The 'Formal Elements'

There are seven formal elements:

LINE
COLOUR
FORM
SHAPE

SPACE

TEXTURE
LIGHT

These elements are key to our undertstanding of visual analysis and developing our own artistic practise.

Line

Line is a human invention, something we need in order to communicate what we see.

Line can be used in a number of ways:

in  a painting lines can occur by contrasts of light and shadow or through colour or shape.

Whether seen or implied, line is unquestionably one of the artist's most articulate tools.

It encloses or liberates space        expresses feeling           conveys movement                  suggests mass or volume           creates an image.

It may be used evenly or in a modulated way to express a wide range of qualities :

from fast to slow         from serene to frenetic         or rigid to relaxed.

I used Edward weston as a starting point for my own photograph.

This is because i wanted to use the use of line in my own picture.here the use of lines

help the eye read teh image. in teh Westin photograph the lines create a direction.

in my own photo the lines centre the image and tells the eye how to read the photo.

Colour
It could be said that colour is the most important element of Art. How we see colour is affected by our environment, culture and reitnal ability. Colour effects our emotions, natural instincts and our very wellbeing. Colour has no boundaries, it affects every aspect of life.

Form

Form has mulitple meanings in Art.

As a verb (to shape and create)

the organisation and composition of a piece of work

the illusionary representaion of something three dimensional on a two dimensional surface.

A mold in which a meterial  is poured

A three dimensional solid or contained space

Glenn Brown

Glenn brown's style of painting uses the technique called 'trompe l'oeil' .

(french for 'trick of the eye')

Trompe l'oeil is the technique using extremely realistic imagery in order to creath th optical illusion that the painting is a three dimensional object.

While this painting appears textured with thick brushstrokes and layers of paint, in reality this oil on board is extremely flat using the finest of brushstrokes.

In my own work my photos were very close up showing every detail and in my drawings and paintings i focused on the shading toning of the picture therefore creating a very detailed and realistic work that almost creates a three dimensional form, similar to Brown's work.

Shape

Shape has three fundamental purposes in art:

To portray a physical form.

To achieve a harmony and order in a composition.

To express the different qualities of moods and feelings.

The term 'shape' refers to any area of real or imagined object created and rendered using the all other formal elements.

Shape is different to form because while form has mass and volume, shape is only two dimensional.

Karl Blossfeldt

Space

Nothing can exist without space

Texture

'tool drawing' Jim Dine

Light

Life Drawing

Arstist: William Morris

William Morris is usful to my project because I like how he makes patterns out of natural forms. His designs would work very well as a print and I could use these Tiles as a starting point in my project.

Artists: of New Objectivity

New objectivity was a German art movement of the 1920's as an outgrowth of,

and in opposition to, expressionism.

The movement essentially ended in 1933 with the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of the Nazis to power. The term is applied to works of pictorial art, literature, music, and architecture.

Renger-Patzsch’s Die Welt ist Schön (The World is Beautiful) is a collection of one hundred of his photographs in which natural forms, industrial subjects and mass-produced objects are presented with the clarity of scientific illustrations.

I think this relates to my pictures in the way objects are close up and in detail and how this takes them out of there context

 August Sander

I think that the idea of new objectivity relates to my project as, like my artist Blossfeldt, it takes objects and life forms out of context, therefore detatching them from reality.

Flock Wallpaper

This particular pattern of wallpaper reflects my my pictures, and in particular one of my black and white drawings, with its intricate sequrnce of shapes, like a repeated motif.

Artist: Stazeder and Glenn Brown

Stazeder

I found these works by Stazeder bare a string similarity to the work we did in making connections between a chosen artist and our own pictures. Glenn Brown also uses a similar process of development for his paintings.

Glenn Brown

In my house I have a collage Brown made that shows the process taking an image of a rnaissance painting then putting the transparency of another painting over the image.

The lines created by the transparency over the detailed image is how Brown creates his fascinating paintings.

Artist; Gaudi

Gaudi
Gaudi creates organic forms in architecture.
here we see a collonade using cement to represent the trunks of trees. 
I think Gaudi's designs are very effectinve, his designs are not just there to fulfil their purpose. His approach to Architecture is completely unique, studying natures angles and curves and incorporating this in his work.

Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece:

 La Sagrada Família

Having visited the Sagrada Familia, its clear that these pictures do not do the temple justice. The sheer size of the project and the inexplicable detail put into every inch of the building, is like nothing I have seen before.

The project has been under construction since 1882 and is not expected to be finished until 2026.

Gaudi once remarked "My client is not in a hurry."

In my project I have been taking pictures natural elements including zoology. I think that gaudi's architecture has a link to my pictures as i have been very interested in the shapes and patterns that that can be found in a zoological form and how this can look almost man made. Gaudi is also famous for using organic materials in architecture and when designign the Sagradda Familia remarked:

"Those who look for the laws of Nature as a support for their new works collaborate with the creator"