Line

A Line is the path left by a moving point made by a pen, pencil, or brush. It can be straight, curved, thick, thin, horizontal, vertical, wavy, diagonal, or any combination of these.

Shape

A shape is a two-dimensional area enclosed by a line. Shapes can be geometric (e.g. square, circle) or organic (e.g. freeform leaves, clouds, and animals)

Form

Form is a three-dimensional object that has height, width, and depth. Forms can be geometric (e.g. cube, sphere) or organic (e.g. human figure)

Colour

Colours have three main characteristics: the hue (blue, red, yellow, etc.), saturation (the purity or vividness), and brightness (the lightness or darkness) of a colour of a specific colour. Colours can be warm (e.g. red, yellow) or cool (e.g. blue, green) and can evoke different emotions and moods

Space

Space is the area around, between, and within objects. It can be positive (occupied by an object) or negative (empty). The relationship between these areas — foreground, background, and middle ground — is strategically utilized by artists to give the illusion of depth to a flat surface.

Texture

Texture is the surface quality of something, the way something feels or looks like it feels. It can be rough, smooth, bumpy, or any combination of these.

Value/Tone

Value or tone is the degree of lightness or darkness of a colour. It helps to create contrast and depth in a work of art.

EMOTIONS AND VISUAL LANGUAGE

Emotional responses are often regarded as the keystone to experiencing art, and the creation of emotional experience has been argued as the purpose of artistic expression. Pupils should build a knowledge of how artists and designers have used differing techniques and media to convey and create emotive pieces and use this to express and stir differing emotions in their own artwork and designs.

Examples of knowledge required in this category include:

• emotional impact of using line, colour, texture and shape

• creation of abstract artworks to convey an emotional state

• artists and designers who are well known for conveying and stirring emotional responses through their work

• styles of art and design that are commonly known for conveying particular emotions

• visual language to describe emotion through pieces of art.

Visual language is a crucial form of communication and, with increasing fluency, pupils can enrich their overall understanding of art and influence their creativity, empathy and critical thinking.

To develop visual language, pupils can, for example, acquire and develop their knowledge of:

• the language of art used to describe and analyse any work of art

• how forms of lines and marks are constructed into meaningful shapes, structures and signs

• how an image can dramatise and effectively communicate an idea or message

• how the use of a particular technique or colour, for example, can stress the most important feature within a certain piece

• how visual language has changed over time and been used to encode the world to better understand ourselves and nature.