Language of Art - Key Concepts

Whether you are new to Arts or you are professional artist, it is important to understand and create your own art language. Well, I sometimes call it handwriting of visual art. Creating a visual image is like writing; it serves to pass on messages; it serves for communication. Being a child, you had to learn each single letter and then to learn to put them together to make words, and sentences and so on... But letters were just a starting point. And similar case is with Visual Arts. They too, have their own "letters". Luckily or not, there are much fewer of them neccesary for visual communication. What are they?

Basically, there are 7 MAIN ART CONCEPTS to learn and to understand their specific features to be able to start visual communication. They are LIGHT, COLOUR, TEXTURE, LINE, 3-D SOLID, PERSPECTIVE, MOVEMENT. If you explore and understand the specific nature of each, then you have to learn to ARRANGE these visual letters to create your own interpretation of reality. Then you are prepared to be, either an artist or at least a conscious art perceiver.

Personally, I have always believed in a view that people see as much as they know. In other words, the more you know about the world, the more you perceive and understand. The more you understand, the more tolerant you are. In terms of Visual Arts, the ability to see more than others is an essential to create a good piece of art.

Thorn Apart, pencil drawing by Danuta Antas