CHAPTER 4

LANGUAGE OF ART: ELEMENTS AND THE PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

James Louies B. Un

 Elements Of Art

1. Line Element

The perception of lines is some of the things we do every day. You see lines
along the roadside, in the corner of your rooms, in the guidelines of your notebook
sheets, etc. Lines are even utilitarian that you use them when you write, when you
navigate through directions, slice your favorite meat or vegetables, etc. But most
importantly, lines are essential elements to art. Lines create art and they provide the
impression of path and movement along a space.
Nature of Line
 Linesin art create a sense of movement, guiding the
viewer’s eyes in different directions. They vary in length,
width, and dimension, influencing the depth and space of an
artwork. Lines can be drawn with various tools or formed by
objects like wires or tree trunks. Some lines are implied
rather than explicitly drawn, such as edges of objects or a
series of dots, stimulating the mind to perceive them as real.
 Types of Lines

 Vertical Lines - Their movement direction is upward or downward. Common applications are upright trees or standing
body of humans, buildings, or infrastructures.

 Horizontal Lines - The movement direction is from left to right or vice-versa. Common applications are body lying down
and the horizon.

 Diagonal lines - These are slanted lines. They create an impression of rising or falling. The Leaning Tower of Pisa
conveys a diagonal or slanted line.

 Zigzag lines - These are connected combinations of diagonal lines. They create angular perspectives of lines. Common
examples are thunders or animated drawings of stars.

 Curved lines - These are lines that do not appear linear; hence, directions are not clearly established. Examples of which
are the outlines of clouds, leaves and edges of flowers (Ragans, 2005).
Line and Value
 Value is defined as the darkness or lightness of an object. Essentially, the value
of a line or the artwork in general may differ in terms of how much light the
surface absorbs and expresses light. The artwork may have a dark value with
little light reflection or light value with more light reflection. So, applying the line
principles to value, lines may have or dark value when pencils for example are
pressed or rubbed harder on a sheet of paper. Artists use the technique called
crosshatching to create darker
 themes or value. This is a technique using crossed lines to create darker
shades of a line. Different number types of pencils can also be made to create
different line values. Even using a crayon that stroked a wall surface or sheet of
paper may create broken lines or solid lines, respectively (Ragans, 2005).
Self-Learning Activity: Using Lines to Create Value
 With a sheet of bond paper, divide the whole space into a
equal nine (9) squares. For each square, you are to practice
drawing different combinations of lines to create impressions
of line values. Do this using different types of writing tool such
as pencils, quill pens, common ballpoint pens and sign-or felt-
tip pins. You do not have to limit yourself to this selection.
There may be creative ways to express lines and shade.
Expressions of Lines
You may have known in basic fashion technique that wearing longitudinal
stripes can make you look slimmer than latitudinal ones. Hence, lines have
different capacities in terms of expression an idea or an emotion. Essentially,
lines speak a language that artists can comprehend.
 a. Movement of Lines
Vertical and horizontal lines convey static and at rest impressions, It may
mean the lack of activity and stability. Artist may use them to show dignity, formality
or stiffness. Horizontal lines, specifically, show the feelings of permanence and solid
foundation such as that of the ground or floor. Horizontal lines provide foundation to
vertical lines and it may provide artistic impressions of strength. Sometimes, it
portrays the feeling of calmness or relax such as the horizontal lines created by the
sea surface.
 b. Contour Lines

These are applications of lines to create edges or ridges of an object. These provide a
certain degree of separation from one object to another.

 c. Gesture Drawing

Gestures are usually expressive movements which are intended to capture motion,
activity and the feeling found in it. In artworks that emphasize the lines of the hand, touching
the face can convey feelings of anxiety or worry. Or hands raising that are emphasized by lines
can be done to manifest feelings of excitement and activity.

