breakdown and Example |
|---|---|
| Color | Color refers to all solid and mixed colors used in a piece. This can be in reference to shade, intensity or the hue. The intensity can mean that a piece may use faded, darker colors or prominent, bright colors. The hue is the color or mix of colors itself. Some argue that value, meaning the use of shadow and black and white to darken or lighten is also an aspect of color, but most argue that it is its own element. An example of an artist using color effectively would be "Red" by Mark Rothko. In this piece, he uses different hues and intensities of red to elicit a feeling in the viewer. |
| Form | Form is in reference to the height, width, and depth of a particular object. It makes a two-dimensional object appear three-dimensional. It can be strict and cubical, or free-flowing. Henry Moore's sculptures are a great example of effective use of form. |
| Line | Any mark made on a paper is a line. Lines can be straight, curvy, long, or short. Sometimes, such as in the case of cross-hatching, lines are used to create value, but generally it is used to outline and create form. One of the most famous examples of the use of line is Richard Long's "A Line Made by Walking". In this living sculpture, Long created a line in a field by walking on it to show continuity and how we interact with the world around us. |
| Shape | Usually enclosed, shape refers to the two-dimensional use of geometrical shapes to create art. Henri Matisse's "The Snail" is a great example of use of shape. He uses blocky pieces of colored paper to create an interesting collage that relies on the way the shapes and colors are placed next to each other to reach full effect. |
| Space | Space references a piece's use of positive and negative space. This means the space that is uses (positive space) and the space that is left alone to create emphasis (negative space). A piece that famously uses a lot of negative space to create a sense of despair is "Monk by the Sea" by Caspar Friedrich. |
| Texture | Texture is how a piece feels or appears to feel if touched. Esther Orloff's "Creating Bliss" offers a unique example of how certain painting techniques are used to create the texture of a feather. |
| Value | Value is the use of shadow to create depth or dimension. Usually, it is created by either adding black or white to a color. A good example of value is Joseph Albers' "Homage to the Square" where he uses color to create value. |
Principles of Art
If the elements are the tools used, the principles of art reference the way the tools are used to create a piece. Refer to the graph below for a better breakdown of each principle.
| Principle | Breakdown and Example |
|---|---|
| Balance | Balance is used to create an equilibrium in art and to give it a sense of gravity. A piece could be symmetrical, meaning the main aspect of the piece is centered, asymmetrical, meaning it is skewed either left or right, or radial, meaning the piece seems to radiate out from the center. An example of balance is Cimabue's "Santa Trinita Maesta" which uses centered symmetry to create balance. |
| Harmony | This references when all aspects of art come together in a unified, harmonious manner. There is no chaos, but in order to achieve this, a piece cannot be monotonous either. For example, Picasso's "The Old Guitarist" used cool blue tones to create harmony amongst the differing shapes and values. |
| Perspective | Perspective in art references the direction at which a painter comes at a certain subject and the direction in which the viewer views it from. Henry Moore plays with perspective in his piece "Tube Shelter Perspective" in which he paints it as if he were actually looking down the tube. |
| Variety/Repetition | Variety and repetition references how much or how little certain aspects are used and reused in a piece. Variety could mean that there are many different, changed aspects while repetition means that the artist may use one aspect over and over usually in the form of a pattern to create effect. Andy Warhol is famed for using repetition in his piece "Marilyn Monroe." |
| Proportion | Proportion references how big or small something is portrayed comparatively. This can be in reference to creating correct facial sizes or painting a man next to a church so that he is the correct size. |
| Emphasis | Emphasis means using one of the elements of art to draw your eye to a particular spot or to create importance. In John Singer's "A Parisian Beggar Girl", he uses the red color of her blood to create emphasis, as the rest of the painting is black and white, or muted. |
| Rhythm/Movement | Rhythm and movement in art are meant to give your eye a clear path to follow. A good piece is said to have good, clear movement that would allow you to take in all of a piece fluidly. Martin Puryear's sculpture "A Ladder for Booker T. Washington" is a perfect example of how an artist uses lines to create movement. |
| Unity | Unity is using all of the principles at once to create a unified piece. "Galconde" by Magritte is a good example of how an artist may attempt to do this. |
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The elements and principles of art and design are the mental tools that artists use to create art and the way they use them. They can be found in any art piece no matter the medium or genre of art, and usually one or a mixture of these are used to make a piece visually stimulating.
