ELI5: What Are the 7 Elements of Art?

The seven elements of art are the basic building blocks that artists use to create anything you see, just like the ingredients a chef uses to bake a cake or the toy bricks you use to build a castle.

You do not need to visit a museum to find them; you can spot all seven in your everyday life:

• Line: This is a mark that connects two points. Think of the painted yellow stripes in the middle of a road, the power lines hanging outside your window, or the edges of your notebook pages.
• Shape: When lines connect to make a flat, closed area, you get a shape. Look at a slice of pizza that makes a triangle, or a flat screen door that makes a rectangle.
• Form: This is a shape that pops out in three dimensions so you can hold it. An actual round basketball, a cardboard cereal box, or an ice cream cone are all everyday forms.
• Color: This is the light that bounces off things to make them look bright and different. It is the red of a ripe apple, the blue of the summer sky, or the yellow of a school bus.
• Value: This is how light or dark something is. When you stand in bright sunlight, your skin looks light, but when you step into the dark shadow under a big tree, that is value at work.
• Texture: This is how something feels when you touch it, or how it looks like it would feel. It is the softness of a fluffy blanket, the roughness of tree bark, or the smooth, cold glass of a window.
• Space: This is the area around, between, or inside objects. It is the open sky between tall buildings, the empty room in your closet before you hang up clothes, or the distance between you and your friend on the playground.