 d. Calligraphic Drawing

Calligraphy means beautiful handwriting. It is often associated with writing Asian

characters usually with Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai language. In their culture, writing
is not just about knowing the alphabet. For them writing is a process of creating art using lines
and different strokes to represent character languages. In the Philippines, there are different
versions of baybayin with different ethno-linguistic bases. The Philippine Calligraphy is rooted
on Indian, Sulawesi and Kawi, Indo, Arabic and Islamic writing arts.
 2. SHAPE, FORM AND SPACE
The world may be considered as an art piece. It is a piece composed of
several shapes, sizes, forms and even depth that are naturally existing in this
space. Understanding the nature and use of shape, forms and space, an art
piece may have an important meaning to express (Ragans, 2005).
 Shape
A shape conveys a defined two-dimensional area. It has an outline around
and it is recognizable through its form. In a sense, by just using an outline,
shapes can be formed. But shapes can be created without a boundary line. For
example, they can be created using a blot of yellow paint to create a circle like
the imagery of a sun. They are two-dimensional, as well, because of the flat
surface they create. You can see them in the shapes that are defined by the
floor tiles, TV screens, walls, table tops etc. Usually, these are man-made
shapes (Ragans, 2005).
 Geometric Shapes
Shapes can either be geometric or free-form. Geometric shapes are accurately
measured shapes, hence, having mathematical bases. The variations are square, rectangle,
triangle, circle, oval, trapezoid, pentagon, hexagon, etc. They are used to express feelings of
uniformity and organization. In a decorative sense, they show balance and structure in one’s
perception. This may be apparent in the shapes of flat, television, long and round tables,
room doors, etc. Usually, these are man-made shapes (Ragans, 2005).
 Free-Form Shapes
These are the types of shapes that are irregular in structure. They may be
characterized by some combinations of curves and angles. They are not structural and man-
made, per se. Most of them are organically existing in nature such as flowers, animals,
humans, islands, trees, etc. (Ragans, 2005).
Self-Learning Activity: Geometric and Free-Form
Shapes
 Using some old newspaper in your house, make two cut
designs one geometric shape and the other free-form.
Paste them on a black construction paper and label them
geometric or free form, as the case of your shapes. In
labeling them, try to make the word geometric look
geometric while free form using free form letter shapes.
 Positive and Negative Space
The shapes and forms of art are the positive space of an art. The empty
spaces, on the other hand, are the negative space. In gestalt psychology, they
are called figure and ground, respectively. The distinction between figure and
ground are essential as they may dictate certain interpretations of art. One of
the common issues that an artist is faced with is the ambiguity of the figure
which is the ground relationship. There may be instances where it would be
difficult to determine which is the figure and ground in a visual art. This may
have happened as artists themselves gave the same emphasis to figure and
ground. In gestalt psychology, they may become visual and optical illusions
that puzzle the viewers interpretation of an artwork (Ragans, 2005).
 Creating Shapes and Forms in Space
Shapes and forms can be naturally sourced or manufactured by
humans For instance, animals, humans, flowers and mountains are
examples of naturally occurring shapes. But there are shapes that are
manufactured by humans through handicrafts, machine-assisted or clay
forms. But the challenge with most artists is that they must create the shape
and form to make them appear as real as possible Hence, artists must
operate on illusions that provide meaning in a certain amount of art space.
Self-Learning Activity: Establishing Point of View through Shapes and
Sizes
Using some old newspapers or magazines in your house, look for objects
that are usually found in rooms. It could be a house, a bedroom, kitchen,
or any part of it. Cut these objects and mount them on a paper. Draw
around each object an outline with crayons, markers, or highlighters.
Remove the cut outs and describe how each shape changed from its
original figure compared to the outlined part.
3. COLOR

What makes lines, shapes, forms, and space alive is through their colors. They are apparent in making more
variations to our perceptions such as the colors of flowers, the sky, paint of walls and even skin tones. Colors have the
most powerful connection to human nature and emotions. In fact, colors are used to describe emotions such as feeling
blue to describe sadness or green minded to describe thinking of sexual things or green thumb for someone who is good
with plants or sunny personality to describe the bright and fun character of a person. With the differences in colors around
you, the way you appreciate colors may also vary. In this section, you will learn to understand the different properties and
applications of colors and how to give meaning to them.

 Perception of Color

Color is one of the elements of art that is derived from light and the different reflections of it. In psychophysics, you
learned that colors are based on white light. When such white light passes through a prism, it shall bend and create a or
band of colors. These colors are usually the representation of the rainbow. But these colors are not coloring per se. These
colors are waves that activate the color receptors of your eyes called cones. So ripe mangoes may not be yellow after all,
but the reflection of mangoes activate the yellow receptors of the eyes. The rod receptors, on the other hand, receive and
process information of darkness and lightness. So the rods shall facilitate how colors must be perceived depending on
avilable light. Therefore, the way we perceive colors depends upon the light that is refflected on each object.

