The Elements of Art - Meet Your Friends!

Elements of art are full of ideas and inspiration if you are in a creative funk or feel in a rut with your painting or drawing.

Here are seven good friends all ready to lend a hand to get those creative juices flowing again!

Don't worry, it's happened to us all! Our pencils are sharpened. Canvas primed. Paints set out in nice neat rows and we're ready for action!

But wait!...

First I must have a coffee; make a sandwich; call my friend; and I have to fold the laundry, don't I? Well, anything will do rather than face that terrifying blank canvas, right?

But fear not - here come those elements of art to the rescue!

We have seven to choose from so which one will take your fancy?

Which art element will make your heart sing?

COLOR?

Oh my! What can't you do with the element of color in art!

You like a little drama in your life? Color will do it for you. You'd rather be soothed? Color will do it for you. Need some happiness on a gray day? Color can do that for you too!

I could go on - warm colors, cool colors, primary colors, secondary colors, analogous colors, complementary colors...

We can weave magic with this element!

FORM?

TEXTURE?

Do you love the challenge of a realistic still life; love painting something silky or shiny; rough, or soft and furry?

With a still-life the possibilities are endless. You're The Big Boss, totally in control of the objects on the table!

Of course, there are no textures to be felt on the finished painting - the art all lies in creating an illusion.

Now here's a different way to use paint ...

This is one of the famous Van Gogh sunflower paintings with a texture you could definitely feel on the surface - not that you'd be allowed to get within touching distance!

He loved the impasto technique and laying that paint on THICK.

Loading it onto the brush, using the direction of the strokes to express not only the form of the pot, but the wild vibrancy of the plant.

There's nothing delicate about these flowers, they almost jump out of the frame at you!

Like it? Well, give it a go, nobody's watching!

Or you could take your exploration of texture even further - how about sticking found objects onto the canvas and making a collage?

The texture element is such fun to work with!

SHAPE?

 Do you prefer organic shapes? Or geometric?

Do organic shapes inspire you? Or are you in the mood for geometric?

Both the above examples illustrating the Shape element of art are great starting points for some abstract painting ideas. Especially if you allow the color element to get in on the act too.

Think big - imagine a large abstract on your wall in your favorite colors.  Wow! Go on - amaze yourself!

LINE?

Take a look at this piece of Op art. Pretty interesting what we can do with some lines and a bit of perspective, isn't it?

Although it's a 2-dimensional image it definitely deceives the eye and gives a feeling of 3-dimensional form.

Of course Op Art is only one of the ways in which artists have used the line element. We'll look at some famous artists to find out how and why they've used it, which could add interest or open up a new direction in your own work ...  

SPACE?

Ah, we can breathe up here! Sometimes it's good to get away from hemmed-in city streets and enjoy the freedom of all that space around us.

But, as you can see, the Form element has to be allowed into the Space element too. Otherwise what have we got? Just emptiness, right?

The forms of the woman, rocks, mountains and clouds occupy their positions in space and the space surrounds the forms.

So in fact, the form element defines the space and it's one of the things we do need when we want to give a pictorial representation of the space element.

(There are other important ones too, like the tone element, color, linear and aerial perspective - but more on those later.)

Do I hear you saying, "But I want to express the Emptiness! "?

Well, I would truly LOVE to see your take on that. Abstraction maybe?

Hmm, now there's a challenge!

TONE?

What is tone in art? Basically it just means the lightness or darkness of the objects we're looking at.

This red circle above looks totally flat without the addition of any tone.

But by adding some tone as shadow and highlight, the same red circle can be transformed into a sphere. Ta-da!

Of course, tone doesn't have to be related to color only, as all pencil artists know.

We've only got to put a line on paper with a graphite pencil and right there we've made a decision (even accidentally!) on what tone it's going to be - light or dark. And this is where pencil shading really comes into it's own.

Still life, portraits, landscapes, imaginative - all are transformed with the correct use of tone. In fact, without this essential element of art no representative or abstract art will work.

We can do without color if we want, but we can't do without tone.

A match made in heaven?

So those are the 7 elements of art that we'll be exploring together.

Which one do you like? Do you like more than one?

Maybe one particular element stands out for you and you'll decide to stick with it until you run out of wall-space!

Are you into realistic art? Abstracts? Do you feel like taking a risk and trying something new?

See what the elements of art can do to kick off a few ideas for you. You never know, it could be the start of a beautiful friendship!

So dust off that easel and let's go!

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