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 Media (or
know mediums) are
vocabulary of the tools that
media in order
artists use to
to express
feelings of ideas
create works
& judgments. of art.
Dry Media
Dry 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.
Possible
Self-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. Relief
2. Intaglio
3. Lithography
4. 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 engraving
Etching – 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 Eustace
c. 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 recent
In 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, American
Standard Station, 1966
Color screenprint
 Bob Howard
"Hawaiian Sunset"
Serigraph- 28" x 22"
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.
Albert
Stieglitz
A Bit of Venice
Albert Stieglitz
1894
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.
 The Photographer:

Ansel Adams
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 her
photographs were
published by her son
after 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.