When I was in art school, we students could recite the litany line, shape, value, color, texture, size and direction on any pop quiz in answer to "What are the visual elements". But I'm willing to wager that
very few of us realized the meaning of our answers.
It was the French chef, Julia Child, who brought home to me the significance of those words. Think about it: salt or sugar by themselves have no purpose, no meaning. It's when each hits the taste buds that
they take on purpose and meaning. And we experience the difference when we taste one, then the other or the two together.
When we take that a step further, the role those two ingredients play in food is determined by two things: the technique of how they are used, how they are combined, cooked and served, and the
process of how they function together.
We can take any two of the visual elements individually and together and see that the same concept at work. Let's do that. Let's take color and shape, or we could say the
shape of color.
I have a question for you: can you make a color without shape?
Look how the same color we see in the square and disc above takes on different shapes in this Winslow Homer painting, Breezing Up. Notice where the color remains the same, but the shape of it changes.
Here are the major shapes of that red isolated from the rest of the painting.
Now it's easier to see those shapes of color. But there's more: three other elements have joined in--value, size and direction. Think about it--five separate elements needed to
participate for this one color to become a part of Homer's painting?
Not only that, but for these five elements to participate, they need to be propelled by something. That requires the working principles (the engines that make elements do what they do). Propelling
these elements in Homer's painting are gradation, contrast, repeating and varying. This interaction among these five elements and these principles causes them to yield rhythm, harmony, balance and order within the painting.
That is one beautiful set of actions!
Enjoy a lovely weekend of cooking up something beautiful!
During my Language of Painting series, I explained the role of our visual elements. If you'd like to review those roles to better understand the behavior of elements, here are the links to each of those
discussions: Color --Value -- Shape -- Texture -- Size -- Line and Direction
You can access the archive of all my newsletters (as well as the Quick Tips and other stuff) at any time by going HERE.
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