ART

APPRECIATION
 What Is Art Appreciation?
◦Appreciation of the visual arts goes beyond staring at a painting hanging on the wall of a
museum—art is in everything and everywhere you look. Opening your eyes to the world
of art is essential in understanding the world around you. Art is more than pretentious
museums; only a few enter and comprehend. Instead, art appreciation is:
 Gaining the knowledge to understand the art.
 Acquire the art methods and materials to discuss art verbally or by the written word.
 Ability to identify the movements from ancient cultures to today's contemporary art.
◦Learning how to appreciate art is a necessary cultural foundation enabling people to
critically analyze art, art forms, and how cultures used art. All it takes to understand the
art is just to look!
◦Art appreciation centers on the ability to view art throughout history,
focusing on the cultures and the people, and how art developed in the
specific periods. It is difficult to understand art without understanding
the culture, their use of materials, and a sense of beauty. Art is
conveyed by the simple act of creating art for art's sake. Every person is
born with the innate desire to create art, and similar to other
professions, training is essential in honing skills to produce art. Art
education broadens a person's comprehension, development, and
visions of art. Art brings an understanding of diversity, how people lived
in the past, and connects the issues concerning contemporary life and
art today.
◦The history of the world is similarly the history of art,
continually intertwined. For millions of years, as
humans roamed the earth, evolution, and environment
shaped many different cultures depending on location,
weather, natural resources, and food. These cultures
formed the foundation of all art today. Art appreciation
analyzes art using the methods and materials, allowing
people to make connections to the context of art and
the interactions of societies.
◦It is difficult to understand the art without understanding the
culture.
◦A common saying is, 'history always repeats itself'. Art history and
art movements also repeat; artists are influenced by the past and
present; the Romans copied the Greeks, and earlier styles inspired
art movements. The early Cycladic (1.2) carved simple forms with
static arms and legs, David (1.3) by Michelangelo uses
contrapposto positioning and realistic details, and the yellow
modern art sculpture (1.4) is free form yet based upon a human
figure and the interpretation in different millennia, referred to as
'artistic' recurrence.
1.ladic
1.3 David
1.4 Yellow Figure
◦Artists get their ideas from many places, have you ever
wondered where? Why are they creating art, and what is the
driving force behind their creation? Is it political, sacred,
dreamscape, ceremonial, cultural, expression, therapy,
illustrative, historical, literature, poetry, musical, theatrical,
nature, narrative, exposing, thought-provoking, or experimental,
whatever it is, it must come from within the artist. The process is
part of the journey, and the journey is the process. If a mistake
happens, paint over it. There is no such thing as a mistake in art;
it is just not finished. Art is only complete when the artist
believes it is finished!
1.5 Painting from the tomb of Petrosiris at Muzawaka
◦Over 4 million years, humans evolved into the unique Homo
Sapiens—modern human brains have increased in size
leading to creative and organized groups of prehistoric
people. The discovery of fire was perhaps one of the greatest
achievements of the Stone Age, and scholarly evidence
supports the practice of fire around 400,000 years ago,
although some scholars believe it might have been much
earlier. The human brain divided between the humanities and
science began to evolve as complementary divisions eons
ago. Fire is at the heart of our creativity.
1.6 Campfire
◦Everyone loves a campfire; it brings people together when the skies
darken, and long nights ensue. Research indicates that adding protein to
a diet allowed the brain to increase in size. Protein, an essential element
for the evolution of the human brain, fire likewise allowed the cooking
of protein, eliminating the restriction of raw foods. This increase of
protein in the prehistoric diet lead to the development of a larger front
lobe brain creating more empathy, problem-solving, and social
intelligence. Did the stories told around the chiaroscuro firelight, with
singing, dancing, and chanting, lead to drawing on the walls of caves or
rock outcrops, recording their epic hunts or daily lives? The unification of
small nomadic groups of people required rules and regulations which
may have begun around the campfire.
◦According to carbon dating methods, the earliest known artwork is
30,000 years old (Venus of Willendorf 1.7) and associated with
those who created cave art. Previously, anthropologists considered
Mesopotamia as the "Cradle of Civilization" home to the oldest
culture in the world. Cultural anthropologists have defined the
Cradle of Civilization to signify the period of written language,
agriculture, raising animals, and public buildings. This list was used
by most cultures and now defines Ancient Egypt along the Nile,
Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, Ancient China in the Yellow River
region, the Central Andes and Mesoamerica as centers where
different civilizations started independently.
1.7 Venus of Willendorf
◦Creativity continued to grow among cultures, and
depending on the natural resources, grand palaces, tombs,
and structures rose out of the earth. Art appreciation
usually focuses on Egypt, Greek, Roman, Renaissance, and
modern art. This textbook covers cultures well beyond
classical art and delves into the numerous societies of
people and their culture from the six continents. Exploring
art outside the norm, understand the origins of creativity,
and how it connects the art of the past in all cultures
across the world is critical in art appreciation.
