CBSE Class 11 Painting And Sculpture Fundamentals of Visual Arts Worksheet Set A

Fundamentals of Visual Arts (Elements & Principles)

The Elements of Visual Art

The elements of Visual art are the basic building blocks of any art design or composition. It may be drawings, sketches or even paintings. When an artist is doing any painting or assessing a painting, he must keep in mind limbs of art. Artist must use principles, elements and limbs of art to create a work of painting.

The basic elements of visual art are:

(1)Point (2)Line (3)Shape (4)Form (5)Colour (6)Value (7) Space (8) Texture

1. POINT

A point is the smallest element of art which does not have a length, width and height. Point is the simplest element of visual art. When one starts with drawing a point on an empty space such as canvas or paper a sensation starts right there and then. The point serves as a focus of attention.

2. LINE

A line is a continuous mark made on a surface by a moving point. A line is a series of points adjacent to each other. A point has no dimension; a line has one dimension which is its length. Further, a line also has a direction.

A line can be formed by placing many points one after another. A line is the origin of a shape or the outline of animate or inanimate objects. Drawing a line with a pencil, brush or any other tool marks the beginning of a drawing. There are many types of lines such as straight, curved, vertical, horizontal, thin, bold, slanting, parallel, circular, diagonal, crisscrossing, zigzag, freehand etc. Lines remain a constant thickness (descriptive, analytical, objective, showing little of the action used to create them) or carry in thickness along with their length (flowing, calligraphic, lyrical, showing emphasis and something of the gesture to make them).

The meaning of line

The artist creates art with the help of lines. Lines can create feelings and bring about the desired impact. Lines can evoke various sensations such as grief, longing, joy, yearning (craving for something), hatred as also attributes like dignity, strength, struggle, youth, old age, progress, ambition, idealism, instability, steadfastness (dependability), unity etc. Evoke means to bring or recall a feeling or memory to the conscious mind.

3. SHAPE

The shape is an enclosed space defined by a line or by contrast to its surroundings. A shape generally has length, breadth, direction and general characteristics. A shape is created when an artist draws an outline with a pencil or colour and defines the space on paper. Thus a shape denotes the enclosed space with a particular length and breadth. Shapes are generally two – dimensional such as circle, square, triangle etc. Shapes can be geometric (square, circle, triangle etc.) or organic (leaf, flower, water drop etc.).

4. FORM

Form is a three-dimensional object or a defined volume in space. Forms could also be categorized as geometric or organic in nature. The shape can be created by filling space with colour or shading work. When an illusion of depth and volume is created with the help of lines, shading, colour, texture etc. it becomes a three-dimensional shape. In its two dimensional forms, it has no volume or depth but only an illusion of it. Thus, light and shade create a three-dimensional effect on a two-dimensional object.

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