Project #1 Elements and Principles of Art

For our very first project in AED 200, this was pretty fun to do. I believe I was able to capture all the elements and principles of art pretty well. Some were pretty hard for me to find however, like contrast and unity. I didn't know what I should photograph or if it would be good enough to submit, those gave me the most stress I would say, but I got them finally at the end. 

Line is the most basic building block of formal analysis. Line can be used to create more complex shapes or to lead your eye from one area in the composition to another. For line, I photographed a telephone line outside my house, I liked the way the lines were silhouetted against the blue sky and traveled along the photograph, only being interrupted by the telephone pole.

Value is the degree of light and dark in a design. It is the contrast between black and white and all the tones in between. Value can be used with color as well as black and white. Contrast is the extreme changes between values. For value, my friend and I visited an aquarium. There was a sea turtle tank and every now and again he would swim by, so for the picture I thought it would be a great idea to take a picture of a person looking into the tank at the turtle when it passed by. The person would be completely silhouetted against the tank while the turtle and other fish would still be lit up. The contrast between the blackened person and the colorful tank really shows up well.

Shapes are created when lines are combined to form a square, triangle, or circle. Shapes can be organic (irregular shapes found in nature) or geometric (shapes with strong lines and angles such as circles, triangles, and squares). For shape, I photographed the backsplash behind my kitchen stove. I liked the strong geometric squares and triangles in the design.

Forms are three-dimensional shapes with length, width, and depth. Balls, cylinders, boxes and pyramids are forms. For form I had an excuse to bake chocolate chip cookies. After I finished making the dough, I rolled them up into balls and placed them on a baking sheet, I thought the 3D effect of the spheres of dough would work well with forms.

Space is the area between and around objects. Increasing or decreasing the amount of space around an object affects the way we view that object. Two weekends ago my family and I went to Florida to for my grandma's birthday. While we were there I photographed a palm tree against a clear blue sky. The space surrounding the palm tree really highlights the intricacies of the leaves and trunk so you can clearly see the detain better than if I had photographed a series of palm trees with no space between them.

Color differentiates and defines lines, shapes, forms, and space. Even black and white images have a huge number of different shades of gray. Also while we were in Florida we visited a Spanish street market. All the bright and vivid colors of the fruits, leaves and melons really captivated me. I love all the different shades of red, yellow and orange. No two colors and fruits are alike and it was just so beautiful to look at I had to take a picture.

Texture is the surface quality that can be seen and felt. Textures can be rough or smooth, soft or hard. Textures are often implied. For instance, a drawing of a rock might appear to have a rough and hard surface, but in reality is as smooth as the paper on which it is drawn. For texture I photographed a flower in a mulch bed in my back yard. The rough mulch chips and the smooth leaves of the flower are clearly shown. I feel as if I can feel the bumpy and rugged chips whenever I look at this photo.

Balance is created in a work of art when textures, colors, forms, or shapes are combined harmoniously. In this photograph, I created balance by dividing the image into two sections. The top half has buildings and trees while the bottom half has water. 


Contrast is the use of several elements of design to hold the viewer's attention and to guide the viewer's eye through the artwork. For contrast, I photographed the divide between the grass and my back patio in my backyard. The spiky texture of the grass contrasts with the smoother texture of the stone, the bright green color of the grass also contrasts with the pale grey of the stone as well. There is also balance in this photo, the right half occupied by grass and the left half with stone. This picture was the hardest for me to find, I had photographed other photos I thought had contrast in them, like a dozen purple crayons and one blue, but it just didn't feel good enough until I found the grass and patio scene in my backyard.

Movement is the way a viewer's eye is directed to move through a composition, often to areas of emphasis. Movement can be directed by lines, contrasting shapes, or colors within the artwork. For movement I photographed the jet in my pool. The jet propulsion created a rippling effect on the surface of the water that the eye can move up the photograph with. 

Emphasis is created in a work of art when the artist contrasts colors, textures, or shapes to direct your viewing towards a particular part of the image. For emphasis I photographed my dog, Bradley, sitting in a pool of sunlight on my living room floor. I liked how the sun light him up against the dark rug, making him the central focus of the scene. I was actually inspired by the painting in our textbook, Executions on the Third of May by Goya. In that painting, the central focus of the scene is given to a man about to be killed, but he is much brighter than the rest of the people surrounding him because he is being lit up my a near by lamp. I like how Goya had given him emphasis by simply lighting him differently. 

Pattern is the repetition of a shape, form, or texture across a work of art. For pattern, I photographed the outside brick of my house. I liked how the brick seemed to go on forever creating a never ending pattern.

Proportion is created when the sizes of elements in a work of art are combined harmoniously. For promotion, I photographed a giant chair. Obviously, the chair is much bigger than a normal chair, throwing the preconceived notion of a normal sized chair out the window when one looks at my photo.  

Unity is created when the principles of analysis are present in a composition and in harmony. For unity I photographed a bridge scene I found while hiking. I thought this photo embodied unity. The lines of the tree trunks cut across the scene and transport us from side to side of the photo, the texture of the wooden bridge and the pattern of the railing design are all important elements of the photo. The scene is also balanced, with the top half being trees and leaves while the bottom half is the bridge and railing. Overall, I loved this picture and how all the elements and principles come together.

Once I had taken all the photos, it was no problem to create a photobucket account and upload the pictures to my computer. From there all I had to do was label them. The technical aspect of this project was fairly simple once I got the hang of how photo bucket worked.