V1 Art Fundamentals

Ocvirk, Art Fundamentals

• Chapter 1. Introduction
• Chapter 2. Form
• Chapter 3. Line
• Chapter 4. Shape
• Chapter 5. Value
• Chapter 6. Texture
• Chapter 7. Color
• Chapter 8. Space
• Chapter 9. Time and Motion

Chapter 1. Introduction

Art is the structured expression of a conceived image in terms of a given medium (Cheney)

Style: Expressive character unique to an individual (Mondrian and his influence on Rietveld and Schröder; Saint Laurent dresses)

1. Subject
   Objective/Representational vs Non-Objective/Non-Representational
2. Form
   Spatially arranges the elements of art: line, texture, color, shape, value
   With principles: harmony, variety, balance, proportion, dominance, movement, economy
3. Content
   Context-sensitive (Van Gogh, The Night Café)
   “Colors as powerful as Wagner’s music”: red, green are sinful passions; black is anguish; blue is heaven

Combination of all → organic unity (Rembrandt, Christ Presented to the People)
Content = Subject in Conceptual art (Picasso, Bull)
Content = Form in Process art (Pollock, Blue Poles)
Subject can be remodeled by an Abstraction (Naturalism to Realism to Semi-Abstraction to Objective Abstraction to NonObjective Abstraction)
Some abstractions actually simplify (Picasso, Bull)

Space

3D Techniques
Subtraction > glyptic materials (stone, wood, cement, clay…)
Manipulation > Clay, wax, plaster -> further technical changes to preserve them
Addition > assembling wood, plastic, metal with bolts, staplers, screws, nails, rivets…
Substitution > casting after another technique has created the basic form –> For Sculpture/Bas-relief, Architecture (Dyson, Lencioni Residence; Gehry, Disney Concert Hall in LA), Metalwork, Glass Design, Ceramics, Fiberwork, Product Design

Chapter 2. Form

The total appearance, organization or arrangement of all the visual elements, according to the principles that will develop unity in the artwork

Media and techniques organize the elements of art (line, texture, color, shape, value) into Harmony and Variety
–> resulting in Balance, Proportion, Dominance, Movement, Economy
–> creating Space and Visual Unity

Harmony

Relationship and cohesion between elements, created by similarities.

• Repetition
  Can place emphasis, but can create monotony. Warhol, 100 Cans
• Rhythm
  Regular alternating of similar textures, values, shapes… with visual accents and pauses
  The spacing of visual units can create visual silence (heads in Stevovich, Internet Café)
  (Hokusai,Under the Wave off Kanagawa; Ukiyo-e, Pictures of the floating world; Manes, Eiso)
• Pattern
  Repeated motif that can create an allover pattern (Escher, Rippled Surface) Variations within the motif can become a keyvalue for the allover pattern (Close, Paul III)
• Closure
  Our mind arranges closely linked figures into bigger patterns (see Gestalt)
• Visual Linking (these techniques blur shapes and reduce the illusion of depth)
  • Shared edges, blurred by color or value (Escher, Day and Night)
    
  • Overlapping of shapes (Uelsmann, rowboat, ocean, and clouds in cupped hands; Duchamp, Nude descending a staircase)
    
  • Transparency
    
  • Interpenetration
    
• Implied Edges/Lines/Shapes They create directional impulses, movement along invisible lines, guiding the eye through the composition (Vermeer, Diana and the Nymphs)

Variety

Separation between elements.

• Contrast
  (Jonas, Geostructure I)
• Elaboration
  Variations upon a theme (Escher, Day and Night)
• Balance
  Expectations when seeing a ball with negative space below vs a hot-air balloon. Different perception of top/bottom vs left/right as in CSS. Established horizontally, vertically, diagonally, radially (cf Shahn, Handball)
  • Symmetrical Balance
    Attracts attention, but needs variety to not be monotonous
  • Radial Balance
    (Fraser, Black and White; Tomaselli, Bird Blast)
  • Asymmetrical Balance
    Uses the other fundamentals to create balance

Proportion

Comparative relationship of size. When related to a standard, it’s equivalent to scale.

Golden Section (Polyclitus of Argos, Doryphoros, Nautilus shell)
Mathematical proportions for the body in the Renaissance (Da Vinci, Uomo Vitruviano)
Oversized relative to the rest (Piero Della Francesca, Madonna of Mercy; Oldenburg, Saw, Sawing)

Dominance

Separation between elements.

• Isolation
• Placement
• Direction
• Proportion
• Character
  (Piero Della Francesca, Madonna of Mercy; Spero, Artemis, Acrobats, Divas and Dancers; Glaser, Dylan Poster)

Movement

Separation between elements.

