The Elements and Principles of Organization in the Arts

Main source: Prof. Felipe de Leon, Jr.

additional information: Steven P.C. Fernandez


BASIC ART TERMS

Medium
the physical means or stuff through which we come in contact with the work of art; the material out of
which the artist creates his work. The artists choice of medium affects expressive content. (In general,
medium for the visual arts is color, tone for music, words for Literature, and action and voice for the
combined arts like theater and dance.)

Technique- the way the artist uses his materials and medium in expressing an idea, feeling or sensation

Elements- properties or qualities of the medium: line, color, shape, texture, volume, etc.

Subject Matter- the recognizable objects, persons or incidents represented in a work of art. A work of
art having no subject is also called Non-Objective or Non-Representation Art.

Visual Form (Aural Form in Music)- the particular manner in which the elements exist or appear; the
specific manner in which they were used by the artist in terms of arts and the whole whether or not in
interaction, relationship, or fusion with subject matter in order to express an idea, feeling, or sensation

Expressive Content (or expressive significance)- the ideas, feelings, sensations (theme, message,
meaning) presented in a work of art. Expressive content arises from the effect of visual or aural form or,
if there is subject matter, from the combined effect or unique fusion of subject matter and particular
visual form. In trying to determine the expressive content of a work of art with subject matter, we may
ask ourselves: What attitude, feeling, idea or statement about the subject matter is the artist trying to
convey through the specific form that he used?

THE ELEMENTS OF THE VISUAL ARTS
(Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture)

Color- a visual attribute of bodies or substances distinct from their spatial characteristics and
depending upon the spectral composition of the wavelengths of radiant energy (Funk and Wagnalls,
1966) It has three dimensions: hue, value, and saturation

Value- degree of lightness or darkness (related terms: tone, tonal value)

Light - (illusion or actual use of) luminosity

Texture- the surface quality of an object, either real or made to appear real, which appeals to the
tactile imagination or feeling (related term: tactile value)

Line- one or two dimensional mark which indicates direction, orientation, movement or energy

Shape (or Form)- outward form; configuration; contour

Related terms:

format the shape of the frame and the general arrangement of shapes within it

plane a flat or uncurved surface

Volume- the amount of space a body occupies; that quality of an object which enables us to know that it
has length, breadth and thickness; solidity as a quality opposed to relative flatness; bulk or roundness

Mass (or FORM)- the amount of matter a body contains; in painting refers not to bulk but to the
principal areas in which form is distributed and realized as distinct from detail

Perspective-
a. the art or theory of representing on a flat or curved surface solid objects, figures, architecture,
other surfaces conceived of as not lying in that surface.
b. the art of conveying the impression of depth or distance
c. delineation of objects as they appear to the eye

Movement- illusion of or actual movement

Size- relative magnitude of an object

Number- amount, quantity

COLOR- The three dimensions or attribute of color are:

Hue - the name of the color, such as red, green or blue; that quality that enables us to distinguish one
color from another.
Hue indicates the colors position on the color wheel

Value- lightness and darkness of a color

Saturation (or INTENSITY) - any colors degree of purity or strength. This is determined by the quantity of
the dominant hue. Scarlet, a vivid red, is almost pure red. Rose beige is red neutralized with gray.

Achromatic colors include black and white and the entire series of intermediate grays, varying only in
value.

Chromatic colors contain hue, value and saturation