meaning of the word ART
ability, process, product
art can be used to
� Replicate nature
� Create imagined spaces; fantasy or impossible worlds.
� Show reality.
� Air out a culture's dirty laundry. Expose political issues or injustices.
� Express an artist's own personal experiences or feelings
Readymades
Objects elevated from the commonplace position to a position
of Art.
Assemblage
Art that is made & assembled from found objects.
Pop Art
Art that utilizes the commonplace objects & visual cliches to make
the viewer more aware and think twice about the symbols and objects that
surround us.
Visual elements of art
� Color/Value/Light
� Shape
� Line
� Texture
� Space
� Time/Motion
Medium
The tools in which an artist chooses to work. Drawing, Painting,
Sculpture, Ceramics, Photography....
Principles of Design
� Unity
� Balance
� Rhythm
� Scale
� Proportion
Line
� The simplest and also the most complex of the elements of art.
� Serves as the basic building block for all art.
� There are MANY different ways to make a line; each type of line creates a
different mood or emotion.
� Geometry defines a line as "made up
Expressive qualities of line
� Lines can be perceived as delicate, tentative, forceful, elegant, assertive or
even brutal.
� Lines can be straight, curved, vertical, diagonal, horizontal, zigzagged.
types of lines
� Contour Lines: Created by the edge of things (an object, or figure) The outline.
� Actual Lines: Are connected and continuous.
� Implied Lines: Are connected by the viewer; are not actually present.
� Psychological Lines: A line created by a mental or p
Functions of line
� To outline and shape a form or figure
� As a form
� To create depth & texture
� TO suggest direction and movement
Textures
� Modeling: The creation of the illusion of roundness or three-dimensionality
through the use of light & shadow.
� Stippling: The use of a pattern of dots that thicken and thins in value.
� Hatching: Using a series of closely spaced parallel lines to achi
What lines imply
� Horizontal Lines: suggest stability.
� Vertical Lines: defy gravity and suggest assertiveness.
� Diagonal Lines: imply movement and directionality.
Shape
� Has many definitions.
� In art "shapes are defined as the areas within a composition that have
boundaries separating them from what surrounds them; shapes make those
areas distinct."
� Shape can also be communicated through patches of color and texture.
Actual and Implied mass
� Actual Mass: occupies three-dimensional space and has measurable volume
and weight.
� Implied Mass: creates the illusion of possessing volume, having weight and
occupying three-dimensional space.
Types of shapes
� Geometric Shapes: are regular and precise. Example: rectangles and circles.
Straight (rectilinear) and Curved (curvilinear)
� Organic Shapes: have a natural appearance. Biomorphic shapes and
Amorphous shapes.
Biomorphic shapes
� They are said to have a form like a biological entity.
� From the Greek word morphe.
positive and negative shapes
� Positive Shapes: the objects or figures that the viewer focuses on.
� Negative Shapes: the empty space (or the space filled with tother imagery)
left over in the piece.
figure ground terminology
� Figure-ground relationship: the relationship between the positive and negative
shapes in a piece.
� Figure-ground reversal: when the positive and negative shapes in a piec can
be reversed or are ambiguous.
� We tend to perceive things in context.
Value
� The value of a color of a surface is its lightness or darkness.
� Value Contrast: the degrees of difference between shades of gray.
� Drawing objects or figures with a high value contrast makes them easy to
see.
� Value Pattern: describes the variation
Chiaroscuro:
� The gradual shifting from light to dark through a successive gradation of
tones across a curved surface.
� This technique became popular during the Renaissance.
Psychological dimensions of color
� Hue: a term for the family of color.
� Cool Colors: colors on the green-blue side of the color wheel.
� Warm Colors: colors on the yellow-orange-red side of the color wheel.
� Saturation: the pureness of color.
� Shades: adding black to a hue.
� Tints:
additive and subtractive color
� Additive Color: mixing light.
� Subtractive Color: mixing pigments.
� Primary Colors: color that can not be derived from the mixing of other colors.
(Red, Yellow, Blue)
� Secondary Colors: created from the overlap or mixing of 2 primary colors.
Green, O
color relationships
� In pigments, the primary colors are red, blue and yellow.
� Tertiary Colors: created by mixing pigments or primary and secondary colors.
� Analogous Colors: hues that lie next to each other on the color wheel.
� Complementary Colors:colors that lie acro
local and optical color
� Local Color: the hue of an object as created by the colors its surface reflects
under normal lighting conditions.
� Optical Color: our perceptions of color, which can cary with lighting
conditions.
texture
� Derived from the Latin word for "weaving"
� Used to describe the surface character of things through the sense of touch.
� An artist can emphasize or distort texture of an object to evoke emotional
response in the viewer.
� Impasto: a thick buildup of p
types of texture
Actual Texture: is tactile, texture you can actually touch & feel. Impasto is a
great example, and most common form of texture in a painting.
� Visual Texture: simulated texture; also called Implied Texture. It looks like a
texture, but can not really be
Space
� Objects exist in 3D space.
� Some art is truly 3D like sculpture and architecture.
� And some art just tries to depict space on a 2D surface.
Relative size and linear preception
� The farther the objects are from us, the smaller the object looks.
