19th Annual High School Art Exhibition: Elements and Principles of Design

For the past 19 years, the Tyler Museum of Art has exhibited high school artwork from students in the East Texas area. This lesson examines selected artwork from the 19th Annual High School Art Exhibition to discuss how each piece expresses the Elements and Principles of Design.

If you use or reference this lesson plan, please leave a comment with your feedback. The lesson plan can be downloaded in the link below.

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Elements of Design

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Line

An element of design; line is created on a surface with a pointed moving tool. Lines can range in size, width, texture, and presentation. Common types of line are vertical, horizontal, diagonal, zig-zag, and curved.

Isabella Theye, Tranquil Disarray, 2023, Acrylic and Paint Markers on Canvas, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Isabella Theye’s work, Tranquil Disarray, line is found in the following locations:

• Lines are used to construct the entire piece.
• The seemingly bold white lines are smaller clusters of thin white lines that continuously cross each other.
• The collection of lines moves throughout the composition to create organic shapes.
  • These shapes are filled with outlines of the larger space that sit within the previous outline and decrease in size until they reach their smallest point.

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Shape

An element of design; shape is a two-dimensional enclosed space that represents either an organic shape or a geometric shape. Geometric shapes include squares, circles, rectangles, triangles and other standard geometric shapes. Organic shapes include natural non-geometric shapes that are developed from curvilinear lines.

Boston Springfield, Subconscious Flow, 2023, Oil on Canvas, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Boston Springfield’s work, Subconscious Flow, shape is found in the following locations:

• The entire piece is comprised of shapes.
• The artist used geometric shapes in an overlapping fashion to build an abstract view of a face.
  • A circle and rounded rectangle create the eyes.The blue triangular shape that is connected to the larger blue space is the nose.The red triangle that is pointed downward in the yellow space is the mouth.
  • And, the head and body are comprised of a mixture of non-traditional yellow, red, green, and blue geometric shapes.

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Form

An element of design; form is a three-dimensional enclosed space that represents organic and geometric shapes in a third space. Geometric forms include cubes, spheres, triangular prisms, rectangular prisms, and cones. Organic shapes include three-dimensional forms observed in nature, such as trees, rivers, and rocks.

Jose Lopez, Split, 2022, Acrylic on Canvas Board, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Jose Lopez’s work, Split, form is found in the following locations:

• The face and body are rendered in a surrealist three-dimensional style.
  • The face is divided into two parts: one face that looks to the left in a profile view and the other that rests behind the first that looks at the viewer. The two faces are ripping away from each other.
    • The face is rendered in a green-blue hue that uses monochromatic shades to model the face.
    The body, in contrast, uses a light representation of shading.
    • Made from a mixture of light-brown and grey pigments with a dull non-metallic gold shadow tone, the stylized shadow sits on the left shoulder and fades into a highlight on the right shoulder.
  • The figure is placed in front of a spot-lit black void, which emphasizes the form of the figure.

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Space

An element of design; this term defines the surface area between, before, and behind an object in a composition.

Nicolas Ramirez, Kilgore’s Beginnings, 2023, Charcoal on Paper, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Nicolas Ramirez’s work, Kilgore’s Beginnings, space is found in the following locations:

• The piece displays a visual of the founder of Kilgore that fades into a lower view of the city.
  • Space is expressed in the depth of the composition.Expanding beyond the picture plane, the perspective shows a street in Kilgore that runs under the visage of the founder and into the distance.
  • The buildings and cars that are seen on the road and either side of the street slowly decrease in size to accurately express space on a two-dimensional surface.

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Color

An element of design; this term defines the pigments used in a painting. Color can be organized into categories, such as: hues, values, complements, and intensity.

Malaea Theno, Purractically Out of this World, 2023, Mixed Media exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Malaea Theno’s work, Purractically Out of this World, color is found in the following locations:

• The composition expresses a fanciful green space-cat that floats around an earth-like planet in space.
  • The artist used the cool colors of blue and violet and lightly blended them with the warm colors of red-brown and orange.
  • The watercolor pigments swirl around each other to create the representation of space.
  • The rich hues are balanced by the spots of white paint that identify the stars within the color.
  • The cool tones of the green cat, as well as the blue and green planet, help chromatically balance the red and orange tones of space.
    • Without this chromatic balance, the red and orange pigments will overpower the tonality of the composition.

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Value

Value is a spectrum applied to a hue. The color can have a dark value or a light hue. This process of changing the value is caused by adding white for light hues and black for dark hues.

Sydney Hamlin, Max, 2022, Scratchboard, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Sydney Hamlin’s work, Max, value is found in the following locations:

• The artist began with a scratchboard, which has a black layer of pigment that covers white paper below.
  • When an artist creates a scratchboard artwork, they need to think about adding in the highlights by scratching the surface and preserving the shadows by leaving the black pigment untouched.
• The value expressed in the composition shows the highlights of the fur texture and the shadows where sections of fur overlap.
• The pressure of the pen-tool on the scratchboard creates a light to dark shift in the fur.

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Texture

An element of design; this term defines an artwork’s surface. The artist’s use of the chosen medium creates either implied or actual texture.

