Visual Language and the Formal Elements

Naming it is not the same as choosing it

Most people meet the formal elements as a list to learn: line, shape, form, tone, colour, texture, and often pattern and scale too. Learning the list takes an afternoon. It is also worth very little on its own. Here is why. Two students hand in the same drawing. One writes underneath: "I have used line, tone and texture." The other writes: "I kept the lines long and unbroken rather than short and scratchy, because I wanted the figure to look still." Both sentences name elements. Only the second one says anything. That is the whole idea here. Every formal element in a piece of work is a decision, and for every decision there was an alternative you turned down. The sentence that earns credit has a shape: I used THIS rather than THAT, because I wanted THIS EFFECT. The part almost nobody writes is the middle one, and it is the part that proves you were choosing rather than just making marks.

Five words worth having

These are not the element names, which you can find on any classroom wall. These are the words for what you DO with the elements, and they are the ones that turn up in the marking.

Two notes that record a decision

Five notes written under work in a sketchbook. Tap the TWO that record a decision rather than a label.

• In this piece I have used line, tone, colour and texture
• I left the edges soft instead of drawing them in, so the shape would sink back rather than sit on top
• I think the colours work really well together and I am happy with it
• I cut the arrangement off at the left instead of fitting it all in, so it feels like part of something bigger
• This took me four lessons to finish and I worked hard on it

The page that is all one grey

A student wants the eye to go to the bird first. Everything on the page, including the bird, has ended up the same middle grey, and it does not stand out at all. Which is the most reliable fix?

• Lighten the area immediately around the bird, so the biggest difference on the page is at the bird
• Draw the bird larger
• Add much more detail everywhere so the page looks more finished
• Draw a hard black outline around the bird

One thing on its own, and the same thing with a neighbour

This is the idea people find hardest and the one that makes the rest easy. No formal element carries meaning by itself. It only does something once there is something beside it.

Five things you might want, five different moves

How a decision gets made

A student is making one visual-language decision properly rather than by accident. Put the stages in order.

• Say in plain words what you want somebody looking at it to feel or do
• Pick the ONE element most likely to carry that
• Work out the version you want AND the version you are turning down
• Try both, small, side by side on the same page
• Judge them against what you wanted, not against which looks nicer
• Keep the one that does the job and write down what you rejected and why

What the top of the scale actually rewards

Three habits separate work that scores highly here from work that looks accomplished and does not. One decision explained beats six elements named. A note saying you used line, tone, colour, texture, shape and form tells a marker that you can read a list. A note about a single choice, with the alternative in it, tells them you were in charge. Say what you rejected. This is the missing half of nearly every annotation ever written. "Rather than", "instead of" and "I tried the other way first" are the three phrases most worth getting into the habit of, and they cost you one line each. ⭐ Judge the effect against your intention, never against whether it looks nice. A choice that makes a page uglier and does the job you wanted is a good decision, and you should say so. All of this can be shown with a pencil, one sheet of paper and a phone to photograph the two versions side by side. None of it needs a gallery, a trip, or anything you have to buy.

Bigger difference, smaller difference, or neither

A student has a pale grey jug on a pale grey cloth and wants the jug to stand out more. For each change, decide what it does to the difference between them. Three lives.

The song where everything was turned up

Somebody recording a song wants the last chorus to hit hard, so they turn it up. Then the verse before it sounds weak by comparison, so they turn that up too. Then the opening sounds thin, so up it goes. By the end, every second of the song is as loud as every other second. And now nothing hits at all. The chorus was never loud in itself. It was louder than what came before it, and once that gap was closed there was nothing left to feel. Turning everything up is the same as turning nothing up. The person who gets it right does the opposite. They take the verse DOWN, and leave a bar of near silence before the chorus starts. Nothing about the chorus changed. It lands twice as hard, because of what is sitting next to it. ⭐ And notice they can tell you exactly why the quiet bar is there. It is not a happy accident, and they could have left it out.

What turns a named element into a credited decision

A student has written "I used texture here" under a drawing. Select every addition that would turn that into something a marker can credit.

• Saying what they did instead of an alternative they could have used
• Saying what effect they wanted it to have on somebody looking
• Saying whether it worked, measured against what they wanted
• Writing the same sentence again at greater length
• Naming three more elements that are also present in the drawing

Finish the sentences a marker wants to read

What you want a piece to do to somebody looking at it is your _____, and every other choice is judged against it. Because a difference is a gap between two things, _____ can be opened from either side of it, which is why a focal point can be helped by changing what sits around it. The part of a piece the eye should reach first is where you want the _____, and it disappears the moment everything on the page is competing. Where things sit in the frame and what you leave out is the _____. What makes any of this worth marks is that the choice was _____ rather than accidental, and the clearest proof of that is naming the _____ you turned down.

Build the sentence that earns

Assemble the annotation that turns a formal element into evidence of a decision.

One project, four decisions

A student is working towards a piece about a crowded bus stop. Each stage sets out where they are and hands you the decision.

• Their annotation currently reads "I have used line, tone, colour, shape, texture and form." A teacher says it earns almost nothing. Decide what to do.
• They want the waiting figure at the front to be seen first. The whole drawing has come out in a similar mid tone and nothing separates. Decide the move.
• They love a particular acid green and have used it across the whole background. It is the part of the page they are proudest of, and it makes the piece feel cheerful, which is the opposite of what they intended. Decide.
• A friend says all this talk of visual language is jargon, and that either a piece looks good or it does not. Decide what to say.

Plan one decision of your own

Think of a piece you could make about anywhere you spend time waiting. Explain ONE visual-language decision you would make in it, and how you would prove it was a decision rather than an accident.

• Say in plain words what you want somebody looking at it to feel
• Name the ONE element you would use to carry that, and the version of it you would choose
• Say clearly what the alternative was, and why you would turn it down
• Explain how you would test the two versions side by side
• Finish by saying how you would judge the result, and why liking it more is not the test