What Is the Relationship Between Sensory and Formal Properties of Art

Formal Elements of Art

Last week, we explored the Renaissance model of the painting equally a window on the world. We illustrated this model with Vermeer'due south The Painter and His Model equally Klio: the painter at his easel composing his image of a model, all nested within concealed framework of the painting we are viewing. The distance separating us from the painter invites u.s.a. to reflect on the creative person's viewpoint, his tools and media, his composition, and our own perception.

Almost 300 years afterwards, René Magritte toys with this notion of the painting as a window on the world. He paints a window looking out on a landscape. Centered in the pane is a sail with an apparently, transparent canvass. The prototype doubles a selected rectangle of the "natural" landscape, simply as paintings are supposed to do. The representational technique appears to be straightforward. And yet, nosotros can't actually exist sure. Is the tree actually in the landscape or did the painter add it from imagination? The painting raises questions about paintings, and also about The Human Condition. The title invites us to think nearly the ambiguity of all human perceptions of the globe effectually them. How much do nosotros see and how much exercise nosotros embellish?

Allow's take a step back and think about the dimensions of this model of painting. Traditional fine art is . The artifact of the painting produces an image of a visual subject:

In this model, viewers' attention frequently focuses on the visual subject: what is it? How realistically is the "real affair" depicted? Often, viewers experience impatience or annoyance when they can't tell what the subject "is supposed to be" or if they feel the technique is awkward or inaccurate. When nosotros focus on the subject, textures of the medium recede. Paradoxically, nosotros admire the brushwork and pigmentation considering they vanish in a rich emulation of the object.

But not all art is . We've looked at geometrical designs on aboriginal pottery, , and architecture with linear designs. People see beauty in such compositions without asking, what is it? Do we critique a paisley shirt if we can't tell what its designs depict?

Clearly, something likewise representation is at play in fine art. We could turn our attention away from its representational bureau and pay attention to the : the canvas, the paint, and the brushstrokes. We could look at color and shape and design as values in themselves. Doing so, we begin to —to bring to the front end of our attention—the of art.

Formal Elements of Art

We exercise not need theory to begin to perceive formal elements of images. We do so all the time. "I really honey that wallpaper"—the colors, the abstract design. These are formal art elements:

The formal art elements form the ground of the language of art; they consist of eight visual parts: line, color, class and shape, value, texture, space, and move.

The following bulleted list condenses definition highlights from Credo articles on formal aspects of art and design.

• : one dimensional path of a point through infinite (commodity):
  • Descriptive lines  (drawn): including outlines, contour lines, and hatching lines
  • Implied lines  (suggested): including edges and lines of sight (the direction in which figures in a composition are looking)
  • Direction and move: mostly, verticals, horizontals, and diagonals are directional lines, whereas zigzag and curved lines are movement lines.
• (article): a 2-dimensional area defined by a clear border or outline and possessing merely superlative and width
• (article): a three-dimensional shape or object. … Grade has meridian, width, and depth, and may be organic, such every bit a cloud, or geometric, such as a pyramid or cylinder. Organic forms suggest naturalism, while geometric forms convey artificiality.
  • : irregular forms suggesting natural contours—clouds, bushes
  • : artificial, i.east. human being constructions, such as pure lines, curves, angles: pyramids, cones, cylinders, triangles, rectangles
• (commodity): surface quality or advent; how the surface feels or … would feel.
  • : making something look every bit though it is rough,
  • : for instance the surface being textured either because of thickly practical paint, or the addition of granular material to the paint, such as sand.
• (article): component of a composition that implies or gives the sensation of activity or action and appear dynamic instead of static
  • :  tricking the eye into seeing motion as used in op fine art.
  • Repetition: using a repeated shape every bit seen in some cubist works; and
  • :  relying on the viewer'due south noesis of the bailiwick matter to communicate the idea of move – for example, a viewer looking at a painting of a car chase volition await the cars to exist moving.
• (article): the relationship between tones (ranging from light to dark), and the degree of lightness or darkness of a color; … a scale from white to black
  • Reflected light: light that bounces off an object making it visible
  • Shading: a technique used to make a grade expect solid
  • (Italian 'light–dark'): dramatic contrast of calorie-free and dark
  • Value as mood or feeling, representing a certain frame of mind or land.
• (article): the quality or wavelength of light emitted or reflected from an object.
  • :  the proper name of the color achieved by mixing pigments, adding colored elements (as in a mosaic) or the like
  • , the lightness and darkness of a color
  •  or intensity:  effulgence or dullness of a colour
  • :   hues directly beyond from each other on the color cycle.
  • Warm  (yellow, red, orange)  versus Absurd  (violet, green, blue) colors

Manifestly, artists achieve these formal elements using media. Color and Value are captured in a mosaic by tesserae and in painting  by pigments fixed in oil, tempera, or ink. Texture tin exist fake, simply as well embodied in media and technique: e.one thousand. brushwork leaving daubs of paint and allowing the texture of the canvas to evidence through.

