The seven formal elements of art

1. The seven formal elements of art

2. What is the formal elements of art • A work of art is acclaimed only when it is visually appealing and elements like colour, gradient and texture are blended perfectly. A great deal of emphasis is put on these visual elements in the fields of arts and creativity. The composition of paintings, sculptures, graphic designs, and photographs are balanced by thoughtful arrangement of these elements. Thus, formal elements are those attributes that essentially give an edge to the quality of diverse genres of artwork.

3. line • The concept of a line in an artwork varies from its literal meaning and it is used in various ways other than sketching borders and outlines only. If you analyze a painting closely, then you can easily identify the different paths formed by the objects present in the painting. A line could be either imaginary or real. Even if it is not depicted clearly, you can garner information from its direction and nature. Lines are categorized as vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and curved.

4. form • Many artists and illustrators consider shape and form to be similar elements. However, according to most theories of art, form is different from shape. A three-dimensional object, having specifically defined width, depth and height comes under this category. Shapes mostly define two-dimensional objects. Sculptures, pottery works, decorative arts, furniture, graphic designs, animations, etc. are three-dimensional and therefore, it makes sense to use the term form for them instead of shape.

5. colour • Technically, colour is defined as the visual and perceptual property of an image. They originate from the spectrum of light. The intensity, strength, purity, and depth of colours contribute to the purpose and the feel of the painting. The basic thing you must know is, how and where to use different intensities of colours. Dark shades like black and gray are symbolic of negativity and a sombre, serious and melancholic mood, while bright hues reflect happiness and optimism. In this context you should also know the theories of colour coordination and colour mixing in order to infuse harmony in your artwork. And selection of colours depends solely on the character of your painting.

6. texture • When you touch an object (e.g. a piece of furniture, books, candles, papers, etc.), you can immediately sense its texture from the nature of its surface, which could be smooth, rough, supple, soft, hard, metallic, dull, etc. Texture could be perceived either visually or by touching. You can add texture to 2-d paintings by using the painting tools in various ways for creating colour layers of different densities. Lines and shadings are incorporated not only for the purpose of adding texture but also for making the painting lifelike.

7. tone • Tone is the lightness and darkness of colour A colour may be toned down and made less vivid or toned up to make it look more solid or brighter Tone is a quality of colour. It has to do with whether or not a colour is warm or cold, bright or dull, light or dim and pure or "otherwise" (not wishing to to slap the perceived moral judgment of impure on a hapless colour). You've most likely heard the phrase "Tone it down". In art, this means to make a colour, or an overall colour scheme, less vibrant. Conversely, "toning it up" can cause colours to pop out of a piece, sometimes to a rather startling extent

8. pattern Pattern is a style of drawing in art. A lot of figure repeating itself. . it means when something repeats over like ex.(blue red blue red blue red ) that is a example of a pattern

9. composition • Composition means what something is made from, as in "The composition of this soil is sand and loam."It also means the result of composing.