Art has long been created, viewed, interpreted, and recreated throughout history. The widely recognized elements of art are Line, Shape, Tone, Color, Pattern, Texture, and Form. These seven elements are thought of as being the building blocks of any piece of art regardless of whether it's a painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.
Artistic Elements in Arcane
One beautiful example of the use of different artistic elements comes from the popular show Arcane by Riot Games and available on Netflix. This show has two seasons and was released 2021-2024. Arcane has been nominated for many awards including the Emmy Award, which the show won in 2022 for Outstanding Animated Program. The range of art styles present can be analyzed and debated for hours, but I've one of my personal favorites to share with you. I referenced the show itself, information about the show through IMDB and a highly regarded gaming blog called 80 Level. Due to the format of the artwork, it wouldn't in my opinion be best observed in a physical format or painting. The artwork is best witnessed within the show, which offers a deep background on the events and characters being portrayed and allows the viewer to enjoy the images with appropriately accompanying music.
In Season 2, Episode 1, "Heavy Is the Crown" we get a unique look at charcoal drawings being used within the show. These drawings are hand drawn in oppose to the rest of the scenes, which are fully animated. In addition to this unique difference, it is the only scene within the show that isn't in full color. (Spoilers Warning) During this scene, one of the characters, Caitlyn, is mourning the death of her mother after an attack. The scene is created with a series of charcoal backgrounds and a few key elements being left in color. In the one image I picked to show below you can see Caitlyn and the pedals around her left in color while everything else is darkened. A few splotches of color are still left over randomly around the images charcoal background implying that it's possible that the color is fading (but not yet entirely gone as it will be in following images).
Color
One of the largely utilized elements of art within this particular scene was the color. Mourning is often associated with darker colors, especially black. Color can also be used to indicate what things are of greater importance or joy. In these scenes, the lack of color fostered a feeling of sadness for me and allowed me to connect with what everyone, especially Caitlyn is feeling within this act. This mourning scene is at the beginning of an episode, which also starts off the season, so the artists were tasked with eliciting a feeling of sadness without anything to slowly lead the watcher into this deep emotional state. There is no immediately prior death scene, nor depiction of mourning prior to this episode to help get the viewers into the mindset of experiencing a great loss. The lack of color really helped capture the deep sadness or depression that comes with such a loss very quickly. If this scene had been done in full color, it still would have given the viewer the feeling that the world is still very full and the impact of Caitlyn's loss is minimal in comparison to everything around them. Without the color that the viewer is used to having within these scenes, they are also losing something, the brightness and wonder of this imaginary world that they are watching.
I also mentioned how color can signify things of importance. In this scene, you can easily pick out the very few things that are considered important or still somewhat joyous to Caitlyn, based entirely on what is still left in color. Anything else has faded and is no longer of focus to her. This further enforces the idea that leaving the entire scene in color would have given the wrong illusion that she still saw a lot of value in the world, despite her mother no longer being in it. They also repeatedly show her mother in her casket before it is closed and her mother and casket are left in full color. I included an image of this so you can see how bright this image is in comparison to the dull image above. In summary, her mother is the color and importance of Caitlyn's world. so as she leaves, she takes the color with her.
Tone
In addition to color, tone plays another major role in how this scene is depicted. Tone refers to the contrast and brightness or dullness of the artwork. In the two images above, you see how one is very bright whilst the other is incredibly dark and dull. One other purpose that tone has in this scene is showing what sort of things are drawing Caitlyn's attention. When your mind is taken up with grief, it can be hard to process everything around you so Caitlyn can only focus on a few things at a time. You see that she is very focused on her mother and the flowers being left for her mother. But one other thing is left to contrast the darkness, Vi. Vi is her close companion whom she had been growing feeling for. The contrast between light and dark allows us to see that despite her circumstances, Vi still takes up part of Caitlyn's attention and is noticeable amongst a crowd. If Vi was drawn to be black and white like the rest of the character's in this scene, it would be safe to assume she wasn't of nearly as much importance during this time. But her continuing to show up and stand apart hints at the deep importance Vi has in Caitlyn's life. As viewers, we are drawn to focus on the exact things that Caitlyn is focusing on: Vi and her mother.
Texture
Finally, texture plays an important roll in how this scene is portrayed. The animated art style is different from that of the charcoal backgrounds. For starters, the charcoal backgrounds are hand drawn and have less precision and consistency in comparison to the animated pieces. The charcoal elements are also blurred and shave slightly less detail depending on the specific clip being analyzed. This creates a sort of disconnect to what is going on outside of the few things Caitlyn is focused on. This represents a disconnect from reality that can happen for people experiencing grief and/or depression in which the person might not feel like what is happening around them is real or might not take in nearly as much detail about the world around them as normal. The change in textures from a precise and detailed piece, such as Caitlyn's mother in the casket, differs greatly from the blurred and messy depiction of everything else around her. Even though the settings are familiar from prior scenes of the show, they don't give the same sense of familiarity from before.
Putting It All Together
Arcane does a beautiful job of bringing the viewer into a feeling of deep loss very quickly through its artistic choices. The difference in tone, color, and texture help emphasize the feelings and viewpoint that Caitlyn has. It shows the viewer in a subtle way the exact mindset that she is in, including what she still has the energy to focus on and how she is disconnected from the world around her, familiar places that don't feel the same anymore. I encourage you to watch the full scene below so you can feel for yourself how quickly the art elicits a feeling of sadness and disconnect without any immediate prior connection to the character. This scene was incredibly moving to me and had an infinite depth of artistic choices that I applaud for making such a beautiful scene. Hats off to the amazing creators of Arcane.
My name is Grace Lorntzen and I am currently pursuing a Bachelor's of Elementary Education. I currently work as an online tutor and enjoy working with kids. In the past, I've worked as a swim instructor for a few years. In my free time I enjoy music, reading, and drawing. I also love swimming but haven't swam much since winter started. I grew up moving around a lot but I currently live on campus and moved from Seattle. I'm taking this class to both meet my degree requirements and find new types of art to explore. I'm most excited to learn about Modern and Non-Western art. Maple Leaf- Fine Art America One type of art that has always been of interest to me is black and white artwork that uses a simple and common office pen or Sharpie. I first started discovering this kind of art in middle school when I saw a post on Pinterest made entirely out of a pen. I loved how similar to the artwork above, it used textures and pressure to change the tone and to add ...
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