Elements of Design

In the first painting titled "KINDRED SPIRITS", by Asher Brown Durand, we find that their are two men on a hilltop in the middle of the forest. This is actually a painting depicting American artist Thomas Cole and American poet William Cullen Bryant engulfed by the wilderness of the Catskill Mountains of New York. In the painting you find contour lines that are drawn to record the certain boundaries in the painting. For example the creek that starts out at the bottom of the page and as you look further into the picture it leads us through the forest and beyond the mountains. The painting also shows directional and movement lines such as the waterfall. It helps the audience to see the direction in which the water is flowing. The diagonal lines in the picture takes us deeper into the forest, leading our eyes from the main vocal point at the front of the painting to the back of the forest. The hills, trees and mountains are some examples. Last are the implied lines. In the painting if you focus on the tree you see above the two men it circles around connecting to the cliff on the other side, which then touches the creek and then goes back up to the hill in which the two men are standing. This implies that the artist wants his viewers to look deeper into the forest beyond the mountains. Theirfore this painting entitled "KINDRED SPIRITS" use a variety of lines which include, diagonal, contour, directional, movement, and implied lines.
This second painting by Rembrandt entitled "SEATED OLD MAN" shows more examples of contour lines. The contour lines include the the robe the man is wearing. It helps us to capture the face of the person in the painting by making his face lighter than the rest of the picture. The wrinkles in the robe shows us directional and movement lines. It once again draws attention to the characters face. The values of this picture helps us to see the three-dimensionism of the picture. And you also notice the on color that Rembrandt uses is a brownish color. Implied lines are also shown in the painting such as the wrinkles in the robe leading us from the bottom right corner to the vocal point. The design of Rembrandts painting expresses his style and feelings. He shows no hesitation using long strokes of lines to create the picture.