Hence, there are three properties of colors that matter in this section. They are called hue, value and intensity.
These properties are even present in photography. If you check your smart phones and their camera settings, these
properties can be altered as soon as you take a photo (Ragans 2005).
 Hue

Inthe color spectrum, there is such a thing as primary colors namely, red, blue and yellow. They are also
considered as primary hues. The secondary hues are made by mixing two primary colors. There are also six
intermediate or tertiary colors by mixing a primary color with secondary color. To organize these colors or hues,
the color spectrum can be bent to create a color wheel that illustrates how the mixing is employed (Ragans,
2005).

 Value

Value describes the lightness and darkness of a color. There will be times that certain colors will seem to
be darker to represent a darker or gloomier theme of the art piece. Essentially, not all hues should have the
same value within a space Naturally, yellow seems to be the lightest hue as it reflects the lightest and violet is
the darker hue as it reflects the least light. Black, white and gray are considered neutral colors. White light
reflects colors while black absorbs all of it. Grey will reflect light depending on its value. The darker it is, the
more it absorbs, the less it reflects and vice versa (Ragans, 2005).

Toalter values, hues may be added with black or white. Tinting is the process of producing a light value
such as creating a bright sunny day with mixing white and blue to the skies while shading is the process of
producing a darker value such as mixing violet, blue, gray and black to create night skies (Ragans, 2005).
 Intensity

Intensity refers to how bright or dull the use of hue is. If a certain surface of an object reflects yellow
light, then the surface projects intense and bright yellow. But if the surface reflects other colors, yellow will be
more subdued. Intensity can be high or low density such that in bright and dull colors, respectively (Ragans,
2005).

Complementary colors are those that are opposite to each other in the color wheel. The complement of
a hue may absorb all the light waves that the hue reflects. Example, red and green are complements. In effect,
green may absorb red waves and may reflect the blue and yellow. This explains how some people will have
conditions such as color vision deficiency or color blindness. There may be tendencies for people to perceive
green as red or red as green. In some instances, those with color vision deficiency may perceive green as blue
or yellow due to distorted absorption and reflection of lights (Ragans, (2005).

Another consequence is when you mix a hue with its complement dulls the original hue and lowers its
intensity. The more complement you add, the duller the hue will appear. Eventually, the hue will lose its original
intensity and appear gray (Ragans, 2005).

But if you use a dominant hue in a mixture, there will be more apparent manifestations of the dominant
hue such as coloring a dark violet night sky and mixing with small hues of blue, the more dominant color will
still be violet (Ragans, 2005).
 Color Schemes

Organizing colors are part of the planning phase in the creation of art. Making a cohesive story or song
is like identifying a color scheme appropriate to the story of the art piece. Planning these colors according to
a scheme will allow you to create a cohesive piece of artwork.

 a. Monochromatic Colors

This a technique where only one color is used. Even the hue, tints and shade are consistent all
throughout. With a limited option for colors, this provides a strong and unifying expression to the art.
However, this strategy may lessen the variation quality of the work.

 b. Analogous Colors

In analogous colored artwork, the hues used are usually those that are side by side in the color wheel
and operate in a common hue. Examples are blue, blue-green, blue-violet, and red have something in
common. This can be limited to three hues to create unity among the common color range (Ragans, 2005).
Monochromatic Analogous color-side by side in color wheel

color
c. Complementary colors
Complementary colors are used
when the theme of art is intended to
create strong expression of contrast. In
theory, complementary colors tend to
establish a vibration with each other.
These vibrations can translate into
arousal of emotions. Example is that red
and green are complementary colors.
When red symbolizes fire and green
symbolizes the life attached to plants
and animals, these patterns create a
sense of arousal to your emotions.
However, not all complementary colors
provide loud arousal, these can be
mitigated when intensity and values are
altered (Ragans, 2005).
D. Color triads- from the name
itself, art must be focused on
three general colors spaced on
equal intervals on the color
wheel. This can cover primary,
secondary and tertiary hue
triads.
e. Split Complements
A split complement is used when
you combine a hue with each side of its
exact complement. This now offers more
variety and more dynamics to color range
and selection. For example, the
complement of red orange is blue green.
The hue next to blue green are blue and
green. These can be used to create the
perfect nature art piece with red orange
as the sun, blue for the waters and green
for the trees (Ragans, 2005).
f. Warm and Cool Colors

