Language of Art First Impressions. Anders Rodin

Language of Art: Objectives Indentify the elements of art and the principles of design Describe media used it is used in art List the process used in drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture Name and identify the subject, composition and content in a work of art

Language of Art: Vocabulary Composition Content Elements of art Freestanding Medium Nonobjective art Perception Principles of design Relief Subject Symbol

Language of Art When the meaning of ideas and feelings are shared, we call that communication. Art is a way to communicate; it is a language that is used to express things that everyday words alone can not explain. The language of art goes beyond simple description. The arts cross cultural barriers. Debbi Kenote

Language of Art: The elements Every language has it’s own system for communication The language of visual art also has a system. All of the objects you look at in a work of art are made up of common elements and are arranged according to basic principles Debbi Kenote

Language of Art: The elements A symbol is something that represents something else. In the language of art, we use visual symbols to communicate ideas. The visual symbols in the language of art are known as the elements of art Just as there are basic words( ie. nouns verbs, adjectives…etc.), there are basic kinds of art elements

Language of Art: The elements Line Value Color Shape Form Space Texture No matter how an artist expresses their idea or feeling, the work will contain some or all of these elements. When you look at an image, it can be difficult to separate one element from another. Like reading a sentence, you read all the words at once to gather the meaning.

LINE A mark with length and direction. Ansel Adams Gustave Caillebotte A continuous mark made on a surface by a moving point.

VALUE The lightness or darkness of a color. Pablo Picasso MC Escher

COLOR Consists of Hue (another word for color), Intensity (brightness) and Value (lightness or darkness). Alexander Calder Henri Matisse

SHAPE An enclosed area defined and determined by other art elements; 2-dimensional. Joan Miro

Jean Arp FORM A 3-dimensional object;or something in a 2-dimensional artwork that appears to be 3-dimensional. For example, a triangle, which is 2-dimensional, is a shape, but a pyramid, which is 3-dimensional, is a form. Lucien Freud

S P A C E The distance or area between, around, above, below, or within things. Robert Mapplethorpe Positive (filled with something) and Negative (empty areas). Claude Monet Foreground, Middle ground and Background (creates DEPTH)

TEXTURE The surface quality or "feel" of an object, its smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. Textures may be actual or implied.

Language of Art: Principles of design After you learn to recognize the elements, you can start to recognize the ways in which they are organized. Think about a language; communication is more than understanding the meaning of the words. The words must be organized in to a sentence, which is organized into a paragraph, which is organized into a larger essay.

Language of Art: Principles of design Balance Emphasis Contrast Harmony Rhythm Movement Pattern Unity Proportion Variety

BALANCE Alexander Calder The way the elements are arranged to create a feeling of stability in a work.

Symmetrical Balance The parts of an image are organized so that one side mirrors the other. Leonardo DaVinci

Asymmetrical Balance When one side of a composition does not reflect the design of the other. James Whistler

EMPHASIS The focal point of an image, or when one area or thing stand out the most. Jim Dine Gustav Klimt

CONTRAST A large difference between two things to create interest and tension. Salvador Dali Ansel Adams

RHYTHM and MOVEMENT A regular repetition of elements to produce the look and feel of movement. Marcel Duchamp

Vincent VanGogh

PATTERN and Repetition Gustav Klimt Repetition of a design.

UNITY When all the elements and principles work together to create a pleasing image. Johannes Vermeer

The use of differences and change to increase the visual interest of the work. VARIETY Marc Chagall

PROPORTION The comparative relationship of one part to another with respect to size, quantity, or degree; SCALE. Gustave Caillebotte

Media and Process The material used to make art is called a Medium A medium can be almost anything; as simple as pencil to as elaborate as gold. When using more than one type of medium, the plural is called media.

Media and Process: Drawing Drawing is the process of moving a pointed instrument over a surface and leaving a mark. The most common media for drawing includes graphite pencils, pens, charcoal, crayons and pastels.

Media and Process: Drawing While the general process of drawing is the same for these media, each one also has a unique specific process. For example, using pen and ink is much slower and more deliberate than creating charcoal sketches. The choice of media and the process is selected based on the artists purpose.

Media and Process: Drawing There are many different purposes for drawing. Some of the most important are to help the artist develop stronger perception skills. Looking is not necessarily the same as perceiving. Looking is simply noticing and labeling what you see. Perception is the act of looking carefully at every detail, thinking about what you see and then analyzing it. Paelle Powell

Media and Process: Drawing In History, drawing has traditionally been used as a first step in completing a painting or other art projects. Rough sketches, or studies, are almost always done before creating a work in another medium. In recent times, drawing has developed into an art process that is accepted on its own merits. Hannah Holtgeerts

Media and Process: Painting Painting is the process of applying color to a surface. The surface is the material to which the paint is applied. All paints have three basic ingredients; pigments, solvent and binder. Hanna Holtgeerts

Media and Process: Painting Pigment is the finely ground powder that gives every paint it’s color. The binder is the glue that holds the pigment together in a form that can be spread over a surface and allows it to remain there Solvent is the material used to thin the paint. The binder for tempera paint is egg. The binder for watercolor is gum arabic and the solvent is water. The binder for acrylic paint is an acrylic polymer. When acrylic paint is went, water is the solvent; when it is dry it is water proof. Oil paints use different kind of oil as the binder.

Media and Process: Printmaking Printmaking is the process where the artist transfers the original image from one prepared surface to another prepared surface. Often this original image is transferred multiple times. Printmaking is different that a photographic reproduction. All prints made by a printmaking process are made using three basic steps.

Media and Process: Printmaking Creating a printing plate: This is the surface onto which the image is placed Inking the plate: The artist applies the ink to the plate with something a brayer (a roller) Transferring the image: The prepared surface is pressed against the inked plate and the ink is transferred to the new surface.

Media and Process: Printmaking There are four main techniques artists use for making prints; Relief, intaglio, lithography and screen printing. Relief printing: a process consisting of cutting or etching a printing surface in such a way that all that remains of the original surface is the design to be printed. Intaglio: the ink forming the design is printed only from recessed areas of the plate. Lithography: ink is applied to a grease-treated image on the flat printing surface; blank areas, which hold moisture, repel the lithographic ink. This inked surface is then printed—either directly on paper, by means of a special press Screen printing: is a stencil method of print making in which a design is imposed on a fine mesh, with blank areas coated with an impermeable substance, and ink is forced through the mesh onto the printing surface.

Media and Process: Sculpture Sculpture is a work of art that takes us three dimensional space. It can be free standing which can be viewed from all sides. It can be a relief sculpture where the form projects from a flat surface. Artists use a variety of sculpture media, (ie. Clay, plaster, stone, metal or wood). The process includes carving, modeling, casting and assembling.

Media and Process: Sculpture Carving: The artist cuts or removes material to reveal the desired form Modeling: The artists builds up a form by adding and manipulating the material Casting: Melted material is poured into a mold Assembly: The artists finds and connects a variety of different materials.

A work of art The Subject: This is the image that the viewer identifies in the work The Composition: The is the way that the artist uses the principles of design to organize the elements The Content: The is the message that the artist is communicating