◦Over time, ancient civilizations calculated and wrote about the
passing of time differently than we do today. In Mesopotamia
and Egypt, they based the calendar upon the king, or the
seasons set by their various gods. In Rome, time was counted
from the founding of Rome and changed periodically by rulers.
In Mesoamerica, the Aztec Calendar (1.8) was the system used
by the Pre-Columbian people, a 365-day calendar defining a
century as 52 years long and based on the sun, a sacred symbol.
Since time was established thousands of years ago by many
different cultures, one system was not in use.
◦In the 6th century, Dionysius Exiguus, who was a Christian monk,
established the Anno Domino (AD) and Before Christ (BC) as the
reference date for the year zero in Europe based on the tenets of
Christianity. Other religions also developed their calendars, and
some are still in use today. The scholarly alternative to the current
Christian designations for time is named Before the Common Era
(BCE) and Common Era (CE) and has been adopted by academic
and scientific publications and studies to emphasize secularism and
inclusiveness. The new designation removed the specific religious
designation from the calendar; instead, the new naming
convention is more meaningful across the globe.
◦Scholars have readily adopted the new BCE/CE designation for
communication and modernizing a worldwide standard. Many
cultures today use a dual calendar designation, the BCE/CE
standard, and their historical calendars. This textbook uses BCE
and CE as a contemporary designation for all cultures around
the world. For example, if art were discussed from
Mesopotamia 5,000 years ago, it would state "in Mesopotamia,
3,000 BCE…". If discussing Gothic art, it would state "Gothic art,
1342 CE, the architectural style…". Using BCE for all dates to the
year zero, and CE for all the dates after year zero is a simple
clarification.
◦All dates, regardless of calendars, are based
upon estimations since no one is sure when the
year zero started. We are into the 2020th year
now and cannot change the system to begin at a
new date, and it would cause chaos in the
computer systems. Year 2K was enough of a
coding problem just moving from the 1900s to
2000, let alone moving the world to a new date.
◦An artist is any person from any culture engaged in one or more
activities to create art or practice art. Artists do not have to be a
professional to design art; most of the time, art is very relaxing
and enjoyable, creating sense and meaning in one's life. Artists
throughout time were generally called an artisan, a term used for
someone who labored with their hands producing art. However,
art can be utilitarian, although very beautiful. For example, the
pots the Jomon culture produced over 10,000 years ago were
very utilitarian, yet they added unusual decorations to the
outside of the pots with rope impressions in different patterns.
◦Art historians have divided art into categories called art movements. A
famous art movement known to many is the Renaissance. The Renaissance
encompasses the art in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries. The name
Renaissance means "Rebirth," and it seemed an appropriate term to
describe the dramatic evolution in art. Art movements usually consisted of
the same style or philosophy during a period. The movements usually were
not named during the time it occurred; later, art historians arbitrarily
assigned names based on similar styles and geographical groupings. Art
movements have only been classified as movements by the artists or
commentators in the last 150 years, beginning with the Impressionists.
Most art periods in the last 150 years have been short, around ten years or
less, the periods of art before modern art usually lasted 25-50 years.
◦Not all artists are famous or make a living selling art,
but they still create interesting or different art. There
are multiple employment opportunities in the art
field, for example, teaching, writer, museum curator,
art therapists, music, theater, education, and many
more. Even the computer industry has designers on
staff, so the design of the final product is aesthetically
appealing and commercially compelling.
◦Comparing modern paintings and historic paintings brings an understanding of
how the past influences the present. Learning the elements of art, design, and art
methods will help you communicate and write with a new language to compare
and contrast art. In this textbook, we will be comparing and contrasting ordinary
images of horses, figures, sunflowers, and dots. Like a new language, it becomes
more familiar the more the terms used in written descriptions. Looking at art is
the foundation of learning how to write descriptive essays. The longer you look,
the more information you begin to see, like the brush marks. Asking yourself
questions about the brush marks can help you define the type of art you are
looking at: Impressionism uses significant broad-brush marks with visible slabs of
paint. While Renaissance artists used oil paint with almost hidden brush marks
giving a life-like look to the painting. These observations will help you decide
what period of art painting can belong in when you do not know the answer.
Comparing Horses
◦The two paintings, Relay Hunting (1.9) and Foundation Sire
(1.10) were created 170 years apart yet are as realistic as
photographs taken yesterday. Similar instances, the horses
predominantly face away from the viewer displaying the sturdy
hind legs and taut muscles. The shining sun marks their coats,
reflecting highlights and emphasizing the muscle structure of
the animals. Both artists realistically depict the horses causing
the viewer to take a second look at the exquisite details of the
horses and the surroundings.
