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Lesson · Grade 3 · Arts Education

The elements of design: line, shape, colour, texture, value, form and space

  • Grade 3
  • Arts Education
  • 1 min 30 s
  • British Columbia
  • BC3-AR-05

Starting from a small painted landscape, the video draws each element of design in turn: straight, wavy and zigzag lines; geometric and organic shapes; primary colours mixing into secondaries on a colour wheel; smooth, rough and fuzzy textures; a value scale from white to black; a cube and a shaded sphere for form; and positive and negative space. Each element drops a small picture of itself into one of seven tiles, and the video ends on the full row beside the landscape with the recap "Line, shape, colour, texture, value, form and space".

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In one sentence

The question this lesson answers

What is a picture built from?

Artists often name seven elements of design, the building blocks of art.

Transcript

What the lesson says

What is a picture built from?

Artists often name seven elements of design, the building blocks of art.

A line is the path of a moving point: straight, wavy or zigzag.

A line that closes up makes a shape, a flat area with height and width.

Shapes can be geometric, like a triangle, or organic, like a leaf.

On an artist's colour wheel, red, yellow and blue are the primary colours.

Two primaries mix to make the secondary colours orange, green and violet.

Texture is how a surface feels, or seems to feel: smooth, rough or fuzzy.

Value is how light or dark something is, from white through grey to black.

A form is three-dimensional, with height, width and depth, like a cube.

Shading with light and dark values makes a flat circle look like a solid sphere.

Space is the area around, between and within things.

Objects fill the positive space, and the empty areas are negative space.

Line, shape, colour, texture, value, form and space are the seven elements of design.

Curriculum

Where this fits

British Columbia, Grade 3

Arts Education, Visual arts: visual arts: elements of design: line, shape, space, texture, colour, form (visual arts); principles of design: pattern, repetition, rhythm (visual arts), contrast, emphasisBC3-AR-05

Next: Pattern, Rhythm, Contrast and Emphasis

British Columbia, Grade 4

Arts Education, Visual arts: visual arts: elements of design: line, shape, space, texture, colour, form (visual arts); principles of design: pattern, repetition, balance, contrast, emphasis, rhythm (visual arts), varietyBC4-AR-05

Next: The principles of design: balance, contrast, emphasis, pattern and unity

British Columbia, Grade 5

Arts Education, Visual arts: visual arts: elements of design: line, shape, space, texture, colour, form (visual arts), value; principles of design: balance, pattern, repetition, contrast, emphasis, rhythm (visual arts), unity, harmony, varietyBC5-AR-05

Next: The principles of design: balance, contrast, emphasis, pattern and unity

British Columbia, Grade 6

Arts Education, Visual arts: visual arts: elements of design: line, shape, space, texture, colour, form (visual arts), value; principles of design: pattern, repetition, balance, contrast, emphasis, rhythm (visual arts), variety, unity, harmonyBC6-AR-03

Next: The principles of design: balance, contrast, emphasis, pattern and unity

British Columbia, Grade 7

Arts Education, Visual arts: visual arts: elements of design: line, shape, space, texture, colour, form (visual arts), value; principles of design: pattern, repetition, balance, contrast, emphasis, rhythm (visual arts), movement, variety, proportion, unity, harmonyBC7-AR-05

Next: The principles of design: balance, contrast, emphasis, pattern and unity

This lesson is also listed in Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6 and Grade 7.

The outcomes and strands follow the British Columbia curriculum.

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