What are the seven elements of Art?
There are seven elements in art, and they are the building blocks of art. They are Line, Shape, Color, Texture and Space.
Line is a path created by a moving point, mark or object. It is a dot that takes a walk. Naturally it is the most important in all art elements. We can say it is the first drawing outcome for everybody to represent the reality in terms of art. What I mean to say is, line is a valuable art element to express thoughts and feelings artistically. Line can be straight, swirly, wavy, jagged, vertical, horizontal, curved, bold, parallel or perpendicular.
Beginning of a line connects with its own end, a shape is formed. Shapes are ‘two dimensional’. In visual art shapes are flat and they defined by their length and width. It could be organic/natural, geometric, irregular, circle, oval, rectangle, square, diamond, triangle, heart, and octagon.
When shapes get third dimension of depth, they become form. It means, Objects having three dimensions (3D) height, width, and depth is form. You can walk around a form. Cubes, cylinders, and spheres are few examples.
Texture is a look or feel of a surface. Like form, texture can be real. Whatever may be the approach or type of texture in painting and art, it is a tool that artist us to reinforce their overall message.
The lightness or darkness of an object. The degree of lightness or darkness and the effect of light and shade in picture.
The elements of art derived from reflected or absorbed light. Color adds interest and mood to any artwork. It is also referred to as “Hue”. The primary colors are red, yellow and blue because they cannot make from mixing of other colors. However, the three primary colors mixed to produce every other hue. The secondary colors are created by mixing the two of the primary colors together in equal amounts. They are purple (Violet), orange and green.
Space is always part of an artwork. It is the area in which artwork is organized, composes area of any work of art. It can also include the area immediately outside artwork, in around of artwork. In paintings, drawings and other types ‘two dimensional’ work, the space of an artwork usually contains within the orders of the paper or the canvas it’s made on. The main work in works of art takes positive space. The area around the main artwork is called negative space.