Elements of Design - The Landscape Painter's Principles

Just as athletes must learn the rules and then spend many hours in practice to develop their precision and style, so must the artist learn the rules and then practice. This article is about some of the rules of design that artists must know in order to have a successful painting.

The simplest element of design is the line. A line is a one-dimensional mark. It has only length. If we draw another line, not on top of the first, then we are creating form. Form has both length and width; form is two-dimensional. Lines and forms can be organized into shapes, the third element of design. Complex shapes are often built from simpler shapes, such as circles, ovals, squares and rectangles. The distance between shapes is called space, another element of design. Space also refers to the illusion of depth, or three-dimensions. Thus when properly placed, shapes can give the feeling of three-dimensions in a two-dimensional surface. There are several ways to create visual three-dimensional space. One way is by using one-, two- or three-point perspective. Another is by using overlapping shapes. The landscape painter uses all these elements of design when creating a landscape painting.

In addition to line and form, shape and space, there are other elements of design. The amount of lightness or darkness of an object is the value. A good exercise is to draw a series of ten squares, put black in the left-most one and white in the right-most one, then try to paint shades of grey in the middle blocks, going gradually from dark to light. This is called a grey-scale, but the same could be done with any color. Similarly, we could paint a sphere with the lightest light on one side and the darkest dark on the other, going through all the shades of grey between the two.

Next is the element we all love - color. Color has three characteristics - hue, value and chroma. Hue refers to the color, such as red or green, blue or yellow. Value refers to how light or dark the color is (how it compares to the grey-scale). Chroma refers to how bright or dull the color is - it's saturation level or purity. The landscape painter must understand color in order to use it effectively.

Texture is the last fundamental element of visual design. A surface might be smooth or rough. We might represent a rough surface with thick brush strokes of paint, use of a palette knife or even by adding objects to our painting.

There are other principles of design that the landscape painter uses, according to Mitchell Albala in his book Landscape Painting. These principles refer to the painting as a whole. They are motion, balance, proportion, unity, variety, harmony, pattern, rhythm and emphasis - the focal point. In order to have a successful painting, the painter needs to be aware of all these elements of design and see that his/her painting observes them.

At Mary's Art, Inc., we have a large variety of original hand painted oil paintings on canvas. These inexpensive, colorful paintings were created en plein air (French for "open air") to capture the spirit and emotions of nature and bring them to you for your enjoyment. They are modern in style, somewhat abstract, and with expressionism overtones. Please visit http://www.murphyartstudio.com/ and find paintings you love.

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Landscape Painting - How I Came to Love It

At one point in my childhood, I lived on a small 40 acre farm. The house was set back from the highway and the fields lay on either side of the road leading to the house were planted in corn or wheat. We had a barn and other houses to protect our cows, pigs, chickens, dogs and cats. We also had a garden where I learned to plant, weed and harvest vegetables, and later helped my mother preserve them for the winter.

At the back of the property, the land was part of a small hill - just enough for a fun sled ride when snow covered the land. I remember alfalfa planted there and the bales of hay after my uncle mowed. Also on a back corner was a wooded area where sun played on the leaves of the trees and danced on the shrubs. It was here that fungi grew and all sorts of bugs and insects could be found. It wasn't until years later that I realized how much I had come to love this land.

In time, we moved to a house on a small lot in a small town. My time was spent in high school, later college and the big city. After marriage, I was again in a small town where I planted flowers and a few vegetables in the flower beds.

When the youngest child was in college, I moved to Maryland, found a teaching position at the university and moved into a condo. I was lucky to have found a "garden apartment" meaning there was a 4' x 12' patch of soil attacked to the enclosed patio where I enjoyed having flowers and a few veggies. It was while I was teaching at the University of Maryland that I learned to paint, taking one class each semester.

In time, I left and lived with my aging mother in Florida where I continued painting lessons from the teachers at the local gallery. Still later, I married a man from Baltimore who always wanted to live near his childhood home on the Eastern shore. When we settled there, I again went to the local gallery for lessons and found that these artists were plein air (outdoor) painters.

When I first tried painting out-of-doors, it was a challenge! How does one fit something from that panorama onto an 8" x 10" canvas board? With time and practice it became easier and I found that I really loved painting in the open air.

Now, I usually paint on canvases 20" x 20" and am interested mostly in gnarled trees because they have such interesting designs. People have told me that my paintings are all about design and color, and in painting outdoors I can see the depth of field so much better than a photograph can afford. I feel the love of the land I experienced as a child, and as the poet said, "No matter if I get sunburned, bitten by bugs, lost my brush or my painting didn't turn out well, I still had a great day"!

At Mary's Art, Inc. we have a large variety of original hand painted oil paintings on canvas. These inexpensive, colorful paintings were created en plein air (French for "open air") to capture the spirit and emotions of nature and bring them to you for your enjoyment. They are modern in style, somewhat abstract, and with expressionism overtones. Please visit http://www.murphyartstudio.com/ and find paintings you will love.

View the original article here