: Blueprint Principles

Formal elements are furthermore composed—artistically combined— to form a design. Core aspects of pattern include the following (Design Principles):

• :  the "wholeness" of composition, … parts working together creating ane total picture – a seamless limerick
• Proximity or putting objects shut to ane another in the limerick: … When objects are placed shut together the viewer's eye is forced to movement from ane object to the adjacent inevitably taking in the entire composition
• Similarity: making things similar, too creates a sense of wholeness. Using similar textures, colors, or shapes tends to visually connect the parts of a limerick.
• Continuation: when vision is directed past a line (actual or implied) that travels around the limerick.
• Variety and harmony: variety pertains to differences and diversity. … Harmony in art, every bit in music, is the agreeable blending of elements … in a perfect balance.
• Emphasis (or dominance): the focal point of a limerick, … highlighting an element in club to control the viewer's eye and stress significance of objects.
  • : eyelines of figures in the work drawing our eyes to a subject
  • Central location in a composition
• and movement: repeating an element creates a sense of motion, flow, or activity. In art, rhythm can be felt as well as seen.
  • Repetition of the same element or of multiple elements in a type of pattern, [1]
  • Progressive repetition of an element, very small to very large; dark to light.
• : equal distribution of visual weight or the placement of elements evenly.
  • :  residual of different elements, objects, or figures with equal visual weights: east.g. large open space balancing heavy, peradventure nighttime zones
  • : residue of the same elements on both sides of an implied key vertical or horizontal axis.

Whew! That's some listing. No, you are not being asked to memorize it. Yet a few moments on these pages tin sensitize your sensation of the artistry at work in creative composition.

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[1] Does this notion of repeating a form in a pattern audio familiar? It should. It is the equivalent of scheme figures of spoken communication in poetry and oratory: parallelism, anaphora, etc.

References

Academic art [Article]. (2004). In I. Chilvers (Ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Art.  Oxford Academy Press.  http://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy.bethel.edu/view/ten.1093/acref/9780199569922.001.0001/acref-9780199569922-e-1816.

Ingres, J. A. D. (c. 1812). Napoleon Bonaparte receiving the keys of Vienna at the Schloss Schönbrunn, 13th November. [Painting]. France: Château de Versailles. Wikimedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Napoleon_en_de_sleutels_van_wenen.jpg.

Fine art elements [Article]. (2018). In Helicon (Ed.),The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather condition Guide. Abington, United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland: Helicon.  http://ezproxy.bethel.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/art_elements/0?institutionId=712.

David, J-L. (1784). The Oath of the Horatii [Painting]. Paris: muse du Louvre, ID ART147619. ARTstor https://library-artstor-org.ezproxy.bethel.edu/asset/ARMNIG_10313257933.

Pattern principle [Commodity]. (2018). In Helicon (Ed.),The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Atmospheric condition Guide. Abington, U.k.: Helicon.  http://ezproxy.bethel.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/design_principle/0?institutionId=712.

Form [Commodity]. (2018). In Helicon (Ed.),The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide. Abington, UK: Helicon.  https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.bethel.edu/content/entry/heliconhe/form/4.

Line [Article]. (2018). In Helicon (Ed.),The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Atmospheric condition Guide. Abington, UK: Helicon.  https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.bethel.edu/content/entry/heliconhe/line/0.

Pattern principle [Article]. (2018). In Helicon (Ed.),The Hutchinson Entire Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide. Abington, Britain: Helicon.  http://ezproxy.bethel.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/heliconhe/design_principle/0?institutionId=712.

Form [Article]. (2018). In Helicon (Ed.),The Hutchinson Entire Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide. Abington, Great britain: Helicon.  https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.bethel.edu/content/entry/heliconhe/form/4.

Move [Article]. (2018). In Helicon (Ed.),The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide. Abington, United kingdom: Helicon.  https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.bethel.edu/content/entry/heliconhe/movement/1.

Raphael (2004). [Article]. In I. Chilvers (Ed.), The Oxford Dictionary of Art.  Oxford University Press.  https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198604761.001.0001/acref-9780198604761-eastward-2890.

Shape [Article]. (2018). In Helicon (Ed.),  The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide. Abington, UK: Helicon.  https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.bethel.edu/content/entry/heliconhe/shape/2.

Texture [Commodity]. (2018). In Helicon (Ed.),The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Conditions Guide. Abington, UK: Helicon.  https://search-credoreference-com.ezproxy.bethel.edu/content/entry/heliconhe/texture/1.

Vermeer, J. (1665-1666). The Painter and his Model every bit Klio [Painting]. Vienna, Austria: Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna. ARTstor https://library-artstor-org.ezproxy.bethel.edu/asset/LESSING_ART_1039490406.

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Source: https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/encounterswiththeartsartc150/chapter/formal-elements-art/

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