The elements of art are the most basic building blocks or parts of all visual arts studies. You may think of the elements as the ingredients. Just as bread is made of flour, salt and water, art is made of ingredients called 'The elements of art.' There are 7 elements of art:
- line
- shape
- form
- space
- value
- color
- and texture
Shapes are two dimensional. Shapes may be geometric: circles, triangles and rectangles, a shape with a mathematical description may be thought of as geometric. Shapes may also be organic: all the other irregular shapes. Blobs and leaves are organic shapes. Simple shapes are often used to start drawing more complicated things, shapes are used as building blocks. Shapes may be combined to create patterns. Shapes make other shapes and shapes remind us of things in the world. We use shapes just as we use lines to create our drawings and compositions.
Geometric shapes:
Organic shapes:
Shapes are building blocks for drawing:
 |
| Basic shapes are used to draw a horse |
Shapes make patterns:
 |
| Geometric shapes to make a radial pattern |
Shapes make other shapes:
 |
| squares make triangles |
 |
| circles make squares |
Shapes remind us of things:
Quicky Quiz:
- Name two basic groups of shapes _____
- In Photo Shop draw the following drawings on a single page.
- A geometric shape
- An organic shape
- An interesting pattern
- A thing using simple shapes.
GO BACK TO VISUAL ARTS BASICS DIRECTORY
