Elements and Principles of Design

All butterflies have symmetrical wings. This monarch butterfly is a marvellous example of one of the Principles of Design, Balance.

BALANCE - The equality or inequality and the order of an artwork. Balance is the concept of the visual equilibrium, and relates to our physical sense of balance. Balance can be drawn symmetrically or asymmetrically. Imbalance is discomforting and odd to look at considering you are used to looking at something with an equal purpose or desire. Some different types of balance are symmetrical, asymmetrical, formal, random and radial. 

This bright and colourful pastel work demonstrates the work of Contrast. The brightness of the background makes the silhouette of the child stand out. An example of emphasized, and dramatized contrast.

CONTRAST - Contrast can be used to create visual interest, excitement and drama. It is also used to lighten or darken the work of art. High contrast can be used to call attention, to show the emotion in a artwork and low contrast can be used to show subtlety, soothing, harmonizing and comforting emotions. Some different types of contrast are opposition, juxtaposition, opposition of colour and low contrast.

At the first looks of this colourful painting your drawn to the animal because of the brightness and the emphasis of it.

EMPHASIS - Emphasis creates a focal point that catches the viewer's attention. Artists have many ways of causing emphasis in their work such as making backgrounds or the centre of interest itself with higher or lower contrast. They can make the area in different shapes, sizes and colours to make it more emphasized. 

Overhead is an example of a recognizable image in action. You can see that this cheetah was in the midsts of sprinting while this man/woman took the photo.

MOVEMENT - Movement can be implied in many different ways to bring along the viewers attention to a certain focal point in the artwork. Much displays of movement can be carried along lines, edges, shapes and colour within the work of art. Some different types of movement are recognizable images in action , image in action and representational marks and abstract non representational marks.

A repetition of the colours of the rainbow and shapes all in harmony. 

PATTERN - Basically the repetition of shapes, colours, objects or symbols all over the work of art. Patterns can be organized or all over the play. It can be shown in a symmetrical, asymmetrical, organized or completely random way. 

"Starry Night"

By Vincent Van Gogh

This famous painting displays a oneness, harmony, a quiet town down below everything is in unity and gives a subtle comfort.

UNITY - With high unity you feel the harmony through all the works of art, feeling a sense of completeness and quietness. With a lack of unity the art may be showing discomfort, disharmony, disorder and dissonance. Unity makes you feel complete and as a whole. Some different types of unity are harmony, completeness, balance and disharmony.

Above we have an optical illusion, a trick of an eye, displaying horizontal and vertical lines.

LINE -  A single dot stretched in any direction or a moving dot. It can be used to show the boldness of a drawing, a direction or just a thin outline. Lines have a width, direction and length. It can be drawn and expressed in many different ways in art. Some examples of lines used in various ways are jagged and smooth, think and thin, weak and strong, curved, straight and implied. 

Overhead we have abstract artwork by Bruce Gray exposing the works of different shapes in various sizes and colours. We can observe that in this artwork there are many triangles and circles but also an abundance of quadrilaterals.

SHAPES - Triangles, squares, circles, diamonds and so on. There are many different shapes you can create. A shape is a two-dimensional -flat- area usually surrounded by a line. Shapes are defined by other elements of art such as line, form, colour and texture. Shapes can be described as a solid, organic, repeated, symbolic, and proportional.  

Above we have a detailed textural form-drawing of the beautiful Audrey Hepburn. When you examine the photo it is almost like it is a actual picture of Hepburn but in black and white. An amazing example of how art can display beauty in the real world. 

FORM - Form applies to the volume or perceived volume. Forms are two-dimensional art drawn with tones and/or shadows giving it the image of a three-dimensional object or picture. Forms can be drawn as rounded, squared, angular, textural and volume/mass.

Overhead we have realistic artwork created by a man/woman on DaviantArt the online community for user-made art. This is an example of a simulated texture, one that can only be seen but not felt as the texture it displays. 

TEXTURE - Texture art is used to describe either the way three-dimensional work actually feels when touched or the visual 'feel' of a two-dimensional artwork. These are two different texture artworks, real and simulated textures. An example of stimulated texture is the picture above. That picture, even if displayed on a flatscreen through your computer, brings you the feel of reaching out and touching it. 

"Sunset of Colour"

By Karin Griffiths

Above we have a mixture of a warm and cool colour displaying a sunset over the water. An example of a bright, warm, and cool painting.

COLOUR/HUE - Colour is produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back into the eye. Colour has three properties, hue, intensity and value. These three properties benefit to a piece of artwork focusing on a certain object. Value can help with having that object in your art stand out more and intensity can give it more of a pop in colour. If the value was very dull in the sunset above we would have focused on the dark clouds or the plain blue water. Without the intensity in the sun there would be no light reflecting off the water or the clouds. Imagine this painting is put into black and white, with no colour the painting would be nothing but boring. A beneficial example on why colour in a painting is very important. Colour can be described as bright, pastel, warm, cool, in harmony and discordant.

Above we have a black and white drawing of a flower you can notice the tone and value in this work with shading and leaving light spots as if there is a light hitting the flower in a certain direction. This is an example of a strong but slightly weak artwork.

TONE AND VALUE - Can either be a plain white picture or a intense strong stand-out artwork. Tone and value determines the degree of light and dark in colour but it can also exist without colour. 

Just looking at this photo you can see the intensity of the colours red, orange and yellow behind this ladybug. It really captures the shine and the brightness of the flower. This is an example of a strong intensity.

INTENSITY - In some artwork you want the viewers main perspective to be on a certain point in the work, intensity on either that point or the background can determine whether or not that certain point stands out. Intensity is very important in art it determines the contrast in a colour. Intensity can be described as bright and radiant, strong, vivid, weak and dull.