1.9 Relay Hunting
1.10 Foundation Sire
◦In realistic paintings, both artists focused on detail
based upon their study of horse anatomy. Rosa
Bonheur, who painted the three horses in Relay
Hunting (1.9), actually went to meat processing plants
and studied the anatomy of the horses while she
dissected the animals. Most artists study human
anatomy as part of their education. Understanding
the body's muscle and bone structure benefits the
artists' ability to draw realistic people and animals.
1.11 Image of a horse from Lascaux Caves
1.13 Study of Horses, Leonardo
◦The representation of horses throughout human time began on the
cave wall, Image of Horse (1.11). We see horses immortalized in bronze
statues, captured on film, or drawn in Study of Horses (1.13). Painted in
Blue Horses (1.14), etched in Knight, Death and the Devil (1.12), and
colored. Horses have been a mode of transportation for thousands of
years, and the equine image has been traditional portraiture
throughout the ages. These pictures of different types of horses
demonstrate they can be drawn or painted in many types of styles. The
details in the etched Knight, Death, and the Devil (1.12) establishes the
artist as a detail orientated person as opposed to the Blue Horses
(1.14), which has a looser painting style and bolder colors.
1.12 Knight, Death and the Devil
1.14 Blue Horses
Comparing Figures
◦At first glance, The Birth of Venus (1.15) and Rara Avis 19 (1.16) look
completely different from each other, or are they? Let us look closer at
these two figures—what is the one object in both paintings that is
similar? The woman in the center! Both poses are similar, expressionless
except what the viewer reads into it, and they display no movement, a
very static pose with elongated legs and feet. Neither one of the artists
give any weight to the body or use any type of deep perspective space.
Both figures have an impossible pose, the shifting of weight over one
hip. They both appear to be emerging from the water as if being born
from the sea.
1.15 The Birth of Venus
1.16 Rara Avis 19
◦They are both colorful and have the impression of a background;
land, sea, and trees. However, these two paintings are over 500
years apart, the Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli in 1486 and
Rara Avis 19 by Jylian Gustlin in 2014. Botticelli painted in oils on
canvas, and his Venus is aloof and uninterested in her
surroundings. Gustlin works in acrylic and oil paints on board,
using the effects of layers to achieve her distinct and intricate
paintings. The figures in the landscape frequently show a moody
and brooding figure, yet at the same time, depicting a sense of
future. One figure set in a literal translation and the other in a
modern view, yet each one escapes from reality.
Comparing Sunflowers
◦These two pieces of art display the gorgeous sunflower at the
height of its flowering. The yellow petals open up towards the
sunshine, offering seeds to passing birds. The hint of brown
color on the leaves tells the viewer that the fall weather is on
its way. These two art pieces are about 140 years apart, one is
in paint, and the other is painted fabric. The Sunflowers (1.17)
in the vase is by Vincent Van Gogh in 1887, and the sunflower
quilt (1.18) is by an unknown quilter, 2004.
1.17 Sunflowers
◦The two pieces have many similar components, for
example, the colors of the sunflowers are yellow,
brown seed pods in the centers, both pictures fill the
space, and both painted. The differences are more
significant because the quilted sunflowers highly
contrast against the dark brown fabric; the flowers in
the vase are against a pale blue background. The quilt
shows flowers arranged in space not anchored to
stems or in a vase, as seen in the painting.
◦The painting process is also different. Van Gogh
painted his sunflowers on canvas with oil paints. The
painted quilt fabric became the palette for the
sunflowers with mostly yellows, with browns, greens,
and oranges in a random array of colors for highlights,
cut into individual leaves, and arranged on the
background fabric. Both pieces are similar works of
art created in different periods with different
materials.
1.18 Sunflower quilt
Comparing Dots
◦Dots or points are single primary forms in art. In art, dots
can be one or many thousands of dots abstracted into
images we may or may not recognize. The dots can be far
apart or close together, different colors, monochromatic,
or one color. All drawings begin with a single dot from the
point of the pencil, and as the pencil moves, it becomes a
continuous line of dots, thereby making the dot one of
the essential elements in art.
◦Dots become the focal point of the art, and
space in-between the dots are as crucial as
the dot itself. The dot can cause tension or
harmony depending on the color, size, and
how close the dot is to another dot. As dots
placed closer together, they start to
become an object, a recognizable form.
◦Yayoi Kusama (born 1929) is considered the 'Princess of Polka
Dots' using large distinct polka dots in her two sculptures
Flowers (1.19) and Life is the Heart of a Rainbow (1.20). They
are red and white polka dots surrounding the trees or the
entire room. The polka dots are distinctly circles, especially in
the room, as they are far apart and only in two contrasting
colors. The red wrapped trees with white polka dots are
closer together but still distinct in various sizes in the high
contrast. The dots are not touching, and the negative space
between them is about the same size throughout.
1.19 Flowers
1.20 Life is the Heart of a Rainbow
1.21 A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
◦George Seurat developed a technique of painting with tiny colored dots
called Pointillism as he when he branched out from Impressionism.
