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Color
Color is created when light reflects off an object and hits a person's eye. The primary colors are red, yellow and blue. Secondary colors are combinations of primary colors. Tertiary colors are a combination of a primary color and a secondary color. Artist can use warm colors - red, yellow, and orange - to create a sunny mood or cool colors - green, blue, and violet - to create a sense of loneliness or calmness. Use the interactive color wheel to see how colors in different regions of the wheel are related to each other.
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LineLines define the edges of shapes and forms. Line quality, which is also called line weight, refers to the thickness or thinness of the line. Lines can also be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, zigzagged, curved, dotted and broken.
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Shape
Shapes are areas enclosed by lines. They are two dimensional (flat) and can be geometric or organic. Geometric shapes are precise mathematical shapes, such as circles, squares, and triangles. Organic shapes are irregular, uneven, and often found in nature.
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Form
Forms are three dimensional objects or images. They either occupy space or give the illusion that they occupy space. Spheres, cubes, and pyramids are basic geometric forms. Like organic shapes, organic forms have irregular and uneven edges.
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Value
Value is the lightness or darkness of a surface. It is often referred to when shading, but value is also important in the study of color. Hues are the twelve purest and brightest color, such as green, yellow, orange, or blue. White can be mixed with a hue to create a lighter color value called a tint. Black can be mixed with a hue to create a darker color value called a shade.
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Space
Space is the illusion of objects having depth on a two dimensional surface. An object in a work of art occupies positive space, while the empty space around the object is called negative space. Artists can create a sense of depth by placing detailed objects that appear larger towards the bottom of a work of art in the foreground. They can also place less detailed objects that appear smaller towards the top in the background and mid-sized objects between the top and bottom in the middle ground. Furthermore, by overlapping objects artists can also create a sense of distance and depth in a work of art.
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