Library & Innovation Centre

In order to understand, deftly critique, and practice your chosen art form, you need to know the key concepts that it is built upon. Familiarity with elements of art like color and line and principles of art (proportion, rhythm, and contrast among others) is what gives artists that fluency.

Space is the area in which an artwork is organized, and encompasses both what is inside and what is immediately outside, or around, the work.

In order to understand any field, it’s important to have a solid foundation from which to grow. For visual art, this means understanding the elements of art. These creative building blocks are essential and having a grasp on how they work is important both for artists and for lovers of art.

The Visual Elements of line, shape, tone, color, pattern, texture and form are the building blocks of composition in art. When we analyse any drawing, painting, sculpture or design, we examine these component parts to see how they combine to create the overall effect of the artwork.

The principles of art represent how the artist uses the elements of art to create an effect and to help convey the artist's intent.

The principles of art (or the principles of design) are essentially a set of criteria which are used to explain how the visual elements are arranged in a work of art. These principles are possibly the closest thing we have to a set of objective criteria for analyzing and judging art.

The “principles of design” are mechanisms of arrangement and organization for the various elements of design in artwork. Please note that different sources might list slightly different versions of the “Principles of Design,” but the core fundamentals are essentially the same.

Ideal composition draws in the viewer, encourages them to take in all aspects of the painting, and then finally leaves them focused on the main subject.