The elements and principles are the foundation of art and design. All art has these foundations whether the artist knew they were there or not. Most art has been made with the intention of deciding what to use when making it.

The elements of art are colour, line, form, value, space, shape and texture.

The principles of art are what we use to organize the elements and use as tools to create art. They are proportion/scale, pattern, unity, contrast, rhythm/movement, balance, perspective and emphasis.

Along with the elements and principles, art materials include paint, wood, charcoal, clay, metals, bronze, resin, pastels and ink are a few examples.

The elements and principles in art, work together. You, the artist, chooses which elements and principles they want to use in their artworks and choose how they want to use them together to create different effects on the audience. Once you have a good understanding of how these ‘foundations’ work you are then allowed to purposefully bend them if it suits your concept for your artwork to ‘break the rules’.

Colour is a hue of an object when light reflects off it. That is the scientific definition of colour and how the sun’s rays allow us to see it. Most people will refer to colour as red, blue, yellow. There are different categories colours can be placed into; primary colours (red, blue, yellow) the secondary colours (orange, green, purple), warm colours (orange, yellow, red) cool colours (blue, green, purple) neutral colours (white, grey, black and brown) and complementary colours.

Value is the darks and lights of a colour. It could otherwise be referred to as tone or a gradient.

We all know what a line is. Usually it is a point from A to B. In art, you choose the path that line takes to get from point A. Line defines the edges of shapes and forms. Children usually draw with lines. They start by drawing scribbles all over their pages and as they develop, they will draw the outline shape of animals, people and things.

A shape is made when a line connects to itself or when 2 lines connect to each other. Shape is usually 2D.

Form is usually 3D. It can be actual or implied. Forms have width, height and depth. Implied form is created by shading and shaping. Actual form is something that you can see from all sides, otherwise known as sculpture.

Space is easily described as the area around the subject of an artwork. There is negative space and positive space.

Texture is the way something feels or the way something looks like it might feel. They are created by the use of patterns.

Proportion is the size of something next to something else. It is the size relationship between two or more objects or people. When drawing a figure of a person you use proportion to make sure you have drawn them correctly and that their head is not too big for their body. You can also distort the proportion purposefully. You might draw someone larger than another person to convey that the larger person is more important. If you draw a caricature then the head is usually larger than the body and other features of the face are larger, the proportions are purposely off.

Perspective is used in 2D art to create the illusion of a 3-dimensional space on a flat surface.

Patterns are created with lines, shapes and colours. Patterns are everywhere, not only in art. Birds flying in their formations are a pattern, music is also a pattern and butterfly wings have a pattern on them.

Unity is a similar element throughout an artwork that brings all the parts together. Repetition of colour, line and shape can unify an image.

Contrast are the differences in light and dark, rough and smooth, curved or straight. It is often used to put emphasis on something.

Emphasis is used by an artist to put the main focus of something. It can be used to make a point or to convey a message. The elements such as line, shape and colour can be used to create emphasis on something. The emphasis in the image below is on the window because it stands out from the rest of the background. The window breaks the pattern of the tree and leaves that have been painted.

When you use rhythm/movement in an artwork it is often times not physically moving, but the movement is implied.

Balance in art is the distribution of the visual weight. Colour, size and texture are used to create different balances. There is symmetrical, asymmetrical and radial. Below is an example of each.