russian art: processes and techniques by: serenity hughes
TRANSCRIPT
Russian Art:Processes and TechniquesBy: Serenity Hughes
Drawing
Drawing is arguably the most basic of art processes.
The most common drawing media are pencil, pen and ink, charcoal, crayon, and felt-tip pens.
The most common drawing surface is paper!
Cool fact!
Early artists used walls of rock as their drawing surface
Lines in Drawing
Drawing is primarily based on the use of lines.
Actual Drawing techniques
Hard Pencils
Hard pencils will make thin, light lines.
Soft Pencils
Soft pencils will make thicker lines that may vary from light to dark.
Value and pressure
With drawing pencils (charcoal), a change in pressure will cause a change in value.
More pressure= darker values
Lighter pressure= lighter values
Shading Techniques
Hatching and Crosshatching
These two techniques are used to shade objects and create an illusion of three-dimensionality.
Hatching
Hatching consists of placing lines closely side by side.
Crosshatching
Crosshatching is when lines are criss-crossed to create shading.
Stippling
With this technique, the artist creates different values by making a pattern of dots.
The distance between these dots determine how dark the shading will be.
The more densely clustered the dots, the darker the shading.
Ink(kind of confusing)
Ink
Artists can thin ink to create a wash of lighter value in which the paper shows through to lighten the effect.
Cont.
Undiluted ink is opaque (not being able to see through, basically not transparent).
Water can be added to make the ink transparent
Printmaking
What is printmaking?
It refers to a group of mechanically aided two-dimensional processes that permit the production of multiple original artworks.
The principal printmaking process include relief prints, intaglio prints, lithographs, and screen prints.
Relief Printmaking
In RP, the artist cuts away parts from the surface of the plate.
The relief sections can range from thin lines to broad fields, and it is these areas, when they are inked, that will produce the image.
Ink is then rolled over the surface of the plate with a brayer, and paper is placed over the inked plate.
The plate and paper are then put into a press or rubbed with a burnisher to force the ink onto the paper.
Intaglio Printmaking
In the IP process, lines are incised on the wood or soft metal plate.
Carving tools are used to cut lines into the surface of the plate in a process called engraving.
Another IP process is etching, in which the design is incised through a layer of wax or varnish applied to the surface of the metal plate.
Lithography
This is a process in which the image is drawn with a waxy pencil or crayon directly on a plate, which can be made of stone, zinc, or aluminum.
The greasy image is hardened, and the plate is saturated with water.
The image is picked up on the paper when the plate is moved through a press.
A little bit of History
During the Mexican Revolution, printmaking became a medium produced cheaply and in great numbers.
Printmaking techniques have been used in the print industry for illustrating newspapers and books since the development of the printing press in the 15th century.
Painting
Paint is composed of three different materials: pigments, binders, and solvents.
Pigments
Pigments are finely ground materials that may be natural or synthetic.
Natural pigments include clays, gemstones, and minerals, as well as plant and insect materials that make color when powdered.
These are then mixed with binders that holds the grains of pigments together.
Example of binders are egg yolks, linseed oil, and wax.
A solvent such as water or oil can be added to change the consistency of the paint or alter its drying time.
Surfaces in which paint can be applied to
Paint can be applied to a surface with many different tools.
Fingers, sticks, palette knives, and paintbrushes.
Examples are boards, paper, canvas, and plaster walls.
The fresco
The fresco technique is usually used to paint on walls or ceilings.
The artists mixes pure powdered pigments with water and applies them to a wet plaster ground.
Fresco secco
If the artist uses this technique he or she will apply paints to dry rather than wet the plaster.
Cont.
Frescoes have been found in the ruins in Pompeii and in many medieval and Renaissance churches.
Diego Rivera a famous Mexican muralist of the early 20th century, used this technique for his murals in Mexico and in the United States.
Kanye West and fresco
Kanye West’s “Power” music video was created based off of Michelangelo
http://vimeo.com/15393889
Tempera
Tempera is a water based paint.
Traditional Tempera paint uses egg as a binder, has been used throughout history.
Tempera painting requires great skill, and they dry quickly.
Colors are either light or dark, and it cannot achieve the close imitation of natural effects that oil paints can.
Oil Paints
Oil paints are much more versatile than tempera paints.
Oil paints can be easily mixed, and they may be thinned to build up layers of delicate glazes.
Oils can be applied thickly and with heavy lumps to make an impasto surface (the process or technique of laying on paint or pigment thickly so that it stands out from a surface).
Since oils dry slowly, it is possible for an artist to work on an oil painting over a long period of time (days or even weeks).
Encaustic
Colored molten wax is fused with the surface via the application of hot irons.
In ancient Egypt, grave markers were painted with this wax based paint.
Gouache
A water-based paint that is similar to tempera, but of higher quality.
Has more body and dries more slowly
Is good for creating bright colors and meticulous details
Is often used for design and fine artwork
Watercolor
The most common water-based paint
Watercolors are transparent
The lightest colors are applied first, and then the darker colors, working from background to foreground.
White paint is rarely used
Acrylic Paint
Made from synthetic materials, plastics, and polymers.
Acrylic Paint was created after WWII
They do not require careful and slow building up between layers
Acrylic paint offers a valuable alternative to artists who are allergic to oil paint.
Photography
Photography was developed during the mid-19th century
Photography led many artist to untimely feel less of a need to confine themselves to a naturalistic style of painting, and were encouraged to explore various forms of art that were entirely beyond the reach in photography.
Sculpture
Sculpture is created in four basic ways: carving, modeling, casting, and construction.
Carving
Carving is a subtractive process in which some of the original material is removed.
Modeling
A soft, workable material like clay, wax, plaster, or paper-mache is formed by hand.
Amounts of these materials can be added to the surface, and the surface can be shaped and decorated by hand or with simple tools.
Mixed Media
The name given to a category of artworks in which the artist uses several art media.
MM works can be either 2 or 3 dimensional.
Robert Rauschenberg is known for his MM pieces that combine silkscreen images with paint.
Joseph Cornell is a 20th century artist who filled open boxes with a variety of objects that visually created symbolic and metaphoric statements.
Architecture
The art and science of designing and constructing buildings.
In early times, sticks, mud, grass, animal skins, ice, and wood were used to construct building.
Later, brick and stone were used.
Post-and-lintel construction
A long stone or wooden beam is placed horizontally across upright posts.
Greek Parthenon
Cont.
During the Industrial Revolution, many new materials and processes for building were developed.
Glass Walls
Crystal Palace
Held in place by a framework of slim, iron rods.
Antonio Gaudi
Created an ingenious buildings of cut stone in Spain in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Few more Facts
The Armory Show in NY marked a shift in the art world, as the US became a new center of progressive artistic activity.
Realism and Impressionism both emerged in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Both movements focused on everyday life as a subject matter, although Impressionism became increasingly concerned with ideas of visual perception.
Cont.
Egypt, Nubia, Greece, and Rome are important because of their art traditions.
Islam is a major world religion that has produced much art. Most Islamic art is non-figurative.