Design Elements

Quick Overview The elements of art are the building blocks of art/design creation. They are the VISUAL LANGUAGE of art. What are they? –Line –Shape –Color –Space –Value –texture

Line Lines can communicate an idea or express a feeling. They can appear static or active. Lines define objects. Look at the following example

Ben Shahn (Lithuanian) , Supermarket, serigraph in black,1957, 25 1/4 x 38 3/4"

Line exercise In your sketchbooks, divide one page into 12 small sections (4 rows of 3) and demonstrate the following (and label): Active Broken Furious Climbing Dancing Falling Bouncing Growing Random Echoing Spiraling One of your choice

Shapes Lines come together to make shapes Categorized as –Geometric Circle Square Triangle –Freeform

Piet Mondrian, (Dutch) , Boogie-Woogie, Oil on canvas, 50 x 50" (127 x 127 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Joan Miro (Spanish) , The Policeman, Oil on canvas,1925, 248 x cm, The Art Institute Of Chicago

Shape exercise Complete Black Square Problem Place in sketchbook when completed

Space How an artists uses Space or chooses NOT to use Space adds a great deal to a design Space is so important, that we have names for the types of Space in a design –Positive Space The space created by an image or a sculpture. The main subjects of the work/design. –Negative Space The space around, between and behind parts of an image or a sculpture

Salvador Dali (Spanish) , The Deterioration of The Persistence Of Memory , Oil on Board, Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL How is space used? Ben Shahn (American) Salvador Dali (Spanish) , The Deterioration of The Persistence Of Memory , Oil on Board, Dali Museum, St. Petersburg, FL

Space and Perspective Artist used rules or perspective to create a sense of three- dimensional space while designing on a flat, two- dimensional surface. Why are your eyes drawn to the sides of the paper. Do you know why? A diagonal line is read by the human eye as a movement line. The eye is drawn up the diagonal direction and "into" the drawing.

Your Task Complete Black & White problem –Choose 3 of the following items to sketch only using the NEGATIVE space –Salt, ghost, clouds, Moby Dick, Jaws, sugar, polar bear, smoke, vanilla ice cream cone, or steam Place in sketchbook when completed

Review What types of lines communicate these feelings? –Anger –Happy –Movement

Texture Visual texture is the illusion of a three- dimensional surface The goal is to imitate the look and feel of real texture in designs Texture can be –Physical –Visual –Which will we deal with?

Texture What are some texture descriptors? –Smooth –Rough –Soft How can we use texture?

Value Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color Very useful when attempting to create a sense of three dimensions Typically thought of as a range from black to white, but it can also be used with color –The range of the values can be changed by adding white to lighten or tint a color. Adding black will create a shade of the original color which will appear darker.

Value In your sketchbook, create the following –3 rows of 5 squares each –Be neat! –Label Value scale gray Value scale (your choice) Value scale (your choice 2) –Left side = very dark; right side = very light

The Third Dimension Review –Perspectives –Sketching 3D shapes Cube Parallelepiped Cone Pyramid Sphere

The Third Dimension How can you simulate 3D? Placement Size Overlapping Shading Shadows Contour lines Horizon Density Foreshortening