UNIT 2: PRINCIPLES & ELEMENTS OF ART

ARTS and CRAFTS

• The Arts and Crafts movement as an international movement in the

decorative and fine arts that began in Britain and flourish in Europe and
North America between 1880 and 1020, emerging in Japan in the 1920’s.
• It stood for traditional craftmanship using simple forms, and often used
medieval, romantic, or folk styles of decoration.
• It had a strong influence on the arts in Europe until it was displaced by
Modernism in the 1930’s, and its influence continued among craftmakers,
designers and town planners long afterwards.

THE PRINCIPLES OF ART

1. Balance -it refers to visual weight of the elements of the composition. It is a sense
that the painting feel stable and “feels right”.

- Imbalance causes a feeling of discomfort in the viewer.

3 Different ways of Balance

a. Symmetry- both sides of a composition have the same elements in the same
position, as in mirror-image, or the two sides of a face.

b. Asymmetry- the composition is balanced due to the contrast of any of the elements
of art.

c. Radial symmetry- elements are equally spaced around a central point, as in the
spokes coming out of the hub of a bicycle tire.

2. Contrast- contrasting elements command the viewer’s attention. Areas of contrast

are among the first places that a viewer’s eye is drawn.

- can achieved by juxtapositions of any of the elements of art.

For Example:

 Negative/Positive space is an example.

 Complementary colors place side by side

 Notan
3. Emphasis- when the artist creates an area of the composition that is visually
dominant and commands the viewer’s attention.

4. Movement- the result of using the elements of arts such that they move the viewer’s
eye around and within the image.

- a sense of movement can be created by diagonal or curvy lines , either

real or implied by edges, illusion of space, repetition, and energetic mark-making.

5. Pattern- the uniform repetition of any of the elements of art or any combination
thereof.

- anything can be turned into a pattern through repetition. Some classic

patterns are spiral, grids, weaves.

6. Rhythm- created by movement implied through the repetition of elements or art in a

non-uniform but organized way. It is related to rhythm in music.

- it relies on variety.

7. Unity/Variety

-refers to a set of compositional strategies used by an artist to make the parts

of a painting or another work of art hang together as a whole through visual
relatedness.

 Unity in art- is the practice of combining parts of a painting to create a unified

and compositionally complete piece of art.

8. Harmony

- is an art of blending elements to create a calm soothing and restful

appearance.

9. Proportion

- is concerned with the relationship of one part to another in creating the

whole.

- it is not limited to size.

MEDIUM IN ART

 Medium

– is the material that artists use to create their art. It is that simple.
Whatever a piece of art is made out of is its medium.

- The plural of medium is media.

‘Oil on Canvas’

‘Tempera on Wood’

‘Ink on Silk’

COMMON MEDIA

 Oil Painting

- is the process of painting with pigments that are held together with a
type of oil that dries when exposed to air, called drying oil.

-oil paints have been the most common media in Western art.

- it is always used to paint canvas, a woven fabric .

 Tempera

- before oil painting became popular, most painting was done with tempera
paints. Rather than oil, the pigments are held together with a sticky material, most
commonly egg yolk.

- it is often used to paint wood, another common medium before the Italian
Renaissance.

 Marble is one of the most common media. It is a soft stone that is easy for
sculptors to carve, chip, and polish into smooth and beautiful works of art.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

- an Italian artist who was one of the most famous sculptors of all
time and famous for saying that he could see an image in a block of marble and that it
was his job to remove the excess.

Problems and Limitation of Medium

 What is said of one medium cannot apply to others media. Thus, no work can
ever imitated or translated from one medium.

 The problem of translation arises music and literature. Work foreign languages
are translated into English and vice versa.

 Foreign Language songs when translated to tagalog will turn totally different
song.

ELEMENTS OF ARTS
1. Color

- is present in painting and is one of its important elements.

- it is of less importance in sculpture where black or white natural wood marble

stone or metal can be used as well.

- produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye.

3 PROPERTIES TO COLOR

a) Hue- simply means the name we give to a color (red, yellow, blue, etc).
b) Intensity- refers to a strength and vividness of the color. For example Blue as
“royal” (bright, rich, vibrant) or “dull’ (grayed).
c) Value- its lightness or darkness. The term shade and tint are in reference to
value changes in colors.
ATTRIBUTES TO COLOR

1. Hue

- is attributes by which one color is distinguished from another. The primary

hues are red, blue, and yellow. The secondary hues are green, violet and orange, each
being halfway between two primary colors. For example violet is halfway between red
and blue.

- Intermediate colors are those adjacent in the wheel-red and blue.

2. Value

-is the property of colors, which makes them seem light or dark as when
painting is photographed in black and white its color are converted to various shades
of grey.

