If You Can Read, You Can Understand Art
- Holly Foster
- Jan 5
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 2
Here’s my claim: If you can read, you can interpret a painting. In fact, by the end of this post I believe you will be able to look at any painting with a new set of tools and a greater understanding of what the art is communicating.
Welcome to Art Club. My name is Holly. I'm an artist and homeschool mom of three, and today, I am going to teach you how to understand the visual language using 7 essential elements. You will learn what these elements are, how they are used, and I will give you some clear examples of each in real artworks by notable artists. This blog post is also a YouTube video, and in it there's an extra bonus. At the end of the video, we actually test my claim out by practicing the principles I lay out to analyze and interpret a famous painting. Don't miss it!
So, how is looking at art like reading?
Before you learned to read, letters were just scribbly lines and shapes on a page. They were meaningless until you learned the sounds they symbolize and how they work together and affect one another.
When you began to understand the language of words, a whole new wonderful world opened up to you!
It’s the same way with art. But with art, there are no language barriers. I mean, we all looked at picture books before we started reading novels, right? We have always been reading pictures.
Even before written language entered the scene, people were painting on cave walls to communicate their desires, hopes, and stories.
Art is a universal language, and when we begin to understand what the elements of art are and how they work together a new world of wonder, exploration, and connection opens up to us.
So what are the elements of art? These are the basic building blocks of any artwork – think of them like the alphabet of the visual language.
The 7 elements of art are: Line, Shape, Color, Value, Texture, Form, and Space.
Before we dive in don’t forget to download my FREE Elements of Art Guide! It has useful definitions, examples, and visuals you can use in your home or classroom. And be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel because I’ll be coming out with new posts and video tutorials for easy projects you can do with your students for each of the 7 elements of art over the next couple of months.
Let’s begin with Line.
Line is pretty self-explanatory. You know that a line connects one point to another. Lines can be straight or curved, thick or thin, short or long, solid or dashed. When you hear an art historian or artist talking about the “quality of the line” that’s what they’re referring to - the physical qualities of the lines in a work of art.
So how is line used? Well, you can hardly make a painting or a drawing without making a line. Line is often used to outline a shape, but it may also make just the suggestion of a shape. In this painting by Piet Mondrian line is used to create a grid on the canvas, separating different areas of color.
In The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, line is used to create depth and perspective which gives us a sense of space receding into the background. Notice that the lines perpendicular to us are all pointing to one spot. If we complete those lines, they all intersect at the same place - that is called a vanishing point. In this case, it's Jesus’ face. So line is also being used to draw our attention to a subject, emphasizing its importance.
Practice looking for line in a work of art and simply describe its qualities. This can help you begin to discover how the artist is using line in their work.
Our second element of art is Shape.
Shape is simply a two dimensional (or flat) area of enclosed space. Most of us are familiar with geometric shapes, such as squares, circles and triangles. But there are also organic shapes – shapes that happen naturally in the world, such as the shape of a leaf or a drop of water. Everything we see is some combination of shapes.
In The Kiss, by Gustav Klimt we see shape being used to create patterns, both organic and geometric.
In cubist works, we see shape being used in an abstract way to fragment the work, creating distinct areas on the canvas, turning what would be organic shapes into more geometric ones. In this painting shape is also used to create a pattern in the background.
The third element of art is Color.
Color theory could be a post in and of itself - and perhaps it will be one day. But for now, we’ll say that color is defined by its hue (that means whether it is red, blue, yellow, etc.), its value (how light or dark it is), its temperature (how warm or cool it is), and its saturation (how bright or dull it is).
Color is often used to set the mood or emotion of an artwork. It can be very natural and realistic or an artist may be using color in a very surprising or disorienting way.
One color can affect how we perceive another color. How an artist mixes and juxtaposes color can have a profound impact on an artwork.
In The Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the tones are muted, the variety of colors used is limited, and the background appears more bluish than the foreground to give a sense of depth to the work.
