Visual Art Elements

Colour:

  • How to make a colour wheel (primary, secondary and tertiary colours)

  • Complementary, monochromatic, analogous, triadic, warm, cool colours

  • Tints (white), shades (Black) and tones (grey)

Lines

  • Straight: horizontal, vertical, angled, jagged

  • Curved: wavy, spiral, scalloped, looped

  • Weight: solid, dotted, thick, thin

Shape

  • Geometric circle, square, triangle

  • Organic shapes: curved edged, straight edged

  • Symbolic shapes: letters, numbers, icons

Texture

a simulated sense of how an object might feel: hard, soft, rough, smooth, hairy, leathery, sharp

Form

simulated sense of depth, relative eight and width (three-dimensionality) such as a cube and sphere.

Space

areas objects occupy - positive and negative space

Value

The use of light and dark colours

Principles of Visual Art

Pattern

The regular arrangement of alternating or repeated elements

Contrast

The use of an element’s opposite qualities - rough/smooth, light/dark - in order to highlight the difference

Emphasis

The use of elements to draw attention to a specific object or area

Balance

The use of symmetry, asymmetry to

Proportion and Scale

The arrangement of objects to give a feeling of perspective through size, angle, overlapping, sharpness/blurriness

Harmony

The arrangement of different elements give the viewer a feeling that all the parts of the piece work together

Rhythm and Movement

The use of elements to direct the movement of the eye and create an illusion of objects in motion.

Visual Media Techniques

 

Bookmaking

  • Paper making

  • book binding

Calligraphy and Block Lettering

  • How to make a quill

  • How to make ink

Collage

Diorama

Drawing: pencil, crayon, chalk, pastels. ink, pen

Enlargement

Fresco

Intaglio

Lithography

Mural

Montage

Painting: tempera, acrylic, watercolour, oil

Poster

Printing

Puppet making

Rubbing

Scratchboard

Sculpture: paper-mache, clay, mobile, pop ups, origami

Western Art

 

  • Western Art Movement Timeline

  • Art Appreciation by Movement

  • Prehistoric Art (<40 000 - 4 000 BCE)

  • Ancient Art (<30 000 BCE - 400 CE)

  • Medieval (500 - 1400 CE)

  • Renaissance (1400-1600)

  • Mannerism (1527 - 1580)

  • Baroque (1600-1750)

  • Rococo (1699 - 1780)

  • Neoclassicism (1750 - 1850)

  • Romanticism (1780 - 1850)

  • Realism (1848 - 1900)

  • Art Nouveau (1890 - 1910)

  • Impressionism (1865 - 1885)

  • Post-impressionism (1885 - 1910)

  • Fauvism (1900 - 1935)

  • Expressionism (1905 - 1920)

  • Cubism (1907 - 1914)

  • Surrealism (1917 - 1950)

  • Abstract Expressionism (1940s -1950s)

  • Op Art (1950s - 1960s)

  • Pop Art (1950s - 1960s)

  • Arte Povera (1960s)

  • Minimalism (1960s - 1970s)

  • Conceptual Art (mid 1960s - mid 1970s)

  • Contemporary Art (1970s - present)

  • Asian Art

  • African Art

  • South American Art

  • Native American Art

  • Aboriginal Art

  • Maori Art