The 'Formal Elements'

The visual elements of art, also known as formal elements are the base and the means artists go by to create and design their work. These elements are the visual components that go together to form any work of art. We must examine and utilize the various art elements to develop a more thorough understanding of artistic composition.

There are 7 formal elements:

-Line

-Colour

-Form

-Space

-Light

-Shape

Element of Line

This is the most basic of the elements. Line can be used for various different purposes within textiles. A line can express an emotion or a character based on how heavy or light, scratchy or smooth, angular or curvy it appears. Different types of line express different emotive qualities. Coposing lines in a series can also convey the idea of texture.
There are three characterisitcs of line that are important to understand, Line type, line quality and line direction. Line type or attributes refer to the way it moves from beginning to end. Line quality refers to a way a line is drawn, for example, dead straight, curved, strong etc. Finally line direction describes its relationship to the page/material.

Manish Arora has used these lines to create a tent like base of his skirt.

Element of Colour
Hue is the name of a color.
Value is the range of lightness or darkness of a color.
Saturation is the brightness or dullness of a color .Whatever the source, the colour will have a certain hue, intensity and value. The intensity of the colour is proportionately reduced by the amount of black or white mixed into the colour. The quality or degree of the intensity can be referred to as tint or shade.
Colour differentiates and defines lines, shapes, forms, and space. Even black and white images have a huge number of different shades of gray. Colour is the most emotional element of art, it effects our emotions directily, conditioning our moods, thoughts and actions. I am using bright colours combined with black throughout my sketch book and samples as i feel it lessens the blow of a dark and depressing shade and allows more positive emotions to show.

without the bright colours in this picture, all our mind would interpret would be a dark sky without the sun a stranded piece of land and an creepy ocean.

Formal element of form

Form refers to a three-dimensional object, such as sculpture and pottery and in the case of textiles, wall hangings,broaches or garments. Forms, much like shapes, can be geometric or organic. Geometric forms have hard lines and edges. Organic forms are curvy and more free-form.

Formal element of Space

The creation of visual perspective, and the illusion of depth; the distance around, between,
above, below, and within an object or group of objects. In art, space can be described as either two-dimensional or three dimensional.
The space in two-dimensional artworks such as paintings, drawings, prints and photographs (flat space) is essentially limited to height and width. While there is no actual depth or distance in such works, artists have created techniques to create the illusion of depth or distance on these flat surfaces.

•The placement of objects can give the illusion of space. Distant shapes are higher and closer shapes are lower in the picture plane (Overlapping of objects on the picture plane can also suggest space) .

Three dimensional space is recognized as having height, width, depth, and is referred to as actual space. This would include sculpture, furniture, architecture, wall hangings, garments, ceramics and jewelry. In the setting of a three dimensional work of art the viewer can freely move around and (in the case of architecture) through it.

Formal element of texture

Texture can be both real and imagined. In two-dimensional artworks, the artist may produce a smooth or a rough surface in the application of the medium. Colour and tone contributes to this illusion. You can create a variety of textures through the application of delicate brush strokes and thin layers of oil paint.
Texture in three-dimentional pieces are fundamentally important.texture often becomes an important clue to the material, its character, weight, and solidity.

Formal element of Light

Artists often want to create a three dimensional illusion on a two dimensional surface. One of the ways this can be done is by rendering the effects of light and shadow as they fall on solid forms. A form that is lit by a single light source will be brightest when it is closest to the source, while other forms will diminish in intensity as they recede from the light source. Aspects of the forms, blocked from the light, will cast shadows.

Each of these elements are undeniably fundemental tools in creating a successful art piece, three dimensional or otherwise.