Written By Usama qamar
The 7 basic elements of visual art are SHAPE, LINE, SPACE, FORM, TEXTURE, VALUE, AND COLOUR. These elements are the building blocks of art that help the artist communicate. These elements help us in understanding the piece of art more clearly.
SHAPE: A shape is a two-dimensional design encased by lines to signify its height and width. Shapes are used to provide a symbolic and faux feeling. Shapes can have different colours to make it seem three-dimensional. There are different types of shapes like circles, triangles, and squares.
LINE: Lines are marks moving in a space between two points. Artists use many different types of lines like: Including, actual, implied, vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and contour lines. Each line has a different meaning, curve, length, thickness, and flexibility.
SPACE: Space is the distance between shapes and objects. Positive space refers to the areas of the work with a subject. Negative space is the space without a subject. Artists use spacing to create different effects.
FORM: A form is a three-dimensional object that can be held and walked around. A form can be objects like cylinders, spheres, or even hard-edged objects like cubes.
TEXTURE: Texture is usually used to describe the surface quality. Textures can be ‘real’ or ‘implied’. Real surface quality is mainly seen through three-dimensional works, like sculptures. Implied surface quality describes how the eye perceives the texture based on visual cue.
VALUE: Value refers to the degree of perceivable lightness of tones within an image. The difference in values is called Contrast. It references the lightest and darkest tones with grey variants in between a work of art.
COLOUR: Colour is the spectrum of light broken down when hitting a surface and reflected into the eye. Colour has various properties like ‘hue’ which has a basic range of colours like red and blue, ‘intensity’ which is the strength of a colour, ‘value’ which is the lightness and darkness of the colour, and ‘temperature’ which is the warmness or coolness which the viewer feels when looking at the colour.
These are the 7 basic elements of visual arts. Make sure to observe these elements of art in our collection on our website.
