The Formal Elements are the parts used to make a piece of artwork. The art elements are line, shape, course, tone, texture, pattern, colour and composition. They are often used together, and how they are organised in a piece of art determines what the finished piece volition look similar.

Line

Line is the path left by a moving point. For example, a pencil or a brush dipped in pigment.

A line can take many forms. It tin can be horizontal, diagonal or curved. It can too change over its length, starting off curved and ending upwardly horizontal, for example.

Line can be used to show many different qualities, such as:

  • contours – showing the shape and form of something
  • feelings or expressions – a short, hard line gives a different feeling to a more flowing one
  • movements

Shape

A shape is an area enclosed past a line. It could exist just an outline or it could be shaded in.

Shapes can be eithergeometric, like a circle, square or triangle, orirregular.

When drawing shapes, you must consider the size and position as well as the shape of the area around it. The shapes created in the spaces between shapes are referred to asnegative space.

Grade

Course is athree dimensional shape, such equally a cube, sphere or cone.

Sculpture and 3D design are about creating forms.

In 2D artworks, tone and perspective can be used to create an illusion of class.

Tone

This refers to the lightness or darkness of something. This could be a shade or how dark or light a color appears.

Tones are created by the style light falls on a 3D object. The parts of the object on which the light is strongest are calledhighlightsand the darker areas are calledshadows. There volition a range of tones in between the highlights and shadows.

Texture

This is to practice with thesurface quality of something, the way something feels or looks similar it feels. There are two types of texture: actual texture and visual texture.

Actual texture really exists, so you tin can feel information technology or touch it. You can create actual texture in an artwork by irresolute the surface, such equally sticking different fabrics onto a canvas. Combining different material techniques tin create interesting textures.

Visual texture is created using marks to represent bodily texture. It gives the illusion of a texture or surface but if you lot touched it, information technology would be smooth. You tin can create visual texture by using different lines, shapes, colours or tones. Retrieve about how different marks can be used to show texture.

Blueprint

A design that is created by repeating lines, shapes, tones or colours. The design used to create a design is often referred to as amotif. Motifs can exist unproblematic shapes or complex arrangements.

Patterns tin be man-made, like a design on fabric, or natural, such as the markings on animal fur.

Colour

Ruby, yellow and blue areprimary colours, which means they can't be mixed using whatsoever other colours. In theory, all other colours can be mixed from these three colours.

Two primary colours mixed together make asecondary colour.

Primary Secondary
ruddy + yellowish = orange
ruby-red + blue = purple
blue + yellow = green

Tertiary coloursare created by mixing a primary color and the secondary colour next to it on the colour bike.

Colour wheel

  • Colours that are next to each other on the color wheel are calledharmonious.
  • Complementary colours are colours that areopposite each other on the colour wheel. When complementary colours are used together they createcontrast. Calculation a colour's complimentary colour will ordinarily make a darker shade. This is often preferable to calculation blackness.
  • Warm colours are colours on the red side of the wheel. These are red and include orange, yellow, browns and tans.
  • Absurd colours are colours on the blue side of the cycle. These are blue and include green, violet and near greys.
  • Black, white and grey are chosen neutral colours.

Color schemes

Monochromatic

Monochrome means one colour. Artwork tin be created that explores thetoneandintensity of a selected colour.

Yous can change the tone of a color by adding its complementary color or by adding black or white to it. Adding white to a colour creates a tint, and adding black creates a tone.

Yous tin also modify the tone of a colour withsaturation techniques. This means calculation either more than paint or more h2o. The more water that is added the lighter the tone and the more paint the darker.

Limited colour

Yous can select a limited number of colours and use these to stand for different tones. For example, y'all could selection two free colours, or you could apply merely the three master colours. This tin create a hitting epitome.

Composition

The term composition means 'putting together,' and can apply to any piece of work of art, from music to writing to photography, that is arranged or put together using conscious thought. In the visual arts, composition is often used interchangeably with diverse terms such asdesign, class, visual ordering, orformal construction, depending on the context.

There are numerous approaches or "compositional techniques" to achieving a sense of unity within an artwork, depending on the goals of the artist. For instance, a work of art is said to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye if the elements inside the work are arranged in a balanced compositional manner.However, there are artists such as Salvador Dali whose sole aim is to disrupt traditional limerick and challenge the viewer to rethink balance and design elements inside fine art works.

Conventional composition tin be achieved past utilizing a number of techniques:

Rule of thirds

The rule of thirds is a guideline followed by some visual artists. The objective is to terminate the subject(s) and areas of interest (such every bit the horizon) from bisecting the image, by placing them near one of the lines that would split up the epitome into iii equal columns and rows, ideally near the intersection of those lines.

Rule of thirds: Note how the horizon falls close to the bottom filigree line, and how the dark areas are in the left 3rd, the overexposed in the right 3rd.

The dominion of thirds is thought to exist a simplification of the golden mean. The golden mean is a ratio that has been used past visual artists for centuries as an aid to composition. When two things are in the proportion of 1:1.618 (approximately 3/8 to 5/8), they are said to be in the golden mean.

Dividing the parts of an image according to this proportion helps to create a pleasing, balanced composition. The intersection points on a golden mean grid appear at iii/8 in and 3/eight downwards/up, rather than at 1/3 in and 1/3 down/up on the filigree of thirds.