Regarding landscape design, elements of art include but are not limited to color, line, form, texture and scale.

Color

Color can be used to visually change distance perspective and to set a certain mood.

Warm colors and light tints, such as red, orange, yellow and white, advance an object or area toward the observer. These colors and tints placed near the foundation of a house would make the house appear closer to the street.

Cool colors and deep shades like blue, green and black recede and can be used to make the house appear farther from the street. Cool colors are restful while warm colors express action and are best used in filtered light or against a green or dark background.

A color wheel is a diagramatic way of showing relationships between colors. Colors on the right side of the wheel are warm. Colors on the left side are cool. Colors adjacent to one another are analogous. Opposite colors are complementary.

What is important to gardeners, is how colors clash with or complement one another and the distinction between warm and cool colors.

Line

Line is related to eye movement or flow. In the overall landscape, line is inferred by bed arrangement and the way these beds fit or flow together. Straight lines tend to be forceful, structural and stable and direct the observer's eye to a point faster than curved lines. Curved or free-flowing lines are sometimes described as smooth, graceful or gentle and create a relaxing, progressive, moving and natural feeling. Bedlines in our own designs often flow across hard-surfaced areas such as driveways and walkways.

Form

Form and line are closely related. Line is considered usually in terms of the outline or bed edges, whereas form is more encompassing. The concept of form is related also to the size of an object or area. Form can be discussed in terms of individual plant growth habits or as the planting arrangement in a landscape. Plant forms include upright, oval, columnar, spreading, broad spreading, weeping, mounding, vase-shape, etc. Form is basically the shape and structure of a plant or mass of plants. Structures also have form and should be considered as such when designing the area around them.

Texture

Texture describes the surface quality of an object than can be seen or felt. Surfaces in the landscape includes buildings, walks, patios, groundcovers and plants. The texture of plants differs as the relationships between the leaves, twigs and branches differ. Coarse, medium or fine foliage could be used to describe texture but so could smooth, rough, glossy or dull. In a design we often alternate large-leaved plants with small-leaved plants, or dull-leaved with shiny-leaved to create visually appealing contrast in texture.

Scale

Scale refers to the size of an object or objects in relation to the surroundings. Size refers to definite measurements while scale describes the size relationship between adjacent objects. The size of plantings and buildings compared on the human scale must be considered. If you are designing a landscape for a single level home on a 1/4 acre size lot large shade trees such as red oaks or elms should be substitued with smaller-growing shade trees such as the Trident maple or flowering trees such as crape myrtles.