Read an Excerpt
Art is Every Day
Activities for the Home, Park, Museum, and City
By Eileen S. Prince Chicago Review Press Incorporated
Copyright © 2012 Eileen S. Prince
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61374-363-8
CHAPTER 1
A Brief Overview of Elements, Principles, and Other Terms
1. Elements
The term "elements" refers to the various basics that go together to create a work of art: color, value, texture, shape, form, and line. Some artists add "space" to this list, but I discuss space in terms of shape and form.
Color
The way light is reflected, absorbed, or refracted by pigmentation, liquids, or atmosphere.
Believe it or not, even first graders can comprehend the nature of color if it is presented properly. (See Art Is Fundamental for an introduction to color.) Basically, color refers to how we perceive light and its different wavelengths. Our perception of color depends on the light source. You have probably noticed that incandescent bulbs emit a glow that looks different from that cast by fluorescent ones. We call the light from our sun white light, because it contains all the colors of the rainbow mixed together. White light looks clear until it is reflected or refracted.
A little lesson in optics is called for here. (Don't worry — this is actually fun!) When white light strikes a surface, several things may happen. In some cases, none of the light is absorbed into the surface. It all bounces back and strikes our eyes. When this happens, we see that surface as white. If all the light is absorbed, nothing bounces back to hit our eyes. We call the absence of light black. (We will discuss black and white at greater length in the section on value.) Pigments in the surface are responsible for what we see.
Some pigments allow every color of the rainbow to be absorbed except for red. When light strikes an object with such a pigment, only the red bounces back to our eye, and we see the object as red. If I put such an object in a room with only a green bulb, the object will appear black, because there is no red light to bounce back to our eyes. Understanding how light affects color can save you a lot of money when choosing carpets, fabrics, and wallpaper!
The primary colors of pigment are red, yellow, and blue. They are capable of creating all other colors, but no other colors can mix to make them. Two primary colors mixed somewhat evenly will create a secondary color. Yellow and blue make green, yellow and red make orange, and red and blue make purple. (This is a generalization. A lot depends on whether you are using warm or cool primaries, but that is a bit more advanced concept, and it is not necessary to go into it at length here.) If two primaries are mixed unevenly, they create intermediates. Lots of yellow and a little red will make a yellow-orange. Lots of red and a little yellow will make a red-orange. If you mix two secondaries, you will get a tertiary. Tertiaries are rather odd, dull colors like slate (green and purple), russet (orange and purple), and bronze (orange and green).
Neutral colors are those that don't appear on a color wheel, things such as beiges and browns. Browns can be made in different ways, but one way is to mix all three primaries together somewhat evenly. We usually refer to greens, blues, and purples as cool colors and yellows, reds, and oranges as warm colors.
Colors can be described in three ways — by hue, value, and intensity. We call these the three properties of color.
Hue is simply the name of the color. Blue is a different hue from blue-green.
Value refers to how light or dark the color is. A purple crayon right out of the box is darker than a yellow one. I can lighten a color by adding white. A color with white added is called a tint. I can darken a color by adding black. A color with black added is called a shade.
Intensity refers to how bright or dull the color is — its purity. Certainly, changing the value of a color will change its intensity, but I can have two colors with the same value and one can be very bright while the other is very dull. I can dull a color without changing its value by adding gray. Artists frequently dull colors by mixing in a touch of the color opposite on the color wheel. (See complementary color scheme below.) A dull version of a color is called a tone.
Color schemes are deliberate plans of (usually) harmonious colors chosen by the artist. If you check the color wheel in the color-insert section, page C-1, you will see certain relationships. You can add black, white, or gray to any color scheme without altering it in any way, and you may use different values and intensities of the chosen hues. (Actually, color schemes are rarely "pure." We use the term to refer to the predominant colors used in an artwork, interior design, clothing, and many other things.)
A monochromatic color scheme uses only one color from the wheel and its various tints, shades, and tones.
A complementary color scheme uses two colors that lie opposite each other on the color wheel. Complementary colors are fascinating. If you stare at an area of color for 25 to 30 seconds and then look at white for a bit, you will see an afterimage of the area in the opposite, or complementary, color. (I have included an activity for this, "Staring at Colors," on page 53.) Complementary colors placed side by side intensify each other — they make each other appear brighter. But if you mix a bit of a color into a large amount of its opposite, it will dull that color.
If you mix two opposites somewhat evenly, you will get gray or black. (This only works if the colors are truly opposite. The yellow in a box of Crayola markers is not the opposite of the purple in that same box, nor are the blue and orange exact complements, but the red and green work fairly well.)