Pointillism relies on small dots of color that blend in the viewer's minds
creating a large scene. Up close, each colored dot and brush mark are
visible; however, when the viewer steps back several feet, the viewer is
surprised with a lifelike painting. The large-scale piece, A Sunday
Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1.21), transformed art at the
turn of the 20th century and inspired artists to work with dots.The three
paintings are all created from dots, small dots, large dots, colored dots
on the canvas, on walls, suspended from the ceiling, or suspended in
space. The size and color of the dot do matter and can give the viewer a
completely different experience.
◦Art is everywhere you look, everything you wear, and art is beauty.
Just look around....The visual art terms separate into the elements
and principles of art. The elements of art are color, form, line,
shape, space, and texture. The principles of art are scale,
proportion, unity, variety, rhythm, mass, shape, space, balance,
volume, perspective, and depth. In addition to the elements and
principles of design, art materials include paint, clay, bronze,
pastels, chalk, charcoal, ink, lightening, as some examples. This
comprehensive list is for reference and explained in all the
chapters. Understanding the art methods will help define and
determine how the culture created the art and for what use.
◦Over the years, art methods have changed; for example, the acrylic paint
used today is different from the cave art earth-based paint used 30,000
years ago. People have evolved, discovering new products and procedures
for extracting minerals from the earth to produce art products. From the
stone age, the bronze, iron age, to the technology age, humans have
always sought out new and better inventions. However, access to materials
is the most significant advantage for change in civilizations. Almost every
civilization had access to clay and was able to manufacture vessels.
However, if specific raw materials were only available in one area, the
people might trade with others who wanted that resource. For example, on
the ancient trade routes, China produced and processed the raw silk into
stunning cloth, highly sought out by the Venetians in Italy to make clothing.
1.24 Mondrian composition
◦The art methods are considered the building blocks
for any category of art. When an artist trains in the
elements of art, they learn to overlap the elements
to create visual components in their art. Methods
can be used in isolation or combined into one piece
of art (1.24), a combination of line and color. Every
piece of art has to contain at least one element of
art, and most art pieces have at least two or more.
Elements of Art
◦Color: Color is the visual perception seen by the human eye.
The modern color wheel is designed to explain how color is
arraigned and how colors interact with each other. In the center
of the color wheel, are the three primary colors: red, yellow,
and blue. The second circle is the secondary colors, which are
the two primary colors mixed. Red and blue mixed together
form purple, red, and yellow, form orange, and blue and yellow,
create green. The outer circle is the tertiary colors, the mixture
of a primary color with an adjacent secondary color.
1.25 Color Wheel
◦Color contains characteristics, including hue, value,
and saturation. Primary hues are also the primary
colors: red, yellow, and blue. When two primary hues
are mixed, they produce secondary hues, which are
also the secondary colors: orange, violet, and green.
When two colors are combined, they create secondary
hues, creating additional secondary hues such as
yellow-orange, red-violet, blue-green, blue-violet,
yellow-green, and red-orange.
◦Value: refers to how adding black or
white to color changes the shade of the
original color, for example, in (1.26). The
addition of black or white to one color
creates a darker or lighter color giving
artists gradations of one color for
shading or highlighting in a painting.
1.26 Hue, saturation, and value
◦Saturation: the intensity of color, and when the
color is fully saturated, the color is the purest
form or most authentic version. The primary
colors are the three fully saturated colors as they
are in the purest form. As the saturation
decreases, the color begins to look washed out
when white or black is added. When a color is
bright, it is considered at its highest intensity.
1.27 Saturation
◦Form: Form gives shape to a piece of art,
whether it is the constraints of a line in a
painting or the edge of the sculpture. The
shape can be two-dimensional, three-
dimensional restricted to height and weight, or
it can be free-flowing. The form also is the
expression of all the formal elements of art in
a piece of work.
1.28 Form
◦Line: A line in art is primarily a dot or series of dots.
The dots form a line, which can vary in thickness,
color, and shape. A line is a two-dimensional shape
unless the artist gives it volume or mass. If an artist
uses multiple lines, it develops into a drawing more
recognizable than a line creating a form resembling
the outside of its shape. Lines can also be implied as
in an action of the hand pointing up, the viewer's
eyes continue upwards without even a real line.
1.29 Line
◦Shape: The shape of the artwork can have
many meanings. The shape is defined as
having some sort of outline or boundary,
whether the shape is two or three
dimensional. The shape can be geometric
(known shape) or organic (free form shape).
Space and shape go together in most
artworks.
1.30 Shape
◦Space: Space is the area around the focal point of
the art piece and might be positive or negative,
shallow or deep, open, or closed. Space is the area
around the art form; in the case of a building, it is
the area behind, over, inside, or next to the
structure. The space around a structure or other
artwork gives the object its shape. The children are
spread across the picture, creating space between
each of them, the figures become unique.
