Parlez-vous le langue de l'art? Let's find
out
Ok, so chapter four discusses the
language of art--AKA: The Visual Elements
and the visual elements are how we can
communicate with art. So if art were a
desert, the visual elements would be
the ingredients available for the cook
to use. These key elements consist of
line, shape, mass, light, value, color,
texture, and space. And all of these
elements play an important role in how
we experience art. Okay, so the first
element discussed is line. Line is often
used by artists to communicate direction
or motions. They can also be used to
communicate feelings or ideas which I
think is pretty incredible.
Some artists use line as a way of
rendering the contour line of a form--
what we would call an "outline." Lines can
also be used to lead the viewers eye through
an artwork. Like invisible arrows, line
can subconsciously lead the viewers eye throughout
a work of art, and they can direct
the viewers gaze. Check out this painting
by Watteau. He leads our eyes all over
this island of love. Another great
example of an artist using leading lines
to the direct the viewer's gaze can be seen in
this painting by Theodore Gericault called
"The Raft of the Medusa." This painting
depicts a tragic true story of these
victims of this shipwreck the moment that
they see a rescue ship in the distance.
When you look at the angles of Gericault's
painting, you can see that he's using
the lines to create two different
centers of interest.
This creates a tension in the work,
similar to the tension that you
probably feel when you watch a film. And
while the lines of the bodies pull you
to look towards the upper right,
there are also other lines leading you
to the left. If you get a chance to see
this in the Louvre,
it's it's so large, it just immerses you
into the painting, and you can feel that kind
of tension and you can feel the wind
blowing you one way
and you certainly get the sense that
there's these conflicting ideas of hope
and despair happening all in this one
painting. The next element discussed in the
chapter is shape. Shape is basically just
a two-dimensional form or area that has
been defined by some type of boundary. In
3d art, we would use the term "mass" to
describe this kind of volume of space.
Now, artists can use shape to communicate
so many things. If an artist wants to
use circles and squares and triangles, we
would deem these types of shapes as
being more "geometric." Or the artist can
use what we call "organic" shapes which
are shapes that have kind of irregular
form to them or forms that you would
kind of see in nature.
And when the artist creates a drawing or a sculpture,
they not only have to be aware of what's
happening in these positive shapes they
also have to be aware and consider
what's happening in the negative shapes--
or the the negative space of any given
work of art.
Barbara Hepworth's sculptures also show
that some interesting things can happen
when you consider the negative space.
Designers also have to be aware of
what's happening in the negative space.
As you can see here in this example of
this design that's made out of stars, but
there's an M that then appears in the
negative space. Artists also use shapes as
a way of controlling the composition or
the layout of the work. Some artists like
their work that kind of has a circular flow
through it. In the Renaissance, the
triangle was the shape of the hour and
so many of the famous Renaissance works
that you know use this triangle as the
main, dominant shape that controls the
composition. Another important element
for artists to consider is the concept
of light. Light affects our experience of
art in so many ways. In fact, entire
cathedrals were built around the concept
of light and its effects. And some
artists have gone so far as to make
light the center stage of their own art
and their own work.
Check out this work by Doug Wheeler
who uses neon tubing lights to frame
this perfect white space and make
viewers feel like they're staring into
this floating void. Talk about an
aesthetic experience! Another important
element of art that ties into this
notion of light is the concept of value.
Value is just a term used to describe
the the different shades of light and
dark that you see in a work of art. And
believe it or not, value can make a big
difference in how you perceive and
experience of work of art. Artists like
Caravaggio liked to use extreme dark and
light values which made his work just
seem very dramatic, and it reminds us
at the type of extreme lighting that we
see in theate. But artists don't always
have to work with value in order to make
their work pop. In fact, the
Impressionists often worked with a very
limited range of dark and light values,
and you can notice that when you see
their works in black and white.
So instead of using value, the
Impressionists used color to make their
works pop. Color is a very important
element of art and artists can use it to
communicate all kinds of things.
Studies show that color affects you in
ways that you may not even understand or
realize both physically and
psychologically. Interior designers often
study color theory and brain research in
order to create specific atmospheres for
what they're trying to achieve.
That's why restaurants usually have
some kind of warmer interior because it
proven that the color red makes people
feel hungrier, and therefore they consume
more food. I actually heard about this
prison that was having a lot of
discipline issues and so they decided to
paint the color of the walls this
calming shade of pink. And according to
the study, the number of fights
dramatically decreased. And it just kind
of demonstrates how color can affect us
more than we even realize. For a long
time, artists have been very mindful of
the ideas that certain colors
communicate.
For example, throughout most of history,
the Virgin Mary is often wearing the
color blue. And that's not because she
didn't own any other colors, but blue is
a color that's often associated with
nature, royalty, and peace and that's why
the historic artists chose to represent
Mary because of these ideas. But we can't
talk about color without taking a look
at the color wheel. As many of you know,
there are three primary colors which are
the three colors that when mixed
together they can make the rest of the
colors on the color wheel. So if you
could only paint with three colors, I
would go for these. Okay, now the color
wheel is helpful because it helps us
understand how colors relate to each
other. For example, all of the colors on
the left
they tend to reflect the sun and so
they're called the warm colors. With all
the colors on the right, they remind us
of the sea and the sky and shade, and so
we call these the cool colors. Now some
artists have used color groups from the
color wheel to create art that
harmonizes well-- or colors that sing
well. Now these colors that tend to go
well together are called "color schemes,"
and it's really fascinating to study how
colors work well together and how they
harmonize together. And let's just say
that there's a reason why you can't wear
that shirt with those pants, okay buddy?
