M | AA

• Charcoal


  • Remained a popular medium for drawing since the Renaissance
  • Used for preparatory purposes: to develop initial ideas, preliminary outlines, areas of shadow, or for squaring grids used to transfer a design to another surface

  
• Charcoal in the 19th century


  • Artists used it to make highly finished drawings
  • Such works often feature textural effects, scraping, the mixing of water or other liquids with charcoal powder, stumping, and various reductive techniques such as erasing

  
• Chiaroscuro


  The interplay between light and shadow
• Fabricated charcoal


  • Powdered and recompressed to different degrees of hardness
  • Provided the artist with an even greater expanded range of dark grays and blacks

  
• Charcoal drawing


  • Can appear daunting to the inexperienced
  • Yet it is one of the most versatile, inexpensive and fun mediums
  • Few supplies are needed to get started
  • It is one of the easiest mediums to transport for plein air drawing

  
• Supplies needed for charcoal drawing

  • Nitram charcoal sticks ranging in a hardness of B Soft, Hb Medium and H hard
  • Paper
  • Kneaded eraser
  • Gum eraser
  • Blending stump
  • Sandpaper
  • Wax paper or paper towels
  • Small drafting brush
  • Acrylic paint brush
  • Workable fixative (recommended for finished work)

  
• Artwork samples

  • Self-Portrait by Pablo Picasso
  • The head of the Virgin in three-quarter view facing right by Leonardo da Vinci
• Painting is the expression of ideas and emotions, with the creation of certain aesthetic qualities, in a two-dimensional visual language
• Elements of painting's visual language

  Shapes, lines, colours, tones, and textures
• Purpose of combining painting elements

  To represent real or supernatural phenomena, to interpret a narrative theme, or to create wholly abstract visual relationships
• Artist's decision on medium and form

  Based on the sensuous qualities and the expressive possibilities and limitations of those options
• Earlier cultural traditions

  • Largely controlled the craft, form, imagery, and subject matter of painting
  • Determined its function, whether ritualistic, devotional, decorative, entertaining, or educational
  • Painters were employed more as skilled artisans than as creative artists
• Later development

  • The notion of the "fine artist" developed in Asia and Renaissance Europe
  • Prominent painters were afforded the social status of scholars and courtiers
  • They signed their work, decided its design and often its subject and imagery
• 19th century painters in Western societies

  • Began to lose their social position and secure patronage
  • Some artists countered the decline in patronage support by holding their own exhibitions and charging an entrance fee
  • Others earned an income through touring exhibitions of their work
• Acrylics

  • The Beginner's Choice
  • Easy to use and do not require any special supplies
  • May suit you if: you are a complete beginner and do not want to worry about the complexities of oil and watercolor painting, you want an easy cleanup time, you have a limited budget, you enjoy experimenting with mixed media, you are sensitive to the harsh chemicals involved in oil painting
  • Disadvantages: the paint dries very fast, some colors darken as they dry
• Oils

  • The Master's Choice
  • The most widely used medium among professional artists
  • Versatile; you can vary the drying time and consistency of your paint dramatically using paint thinners and additional oil
  • Allows you to work with a wide range of painting techniques (blending, glazing, scumbling)
  • Oil paintings seem to be held in higher regard by art collectors compared to acrylic paintings (of course, with exceptions)
• Watercolors

  • The Untamed Beauty
  • Considered to be the most difficult to pick up due to the untamed nature of water and the fact that you are not able to do much re-working of errors (as the paper can only absorb so much water)
  • However, if mastered, watercolors can produce stunningly elegant paintings
• Greek idealism


  • Balance, perfect proportions; architectural orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian)
• Greek and Hellenistic art

  • Parthenon
  • Myron
  • Phidias
  • Polykleitos
  • Praxiteles
• Roman realism


  • Practical and down to earth; the arch
• Indian, Chinese, and Japanese art


  • Serene, meditative art, and Arts of the Floating World
• Byzantine and Islamic art

  • Heavenly Byzantine mosaics; Islamic architecture and amazing maze-like design
• Middle Ages art

  • Celtic art, Carolingian Renaissance, Romanesque, Gothic
• Early and High Renaissance


  • Rebirth of classical culture
• Venetian and Northern Renaissance


  • The Renaissance spreads northward to France, the Low Countries, Poland, Germany and England
• Mannerism


  • Art that breaks the rules; artifice over nature
• Baroque


  • Splendor and flourish for God; art as a weapon in the religious wars
• Neoclassical


  • Art that recaptures Greco-Roman grace and grandeur
• Neoclassical artists


  • David
  • Ingres
  • Greuze
  • Canova
• Romanticism


  • The triumph of imagination and individuality
• Realism


  • Celebrating working class and peasants; en plein air rustic painting
• Realist artists


  • Corot
  • Courbet
  • Daumier
  • Millet
• Art Periods/Movements

  • Stone Age
  • Mesopotamian
  • Egyptian
  • Greek and Hellenistic
  • Roman
  • Indian, Chinese, and Japanese
  • Byzantine and Islamic
  • Middle Ages
  • Early and High Renaissance
  • Venetian and Northern Renaissance
  • Mannerism
  • Baroque
  • Neoclassical
  • Romanticism
  • Realism
  • Impressionism
  • Post-Impressionism
  • Fauvism and Expressionism
  • Cubism, Futurism, Supremativism, Constructivism, De Stijl
  • Dada and Surrealism
  • Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art
  • Postmodernism and Deconstructivism
• Stone Age


  • Cave painting, fertility goddesses, megalithic structures
• Mesopotamian


  • Warrior art and narration in stone relief
• Egyptian


  • Art with an afterlife focus: pyramids and tomb painting
• Greek and Hellenistic


  • Greek idealism: balance, perfect proportions; architectural orders (Doric, lonic, Corinthian)
• Roman


  • Roman realism: practical and down to earth; the arch
• Indian, Chinese, and Japanese


  • Serene, meditative art, and Arts of the Floating World
• Byzantine and Islamic

  • Heavenly Byzantine mosaics; Islamic architecture and amazing maze-like design