Elements of Design

 Today's topic is: Elements of Design

As we mentioned in our last post, elements are components that are arranged according to the principles to make a piece of art. Keep in mind that it is not compulsory to use all the elements of design in one piece of art.

The 7 Elements of Design are: 

- Line

- Shape

- Form

- Value

- Color

- Space

- Texture

Line is an important and common element of design. As you can guess from its name, line is, well, lines. It can be curved, straight, thick, thin, make a shape, - just anything that you can define as line. It provides movement in design by leading the eye. 

Shape is a closed figure made with lines. The shapes in a piece of art can either be geometrical (i.e shapes like squares, triangles, circles, e.t.c), or they can be free form (i.e invented shapes like a maple leaf). 

Form is a 3D shape. Spheres, Cubes, Cylinders, Cones, and Pyramids are all examples of Form. 

Value is the gradation in a hue. It is basically the range of lightness and darkness in a picture. Value is an incredibly important element of art, as it makes a piece of art more realistic.

Color is another important element of design. Humans are naturally drawn to color. Common colors in art are the 'warm' and 'cool' colors. Warm color include shades of red, orange, yellow and indicate a sense of excitement, warmness, and/or anger. On the other hand, cool colors include shades of blue, green, and purple, and give off a sense of calm and coolness. However, cool colors can also indicate cold or impersonal. 

Space is feeling of depth in an art. There are 2 types of space: Positive Space and Negative Space. Positive space refers to the space that an object takes up. Negative space is the unused area of or the empty space around an object. 

Texture is the feeling or consistency of a surface that can be felt when you look at a a picture. You can use different techniques to draw smooth, rough, hard, soft, rough, e.t.c textures. For example, think and thin lines to draw the texture of a leaf. 

So that's all the elements of design. Put together, they surely can make a breath-taking piece of art!

ASM2O Slides: Unit 2