ELEMENTS OF ART AND

PRINCIPLES OF COMPOSITION
• LINE
• VALUE
• COLOR
• SHAPE
• TEXTURE
• COMPOSITION IN SPACE
• MOVEMENT
• LINE is associated with the body’s axis as it moves
toward different directions and adjusts to a point of
reference through various positions and actions, such as
walking, running, standing, sitting, reclining, etc. In the
visual arts, it also refers to the quality of the line,
whether thin, broken, thick, or blended, among others.
When several lines come together, they create texture,
which can be very thin, washed or very thick, rough or
fine.
• For example, those entering the UP Diliman campus from
the University Avenue will be welcomed halfway through by
the diagonal lines of the “waiting sheds” of the University
Gateway, ca. 1960 sculpture of National Artist Napoleon
Abueva. The long approach through University Avenue
emphasizes the distinction of zones - the busy main
highway being left behind, but not really completely cut
off (the “town”), and the sprawling flagship campus of the
country’s premier university (the “gown”).
• At the end of that portal, one is greeted by the
outstretched arms of Guillermo Tolentino’s Oblation. The
horizontal lines of the sculpture are in turn echoed by the
Quezon Hall building behind it. The straight, diagonal lines
of the modernist waiting shed connote dynamism and
movement, while the vertical and horizontal lines of the
Neoclassic Quezon Hall and Oblation convey balance,
symmetry, formality, grace and serenity, in keeping with
the University as a zone of contemplation and learning.
• VALUE refers to gradations of tone from light to dark, which
can be an aspect of color as discussed above, but could also
specifically refer to the play of light on an object or a scene. In
representational paintings, it is shading, blending, and chiaroscuro,
or the play of light and dark that lend the flat surface an illusion
of depth and perspective. Non-representational use of value is
also useful in black-and-white photography, where images are
given unique character and meaning in artistic photography, but
can also be useful in documentations, as in black and white I.D.
photos or in reportage practices like photojournalism.
• TEXTURE refers to how objects and surfaces feel, and is most
associated with the sense of touch or tactility. Textures are
created, as previously discussed, when several lines combine. The
combination may be described as smooth, translucent, fine, silky,
satiny, velvety, sandy, furry, feathery, slimy, gritty, rough,
rugged, coarse, porous, irregular, jagged, thick, thin, and so on.
For example, the barong and baro’t saya fabrics are translucent
and delicate, while the crocheted dresses of Aze Ong are soft,
yet thick. As Filipino formal dress, the former are appropriate
for important occasions usually done in air-conditioned spaces,
and are not for everyday wear.
• SHAPE refers to forms that are two-dimensional or three-
dimensional. Two-dimensional shapes exist as planes having length and
width. Three-dimensional shapes possess length, width and volume.
Shapes can either be geometric (rectilinear or curvilinear),
biomorphic, or free inventions. Stylized and abstract shapes can be
seen in local textiles. The geometric shapes of the binakol by the
Tinggians of Abra, Northern Philippines are executed with such
mathematical precision they achieve an illusionistic effect. The
geometric t’nalak of the t’bolis of southern Mindanao are abstracted
from frogs and other animals that appear in creation stories, while
biomorphic and geometric shapes of the pis syabit of the Tausug
remind us of leaves, flowers, and shapes woven together in precise
repetitive patterns.
• Other things that apply shapes… In WOODCARING, the Maranao
okir features the sarimanok or the legendary fowl shown holding a fish
with its beak or talons. Other motifs include the naga, pako-rabong,
consisting of plant forms, such as the dapal or raon (leaf), pako (fern
spiral), todi (katuray flower), and potiok (bud). BUILDINGS AND
HOUSINGS from the geometric upward orientation of skyscrapers to
the squat low forms of the nipa hut or bahay kubo. There are also
unusual shapes such as: Domed Church of the Holy Sacrifice in UP
Campus School of Design and Art building of De La Salle College of
Saint Benilde in Vito Cruz, Manila.
• COMPOSITION IN SPACE involves the relationship
between figures and elements it also refers to how this
element are organized and composed according to
principles of organization (which are balance, proportion,
rhythm, unity in variety, dominance and subordination.
National Artist Guillermo Tolentino’s Bonifacio Monument
(1933) in Caloocan has circular composition; and his
Oblation (1958) a bronze cast which together with other
buildings which follow the “town and gown” composition.
Composition in space can also be discerned in dance.
• MOVEMENT may occur in two-dimensional design as rhythm or
through the recurrence of motifs, their alternation or progression
unfolding in a series.
• Carlos Francsico’s Filipino Struggles Through History (1964) which was
hung at the Bulwagang Katipunan of the Manila City Hall shows a sense
of forward movement that captures the fervor and energy of the
Revolution.
• In three-dimensional expressions, the sense of movement can be
implied; National Artists Napoleon Abueva’s Nine Muses (1994) adorning
the Faculty Center building at UP Diliman or it can be actual David
Cortez Medalla’s biokinetic constructions from the sixties (the bubble
machine series that spew quantities of foam and a monumental sand
machine).