The color wheel can be divided into

two groups, namely, the warm and cool
colors. The warm group contains the hues
of red, orange, and yellow, while the cool
colors may range from blue, green, and
violet. Warm colors usually convey warm
situations such as fire or the sunshine. The
cool colors, on the other, evoke cooler
situations such as snow, water, and grass
(Ragans, 2015).
Self-Learning Activity: Color Practice
On a white sheet of paper, draw six identical square
shapes. Using the initials of your name, draw them in
each square with different designs. Play with the
placement of letters and with the designs you choose
to employ. Color each square using the six color
schemes. Describe in a how the color schemes
created a design and how the changes in color
schemes changed the view and impression of each
box.
 4. TEXTURE
Texture in art refers to how the subjects and objects of the piece feels if
touched. This is an essential component in creating the dynamics in the
artwork by showing that certain surfaces have different feels according to their
nature For example, you may want to express a smooth texture on a flowing
flat river painting compared to a rough and rocky river painting (Ragans, 2005).
With some artist confronted of different objects and subjects, textures are
also a way of representing them to the viewers. Food in paintings have different
textures to provide vicarious viewing among the audience. An ice cream
painting, for example, must project smooth and silky texture compared to pizza
with different layers of pepperoni, cheese, tomato sauce and crust (Ragans,
2005). In this section, you will learn to use texture as part of your consideration
to the development of artwork and describe the feelings and meanings that
different textures evoke.
B. PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN
 1. RHYTHM, PATTERN AND MOVEMENT
Rhythm in art is its principle that is defined by the
repetition of elements or objects. This principle is also present
in other forms of arts such as music and even poetry. Musical
rhythm is the measure of time between musical sounds.
Usually manifested as beats, rhythms are established across
the rests and beats alternating with each other. In poetry, the
use of words, sounds or phrases create rhythmic patterns
(Ragans, 2005)
 Pattern
Rhythm can be applied in the two- dimensional space called patterns. In the aspect of
clothing design, the most common examples of pattern are stripes that may be vertical or
horizontal. Usually referred as motifs, these are the units of elements that are repeated in a
pattern. Patterns observed in furniture, clothing, foot rugs may constitute different elements of
the design but repeatedly applied in the whole art space.
In some three-dimensional arts such as sculpture and architecture, their motifs are also
called modules. For example, in a furniture, there are matching units of motifs called modules
(Ragans, 2005).
But these patterns do not only perform decorative functions but they also perform
functional purposes. For example, looking at tiles on flooring or the sidewalks are used to
ensure ergonomic movement and foundation of human standing onto it. Though, generally
aesthetic in approach, there is an underlying function of their pattern placement (Ragans,
2005).
Self-Learning Activity: Practice on Random Rhythm
Identify one letter of the alphabet. In some
newspapers and magazines, you used before in some
activities, cut out at least (10) ten of these letters.
Mount them on a piece of paper in a random order. In
case there is a difficulty in finding more letters, you
can draw and design the letter yourselves. Vary the
designs. Describe how randomness creates a certain
meaning and variation. Why are pattern and rhythm
important?
 2. BALANCE
Art and its forms must contain a certain type of balance. This is the principle of art by ensuring
that all elements of art are accorded with equal force. Through balance, arts tend to have a feeling
of organization and proper arrangement. The absence or lack of balance may project feelings of
uneasiness and instability. Just like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, because of its instability, it is
considered as a danger zone and was required to be closed for humans to set foot in. Even if,
engineers corrected this imbalance, this was not still considered safe for people to get near to
(Ragans, 2005).
Balance, with relationship to the mathematical sense, is usually measured with a scale. But
scaling in art application does not usually require an object to measure weight or height. In the past,
renaissance was very technical in scaling that most artists during their time utilized measurement
scales to produce art. In the more artistic sense, balance is usually perceived or vicariously
experienced. Hence, each element of an artwork carries a weight and may create the kind of
balance the artist wants to portray. For paintings and drawings, this balance may be determined by
drawing a hypothetical line in the middle vertical and horizontal axis. You may now then check how
much elements are shared in the left and right sides of the symmetry or the upper and lower
symmetry (Ragans, 2005).
Two types of
balance

Symmetrical-means
something is identical on both
sides

Asymetrical balance-
something is different in both
sides
 3. PROPORTION

A principle of design; this term

defines the comparative size between
objects in the composition. It can refer to
the imagery within a painting or the size
between a sculpture and a real object.