There are seven main elements of art (shape, space, texture, form, color, line, and value) and 8 main principles of art (balance, unity, variety/repetition, perspective, proportion, harmony, emphasis, and rhythm/movement). All of these can be identified throughout any piece of art as they strengthen a piece and give it stability and meaning.
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Video Transcript
Elements & Principles of Art
There are seven elements in art. They are color, form, line, shape, space, texture, and value. The ten common principles of art are balance, emphasis, harmony, movement, pattern, proportion, repetition, rhythm, unity, and variety. Many of these concepts are not only related to one another but also overlap to create an artistic vision.
Elements
Many amateurs actually confuse the terms 'color,' 'hue,' and 'value.' Technically color is a general term which applies to all combinations of color. On the other hand, hue refers to only the pure colors of the spectrum. Value is simply the relative darkness or lightness of a particular color. Of course, hue also has value since there are many shades of the rainbow. The three primary colors are red, yellow, and blue, and the other colors are made by mixing those three in many different combinations.
Form in art is its three-dimensionality, as displayed in a cube. A two-dimensional shape, such as a square on a sheet of paper, is not classified as form in art. Conversely, a line is one-dimensional and is often used to define edges. Lines also are used to define more complex shapes. The type of a line, whether horizontal, vertical, diagonal, or curved, greatly determines the feeling an artist is trying to express in their work.
Like form, space is three-dimensional. The great artists are masters at making a two-dimensional piece of paper come to life and somehow appear to have depth. Perspective is the technique they use to achieve this effect. We have all seen that photo of the railroad tracks going off into the far distance and coming to a point.
The master artists also have an uncanny knack for incorporating texture into their pieces of art. This allows the viewer to actually feel the work instead of just using the eyes to look at it. Who hasn't shaken their head in disbelief at the way Vincent Van Gogh made a night filled with stars or a field of irises come to life so that it felt as if one could touch them?
Principles
The three basic types of balance in art are symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial. If a work is symmetrical, the left side would look similar to the right side. If the work is asymmetrical the sides may not look similar but it is important to realize that there may still be balance. In radial balance everything in the piece emanates from a central point, not unlike the spokes of a bicycle wheel or the maps of certain cities.
Emphasis in art is the part that stands out due to the artist's design. Variety is related to emphasis in that adding it also adds emphasis to a work. Variety deals with contrast and difference. The artist may use color, shape, size, and texture to add emphasis and variety. The artist uses several elements in conjunction to move the viewer's eye around the work. Thus, variety is related to compositional movement.
Movement in art can be broken up into literal movement or compositional movement. While literal movement is the actual movement of an object such as a car, compositional movement is the movement of the viewer's eye through the artwork. Movement can be static so that the eye hops around a portrayal or it can be dynamic so that the eye flows around.
The relative scale and size of an object in relation to the elements of a design is known as proportion. Many artists incorporate pictures of the human body to compare to various objects. Proportion may also refer to the relationship between two objects or even parts of objects.
Rhythm in art is not dissimilar to rhythm in music in that there is a timed beat, but in this case the beat is caught by the eyes and not the ears. Rhythm can sometimes be linear. Jackson Pollock was famous for creating a painting that, at first glance, may have seemed haphazard, but upon further inspection, had the rhythmic beauty of a moving classical piece of music.
Repetition is commonly used in the world of pop art, which is based on popular culture. The post-World War II artists used the construction boom to craft all sorts of artwork involving industrial items. Andy Warhol's Campbell's soup cans made the seemingly simple repetitious structure come to life.
Unity combines all seven elements and the other nine principles we have discussed in this lesson. The idea is for the artist to create some sort of pleasing harmony within the artwork. Of all the concepts we talked about in this lesson, perhaps pattern is the most important in bringing about a sense of unity. However, many artists use form and color to achieve unity as well.
Lesson Summary
The seven elements and ten principles of art we discussed in this lesson often are related to one another and overlap. The master artist utilizes these techniques to take the viewer on a journey that feels as if one has transcended space and time and overwhelms the viewer with, among other things, color, form, and texture in the work.
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