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Evaluating Color and Composition

Author: Sophia

what's covered
In this lesson, you will review the previous lessons on color and composition to evaluate artwork. Specifically, this lesson will review:

Table of Contents

hint
Use the Key Related Concepts listed above or the following sections in this lesson to review color and composition from this unit and evaluate specific works of art.

1. Form and Shape

reflect
Revisit the Form and Shape lesson to review these two elements in composition.

Some artists choose to make realistic depictions in their work; others may choose to create artwork that is very abstract. Form and shape are just two elements in composition that can help artists cover the range of very realistic to very abstract in their artwork.

Main Ideas Description
Naturalism vs. Illusionism Artistic representation can be broken down further into two categories: naturalism and illusionism. Naturalism, with the keyword "natural," is the discipline associated with reproducing objects as they appear to the eye of the artist, or to the viewer. The intention is to produce artwork that appears realistic or natural.

Illusionism, with the keyword "illusion," is similar to naturalism with the exception that the artist’s intention is to convince the observer that the artwork’s subject matter is actually real.
Representation vs. Abstraction Representation has an element of congruity with real life. The depictions are recognizable by almost anyone in more or less faithful reproductions of what can be seen or experienced.

In contrast, abstraction is an art style that emphasizes the simplification of form into shapes, lines, and areas of color. Abstraction begins to veer away from the literal representation of things, which can give the artist tremendous freedom in depicting the intangible. Take, for instance, emotions or music. These are both intangible, yet artists are able to use both of these to create artwork.
Complete and Gestural Abstraction Complete abstraction relies on the use of purely geometric and biomorphic shapes as a means of rendering any discernible form. Geometric shapes are your basic hard-edged shapes, such as circles and squares, whereas biomorphism, which uses biometric shapes, refers to amorphic shapes, or no named shapes. These are shapes that resemble simple life forms, such as amoebas or bacteria.

Gestural abstraction, or action painting, is an art form where the paint is applied in a spontaneous manner. Just like gestural lines, action paintings are characterized by the way in which the medium, in this case paint, is applied. The forms may not be recognizable, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a structure to the composition.


2. Composition

reflect
Revisit the Composition lesson to review the basics of composition.

The basics of composition can be used when discussing many types of artwork. To truly understand these basics, it is important to understand the associated vocabulary.

Main Ideas Description
Picture Plane Picture plane, or the window to another world, so to speak, is essentially the frame around the picture.
Foreground The foreground is the part of the picture closest to the viewer.
Middle Ground The middle ground is the middle area between the foreground.
Background The background is the part of the composition most distant from the picture plane.


3. Color

reflect
Revisit the Color lesson to review how color can be used by artists to enhance their artwork.

Artists have a wide variety of tools available to use when creating artwork. Color is an excellent element of composition artists can use to affect the overall feel of a work of art.

Main Ideas Description
Primary vs. Secondary Colors Primary colors are blue, red, and yellow. These basic colors, along with white and black, can be combined to create an infinite number of colors by adjusting the type of color, as well as the amount of color.

Secondary colors are those colors that are created by combining equal amounts of the basic primary colors. Blue plus red creates purple. Blue plus yellow creates green. Red plus yellow creates orange. Purple, green, and orange are secondary colors because they can only be created by combining primary colors.
Complementary Colors The color wheel is a useful reference tool that helps artists identify complementary colors, those colors that are of an opposite hue. If you look at the color wheel, every color’s complementary color is directly across from it.
Color Value vs. Color Saturation The amount of black added to a color is called color value. If you started with the secondary colors of orange, green, and purple and added a dollop of black to each, you would see them darkening a bit.

The amount of white added to a color is called color saturation, or intensity. When color saturation is used, colors are not only lightened a bit but seem to “pop” more.
Hot Colors vs. Cool Colors Hot colors refer to colors in which yellow and red are the most dominant.

On the other hand, cool colors are colors in which blue is the dominant color.


4. Line

reflect
Revisit the Line lesson to review how line helps artists to define form and shape in a composition.

Artists use lines in many ways in works of art. Each line can define shape and form differently. You will examine various different types of lines in this lesson, as well as examples of lines in various pieces of art.

Main Ideas Description
Contour Lines Contour lines simply define the edge of a form. Another way to think of contour lines is that they are the outline of a drawing, or the line that defines the overall shape and dimensions of an object.
Gestural Lines Gestural lines are lines that emphasize movement in the gesture of the hand. Where contour lines are more deliberate and static, gestural lines are quick and timely. Their emphasis is on capturing movement rather than defining the outer contour of other shapes or forms.
Expressive Lines Expressive lines are lines that seem to be expressive of the artist’s emotions.
Curvilinear Lines Curvilinear lines are simply curved lines.
Rectilinear Lines Rectilinear lines are simply straight lines. The steel movement of the early 20th century, which falls under the umbrella of abstract art, produced works of art that utilized only geometric shapes, primary colors, and rectilinear lines.


5. Symmetry

reflect
Revisit the Symmetry lesson to review how artists use the properties of symmetry and asymmetry to create visual balance and dynamism in a composition.

Artists often use symmetry and asymmetry in works of art. In this lesson, you will learn about symmetry and how it’s used, or not used, by artists in a composition.

Main Ideas Description
Symmetry and Bilateral Symmetry Symmetry can be quite complex. At its most basic, symmetry means equal across an axis, or the imaginary line of division. In contrast, asymmetry means unequal across an axis, and bilateral symmetry means identical across an axis.
Asymmetry, Balance, and Dynamism Asymmetry doesn’t necessarily mean unbalanced but instead is when there is a lack of equivalence or similarity between parts. Balance and dynamism, which is the illusion of movement, are achieved by a careful distribution of elements through the composition. Balance is when elements of a composition carry equal weight, or create harmony. Dynamism is the illusion of movement in a composition

summary
This tutorial reviewed color and composition from earlier lessons, such as form and shape, composition, color, line, and symmetry.

Source: THIS TUTORIAL WAS AUTHORED BY IAN MCCONNELL FOR SOPHIA LEARNING. Please see our Terms of Use.