A triadic color scheme uses any three colors that lie equally far apart on the color wheel. Primaries are always triadic, as are secondaries, but for a truly triadic arrangement using intermediates, you should use a wheel with 18 colors.
An analogous color scheme involves a group of colors that lie next to each other on the wheel that are related in some way. You can start anywhere on the wheel and go in either direction, but you have to stop when the colors start to be opposite. Thus, I might use purple, blue-violet, violet-blue, blue, green-blue, blue-green, and green, but yellow-green might look a bit too much like purple's opposite. Once again, no one is quite so picky about such things, but when I'm teaching a concept, I like to stay as pure as possible so that I don't confuse the students.
Value
The way the artist uses light or dark in a work of art.
As noted above, value can be a property of color, but it can also stand alone as a separate element. Black, white, and grays by themselves are pure values without color. Without different values, it would be very hard to see. Think about reading a book printed with gray ink on light blue pages! Using different values creates visibility.
Texture
The way something feels or the way it appears to feel — its surface quality.
Artists use texture in several ways. Sculptures, collages, and buildings, for instance, display real textures as themselves. The parts that look rough are rough, the parts that look smooth are smooth. Painters frequently create the illusion of texture. While the picture may depict velvet and satin and lace and hair, the painting itself may be totally glossy. Other artists focus on the texture of the materials they are using — the paint, the wood, the tessera — regardless of the subject matter. If you look at the painting Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, the first thing you will notice is the texture of the paint itself.
Shape
A two-dimensional — or flat — closed figure.
Technically, for mathematical purposes, a shape has only length and width, no depth. For artistic purposes, the word "flat" is close enough. We would refer to a canvas as a two-dimensional medium, even though it is technically a form.
Shapes with names and rules are referred to as geometric shapes. If I say "square" to a group of people, everyone will picture a figure with four equal sides and four 90-degree corners. If I say "cloud" or "blob," the possible images are endless.
Figures without names or rules might be organic or irregular. Organic shapes tend to look like living things — think of an amoeba — while irregular shapes are more angular. A bolt of lightning is one example of an irregular shape. An artwork composed of only geometric shapes will look quite different from one that uses only organic figures.
When I draw a shape on a blank canvas, the shape that I draw is referred to as a positive shape. The background shape that is created at the same time is called the negative space. In a good composition, the artist will consider the negative space as carefully as the positive space. Imagine two drawings of a person. In one drawing, the person fills the entire page — there is very little negative space around him. Now imagine exactly the same figure, but it is quite small in the center of the page, with a great deal of negative space. The effects of these pictures will be very different. The first picture might give us a feeling of being caged or trapped, while the second might impress us with a sense of loneliness or isolation. Sometimes children like to draw things very small. Depending upon the purpose of the piece, it is frequently a good idea to encourage them to enlarge the positive shapes.
If an image consists of only positive shapes, we refer to the design as tessellated.
Form
A three-dimensional, closed figure.
A form encloses volume. Like shapes, forms can be geometric, organic, or irregular. Cubes, cones, cylinders, and daisies are all forms.
Some artists use shading (changes in values) to create the illusion of form on a two-dimensional surface. Others, like potters and sculptors, create actual forms. The idea of positive and negative space that was discussed in the explanation of shape can be applied to form as well.
Line
The path of a moving point.
In mathematics, line refers to an infinite, one-dimensional element that indicates direction. In our physical world, we cannot see things with only one dimension. In art, line may be two-dimensional (a pencil line on paper, for instance), three-dimensional (like a wire in a sculpture), or implied (like the edge of a shape in a painting). They are certainly not infinite. (As I tell my students, we don't have enough time!) Lines help our eye move through the artwork. Contour lines are lines that never vary in width. They are very uniform. Calligraphic lines vary in width — think about the writing we call calligraphy and how it undulates.
2. Principles
The term "principles" refers to how the artist arranges the elements in a work of art. (Technically, the idea of color schemes should probably be discussed here, but it is not usually listed as a principle.)
Balance
How visually equal various parts of the artwork appear. There are three basic kinds of balance: formal, informal, and radial.
Formal balance is the balance of like things on either side of a center line. Symmetry is the most perfect type of formal balance.
Imagine a picture or object divided down the middle by a straight line. If the elements on one side of the line are a mirror image of those on the other, then the piece is symmetrical. Butterflies are symmetrical, and so are people. Imagine a teeter-totter with two identical twins facing each other, dressed exactly alike and seated equally far from the center. That is symmetry.
If the children on the teeter-totter do not look alike, but they are the same size and are equally far apart from the center, that is formal balance. Some people use the terms "formal" and "symmetrical" interchangeably.