1.31 Space
◦Texture: Texture can be rough or smooth to the
touch, imitating a particular feel or sensation. The
texture is also how your eye perceives a surface,
whether it is flat with little texture or displays
variations on the surface, imitating rock, wood,
stone, fabric. Artists added texture to buildings,
landscapes, and portraits with excellent brushwork
and layers of paint, giving the illusion of reality.
1.32 Texture
Principles of Art
◦Balance: The balance in a piece of art refers to
the distribution of weight or the apparent weight
of the piece. Arches are built for structural design
and to hold the roof in place, allowing for
passage of people below the arch and creating
balance visually and structurally. It may be the
illusion of art that can create balance.
1.33 Balance
◦Contrast: Contrast is defined as the difference
in colors to create a piece of visual art. For
instance, black and white is a known stark
contrast and brings vitality to a piece of art, or it
can ruin the art with too much contrast.
Contrast can also be subtle when using
monochromatic colors, giving variety and unity
the final piece of art.
1.34 Contrast
◦Emphasis: Emphasis can be color, unity,
balance, or any other principle or element of
art used to create a focal point. Artists will use
emphasis like placing a string of gold in a field
of dark purple. The color contrast between the
gold and dark purple causes the gold lettering
to pop out, becoming the focal point.
1.35 Emphasis
◦Rhythm/Movement: Rhythm in a piece of art
denotes a type of repetition used to either
demonstrate movement or expanse. For
instance, in a painting of waves crashing, a
viewer will automatically see the movement as
the wave finishes. The use of bold and
directional brushwork will also provide
movement in a painting.
1.36 Rhythm/Movement
◦Proportion/Scale: Proportion is the relationship
between items in a painting, for example, between
the sky and mountains. If the sky is more than two-
thirds of the painting, it looks out of proportion. The
scale in art is similar to proportion, and if something
is not to scale, it can look odd. If there is a person in
the picture and their hands are too large for their
body, then it will look out of scale. Artists can also
use scale and proportion to exaggerate people or
landscapes to their advantage.
1.37 Proportion and Scale
◦Unity and variety: In art, unity conveys a
sense of completeness, pleasure when viewing
the art, and cohesiveness to the art, and how
the patterns work together brings unity to the
picture or object. As the opposite of unity,
variety should provoke changes and
awareness in the art piece. Colors can provide
unity when they are in the same color groups,
and a splash of red can provide variety.
◦Pattern: Pattern is the way something is organized
and repeated in its shape or form and can flow
without much structure in some random repetition.
Patterns might branch out similar to flowers on a
plant or form spirals and circles as a group of soap
bubbles or seem irregular in the cracked, dry mud.
All works of art have some sort of pattern even
though it may be hard to discern; the pattern will
form by the colors, the illustrations, the shape, or
numerous other art methods.
1.39 Pattern
Art Materials and Methods
◦Art materials and methods are anything an artist uses to create art in
any combination. Materials and methods also can be defined as the
process of manufacturing or fabrication of a piece of art such as
bronze needs to be melted and poured into a mold to be a finished
piece of art. The stone must be quarried, transported, and carved
before it can be considered a piece of art. Cotton will be picked,
cleaned, wound into thread, dyed, and woven into the fabric before a
quilter creates a quilt. Mined minerals are ground, mixed, and put
into tubes before an artist creates a painting. Art materials are the
tools of an artist. This list is by no means complete; however, it does
cover most of the art in this textbook.
◦Aquatint: Aquatint is used in intaglio
printmaking to create marks on the metal
plate. The plate and paper press together
to create a transfer of ink to paper. An
artist uses mordant to etch a plate
design, and then rosin is used to create a
tonal effect. The tonal variation on the
plate is the desired outcome.
◦Atmospheric perspective: The effect
of perspective and distance occurs
when the mountains in the
background are painted a lighter and
grayer color than the mountains in
the foreground, a common technique
by landscape painters.
◦Bas-relief: A French word meaning to carve in
"low relief" in stone, wood, or rock, which
gives the carving a three-dimensional look.
The word relief is derived from a Latin verb
"relevo" meaning to raise. A sculpture looks
like it emerges above the background.
However, the artist cuts away the background,
adding different degrees of depth to determine
how far the sculpted section stands out from
the background.
◦Brick: Brick originated in
Mesopotamia around 7500 BCE and is
still used today in many shapes,
made by mixing earth and water. In
other civilizations, bricks were made
from mud, loam, sand, and water and
were sun-dried to harden.
◦Brush and ink: Brushes were made from
many materials including bamboo, wood,
bone, feathers with metal tips to control
the flow of ink. Iron gall ink is purple-black
and made from tannic acids and iron salts
from various vegetables. Dip pens were
used to transport the ink from the bottle
to the paper for drawing.
