Visual Elements and Principles of Design and AP Studio Art Website

Use the Elements of Art and Principles of Design in every assignment.

http://www.davisart.com/Portal/Commerce/PDFs/Middle-School-High-School-Visual-Design-Scope-and-Sequence.pdf

Elements and Principles of Art:

Elements
LINE: Lines can be thick, thin, and continuous or interrupted Line is the most basic elements of design.
SHAPE: Shape is 2D. It has height and width, but no depth. It is similar to a silhouette or outline. FORM: Form is 3D. It has height, width, and depth. Forms usually have weight and mass.
VALUE: Value refers to the lightness and darkness of colors or grays (grayscale).
COLOR: Color is what we see when light is reflected from a surface. Color is also known as hue which is the
name of a color.
SPACE: The area around or within an object or the ‘feeling’ of depth. Space can be positive space or negative.
TEXTURE: This refers to the surface quality or the sense of touch. It can be implied or real texture.

Principles (Each principle is made up of all the above elements.)
BALANCE: Having even or the same balance of space, or comfortable distribution of visual weight in an art
composition.
UNITY: Refers to the sense of wholeness or harmony in a work of art.
CONTRAST: This refers to differences in elements such as color, texture, value, and shape. Contrast usually
adds excitement, drama and interest to art works.
EMPHASIS: The main theme or focal point of an artwork or where the greatest attention is placed.
PATTERN: The repetition of one or more elements of art. For example, repeating color, shapes, design and/or
lines.
MOVEMENT: This can create a path for the viewer’s eyes to follow across a composition. It can direct the
viewer’s eyes through the art to a center of interest.
RHYTHM: This is a type of movement or closely related to movement. It is often created by repeating shapes,
lines, colors in a certain order or pattern.

Go to this site often:
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/sub_studioart.html


Specific to Photo: http://www.collegeboard.com/ap/studioart/studio_2d.html


Specific to Drawing: http://www.collegeboard.com/ap/studioart/studio_drawing.html