Elements of Art

Red yellow and orange are considered warm colours. Exam tip: connect warm colours with energy.

Blue, green, and purple are generally classified as cool colours. Their association with water, sky, shade, and nature often creates a calm, cool, and restful effect in an artwork. Red, yellow, and orange are warm colours, so they usually suggest energy and warmth instead. Exam tip: for a calm or cool mood, look for a group dominated by blue, green, and purple.

Opposite colours are called complementary colours. Exam tip: connect complementary colours with strong contrast.

Nearby colours are analogous and give harmony. Exam tip: connect analogous colours with harmony.

A monochromatic scheme uses only one base colour in lighter and darker variations, such as its tints, shades, and tones. Therefore, a monochromatic scheme is correct. A complementary scheme uses two colours opposite each other on the colour wheel, so it is not based on one colour. Exam tip: remember that “mono” means one.

Black white and grey are examples of neutral colours. Exam tip: treat neutral colours as calm base colours.

Intensity tells the brightness or dullness of a colour. Exam tip: connect bright dull difference with intensity.

A bright warm colour attracts attention quickly. Exam tip: remember colour intensity for attention.

A value scale shows tones from light to dark. Exam tip: treat value scale as the base of shading.

A dark value represents an area receiving less light, so it makes a shadow appear deeper and stronger. A middle value creates a balance between light and dark, but it does not produce the darkest shadow. Exam tip: associate deep shadows and low light with dark values.

A highlighted area receives the most light, so it is shown using a light value. A dark value is generally used for shadowed areas, while a middle value represents the transition between light and dark. Exam tip: identify the brightest part of an object as the light value.

A large difference in values creates high contrast. Exam tip: understand contrast through value difference.

Actual texture is a surface quality that can genuinely be felt by touch, such as rough stone, smooth glass, or soft cloth. Visual texture only creates an appearance of texture and may not feel that way when touched. Exam tip: if a texture can be physically felt by hand, identify it as actual texture.

Texture drawn on paper is only seen so it is visual texture. Exam tip: treat illusion texture as visual texture.

Sand consists of many tiny particles, so small dots and a grainy texture represent its natural surface effectively. Long smooth lines are more suitable for smooth surfaces such as water or hair, not for sand. Exam tip: Choose lines, dots, or patterns according to the texture of the object being drawn.

A glass surface is usually smooth and allows light to pass through it, so smoothness and transparency are the most important qualities to show. Grainy or rough textures are more suitable for materials such as stone, clay, or unpolished surfaces. Exam tip: when depicting glass, water, or polished objects, look for cues of smooth surface and reflected light.

The area of the main object is positive space. Exam tip: write subject area as positive space.

The empty area around the main figure is negative space. Exam tip: understand background gaps as negative space.

Changing size and value creates a sense of distance. Exam tip: remember small and light for far object.

When one object hides part of another, the covering object appears nearer and the partly hidden object appears behind it. This is called overlapping, and it creates a sense of space and depth in an artwork. Texture describes surface quality only; it does not show depth. Exam tip: identify overlapping as a cue for foreground-background position.