The Wave of Elements

     How many elements do you think you will be able to find in a painting? In the painting The Great Wave of Kanagawa, I was able to find five different elements Hokusai used to create this painting. The Great Wave of Kanagawa was one of the most well known Japanese artwork. It was created on 1829 to 1832. Although it is almost 200 years old, the painting has a very modern feelings to it. However, it also contains the style from ancient Japanese art, the clean and curve lines.
     The first element I was able to find once I look at the painting was line. In this painting, Hokusai used line to create the shape of the wave, also the motion of the wave. This leads to the second element I found, contour line. Hokusai used long curve line to contour the shape of the wave and he used small curve line to show the contour of the motion on the edge of the wave. With both subjects being in curve lines, I think Hokusai was able to balance out the painting. In this painting you can see a wave in the middle of the frame. In front of it, you can find a shorter wave in the front. Between these two waves, there are three sail boats. Then when you look further into the painting, you will be able to visual a Japanese volcano in the back. This is known as the background, mid-ground, and foreground, it is the third element I discovered. Most artist would chose a different color for their background, but Hokusai used the same blue and white as the waves on the volcano. However, he was still able to show the distant of the volcano from the waves by using scale, that is the next element I thought of. The waves is much bigger than the volcano in the background, so every when Hokusai made them same color, you can still able to tell them apart. Last but not least, unlike hatching and shading, Hokusai chose to use different value range as the color on the wave. I thought that was a smart idea. Wave is a very strong force, Volcano is a very powerful terrain, and at that time Japanese man were force to be strong and powerful. By using the value range, Hokusai made the painting look much more strong and powerful. If he used shading or hatching, it would look more dreamy.