Colour is an important aspect of many of the visual arts.
Le déjeuner sur l'herbe by Édouard Manet (1863)

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the visual arts:

Visual arts – class of art forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking and others, that focus on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature. Visual Arts that produce three-dimensional objects, such as sculpture and architecture, are known as plastic arts. The current usage of visual arts includes fine arts as well as crafts, but this was not always the case.

Types of visual art

History of the visual arts

Elements of art

Elements of art – shape, form, value, line, color, space and texture

  • Shape – area defined by edges
  • Form – perceived volume or dimensionality
  • Value – use of lightness (tint, or white) and darkness (shade, or black) in a piece of art
  • Line – straight or curved marks that span a distance between two points. For example, see line art.
  • Color – produced when light, striking an object, is reflected back to the eye.
  • Space – area that an artist provides for a particular purpose. Space includes the background, foreground and middle ground, and refers to the distances or area(s) around, between, and within things.
  • Texture – the way a three-dimensional work actually feels when touched, or the visual "feel" of a two-dimensional work

General visual art concepts

Principles of art

Visual artists

See also

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