Chapter 3. Line

The path of a moving point made visible by constrasting the surrounding)

Describes motions (Richards, How to peel an orange); delimits objects by creating borders where texture and value don’t blend (Woods, Terrain 10; Kelly, Briar)

Physical characteristics

1. Measure: width and length
2. Type: straight, angular, curved
3. Direction: the path a line takes or suggests, even against its type. Lines sharing the same direction harmonize, facilitates a sense of continuity
4. Location: can imply unity or division
5. Character

Lines and the other fundamentals of art

• Shape: lines can be the contour or border of a shape
• Value and Texture can define lines, and lines can suggest textures
• Cross-contour and cross-hatching define shapes and suggest three-dimensionality
• Thick, dark lines have a different character than bright, thin lines
• Colors can change the expressivity and perception of lines

Chapter 7. Color

The visual abstraction of different wavelenghts of light, described with hue, intensity, and value.

• Subtractive Color
  Color created by reflection of the light not absorbed by pigments on things
  Red, blue, yellow are the subtractive primaries
  Violet, green, orange are the subtractive secondaries

• Additive Color
  If colored light is used, rays can be combined just like they were dissociated by a prism. Tech screens use this principle
  Red, blue, green are the additive primaries
  Magenta, cyan, yellow are the additive secondaries

  

The 12 colors of the wheel can be picked in triads, tetrads, analogous and monochromatic groups, warm and cool groups.
Each color can be described by 3 properties:

• Hue
• Value (high-key vs low-key colors)
• Intensity (= brightness, saturation, chroma)

Kelly, Spectrum

Aesthetic Color Relationships

Complementary colors create contrast, thus variety

Warm colors suggest closeness, and cold colors suggest distance. (Cézanne, Apples and Biscuits. ~1880)
Placing warms in the back- and colds in the foreground creates a decorative space (Gauguin, Vision after the Sermon)

5. VALUE (the relative degree of lightness or darkness)

• high-key vs low-key: happy, light, bright mood vs sad, dark, heavy mood

CONTRAST -> readability: lines, shapes, textures, eye movement (using accents of the opposite key) -> drama vs harmony when high vs low (noir movie)

BEST MEDIA FOR VALUE 1 - Etching: acid on metal, ink fills the crevices, pressed on paper, depth of crevices determines value (Milton, Points of Departure) 2 - Woodcuts: carved on wood, printed on paper, closeness of determines value (Hokusai, The Great Wave) 3 - Lithography: oil crayon on limestone, lipophile ink determines value (Toulouse Latrec, Jane Avril) 4 - Screen printing: excluding areas to be coloured by blocking them, preparation of the screen determines value 5 - Photography: perfect depiction of light and shadow

PLASTICITY (spherical surfaces vs intersecting planes) - placement of the light source can increase or decrease it (light from a side vs light from the front) 1- Chiaroscuro + fading out further away objects (Masaccio, ) 2- Sfumato: smoke-like value edges, even softer and subtler (Da Vinci, Mona Lisa) 3- Tenebrism, extreme chiaroscuro -> maximum contrast to highlight things (Caravaggio, David and Goliath)

Joshua Booty, [3/21/23 7:35 PM] DECORATION -Ignoring light source -> no shadows -Middle ages and Asian tribes and a revive in the 19th century (Manet, The dead Toreador) -Value is worth being the focus in a work

VALUE PATTERN & COMPOSITION -Skeleton of the work guiding eye movement, emphasizing subject -Thumbnails to see different effects on the subject and viewer -Colour can distract from value pattern resulting in a bad picture(Greve, Monet’s Water III) -Closed-value composition confines values into shapes, easyly readable(Stevovich, Internet Café) -Open-value composition flowing values over shape boundaries, difficultly readable (McGraw, Mother and Child)

6. TEXTURE NATURE OF TEXTURE -Surface character of a material experienced through touch or illusion of touch -Texture engages touch, and the expectation of touch through vision (rough, smooth, shiny, shadowy)

TYPES OF TEXTURE -Actual texture: touch = expected touch. Papier collé and afterwards Collage are expansions on it to add more texture. (Picasso made the first documented papier collé. He and Braque were cubists, an art movement developed around 1907-1912 with a focus of showing all planes of an object at the same time) -Simulated Texture: copying to perfection the texture of 3D onto 2D, creating illusion of touch, trompe l’oeil -Abstract Texture: often decorative, guiding eye movement, compositional tool -Invented Texture: have no source in reality, can give the viewer an impression of a known texture, decorative

TEXTURE AND PATTERN -tactile stimulation vs ornamental motives -both are created through contrasting values -a pattern can become a texture by entering the 3rd dimension -textures and pattern have an ideal distance to be seen from. Changing the distance influences the work through increasing/decreasing details

TEXTURE AND COMPOSITION -Texture can add emphasis and emotion and can create harmony, variety and interest -Dead areas can get lively -Too much texture can misguide eye movement

TEXTURE AND SPACE -Atmospheric perspective: blurred textured, low contrast in the back vs sharp textures, high contrast in the front

TEXTURE AND EXPRESSIVE CONTEN -Association of textures with emotions or experiences to enhance psychological reactions