◦Camera: The camera is a
visual contraption to record
images. The word camera
comes from the Latin word
'camera obscura,' which
means 'dark chamber.'
◦Carving: Carvers use a tool to shape
material by cutting or scraping sections
away from the original form making
sculptures of wood, stone, clay, bone,
ivory, or any suitable material. Several
types of tools are used to carve, and
different civilizations developed different
tools depending on what natural
resources available.
◦Chalk: Chalk is very similar to pastels,
but instead of grinding the rock into a
fine powder, the chalk is in its natural
state. Chalk is limestone made about 100
million years ago when it was initially
under the sea. Today, chalk is mined from
the earth, and the chalk is compacted
into cylinder shapes familiar in
classrooms today.
◦Charcoal: Charcoal is a
common element throughout
human life. Charcoal is the
byproduct after burning
wood.
◦Chiaroscuro: Chiaroscuro is the Italian word for "light-
dark" and is the use of sharp contrasts between dark
and light. The bold contrasts produced a dramatic
composition and were used extensively by the
Renaissance and Baroque artists. Dark colors made
their paintings come to life, and the colors made
shadows giving depth to the paintings. Dark colors
made their paintings come to life, and the colors made
shadows giving depth to the paintings. The deep colors
contained more than just black, and the artists
combined other colors with black depending on the
desired outcomes.
◦Clay: Over millions of years, the earth's crust has
been melted, moved, squeezed, cracked, pounded
by weather to create a layer of topsoil with various
deposits of rock, and clay. The rivers near the first
civilizations cut through the topsoil, exposing the
layers of clay and providing easy access to the raw
product. The fine particles of silt in the clay give the
material its plasticity, and when water added, it is a
cohesive product. Silt consists of feldspar (the most
abundant mineral on earth), silica and alkalis like
iron which give clay its reddish-brown color.
◦Collage: From the French word coller "to glue,"
collage is an art technique of assembling
different pieces of art into one cohesive art
piece. The most common pieces are
newspapers, magazines, paint, photographs,
and found objects which are glued down to a
piece of paper or canvas. Collage was
invented right after the invention of paper in
China around 300 BCE.
◦Composition: In the visual arts,
composition refers to the placement of
visual elements in a painting or work of
art. It also denotes the organization of
people, vignettes, and lighting. The
composition is essential whether the
artist is arranging people, fruit, or the
view of a landscape.
◦Concrete: The use of lightweight concrete has
been used for centuries in construction; however,
in the last 100 years, it has become more reliable
and predictable. Concrete is a mixture of
lightweight coarse aggregate with fine
aggregates like shale, clay, or slate. The
advantages of the newer lightweight concrete
include the reduction of load for faster building
rates, longer-lasting, and is an excellent thermal
protector compared to brick.
◦Cotton: has been around since 4500
BCE and used for clothing or
weaving. The cotton plant provides a
cellulose thread washed and dyed to
weave into cotton material. It does
not stretch, making it a very durable
fabric for clothes.
◦Drawing: Drawing is the foundation of all art.
Drawing is intuitive and part of the function of
our brains used to apply marks to a surface.
Most people have drawn sometime in their
lives, whether in school or at home. Drawing is
a simple exercise to convey a thought or share
an experience with another person. Drawing
can also be challenging and complex, and only
with time and practice could one get better.
◦En Plein Air: A French
expression for artists painting
out in the open air, also
called Peinture Sur le motif,
'painting what the eyes see.'
◦Foreshortening: The use of
foreshortening is a
technique to create
perspective by
exaggerating the part of an
object closer to the viewer.
◦Frescos: Fresco painting is an
ancient painting technique created
by troweling wet lime plaster on a
wall or ceiling. When the plaster
dries, the painting becomes
permanent and will last until the
plaster is damaged. The plaster is
painted with a scene after it dries.
◦Function: When creating architectural drawings, a basic rule
of design states form follows function. A visual principle for
architecture designates the shape of the building or
structure should be principally based upon its planned
purpose. To create houses, villages, or the city layout,
builders relied on lines, whether straight, angled, curved, or
connected, and those planning the city generally used a
grid system layout when planning settlements. Architects
formulate ideas and define the concepts of the new
buildings rendering the multiple layers of a building in
three-dimensional concepts scratched in the dirt, written on
paper, or today with a computer.
◦Function: When creating architectural drawings, a basic rule
of design states form follows function. A visual principle for
architecture designates the shape of the building or
structure should be principally based upon its planned
purpose. To create houses, villages, or the city layout,
builders relied on lines, whether straight, angled, curved, or
connected, and those planning the city generally used a
grid system layout when planning settlements. Architects
formulate ideas and define the concepts of the new
buildings rendering the multiple layers of a building in
three-dimensional concepts scratched in the dirt, written on
paper, or today with a computer.
