The Elements Of Art Are Like The Ingredients

Lexie and me starting the new art journal.

I just started my new Strathmore art journal and thought it would be a good idea to evaluate my last two journals and think about what I needed to focus on this year.

In my written review, I wrote that: "Journal #2 was sporadic and monochromatic." I felt I had created a few wonderful pages (that I loved) but in 2015, for Journal #3 I vowed to:

1. Fill each page
2. Be fearless with colour
3. Draw daily

I also thought it would be helpful to take a pause and revisit some of the basics. Like singers and musicians who play scales or sing arpeggios for practice and to warm up, it doesn't hurt artists to revisit the basics over and over again for practice.

Ingredients and Recipe = Elements and Principles

The elements of art are like the ingredients.

From the VirtualInstructor web page:

"It's easy to get confused when discussing the elements and principles of art and group them all together as one big group of abstract terms. It's much easier to understand when you compare them cooking.

When you are cooking something, you have a list of ingredients that are organized by the recipe. The elements of art are like the ingredients. If you are a good cook, then you care about quality ingredients. The same is true if you are a good artist. You care about the quality of elements ( lines, shapes, forms, values, colors, textures, and spaces)  that you chose to put in your artwork...

....The recipe is the principles of art. The principles of art are an organized way that the elements of art are arranged in a work of art. 

 The elements can be arranged in a work to produce balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, and unity (harmony, proportion, variety). So the principles of art are dependent on the elements. 

 No elements - no principles. No ingredients - no recipe."

"No ingredients - no recipe"
6x6 acrylic by Cindi Moynahan-Foreman

http://www.bluecreek.k12.mt.us/Teacherweb/brottweb/elements.htm