The Elements of Art - Line

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The elements of art are the most basic building blocks or parts of all visual arts studies. You may think of the elements as the ingredients. Just as bread is made of flour, salt and water, art is made of ingredients called 'The elements of art.'  There are 7 elements of art:

1. line
2. shape
3. form
4. space
5. value
6. color
7. and texture

Line is perhaps the most fundamental element of art. Lines in art take on many characteristics and do many things.  Lines may define the boundaries of an object. This is called an outline or contour.  Lines make shapes, lines create form, lines show direction and lines create texture and are used as a decorative element.  Let's take a closer look at the use and characteristics of line as an element (ingredient) of art.

Lines have character: They are straight, double, curved, jagged, broken thick and thin. A line may vary from thin to thick to thin.  The variety is endless.

Here are examples of the characteristic of lines (click the pic to enlarge)

Here is are examples of outline and contour:

Here you can see how line shows direction and defines form and space

This cute little character I have named Furbuzol. He is made of a variety of lines.

Quicky Quiz 

1. For practice list all seven elements of art.
2. Now make your own furbuzol in Photo Shop. Screenshot it (shift, apple, 4) and submit 1 and 2 as an email.

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