- Value is the lightness or darkness of a color. Sometimes light colors are called
tints, and dark colors are called shades.

Source of value

a. The object itself (local color, eg, the color of the cloth); and

b. Creation of value through shadows or reflection of light.

3. Chroma

- refers to the purity of a color, its intensity or saturation.

 High Chroma colors look rich and full.

 Low Chroma colors can look dull or pale.

 Pastel colors are low Chroma, while intense jewel tones are high Chroma.

 Chroma is also referred to as saturation.

  Intensity is the brightness or dullness of a hue. Pure or vivid uses are full
intensity colors. Dull hues low intensity colors.

Color Schemes

Color scheme is the choice of colors used in design for a range of media. For
example, the "Achromatic" use of a white background with black text is an example of a
basic and commonly default color scheme in web design.

Color schemes are used to create style and appeal.

More advanced color schemes involve several related colors in "Analogous"

combination, for example, text with such colors as red, yellow, and orange arranged
together on a black background in a magazine article. The addition of light blue creates
an "Accented Analogous" color scheme.

 Color schemes can contain different "Monochromatic" shades of a single color.

For example: A color scheme that mixes different shades of green, ranging from very
light (white), to very neutral (gray), to very dark (black).

 A color scheme in marketing is referred to as a trade dress and can sometimes

be protected by trademark or trade dress laws, as is the pink color of Owens-
Corning fiberglass.

 Color schemes are often described in terms of logical combinations of colors on

a color wheel.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SCHEMES

1. Monochromatic colors

- are all the colors (tints, tones, and shades) of a single hue.
Monochromatic color schemes are derived from a single base hue, and extended using
its shades, tones and tints (that is, a hue modified by the addition of black, gray (black
+ white) and white.

2. Analogous
 - any color that lacks strong chromatic content is said to be unsaturated,
achromatic, or near neutral. Pure achromatic colors include black, white and all grays;
near neutrals include browns, tans, pastels and darker colors. Near neutrals can be of
any hue or lightness

 Neutrals are obtained by mixing pure colors with white, black or gray, or by
mixing two complementary colors.

3. Warm & Cool Color

-Warm colors advance and cool colors recede, affecting the

perception of depth.

- Red light waves have a longer wavelength than blue ones.

 Warm colors - red, yellow, and orange; evoke warmth becausethey remind us of
things like the sun or fire.

 Cool colors- blue, green, and purple (violet); evoke a cool feeling because they
remind us of things like water or grass.

WAYS OF USING COLORS

1. Representational Use - the artist paints object base from reality of hues
approximating the colors that represent in ordinary illuminating and in the process
manifesting the colors constancy in natural of objects.

2. Impressionist Use - It rejects the use of painting or colors in traditional or local order,
instead seeks render nature art the environment with the more sensitive perception of
the effects changing the condition of lights or objects.

3. Decorative or ornamental Use - This relates to pattern or design. Like carpets, textile,
and wall paper in which color appears as part and parcel of the design components to
further enhance rhythm an sensuous appeal.

4. Personal use - artist use hues to express their personal feelings and emotions
together with their spontaneous impulse, whiz and caprices. Like red face projects a
strong emotions.
5. Scientific use - using standard and consistent format of a colored square of a
different hue.

6. Symbolic use - The meaning of colors varies from one culture to another and may
also change from one period to another.

CHARACTERISTICS OF COLOR

1. Color is either warm or cool. Cool colors are sometimes called retreating colors; while
warm colors advancing colors.

2. Color differ in intensity and vividness.

3. A color can be altered with introduction of other colors.

4. Colors have definite psychological, emotional and symbolic meanings.

 Black: Death, crisis, evil

 Peace: innocence, purity, righteousness heaven, truth, masculinity. virginity,

despair, blood, love, hate, rebellion, passion violenceholiness divinity,
degradation, treason, deceit compromise death, social, withdrawal

2. Line

- it is defined as the path of moving point through space. Line is the

simplest most primitive and most universal means for creating visual arts
(Dudley).

- Line defines the shapes of an artwork.

KINDS OF STRAIGHT LINE

 Horizontal line

- suggests a feeling of rest or repose. Objects parallel to the earth

are at rest in relation to gravity. Therefore compositions in which horizontal lines
dominate tend to be quiet and restful in feeling.

 Vertical lines
 - communicate a feeling of loftiness and spirituality. Erect lines seem to
extend upwards beyond human reach, toward the sky. They often dominate public
architecture, from cathedrals to corporate headquarters.

 Diagonal lines

- suggest a feeling of movement or direction. Since objects in a diagonal

position are unstable in relation to gravity, being neither vertical nor horizontal,
they are either about to fall, or are already in motion, as is certainly the case for
this group of dancers.

