Arthur Wesley Dow was an American art teacher and artist. He created landscapes and sketches before study Japanese arts including Ukiyo-e prints and woodcuts. Dow wanted art students to be able to see, describe and create visual qualities in a systematic way. Dow wrote about the “elements of art” in 1899 in his book Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers. He started out with just three elements; notan (Japanese concept of light and shade, or mass), and color. Over the years, other art teachers have expanded the list the ones below. LINE, SHAPE, FORM, SPACE, VALUE, COLOR, TEXTURE (Think of these as ingredients.) The PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN are how the elements are used in the composition of an artwork. (This is the recipe.) BALANCE, EMPHASIS, MOVEMENT, CONTRAST, UNITY, PATTERN, PROPORTION