◦Glass: Silica is the most common component
in glass, an amorphous solid material, also
known as sand, and when heated is
transparent even with the addition of color.
Glass can be floated in a flat frame to make a
sheet of glass or blown. Glass blowing has
been around for 3,000 years and is the art
method of melting glass on the end of a long
metal tube and blowing through the tube,
causing the glass to expand.
◦Harmony: Scale is the relationship
between the piece of art and its
occurrence in the space. It can be
significantly larger than life or
smaller than life. Proportion is the
relative size of the art and the
harmony found in the piece.
◦Jade: The mineral jade is a
metamorphic rock made up of
different silicates, either nephrite
made from a silicate combination of
magnesium and calcium or jadeite,
also a silicate made from sodium
and aluminum.
◦Linear perspective: A set of parallel
lines that recede into the horizon
appearing to move closer and closer
until they touch. Linear perspective
can produce an illusion of three-
dimensional space on a piece of
paper or painting.
◦Linen: is made from the flax plant fibers
and known around the world for its
absorbency and ability to stay cooler in
hot weather. It is also the oldest
cultivated plants in the world. The
durable flax fibers are woven into the
most supple, fine, and highly sought-after
material ever manufactured.
◦Lithography: A Greek word meaning "stone" and
"writing." Lithography is a print of text or pictures
from an etched stone or metal plate and is based on
the principle that oil and water do not mix. Using a
grease pen, the artist draws directly on the stone,
adding acid to etch the unprotected parts of the
design into the stone. Mixed ink is spread on the
damp stone, and the water is attracted to the non-
etched part of the stone, the ink is attracted to the
etched portion. The stone and paper are pressed
together, and the image is transferred to the paper.
◦Marble: Marble is formed when limestone is changed by
heat and pressure and recrystallizes into a light-colored
rock, frequently white. Marble usually is dolomite or
calcite in origin and is a combination of recrystallized
carbonate elements through heat, compression, or
pressure to transform from one type of rock into a
harder rock. Impurities in the limestone cause the
colorful markings. Marble is found in extensive deposits,
generally hundreds of feet deep across a mountain.
People have mined marble for hundreds of years in
mines or open quarries and used the marble in buildings
and sculptures.
◦Marble process: Marble is a metamorphic rock that
used to be limestone. The marble usually is
dolomite or calcite in origin and is a combination of
recrystallized carbonate elements through heat,
compression, or pressure to transform from one
type of rock into a harder rock. Marble was soft
enough to carve and a favorite material for
sculptors. Marble is mined from quarries and used
to create statues with a hammer and chisel to
remove unwanted material to expose the figure as
it emerges from the marble.
◦Mass: The mass is the three-dimensional volume of
a piece of artwork. It is the volume and density,
which gives the art a perceived weight. One
principle of architecture and a requirement for
builders is the concept of the resistance of gravity
and how to use natural materials in any culture to
construct a building. Isaac Newton showed how
gravity works as a force, and Albert Einstein
theorized gravity is a curvature of space-time;
however, the ancient civilizations did not have that
information.
◦Metal casting process: The most common form of
casting metal is the lost wax process and dates back
to 4000 BCE. The casting of a bronze statue can be
a complicated process; however, many sculptures
can be made from one mold. Bronze is perhaps the
most popular metal for casting sculpture. Typically,
bronze is 10% tin, and 90% copper heated, mixed,
and poured into molds. The early civilizations
discovered bronze tools and weapons were more
effective than Stone Age tools, leading to inventions
advancing civilizations.
◦Modeling process: Modelling clay
is any of a group of malleable
substances such as plastic or clay,
to build a sculpture. Modeling is
an additive method as opposed to
carving, and the artist adds
material to the sculpture.
◦Mosaic: Mosaics are crafted by creating
images using small pieces of colored tile,
stone, or glass. The mosaics are used on
walls, ceilings, and even floors as they
are durable, lasting for centuries. Artists
create mosaics by gluing small pieces of
glass or stone to a wall and when it dries
in place, spreading grout over the top,
sealing the mosaics in place.
◦Paint: Paint is a combination of a binder and
color, mixed to form a liquid drying as a solid.
Various types of paint were invented
throughout the centuries, including oil, acrylic,
and watercolor, in addition to the traditional
paints of early civilizations. Paint can also be
contained in pressurized cans, released when
the valve is pushed down, releasing a fine mist
of paint.
◦Paper: Paper was invented in ancient China but did
not become popular in Europe until the 14th
century. Paper made from linen rags left to rot in
large vats of water. They stamped until the linen
became pulp, poured into molds and left to dry. The
results were large pieces of paper suitable to use in
the newly invented printing press. Paper was also
inexpensive to produce and was a way to create
information for more people than the expensive
vellum.
◦Pastels: A pastel is a finely
ground powdered pigment mixed
with some type of binder. Modern
pastels invented in the 17th
century were manufactured by
machines yielding a standard
product.
