Making Art

• Today artists make art out of any material (*media) using any processes (techniques) that occur to them.
• The traditional arts still remain popular among artists.
• Our study focuses on traditional directions as well as engaging directions that have grown out of “new media”

Techniques of Art�Part I

• Drawing
• Painting
• Printmaking
• Sculpture
• Craft Media
• Architecture
• Photography
• Film
• Television/video
• Digital Media
• Design

*Medium as used in art

• The material used by an artist to make a work of art.
• Medium is an important aspect of the techniques that artists use to create their work.
• Quiz 2 is all about a variety of techniques used in making art.

Define Drawing

• To pull push or drag a marking tool across a surface to leave a mark.

*Drawing from observation

• Drawing a subject that you are looking at is drawing from observation. Usually this term refers to representational drawings.
• Drawing from observation increases your ability to see the details of anything you look at.

*Blind contour Drawing

• A drawing completed while looking only at the subject but not at the drawing being made.
• Practicing blind contour drawing can help you learn to see and draw subjects closer to the way that you see them.

Purposes of Drawing

• There are many purposes of drawing remember the following for the test
• Drawing as a study: a preliminary drawing for a painting or more finished drawing
• Drawing as notation: a record of something remembered or imagined
• Drawing as an end in itself: Making the drawing as a finished work of art

Examples of drawing Media (traditional)

• Dry media: charcoal, conte crayon, pencil, pastel
• Wet media: ink, felt or fiber dipped pens

-examples include Chinese brush painting

*Foreshortening

• When a long object is extended toward the viewer it appears shorter.
• Example: The length of an arm appears shorter if it is extended towards you because you can not see its full length.
• You can test this by turning your hand so the fingers extend toward you and close one eye

*Crosshatching

• A drawing technique created by using lines that cross one another.
• Image Search crosshatching, John Sloan & crosshatching, Charles White

Tooth

• The roughness of the drawing surface.

Contemporary Approaches to drawing

• Use of cut paper for drawing
• Use of tape lines
• Use of the computer as a drawing tool

The relationship between painting and drawing

• Often it is difficult to tell them apart
• Drawing is often the beginning step in a painting.
• Often drawing and painting are used together in finished works of art.

*Binder and Pigment

• Pigment gives the paint its color
• *Binder is the material that holds the pigment together and to the surface
• Example Linseed oil is the binder for oil paint
• Acrylic is the binder for Acrylic paint

*Painting media

• Oil paint-pigment suspended in linseed oil
• *Acrylic paint-Pigment suspended in acrylic medium (plastic)
• Encostic- Pigment suspended in wax
• Tempra- Pigment suspended in egg yoke or glue
• Water color- Pigment suspended in water
• *Fresco- Pigment suspended in water applied to wet or dry plaster

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Language and painting in Chinese art

• Chinese paintings often contain text as part of the composition.

*Impasto

• Paint is applied thickly so that it remains raised giving actual texture to the painting
• Example: Rembrandt van Rijn

Direct Painting

• Painting is done wet on wet without letting the paint dry.

Diego Rivera

• A Mexican painter famous for his public murals emphasizing social commentary.
• Use of fresco is characteristic of his style

“Great Wall of Los Angeles”

-A mural painted in a drainage canal in Los Angeles emphasizing the history of disenfranchised people.

-An example of community activism in art

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Origins of Printmaking

• First printmaking done in China
• Example The Diamond Sutra
• 868 AD
• Printmaking was developed in Europe in the 15^th century

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General physical process of printmaking

• The artist creates a print matrix which holds ink.
• A piece of paper or other absorbent material is pressed against the inked print matrix.
• There are four general types of print matrices

-Relief, Intaglio, Lithography, Silkscreen

*Relief Print

• The raised area of the print matrix hold the ink
• Example Woodcut
• Katsushika Hokusai

*Intaglio Print

• The grooves in the print matrix hold the ink
• Example: Engraving, Etching
• Albrecht Durer’s “The Knight, Death and the Devil”.

*Lithography

• The image is drawn on a stone with a grease crayon.
• The image is set into the stone.
• The stone is washed with water and inked
• The ink sticks to the greasy drawing and not to the surrounding area
• A piece of paper is pressed against the inked stone.

Silkscreen Printmaking

• Ink is pushed through a screen with an image stencil on it
• Printmaking screens can be made through photo processes
• Andy Warhol is an important artist using the silkscreen method

The concept of the original print

• Prints that are overseen directly by the artist.
• Prints that are made by pressing an inked surface against a print matrix made by the artist.
• Hands on involvement of the artist

Hokusai and Print

• Hokusai used the woodcut method with 20 or more wood plates for each print
• Hokusai’s prints were made by print craftsmen from his water color paintings

Willie Cole

• Interested in raising awareness of racial issues
• Used experimental print processes including printing by burning the print with an iron

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