Drawing and Painting

Some Basic Fundamentals

Introduction to Drawing & Painting

Drawing and painting are two important ways that artists give visible form to their ideas and feelings.They suggest daily experiences and observations.

Introduction, Cont’d.

Critics need to know vocabulary of media in order to express feelings of ideas & judgments.

Media (or mediums) are the tools that artists use to create works of art.

Dry MediaDry Media – Those that are applied dry and include pencil, charcoal, crayon, chalk, pastel, etc.

Wet Media

Wet Media – Those media in which the coloring agent is suspended in a liquid and include ink, paints, etc.EX: Van Gogh utilized wet media.

A Definition of Drawing…

Drawing is the process of portraying an object, scene, or form of decorative or symbolic meaning through lines, shapes, values, and textures in one or more colors. This process involves moving a pointed instrument (pencil, etc. across a smooth surface, connecting lines in order to create shapes and other objects.

A Few Things About Drawing…

The most fundamental of art – everything bases from this!People of all ages draw: small children with crayons and students doodlings in notebooks – people make careers out of this!Prehistoric times – hieroglyphics on walls serve as art and language.All drawings have a common purpose – to give form to an idea and express the artist’s feelings about it.

Examples…

In the 17th C. the Italian artist – Guercino – used drawings to capture strong religious feelings that dominated the time and place.“Saint Jerome and the Angel”

Drawing Facts…

Only in recent times have drawings been thought of as a major art form.

Using a Sketchbook

Artists recognize the value of maintaining sketchbooks and portfolios (EX: Jack in “Titanic”).These include practice sketches and observations of daily experiences.

Sketchbook Trivia

Leonardo da Vinci had everything down to water movement and mechanics of light.He had 5,000 pages total of sketches in his notebooks.Da Vinci had a fascination for inventions, human figures, and the inner functioning of the human body.

PossibleSelf-Portrait

Designs for a Flying Machine…

Painting

One of the oldest and most important of the visual arts.An artist creates a painting by arranging the art elements on a flat surface in ways that are sometimes visually appealing, sometimes shocking or thought-provoking.Subjects depend on the time and place in which they live.

Painting, Cont’d.

Did you know that the oldest known paintings in the world are not of people, but of animals?Paintings were found thousands of years ago in caves throughout the world.

Other Forms of 2-D Processes

Printmaking & Photography

Printmaking & Photography offer an artist the opportunity to create multiple images.In printmaking, the artist does this by repeatedly transferring an original design from one prepared surface to other surfaces.

Printmaking & Photography, Cont’d.

In photography, black-and-white or color images are first obtained with the use of light rather than pencil, pen, or brush. Both printmaking and photography can then be reproduced to serve specific purposes – one of these is to accurately portray people, objects, and events in newspapers, books, and magazines.

Printmaking

Relief Printing, Intaglio, Lithography, and Screen Printing

Printmaking

Printing was discovered long ago when someone realized that by pressing an inked surface of a raised design against another surface, a copy was made.Chinese artists were printing with carved wooden blocks over 1,000 years ago!Possible 1st uses – repeated patterns on textiles, paper, and in order to create paper money.

Printmaking, Cont’d.

Printmaking did not develop in Europe until the 15th century, in time to meet the growing demand for inexpensive religious pictures and playing cards.Later, used to provide illustrations for books with moveable type.This moveable type was invented by Johannes Gutenburg.Made it possible to create pages of books by using the same metal type over and over.

Four Basic Printmaking Methods

1. Relief2. Intaglio3. Lithography4. Screen Printing

Relief Printing

The image to be printed is raised from the background.1st – The artist cut away the sections of a surface not meant to hold ink.2nd – The remaining raised portion is then covered with ink and becomes the printing surface.3rd – Paper is laid upon it, pressure applied, and the ink is transferred to the paper.

Relief, Cont’d.

Printing with carved wooden blocks originated in China and spread to Japan where it became a highly developed art form.

Intaglio

The reverse of Relief printing.A process which ink is forced to fill lines cut into a metal surface. The term means “cut into”.Two methods – etching and engravingEtching – 1st – A copper or zinc plate is first covered with a coating made of a mixture of beeswax, asphalt, and resin (ground).2nd – The artist uses a fine needle to draw an image through this protective coating.

Etching, Cont’d.

3rd – When the plate is placed in acid, it bites or etches the lines into the metal where the ground has been removed.4th - The remaining ground is then removed, the plate inked, the unetched surface is cleaned, and damp paper is pressed onto the plate with a press.This forces the paper into the inked grooves, transferring the image.

Night Shadows. Edward Hopper - 1921

Engraving

In an engraving, the lines are cut directly into the metal plate with a burin (engraving tool). The lines made in this way are more pronounced and clear than the fine lines produced by the etching process.When the prints have been made, you can actually feel the lines of raised ink on etchings and engravings.

St Eustacec. 1501

Engraving, 355 x 259 mm

Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge

Lithography

There is a printing process based on the principle that grease and water do not mix.It is the printmaking method in which the image to be printed is drawn on limestone, zinc, or aluminum with a specialized greasy crayon.1st – When the drawing is completed, it is chemically treated with a nitric-acid solution. This makes the sections that have not been drawn on resistant to the printing ink.

Lithography

2nd - The surface is dampened with water and then inked. The surface is dampened with water and then inked. The greasy printing ink sticks to the equally greasy crayoned areas but is repelled by the wet, blank areas.3rd – The surface is covered with paper and run through a press to transfer the image.

Screen Printing

More recentIn screen printing paint is forced through a screen onto paper or fabric.1st - A stencil is placed on a silk or synthetic (man-made) fabric screen stretched across a frame.2nd – The screen is placed on the printing surface, and squeegee is used to force the ink through the porous fabric in areas not covered by the stencil.A separate screen will need to be made if you are using more than one color.Serigraph – A screen print that has been handmade by an artist.

Ed Ruscha, AmericanStandard Station, 1966

Color screenprint

"Hawaiian Sunset"

Serigraph- 28" x 22"

Bob Howard

Photography

Appear everywhere – newspapers, magazines, and books. A technique of capturing optical images on light-sensitive surfaces.Artists can create powerful images that teach others how to see, feel, and remember.

Albert Stieglitz

He used his talent and camera to place viewers on a bridge spanning a canal in Venice.The viewers can share a brief, magical moment in time with the photographer.He was married to Georgia O’Keeffe.Works like this inspired other artists like Ansel Adams.

AlbertStieglitz

A Bit of VeniceAlbert Stieglitz1894

Ansel Adams

Stieglitz urged Adams to continue where he was forced to leave off due to age and health.Adams responded with thousands of photographs that marked a career covering nearly a half a century.He photographed everything from the unsettling stillness of a New Mexico moonrise to the majesty of a Yosemite winter storm.

Ansel Adams

The Photographer:

Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley - 1944

Monolith, The Face Of Half Dome [1926]

Imogen Cunningham

Her work combines a sensitivity for simple forms and a straightforward photographic technique.She works closely to her subjects.She was able to create an image that seems to pull viewers into it.

Imogen became widely known for her portraits, flower images, and nudes. She worked as a photographer until her death at the age of ninety-three in 1976.

Several of herphotographs werepublished by her sonafter her death…

Man Ray

Created immediate photographic images by placing objects directly onto the light-sensitive paper and exposing them to light.This was an innovation like no other in photography.This artist once dressed a crowd in white, set them dancing on a white dance floor, and projected movies on them.