Joyce Broderick, What Has Happened?, 2023, Acrylic, Paint Marker, and Yarn, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Joyce Broderick’s work, What Has Happened?, texture is found in the following locations:

• The composition reveals a woman with green modulated hues that is covering her face. Her hair is made from crochet yarn flowers, and she stands in front of a painted background.
  • The implied texture created in the background is made from alternating colors. This type of texture does not extend beyond the surface of the canvas.
  • The actual texture is found in the flower hair, that extends off of the canvas in a three-dimensional manner.

Principles of Design

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Balance

A principle of design; this term defines the arrangement of the presented imagery with the elements of design. It refers to either asymmetrical compositions or symmetrical compositions.

Sophie Pate, Clawing, 2023, Mixed Media, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Sophie Pate’s work, Clawing, balance is found in the following locations:

• The composition is balanced between the top portion of the painting and the bottom section.
  • In the top section, fourteen blended blue and red glowing eyes cover the upper area. In the lower portion of the painting, a ghoulish figure crawls towards the viewer.
    • The creature’s body, extended hand, and dramatically bent elbow take up a similar amount of space as the eyes.
  • This balance between the eyes and the figure helps create visual stability with the compositional elements.

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Unity

A principle of design; this term defines how the elements and principles of design are combined within a composition.

Rona Qureshi, Grade A, 2023, Graphite and Acrylic on Paper, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Rona Qureshi’s work, Grade A, unity is found in the following locations:

• The presented egg cartons are all designed to be nearly identical, due to the mass production process that manufactures the cartons.
  • The artist recognized this repeated pattern, especially when the containers are stacked on top of each other.The cartons are all the same light blue color, contain the same color of eggs, and sit on a deep blue-grey shelving unit in a grocery store.
  • These repeated attributes combine to create a unified composition in color palette, composition, and movement.

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Variety

A principle of design; this term defines the combination of imagery, objects, and ideas in an artwork.

Danielle Lawrence, Sunflower, 2023, Mixed Media, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Danielle Lawrence’s work, Sunflower, variety is found in the following locations:

• The composition was designed to use a variety of materials, textures, patterns, and colors.
  • Each piece of fabric is layered in a circular manner to create a slight representation of depth.
  • The fabric pieces that have a glitter-surface appear more textured than the smooth-surface fabrics.
  • Since each edge has an organic edge, the viewer’s eye follows the implied curvier-linear lines to fall deeper into the composition.
• The mixture of these elements and principles exhibits a strong representation of variety.

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Emphasis

A principle of design; this term defines the most prominent area in a composition. The viewer’s eye is drawn to this point because the artist used a mixture of the elements and principles of design.

Jorge Eduardo Zerferino, A Lively Melody, 2023, Mixed Media, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Jorge Eduardo Zerferino’s work, A Lively Melody, emphasis is found in the primary locations:

• The golden treble clef floats above the city of Tyler, Texas.
• It rises into the sky on a golden trail of sheet music.
  • This imagery is the brightest and the most prominent in the composition.
  • This is amplified by the dull hues that build the surrounding city.
  • Lastly, the bright treble clef helps the viewer identify the narrative of the piece: this student was inspired by the music heard in Tyler, making this location an important place for him.

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Movement

A principle of design; this term defines the visual movement observed in a painting. This can be identified as kinetic movement or implied movement. Additionally, movement can be defined as how the viewer’s eye moves throughout the composition.

Victor Araiza, The Un-Fortune-Ate Happens, 2023, Ceramics, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Victor Araiza’s work, The Un-Fortune-Ate Happens, movement is found in the following locations:

• The clay fortune cookies are carefully stacked on top of each other to create a tilting tower of cookies.
  • Though the sculpture is stable in its construction, the illusion of a delicately balanced stack provides tension and a feeling of instability to the viewer.
  • This effect is amplified as the viewer’s eye starts at the angled plate and moves upward by following the angled path of the cookie pile.

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Pattern

A principle of design; this term defines the repetitive imagery and elements of design found in a composition.

Amy Moran, Playing Mind Games, 2022, Drawing Pencils on Paper, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Amy Moran’s work, Playing Mind Games, unity is found in the following locations:

• The chess board background creates a unified balance with the miniature chess board in the artist’s brain.
  • This shared imagery helps connect the idea that the mind games played by the artist begin to overwhelm her.
• This composition is additionally unified by the monochromatic tonality of the composition.

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Proportion

A principle of design; this term defines the comparative size between objects in the composition. It can refer to the imagery within a painting or the size between a sculpture and a real object.

Jolie Jordan-Wright, The Rattler, 2023, Oil on Canvas, exhibited in the 19^th Annual High School Exhibition, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas.

In Jolie Jordan-Wright’s work, The Rattler, proportion is found in the following locations:

• The snake on the ground is larger than the nearby rocks.
• However, the cacti behind the snake, while pushed into the background, appears to be slightly larger than the serpent.
• This sense of scale helps the viewer identify relative size within the two-dimensional space. 

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You can see all of these artworks and more in-person at the Tyler Museum of Art’s current exhibition: 19th Annual High School Art Exhibition. Visit the exhibition page by clicking on the image below.

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