Introduction
The Three Pillars of Art are The Elements of Art, Art Form Specific Fundamentals and Technique. These are all organized with the Principles of Art. The Elements of Art are seven separate fundamentals that can apply to all visual artwork and all visual artwork requires at least one. To understand what Art Form Specific Fundamental's are take two different art forms like Portraiture and landscape, they are going to share similarities but there are fundamentals that will apply to one and not the other. For Portraiture you would need to understand the anatomy of the human figure where as in Landscapes you would need understand the different aspects of nature and how they interact with the environment. Technique is also straightforward because this is the chosen method of execution of any given artwork. The chosen medium and how that medium is used or applied comes into play with this pillar. These three pillars serve as the foundation of any art form and can all be organized by the Principles of Art. In this blog I will go into more depth about each pillar, how the Principles of Art can organize them and how this can improve your own artwork.
Elements of Art
The first of the three pillars is The Elements of Art. These are 7 separate basic parts that can create a piece of artwork. Line, shape, form, value, color, space and texture are these seven parts. Abstract work hyper focuses on these elements making them simplified to the viewer and other forms of art such as realistic painting combine these elements in abundance and sometimes complex manners. To do both of those effectively an artist must understand what the elements are and the purpose they serve. When an art movement or artist claims that art has no rules or fundamentals keep these in mind because art cannot exist without them. The Futurism art movement was big on getting rid of the past. Ultimately though they could never claim that they do not share fundamentals. A comparison often made is between the sculpture of "Nike of Samothrace" and it's similarities with Umberto Boccioni's sculpture "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space". Both of these works can be analyzed using The Elements of Art.
Art Form Specific Fundamentals
Art Form Specific Fundamentals is exactly what it says. Different art forms will not only require the elements of art but also fundamentals that are unique to them but not mandated in others. Look, for example, at Graffiti and compare it to Pointillism. Graffiti is a letter-based art form and cannot be done without letters, otherwise, it cannot be graffiti. Pointillism was an art movement in the early 1900’s and described a specific painting technique. For a painting to be considered pointillism it would have to apply the pointillist technique of optical color mixing. Take these two examples of Graffiti and Pointillism and try to imagine them without those art form specific fundamentals. What are you left with?
Technique
Technique is the favorite of the three pillars or at least the one that gets the most attention. Here is where the medium of choice is decided, what tools will be used, how you will use the tools and so on. Think of technique as the decorative frosting. Your elements of art and art form specific fundamentals are the cake, being the most important. No matter what technique is applied, if the other two pillars are not sound technique will not cover it up. This is not to diminish the importance of technique but do not ignore the other two pillars when focusing on this one. An example of different techniques is this composition done in graphite and then recreated with oil paint.
Principles of Art
After understanding how the three pillars of art hold up artwork the remaining question is how does someone put all these together cohesively? This is where the principles of art come in. The Principles of Art include rhythm, balance, contrast, proportion, gradation, harmony, variety and movement. This gives artists an avenue to organize the Elements of Art, the Art Form Specific Fundamentals and Technique. You can start by applying these different principles to each pillar individually. How do I apply rhythm to my lines? How do I apply rhythm to a portrait? How do I apply rhythm to technique? Look at this painting by Francois Boucher, a major principle he uses to organize the pillars of art is movement.
Conclusion
This is not meant to make the artistic process overly complicated or to scare away anyone starting out. These different fundamentals are meant to help every artist understand their craft on a deeper level. By understanding the Three Pillars of Art and how to organize them any beginner or advanced artist can analyze their choices and find ways to improve their art.
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