In A Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte by George Seurat, color is applied in dots. Rather than mixing colors on a palette and brushing them onto the canvas, Seurat chose to place a multitude of tiny dots on the canvas, and their proximity to each other leaves our eye to mix the colors together when we view it from a distance.
In Edvard Munch’s The Scream, color is used in a very unnatural and disorienting way. It creates a sense of discomfort and anxiety as we look at the painting.
When you’re “reading” a work of art, practice naming the colors you see, their qualities, and what sorts of emotions they evoke in you. You may find some clues as to what the artist was trying to convey.
Ok, moving on now to Value.
We mentioned it earlier when we talked about color. Value describes how light or dark a color is in relation to itself. So, we’re not talking about how much brighter yellow is than black. We’re talking about light yellow versus dark yellow.
Lighter values are called “tints” and darker values are called “shades.” A value scale, like the one below, takes a single color and depicts it from its darkest shade to its lightest tint.
Artists use value to help create a sense of depth and contrast in a work of art. They may use it to create a sense of form and three dimensionality.
The photographer Ansel Adams has some great clear examples of value. All of his photographs are in grayscale, so we see varying shades of gray, from lightest white to darkest black. Here, in his image The Tetons and the Snake River, we can see every shade of gray depicted, and the use of value creates a beautiful contrast that guides the viewer’s eye through the photograph.
In this Pieter Claesz still life we see value being used really clearly, as the tones range from dark in the foreground to light in the background. You can see a wide range of values just in the goblet. The use of value creates interest, contrast, depth, and a sense of realism.
Let’s move on now to our fifth element, Texture.
Texture refers to a tactile quality - something that can be touched and felt with the fingers. So texture may describe how smooth or rough a surface is. It can be achieved by using an actual material – for instance some painters mix sand or dirt into the paint to produce texture. Or it can be implied through technique in the use of value or line.
Van Gogh created texture through a thick application of paint. You can see an example here in this sunflower painting. Look at how he applied the paint unevenly to the canvas. Using texture in this way helps create a sense of movement and depth.
Asking the question, “What is texture communicating?” can help us as we discern how the artist is using it.
The sixth element of art is Form.
While shape refers to two dimensional objects, form refers to three dimensional ones. So, we would talk about form when discussing sculpture or architecture, obviously. But we may also talk about it when an artist has rendered something to appear three dimensional.
The form of the Great Pyramid of Giza, for example, is large and imposing. It is meant to demonstrate power and immortality.
But in Leonardo da Vinci’s Head of a Woman, he has implied form through the use of value and line. Her face appears to protrude off the page. But rather than be imposing or intimidating, it’s soft and maybe even welcoming.
Our seventh and final element of art is Space.
Space refers to the areas around or between objects in a work of art. Positive space is the area consumed or used up by the subject, while negative space is the area around the subject. Artists use space to create a sense of depth, perspective, and to draw the viewer’s eye to a focal point.
In Paris Street, a Rainy Day by Gustave Caillebotte we see positive and negative space used to create depth and perspective. But also, look and see how the painting is sort of divided into two distinct spaces by the light pole. The use of space gives me a sense, maybe, of separation, and sort of emphasizes these larger figures in the foreground.
How about something more abstract, such as Wassily Kandinsky's Composition 8? In this painting we see the negative space in the background. The positive space is where our eyes are drawn -- the circle in the corner first, and then we are guided through the painting by the lines, angles and shapes, all of which use space to help balance the composition.
So, to sum up, the seven elements of art are line, shape, color, value, texture, form, and space. Learning to identify and describe each of these elements in a work of art will have you well on your way to “reading” this visual language. And being able to do that will open up a whole new wonderful world full of ideas and connections to other people across time and language barriers!
I have a completely free digital download that covers each of these elements and provides examples as well as an opportunity to try your hand at analyzing a piece of art. Check it out and subscribe to my newsletter and YouTube channel to be notified of upcoming posts and tutorials!
Thanks for spending time with me today!
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