And this week you're going to take a
look at some of those color schemes and
learn about which colors tend to play
well together, and although these aren't
hard and fast rules. But just like
music and how, you know, music tends to
sound better when the notes harmonize, so
color tends to look better when the
colors seem to harmonize. Now one popular
color scheme is the use of complementary
colors. Complementary colors are colors
that are opposite from each other on the
color wheel,
and scientists began noticing in the
19th century that when you take these
two opposite colors and you place them
side-by-side, the colors tend to seem
brighter and more vibrant, and they also
tend to fit well together and to look
nice. And that's one of the reasons why a
lot of businesses use complementary
colors for their branding. I mean, that's--
that's bright! And hey-- did you notice I
even used complementary colors for our
class branding? Eh? One of my favorite
artists who used complementary colors is
a 19th century artist by the name of
Seurat. You probably recognize this
popular painting called "Sunday Afternoon
on the Island of La Grande Jatte," which he
dedicated two years of his life to
creating. Made out of tiny little dabs of
color, the viewers' eye actually mixes the
color from a distance allowing for some
of the most purest color mixing a
painter could create. So although he put
gabs of yellow and blue next to each
other, our eyes see
green from far away. And this is long
before the word "pixels" was even around.
Now he was so concerned about the
intensity of his work,
he even painted this border around the
painting that laced each internal color
with its complementary color on the
border. Now there are all kinds of other
color schemes that artists use to
communicate their thoughts.
There's analogous, there's triadic,
monochromatic, and this week you're going
to look at those different color schemes.
But the big idea is that color
communicates a lot, and if you can learn
how color talks, you can use it as a tool
to communicate all different kinds of
things. Moving on from color,
another important element of art that
artists have at their disposal is
texture. Texture actually plays a huge
role and how we experience the world and
humans are just naturally drawn to
textures and patterns. And so artists
have been able to use and communicate
texture in
lots of different ways. Artists have
created works with actual texture-- like
you can see here this painting by
Vincent Van Gogh. In the painting, you can see
he's painted so thick that the surface
has a physical texture to it.
Here's a contemporary sculpture which
which is called "Prayer Mat" and when you
look closely, you can see the actual
texture of a bunch of pins that make up
this prayer mat. The texture doesn't have
to be physical,
it can also be implied through imagery,
through patterns... and so many
artists create texture this way. Along
with texture, another essential element
of art is the artists use of space.
Now obviously, when we talk about
sculpture or architecture the artists'
use of space is fundamental to how we
experience it-- you know how we walk
around it and how we encounter it. But for
an artist working in two dimensions,
space is considered when trying to
create an illusion of depth. Now one can
create the illusion of depth by using
the rules of linear perspective--which
was an exciting discovery back in the
Renaissance. Now with linear perspective,
artists could make things appear to
recede in the distance by making
parallel lines converge all at a single
point in the horizon-- often called
the "vanishing point." Leonardo da Vinci's
famous painting, "The Last Supper" is an
excellent example of this use of linear
perspective. I mean, check out how all of
the lines converge at a single point at
Christ's head. Talk about being a line
leader! Another way that artists show
depth is by the use of atmospheric
perspective. It's been established that
if you want to make something appear
further away, you can make it paler more
blue, and less distinct. That's how
Albert Bierstadt was able to make his
mountains look miles away even though
we're experiencing it all on just a
single
flat surface. The last element of art
discussed the chapter is the artist's
use of time and motion. Time plays a
major factor in art especially for the
Impressionists. In the 1870s,
the Impressionists became obsessed with
capturing life as it was happening. They
didn't want their work to look as if it
was staged in a studio-- they wanted all
of their paintings to be filled with the
energy of motion and the life that they
experienced all around them. Check out the
energy that fills this painting by
Renoir. Renoir gives us a glimpse into
his world and by looking at the painting,
we feel like we're actually there. The
lighting--the colors-- are all so consistent.
Ee can almost decipher what time of day
it is! Now that's an artist that's
concerned with time and motion! Another
artist concerned with the idea of motion
was the artist Alexander Calder. In the
1930s, Calder brought
motion into his sculpture by making
works that were called "mobiles." Using
abstract forms suspended by thin pieces
of wire, Calder's mobiles actually move
and if you watch them, you can actually
see how they respond to the air that's
circulating in the room. It's really
really cool! Movement also informs the
works of contemporary artists like Theo
Jansen who made these really cool
kinetic sculptures that walk around
entirely on their own. Really need stuff--
you should check out his TED talk.
Alright so I know we talked about a lot,
but there are just so many weapons in
the artist's arsenal. I mean line, shape,
light, value, color, texture, space, motion...
I mean these are all things that the
artist can use to create visual
experiences and just to express
themselves more fully. And you know, the
more I create art, the more I realize
there's just so much within the elements
of art to unpack and to learn about. And
it's exciting because I know that
for the rest of my life
I'm going to be learning this language
and learning how to communicate my
thoughts better through the visual arts.
So that kind of sums up chapter 4-
the language of art, the visual elements
of art. Hope you learned something, and I
guess we'll see you next time!
Au revoir!