Elements and Principles of Design

1. Visual Arts
The Elements and
Principles of Design

2. Lecture objectives
To learn basic art terms used in design:
Principles in Art
● Emphasis/Focal point, Rhythm, Unity/Variety, Scale/Proportion, Balance
Elements in Art
● Line, Shape, Pattern/Texture, Space, Value/Color, Motion
California Art Standards
Visual Arts students engaged in authentic creative processes to develop technical artistic skills through
contemporary and traditional practices using traditional and non-traditional materials. They discover the
expressive qualities of art and are able to reflect, critique, and connect personal experiences to art.

3. Have you ever wondered how some famous artists got
their work to be so well known?
It all comes back to their use of the elements and principles of design, so let's get
started and jump into what those are!

4. Principles:
Emphasis / Focal
point
Emphasis: the part of the design
that catches the viewer's attention
Focal point: attracts the attention
and encourage if you were to look
closer
Ways to add focal points
Create an area of space that is
different from the entirety of the
work. This could be changing it to a
different color changing its size
changing its shape

5. Principles:
Rhythm
Rhythm: the movement within a
piece of art that helps the eye travel
through to the point of focus
Ways to add rhythm
Rhythm comes in a variety of ways
just like music! Created by utilizing
different types of lines such as wavy
lines first smoother all around tone
all the way to rough Ridgid lines to
create a tough sense in your work

6. Principles: Unity
/ Variety
Unity: how the elements of an
artwork or design come together and
create a sense of wholeness
Variety: creating visual contrast in
the work
Ways to add unity / variety
Start by creating a collage focusing
on a theme, by doing that you're able
to focus down on an image and pull
from it variety of different imagery
of the topic

7. Principles: Scale /
Proportion
Scale: the overall physical size of an
artwork or objects in the artwork
Proportion: the relative size
measured against other elements or
against some mental norm or
standard
Ways to add scales/proportion
You can use known methods such as
the Golden ratio or even the Golden
rectangle in order to figure out how
to proportionately size your design

8. Principles:
Balance
Balance: the distribution of the visual
weight of objects, colors, textures and
space
Ways to add balance
There are two main forms of balancing
of artwork, symmetrical where all the
elements are practically identical on
each side or asymmetrical where there
is no sense of balance rather the
elements are seemingly randomly
distributed throughout the work cool
this one

9. Peer talk: Find a partner and tell them
what the five principles of Art are and
how they are used.
Now You Try!

10. Elements: Line
Line: and identifiable path
created by a point moving in
space
How to use line
Lines are used to identify forms
in our work and create weight,
you can also use lines to add a
underlying tone to an artwork
such as using smooth clean lines
to create a softer tone versus
hard dragon lines that create
some more harsher tone

11. Elements: Shape
Shape: is a visually perceived area
created either by an enclosing line or
by color or value changes defining the
outer edges
How to use shapes
Basic shapes are used to create more
complex forms, such as breaking down
complicated structures such as the
human hand down to circles and
rectangles, this may help when
creating your design in order to help
you start off with a base form

12. Elements:
Pattern/Texture
Pattern: referring to the
repetition of a designs motif
Texture: a tactile texture that
can actually be seen in the work
Ways to use pattern / texture
By using a stamp you can create
a repeating pattern quite easily
and with it comes a variety of
textures from the stamps
depending on what type of
material you use

13. Elements: Space
Space: the feeling of depth or
three-dimensionality in artwork
How to use space
You can create space in an
artwork but utilizing for
shortening to make it seem that
all the elements of their artwork
vanished towards a singular
point or by layering elements
overlapping each other to add a
sense of depth

14. Elements:
Value/Color
Value: defines how light or dark a
given color or hue can be
Color: is what you see when light
strikes an object and is reflected
back
Ways to use value/color
Create color palettes before your
main design in order to see how the
colors interact with one another, at
this point you're still able to change
the colors or even maybe simply
change the values in order to see
how they work

15. Elements: Motion
Motion: the organization of the
different segments of an image in
order to give a sense of action
using forms that shifts the eye
throughout the artwork
Ways to add motion:
utilizing blurred lines that
emphasizing the movement,
using multiple images, create an
action line of focus

16. Can someone tell me what elements of art
stick out the most to them in this artwork
Now You
Try!

17. Artwork Critique Activity
Now that we have an idea of these terms. I'd like you to
critique this artwork with the principles and elements of
designs that we learned today. Here's a video of how to analyze
an artwork using these terms