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Lesson 5: Elements of Art and Principles of Composition

Learning Outcome(s): At the end of the lesson, the learners are able to:
• Understand how contemporary artist use elements of arts to convey ideas, values, and feeling
through diligent observation and attention to the works;
• Explain the close connection and dynamic interaction between the elements of art and the
cultural, social, historical, and personal factors within particular societies through a written and
oral report; and
• Create an interactive artwork that will demonstrate the interrelationship between the arts and
their elements.

Contents (Book):
CONTEMPORARY PHILIPPINE ARTS AND FROM THE REGIONS
REX BOOKSTORE INC.
Flaudette May Datuin, Roberto Paulino, Eileen Legaspi-Ramirez, and Louise Marcelino

Lesson Outline:
1. What are the Elements of Art?

WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF ART?

The elements of art are aspect of form. However, these elements do not exist in a vacuum. They
convey meaning, and express ideas and feelings. They are firmly rooted in psychophysical experiences in
particular cultures, their values, their priorities, and their conventions. For this section, we invite you to
pay attention to these elements and their characteristics, as follows:

A. Line
Line is associated with the body axis as it moves toward different directions and adjust to a point
of reference through various positions and actions, such as walking, running, standing, sitting, reclining,
etc.
In the visual arts, it also refers to the quality of the line, whether thin, broken, thick, or blended,
among others. when several lines come together, they create texture, which can be very thin, washed or
very thick, rough or fine.
For example, those entering at UP Diliman
campus from the University Avenue will be
welcomed halfway through the diagonal lines of the
waiting shed of the University Gateway, ca 1910
sculpture of National Artist Napoleon Abueva. The
long approach through the University Avenue
emphasizes the distinction of zones – the busy main
highway being left behind. But note really
completely cutoff (the “town”), and the sprawling
flagship campus of the country’s premier university
(the “gown”). Fig. 5.1. Waiting Shed along University Avenue
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At the end of that portal, one greeted by the

outstretched arms of Guillermo Tolentino’s Oblation. The
horizontal lines of the sculpture are in turn echoed by the
Quezon Hall building behind it. The straight diagonal lines
of the modenist waiting shed connote dynamism and
movement, while the vertical and horizontal lines of the
Neoclassic Quezon Hall and Oblation convey balance,
symmetry, formality, grace and serenity, in keeping with
the University as a zone of contemplation and learning.
Fig. 5.2. Oblation
B. Color
Color is associated with our experiences of cold and warmth, and the quality of light in our tropical
environment, the cycles of night and day, of darkness and light. One of its aspects is hue, which has to do
with how light waves of various lengths and rapidity of vibrations bounce off objects and enter our eyes.
A hue is said to be warm when it has longer wavelengths and is more distinct and easily discernible, for
example red, orange, and yellow. Cool hues such as blue or violet have shorter wavelengths and seem to
merge into each other. Warm colors seem to advance towards us; cool colors appear to recede.
Blue, yellow and red are primary colors. When they are
mixed, they produce secondary colors: yellow and red make
orange; red and blue make violet; blue and yellow make green.
When they are placed opposite each other in the color
wheel, they are said to be complementary: red and green,
yellow and violet, orange, and blue.
Hues may vary in saturation, intensity, or brilliance –
another aspect of color. When we mix a brilliant blue with a
neutral hue, such as gray, its hue or blueness does not change;
it just becomes less intense or duller.
Another aspect, value or tone, refers to the hue’s brightness or
darkness. When a hue is mixed with black, it becomes more dim
or heavy; when it is mixed with white or gray, it lightens.
Fig.5.3. Color wheel Artists make use of these aspects of color and combine
l them into different color schemes. Some artists prefer a
polychromatic scheme, meaning its is made up too many colors, as opposed to others who prefer a
monochromatic scheme, using only one color, blue for example, and mixing it with white or gray to
achieve its many tones. Others use no color, preferring to black, a color that absorbs all colors, or white,
which reflects all of them.
The School of Design and Art (SDA) building of the La Salle College of St. Benilde on Vito Cruz, Manila built
by Architect Lor Calma is achromatic, with white concrete wall interspersed with glass. Combined with its
unique floor plan and structure, the color scheme gives the building a futuristic look, reflecting its cutting
edge, industry-driven curricular programs.
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C. Value
Refers to gradations of tone from light to dark, which can be
an aspect of color as discussed above, but could also specifically refers
to the play of light on an object or a scene. In representational
paintings, it is shading, blending, and chiaroscuro, or the play of light
and dark that lend the flat surface an illusion of depth and perspective.
Non-representational use of value is also useful in black-and-white
photography where images are given unique character and meaning in
artistic photography, but can also be useful in documentation, as in
black and white ID photo or in reportage practices like
photojournalism.

D. Texture
Texture refers to how objects and surfaces feel, and is most
associated with the sense of touch or tactility. Textures are created, as
previously discussed when several lines combine. The combination
may be described as smooth, translucent, fine, silky, satiny, velvety,
sandy, furry, feathery, slimy, gritty, rough, rugged, coarse, porous,
irregular, jagged, thick, thin and so on. For example barong and baro’t School of Design and Art (SDA) building of
saya fabrics are translucent and delicate, while the crocheted dressed the La Salle College of St. Benilde

of Aze Ong are soft, yet thick. As Filipino formal dress, the former are
appropriate for important occasions usually done in air-conditioned spaces, and are not for everyday
wear.

E. Shape
Shape refers to forms that are two-
dimensional or three dimensional. Two-
dimensional shape exists as planes having
length and width. Three-dimensional shapes
possess length, width, and volumes. Shapes
can be either be geometric (rectilinear or
curvilinear), biomorphic, or free inventions.
Paintings in the Cubist style have
intersecting and overlapping shapes, some
flat and in the case of collage, jutting out of
the picture plane. The Stations of the Cross by
the National Artist Vicente Manansala at the
UP Church of the Holy Sacrifice feature One of the Stations of the Cross painted by Vicente Manansala and
transparent planes, a style associated with assisted by Ang Kiukok

the artist. Other painters are expressionist in

their treatment of figure. Ang Kiukok’s works are examples of expressive use of shapes in the context of
struggle against poverty and other social issues.
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F. Composition in space
Composition in space involves the relationship between figures
and elements. It also refers to how these elements are organized and
composed according to the principles of organization, among them
balance, proportion, rhythm, unity in variety, dominance and
subordination.
National Artist Guillermo Tolentino’s Bonifacio Monument, 1933 in
Caloocan has a circular composition fitted for its position at the center
of a busy rotunda where principal streets converge.

Bonifacio Monument

G. Movement
Movement may occur in two-
dimensional design as rhythm or through the
recurrence of motifs, their alternation or
progression unfolding in a series. Movements
is also very much related to line, and the
direction of the eye.
Carlos Francisco’s mural, Filipino
Struggles through History, 1964, which was
one hung at the Bulwagang Katipunan.

Filipino Struggles through History