Point

C O N S D I D E R:
A point indicates position. It has no length or breadth. It does not occupy any area of space. It is the beginning and end of a line, and is where two lines meet or intersect. [Wong, Wucius. Principals of Two-Dimensional Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1972.]

Point, line, and plane are conceptual elements that are not visible. Thus when visible, they become form. A point on paper, however small, must have shape, size, color, and texture if it is meant to be seen. So must a line or plane. Volume remains illusory in two-dimensional design. [Wong, Wucius. Principals of Two-Dimensional Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1972.]

A point is the mark initially made as the drawing instrument touches the surface and is removed without making any directional progress over the ground. The action can be performed deliberately or casually, and can result in sharp, speck-like points or ones which are more blunted and diffuse--both representing concentrations of stain precisely located in space, and therefore fixed in time. You can see point as either the beginning or the end of motion in time and space--a specific physical "where" and "when." Furthermore, a series of points can imply direction. As the spatial intervals between points are reduced, the dots seem to string themselves together to become a line--a line of dots which move directionally over the surface as the eye works hard to connect them up. The point, therefore, as a drawing mark, can be effectively used to specify location, to imply time, and to indicate direction. [Crofton, Ian, ed. New York: Schirmer Books, A Division of Macmillan, 1988.]

Physical Characteristics:
Large, small, sharp, blunt, regular (geometric) or free-form and irregular. Smudge. Clarity. Weight.

Manner of grouping or clustering suggests form

Spacing and scale suggest motion, direction and speed.

Distribution, spacing and scale suggest surface dynamics--calm or restless areas.

Light or dark values as well as size and scale suggest spatial position.

[Crofton, Ian, ed. New York: Schirmer Books, A Division of Macmillan, 1988.]

"A dot," says Lauer, "is a shape, although generally a very small one. The scale, however, is relative. What might be a 'dot' in a large painting could be a large shape in a smaller drawing or print." [Lauer, David A. Design Basics (NY: Harper & Row, Inc., 1979.]

It is the most rudimentary element of design. It may or may not derive from something seen in nature, although nature does embellish many of its forms with this device: bird feathers, sea shells, flowers, and fish. A point could arouse a certain fascination on its own, especially when viewed very closely. Yet it is too small for sustained esthetic interest. It is almost always seen in combination with other elements, with other points, lines, and shapes. Like a single note in a musical composition, the point is only one of a group or a series, of a chord or a melody --important because of its place, its position, mainly. As Stravinsky says in Conversations with Igor Stravinsky: "The individual note determines the form only as part of the group or order." [Harlan, Calvin. Vision & Invention, An Introduction to Art Fundamentals. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986. pg. 21]

The Single Point and Linear Trajectory. The single point, as we have seen, is chiefly an element of location or position, and therefore, tends to be static. Yet a series of points or dashes is, in a sense, a broken line. The eye following the path of these simple marks, will grasp the original motor act and transform them into a linear trajectory. The experience of movement and the imagery of movement are so commonplace in the twentieth century that we are surprised and perhaps a little amused that the Italian artists known as the Futurists should have made such a great to-do about them in the years immediately preceding World War I. True, we have become accustomed to speeds they could hardly have imagined; yet their ability to translate movement into images of singular force, seen in those drawings and paintings celebrating rebellion, speed, and the machine, remains impressive. We are tempted to compare the best of their images with the great animal drawings found in the cave at Altamira in Northern Spain, were the movement of line is seemingly the movement of life itself. [Harlan, Calvin. Vision & Invention, An Introduction to Art Fundamentals. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986. pgs. 34-36.]

Whereas the point in itself may be of little importance, it gains significance as soon as it takes its place in a design. Our first consideration is not points or lines as such, but their arangement in variously related positions that give rise to some kind of repetition. [Harlan, Calvin. Vision & Invention, An Introduction to Art Fundamentals. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986. pg. 23 .]

R  E  F  E  R  E  N  C  E  S 

2 Point vt [14c] 1a: to furnish with a point: Sharpen [__ing a pencil with a knife] b: to give added force, emphasis, or piquancy to [__ up a remark] 2: to scratch out the old mortar from the joints of [as a brick wall] and fill in with new material 3a [1]: to mark the pauses or grammatical divisions in: Punctuate [2]: to separate [a decimal fraction] from an integer by a decimal point -usu. used with off b: to mark [as Hebrew words] with diacritics [as vowed points] 4a [1]: to indicate the position or direction of esp. by extending a finger [__ the way home] [2]: to direct someoneÍs attention to [__ the way to new knowledge -Elizabeth Hall] -usu. used with out or up [__ out a mistake] [__s up the difference] b of a hunting dog: to indicate the presence and place of [game] by a point 5a: to cause to be turned in a paticular direction [__ a g un] [__ed the boat upstream] b: to extend [a leg] and arch [the foot] in executing a point in dancing -vi 1a: to indicate the fact or probability of something specified [everything --s to a bright future] b: to indicate the position or direction of something esp. by extending afinger [__at the map] c: to direct attention [can __ with pride to their own traditions] d: to point game [a dog that __s well] 2a: to lie extended, aimed, or turned in a particular direction [a directional arrow that __ed to the north] b: to execute a point in dancing 3 of a ship: to sail close to the wind 4: to train for a particular contest