� Things that are closer to us look larger and things that are further away look
smaller.
� Artists use different techniques like relative size and linear perspective to
create the illus
Illusion of DEPTH
� Vanishing Point: The point at which parallel lines come together, or converge.
� Horizon: the line where the sight stops and on which the artist often places
the vanishing point.
� Vantage Point: where or the height the viewer is looking from
� One-poin
Atmospheric prespective
� Also called Aerial Perspective.
� Texture Gradient: closer objects are perceived as having rougher or more
detailed surfaces.
� Brightness Gradient: distant objects are less intense.
motion
� Actual Motion: this is art that actually & literally moves, often called Kinetic
Art.
implied motion
� Stopped Time: a style of art that "stops time" in order to imply motion.
� Time Implied & Motion Implied: Some artwork attempts to imply that motion
or time has occurred within the art piece.
op art and after image
� Op Art: Optical Art, is based on creating optical sensations of movement
through the repetition and manipulation of color, shape, and line.
� Afterimage: when we look at a color for a long period of time and then look
away, you may briefly see the oppos
Design or Composition
Design or Composition is a process; the act or organizing the visual elements
to effect a desired aesthetic on a work of art.
unity and variety
Unity & Variety:
� Unity is oneness or wholeness.
� A work of art achieves unity when its parts seem necessary to the
composition.
� Variety is using a wide range of components within the composition.
Ways to Achieve Unity & Variety:
� Grid
� Color Harmony
� Keeping one or more aspects of the work constant
� Continuity
Types of Unity
� Visual Unity-artwork that is unified by color, shape, composition or some
other visual design principle.
� Conceptual Unity-artwork that has a common theme or concept throughout
the composition.
conceptual unity
� Involves using content or meaning to unify the composition.
types of balance
� Actual Balance-means that the piece of art is literally balanced. It can stand
upright on its own.
� Pictorial Balance-refers to the distribution of the apparent or visual weight of
the elements in works that are two dimensional.
symmetrical balance
� Symmetry-refers to a similarity of form or arrangement on either side of a
dividing line or plane.
� Symmetrical Balance-the whole of the work has a symmetrical feeling.
� Asymmetrical Balance-when the variations to the right and left side of the
compos
asymmetry
� When the right & left sides of a composition bear visibly different shapes,
colors, textures or other elements and yet they are arranged or "weighted" in
such a way that the work feels balanced.
� We tend to respond and feel most comfortable when things
horizontal, vertical and radial balance
� Horizontal Balance-elements on the left & right side of the composition seem
to be about equal.
� Vertical Balance-the elements at the top & bottom of the composition are in
balance.
� Diagonal Balance-the elements on either side of a diagonal line divi
how to create a focal point
� Accentuating certain shapes
� Intensifying color
� Using directional line
� Strategical placing objects & images
� Bu isolating an object or subject
rhythm
Rhythm also called Regular Repetition-orderly progressions
� Rhythm can move a viewer visually as well as emotionally.
� Repetitive pattern can be used to lead the eye over the landscape of the
work.
� Rhythm is found in some sound, nature, architecture a
hierarchical
� Used as a way of indicating importance
� Bigger=more important
� Commonly used in Ancient and Medieval Art.
� Still is being used today; consider family photos. Often the father is standing
with the wife slightly lower (in height) and the children seate
proportion
� The Cannon of Proportions-a set of rules about the parts ad their dimensions
relative to one another that became the standard for creating the ideal figure.
� Golden Mean or Golden Section-A mathematical approach to image
organization developed in Ancie
Style
� Style-the handling of distinctive elements & particular media throughout the
various artistic periods associated with the work of an individual artist, a
school or movement, of a specific culture or time period.
� Artists will often work in various styl
art, culture, and context
� Remember-Context has a profound influence on style.
� Variations in style are sometimes linked to the following:
� The use of different media (materials used to make art)
� Diverse cultural contexts.
� Characteristic approach of the artist to the subjec
realistic art
� realism-is the portrayal of people & things as they are seen by the eye or as
they are thought to be without idealization, without distortion.
� Realism- (with the Capital R) also defines a specific school of art that flowered
during the mid-nineteenth
representational art
� Representational Art- presents natural objects in a recognizable manner,
although not a realistic form.
� Also called Figurative Art which defines art that portrays, however altered or
distorted, things perceived art in the visible world.
� Note the dif
abstract and non objective
� Abstract- art that departs significantly from the actual appearance of things.
Extracting the essence of an object or figure. There are degrees of
abstraction.
� NonObjective also called NonRepresentational- art that makes no reference
to nature or real
form
� Form- includes elements design principles and composition of a work of art.
This might include:
� The use of color, texture, shape, illusion of three dimensions, balance, rhythm,
and unity of overall design.
� Formal criticism involves the elements and
content
� Content- the underlying meanings or themes involved in a work of art.
� Artists will use the elements & principles of design (the FORMAL aspects) to
inform the content or meaning of a work of art.
� Every work of art has a meaning or message, regardless
iconography
� Iconography- the study of the themes & symbols in visual art a/works of art.
� Winter is a common symbol of death & aloneness
� Fall is a common symbol of harvest & decline
� Clocks are a common symbol for time & immortality
� Understanding iconography