Informal or asymmetrical balance is the balance of unlike things on each side of a center line. Let's imagine another teeter-totter. This time, we will balance it informally by placing a mother, who weighs 100 pounds, on one end and two children — each weighing 50 pounds — on the other end. Or, if Mom comes to the park with only one child, she might scoot in quite a bit toward the center to balance better. When an artist balances an artwork this way — by using unequal shapes or colors on each side — we say the piece is informally balanced. This is a more active arrangement than symmetry.
Radial balance occurs when a picture or object is balanced around a center point rather than on either side of a center line. A merry-go-round is an example of radial balance. In order for it to run properly, the weight should be spread around evenly, not piled heavily on one side. Spirals, bicycle wheels, spiderwebs, and most hubcaps are radially balanced.
Emphasis
The principle of design by which the artist draws special attention to a particular area, object, feeling, or idea.
Emphasis may be achieved through repetition, distortion, contrast, similarity, placement, use of negative space, size, or other means. If an artist paints a bowl of apples, and all the apples are green except for one that is red, then the emphasis would be on the red apple. That is, our attention will be drawn to that one.
Contrast
The principle whereby an artist uses differences in values, colors, shapes, textures, lines, or forms to achieve emphasis, visibility, or interest.
For example, if an artist paints a pale blue circle on a green background of equal value, it might be very hard to see. The same pale blue circle on a dark orange background will attract a lot more attention! Books are printed in strongly contrasting values — black on white — to increase visibility.
Similarity or Relatedness
The use of similar but not identical elements.
This principle is used to help unify a work of art, to tie it all together. Two particular ways in which similarity is used are related shapes and related colors. Circles and ovals or squares and rectangles are examples of related shapes. Analogous colors — colors that lie next to each other on the wheel — are related to each other.
Pattern
Repetition of a motif in a predictable way.
If you can predict what will happen next in a design, it follows a pattern. A motif is the line, shape, color, form, value, texture, or combination of those elements that is being repeated. In the US flag, the two motifs are stars and stripes. The pattern is regular. If we continue the stripes from the bottom, we know that the addition will be white, red, white, red, and so on.
If I scatter a bunch of leaves onto a canvas and trace them, the pattern will be random. If I want to extend the pattern, I know the extension will involve scattered leaves, but I can't predict exactly where each leaf will be.
Unity
The sense of oneness or wholeness in a work of art.
Unity can be achieved in many ways, but the result is that when you look at the piece, nothing seems out of place or jarringly incongruous.
Repetition
The use of an identical element more than once in a work of art.
On the US flag, the stars are repeated 50 times.
Distortion
Altering an element in some way that is not its normal appearance.
The word "distortion" usually applies to shape or form. We can still recognize the subject, but it is pulled out of shape or broken up. When we walk in front of the curvy mirrors at a carnival or fair, the reflected image is a distortion of our bodies. Distortion may be used to achieve a certain style or emotional impact, as in medieval art, or to create emphasis.
Movement
How the viewer's eye is directed through a work of art.
While some works of art are very static, others may never allow the eye to rest. Artists frequently use this principle to direct our eye to the center of interest.
Rhythm
An effect that results from the repetition of an element of art.
Patterns always have a rhythm, and movement and rhythm are also closely associated.
Gradation
Going gradually from one state of an element to another.
If I go gradually from light to dark when shading a sphere, that is gradation of value. If I go from red to orange-red to red-orange to orange, that is gradation of color. If I create a row of rectangles that get gradually larger, that is gradation of size.
Simplification
Reducing a more complex shape or form to its more basic geometric foundations.
An example would be using circles or ovals for eyes.
3. Other Terms
Throughout this book, I use terms that are familiar to many art teachers. It will be helpful for you and your child to understand these terms before you begin these projects and activities.
Folds
If you have a rectangular piece of paper, there are two ways you can fold it in half. Imagine a 9-by-12-inch sheet of paper. If you fold it in half the short way — that is, if you create two 9-by-6-inch halves — we call that a hamburger fold. If you fold it in such a way as to create two 4½-by12-inch halves, we call that a hot dog fold. If you fold a square piece of paper on the diagonal, we call that a taco fold. The side of the fold that sticks up is called the mountain, while the other side is called the valley. When you fold paper back and forth so that you alternate mountains and valleys across the page, that's called a fan fold.
Paper Orientation
You are probably aware of this concept from working on a computer. If I use a piece of paper in the portrait position, that means the longer measurement of the page is up and down. If I use it in the landscape position, the longer measurement is placed horizontally.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Art is Every Day by Eileen S. Prince. Copyright © 2012 Eileen S. Prince. Excerpted by permission of Chicago Review Press Incorporated.
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