◦Perspective and Depth: An artist
who paints landscapes on a two-
dimensional piece of wood or
panel uses the illusion of depth, a
three-dimensional feeling, and the
sense of reality, bringing the
viewer into the scene.
◦Photography: Photography is the art of capturing a
picture and producing a photograph from the
picture. Photography captures light in a moment of
time, recording the lights produced by an image on
a highly sensitive material. Photographic plates
were used to capture images before film was
invented. The glass had an emulsion of sensitive
silver salts in a thin layer. When the light hit the
plate, it captured the image on the glass. Used
widely for professionals seeking details, plates did
not distort the image as the film could.
◦Photomontage: A photomontage is a
group of photos made by cutting up
photos and gluing them to a piece of
paper, or the montage can be made in a
digital photo program, like Adobe
Photoshop. The montage can look like a
realistic, seamless photo or be an
abstract composition.
◦Pointillism: Pointillism is a form of
painting using tiny dots instead of
brush strokes. Pointillism is applied in
small dots of pure color by
juxtaposing complementary colors
directly on the canvas, combining
through the eye of the viewer to form
an image.
◦Pointillism: Pointillism is a form of
painting using tiny dots instead of
brush strokes. Pointillism is applied in
small dots of pure color by
juxtaposing complementary colors
directly on the canvas, combining
through the eye of the viewer to form
an image.
◦Silk Screening: Silk
screening is a process of
printing using a silk mesh in
a wooden frame to transfer
an image onto another
surface, like a tee-shirt.
◦Sketching: Sketching is a
freehand drawing
representing what the
artist is seeing, but not
necessarily the finished
work.
◦Stone: Stones are solid pieces of different types of solid mineral
matter used for building structures. Stones are readily found
throughout the planet, and many civilizations still use stone for
construction. Limestone is a sedimentary rock primarily composed of
calcite and aragonite and usually has skeletal pieces of marine
organisms. Buildings were designed and engineered to accommodate
corners, supports, open spaces, columns, roofs, height, width, all
dependent on the variety of stone available. Quarry marks in
surviving structures reveal how most people used wooden wedges
soaked in water to split the stone on its natural fault lines. Stone lasts
a long time, and some of the only surviving parts of civilization are
the stone sculptures.
◦Terracotta: Terracotta
means "baked earth" in
Italian and is used to
describe any type of
earthenware that is clay-
based.
◦Vellum: Vellum comes from the Latin
word "vitulinum," meaning "made
from the calf." They used calfskin
vellum to produce books or scrolls.
Vellum is smooth, durable, and
usually white in color, an excellent
medium to write on.
◦Volume: The volume of artwork can also have
many meanings, especially if you are
comparing a 2-dimensional painting to a 3-
dimensional vessel. Volume usually applies to
3-dimensional work and denotes the amount
of space it contains. A vessel will usually have
the same volume for a vessel of like kind and
size and may occupy the same amount of
shelf space yet can still have space around it.
◦Weaving: Weaving is the art of textile
production when two yarns are woven at
a right angle to each other, producing
some type of fabric or cloth. The warp is
the yarn attached to the loom, and the
weft is the yarn woven through the
alternating warp yarns to create a
pattern.
◦Welding: Welding is a sculptural
fabrication process joining metal
materials with solder and heat. Different
sources of fuel can be used for welding,
including gas, electric, and laser. Forge
welding has been used for thousands of
years by blacksmiths to join iron and
steel pieces together.
◦Wool: is a fiber from shearing sheep,
llamas, or yak and woven into clothing
that retains its warmth even when wet.
The coats of the animals are sheared off,
washed, and spun into yarn, which is one
of the warmest fabrics even when wet.
The wool is dyed and usually woven on
large looms.
◦3-d drawings: Three-
dimensional drawings
usually represent a
building, shape, or object
that has more than one
dimension
◦Art appreciation is a journey about learning,
the discovery of cultures, and their art, which
has survived after they have abandoned long-
ago settlements. Art is a form of creative
human expression, lasting longer than
cultures, buildings, government, or religion
and providing a window into the past. Art is a
tangible element of a bygone culture we can
hold today, even though it is 30,000 years old,
a small remnant of past life.
◦We study art to learn how to be responsible for human cultural art
and to accept the diversity of people and their lifestyles. Looking
at the past, we can see the influence of civilizations and time on
culture and art today. For example, silk produced and woven in
China, but how long did it take to spread across Asia and into
Europe? The Silk Road was a commercial enterprise supporting
the transportation and selling of art for thousands of miles. Today,
the internet is our influence, and we have access to millions of
products on our computers. Research is faster and travels in light
seconds, letting us see the rest of the world and their art,
providing a way to learn and appreciate art and not just pass by
with a preconceived judgment. When you understand the culture,
you can understand the art, it applies to cave art, and it still
pertains today in our technological culture.