 Horizontal and vertical lines

- in combination communicate stability and solidity. Rectilinear

forms stay put in relation to gravity, and are not likely to tip over. This stability
suggests permanence, reliability and safety.

 Deep, acute curves

- suggest confusion, turbulence, even frenzy, as in the violence of

waves in a storm, the chaos of a tangled thread, or the turmoil of lines suggested by
the forms of a crowd.

 Curved lines

- do vary in meaning however. Soft, shallow curves suggest comfort,

safety, familiarity, relaxation.

- Artists can create curved lines in many different ways, which result in
various meanings. A curved line can be geometric, like the arc of a perfect circle.
Curved lines can also be "organic" creating irregular lines and shapes.

 Outline

- refers to a type of line which separates shapes and colors from other
elements in a visual composition. Outlines are generally thick and do not vary in
width- thus they have a flattening effect. Post- impressionist artists like Gauguin
often used outline. Art historians refer to this style as cloisonnism.

 Contour Line

- Contour line follows the three- dimensional curves of a form: it gets

darker where there is shadow and lighter where there is less shadow. Painters
looking to create a three- dimensional effect often use contour line in tandem with
 light and dark values and accurate renderings. The French Romantic painter Ingres
is considered a master of contour line (Ingres is sometimes also considered
Neoclassical-but most consider that an inaccurate designation).

 Geometric Curves

- Evenly rendered curved lines (like arcs and sections of perfect circles)
are geometric. Many consider balanced and geometric shapes to represent
rationality and the intellectual mind. Neoclassical painters, who celebrated the
ideas and aesthetics of the ancient Greeks, as well as knowledge and reason,
often carefully composed their paintings according to geometric shapes. For
example, Jacques-Louis David's treatment of the arches in the famous painting
"The Oath of the Horatii."

 Organic Curves in Abstract Painting

- Many artists of the 20th century used organic curved lines to create
ambiguous and abstract shapes.

 Implied Lines and Curves

- Artists do not always explicitly draw or paint a curved line. Instead,

artists imply lines, between arrangements of shapes or using figures to point toward
other parts of the composition.

 The quality of the line is in itself a fundamental visual language, to an extent that
cannot be claimed for any other single element. Its use is so universal that we
are all profoundly sensitive to it.

 On the other hand, the crisp, carefully placed lines of the rhinocerous are typical
a more studied, scrupulously worked studie drawing. The lines suggest that this
was not drawn from life, but from hearsay. This is also evident from the fact that
Durer drew this rather inaccurate image in fifteenth century Europe when he
could only have known of this African animal from travellers' tales.

3. Shape

- refers to an area clearly set off by one more of the other elements of art.
Shape are limited to two dimension, length and width.

 Geometric shapes they are made with the ruler or drawing tool. The square, the
circle, the triangle, the rectangle and the oval are the five geometric shapes.
  Organic: also called free forms are shapes witch are not regular or even Their
outlines may be curve or may be a combination of both.

4. Form

- Like shapes, forms have length and width. They also have third dimension -
depth. Architecture and sculpture are both three-dimensional, occupying space, while
painting is only two dimensional; a flat surface; and music has nothing visible but the
sound in space.

5. Space

- as one of the classic seven elements of art, refers to distances or areas

around, between, and within components of a piece. Space can be positive or negative,
open or closed, shallow or deep, and two-dimensional or three dimensional.

USING SPACE IN ART

 Frank Lloyd Wright said that "Space is the breath of art." What Wright meant
was that unlike many of the other elements of art, space is found in nearly every
piece of art created. Painters imply space, photographers capture space,
sculptors rely on space and form, and architects build space. It is a fundamental
element in each of the visual arts.

 Space gives the viewer a reference for interpreting an artwork.

 In his 1948 painting Christina's World, Andrew Wyeth contrasted the wide spaces
of an isolated farmstead with a woman reaching towards it. Henri Matisse used
flat colors to create spaces in his Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908.

Negative and Positive Space

- Positive space refers to the subject of the piece itself--the flower vase in a
painting or the structure of a sculpture.

- Negative space is the empty spaces the artist has created around,
between, and within the subjects.

Opening Spaces

- In a three-dimensional art, the negative spaces are typically the open

parts of the piece.
 - In a two-dimensional art, negative space can have a great impact.
Consider the Chinese style of landscape paintings, which are often simple
compositions in black ink that leave vast areas of white. The Ming Dynasty (1368-
1644) painter Dai Jin's Landscape in the Style of Yan Wengui and George DeWolfe's
1995 photograph Bamboo and Snowdemonstrate the use of negative space.

6. Texture

- Texture is generally referred to as the tactile element or the use of

the sense of touch. It has something to do with character of surfaces (rough
smooth, shiny, dull, pain or irregular). Texture also refers to the way things are felt,
or looked if they are touched and be felt.