The art of painting

Table of contents: 1.Argument 2.Definition and short history 3.Elements,materials and techniques 4.Bibliography

Argument
Art to me is an expression of emotions, events, feelings and words.
Personaly, I dont like to speak a lot and I often prefer to lock in on myself.But when I draw or paint,all the stress and all my feelings come out and it makes me truly happy with the final result. Since I saw a picture of The Baleful Head painted by Edward Coley Burne-Jones and I found out the story of the painting, I discovered how a canvas, some paint and few brushes cand transpose a myth,a story or feelins into a work of art, even if its about a look that kills. Why I chose this topic? Because I think art is important for the thought and emotions it can evoke, for the absolute joy it brings, for its diversity, because with every blank canvas, comes a new journey. William Butler Yeats said that Supreme art is a traditional statement of certain heroic and religious truth,passed on from age to age,modified by individual geniusbut never abandoned. I honestly hope it will never be abandoned.

Definition
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface (support base). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is also used outside of art as a common trade among craftsmen and builders. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls,paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay, leaf, copper or concrete, and may incorporate multiple other materials including sand, clay, paper, gold leaf as well as objects. Painting is a mode of creative expression, and the forms are numerous. Drawing, composition or abstraction and other aesthetics may serve to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a still life or landscape painting), photographic, abstract, be loaded with narrative content, symbolism, emotion or be political in nature.
The baleful head by Edward Coley Burne-Jones -oil on canvas-

History
The oldest known paintings are at the Grotte Chauvet in France, claimed by some historians to be about 32,000 years old. They are engraved and painted using red ochre and black pigment and show horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalo,mammoth, abstract designs and what are possibly partial human figures. However the earliest evidence of the act of painting has been discovered in two rock-shelters in Arnhem Land, in northern Australia. In the lowest layer of material at these sites there are used pieces of ochre estimated to be 60,000 years old. Archaeologists have also found a fragment of rock painting preserved in a limestone rock-shelter in the Kimberley region of North-Western Australia, that is dated 40 000 years old. There are examples of cave paintings all over the worldin India, France, Spain, Portugal, China, Australia, etc. In Western cultures oil painting and watercolor painting have rich and complex traditions in style and subject matter. In the East, ink and color ink historically predominated the choice of media with equally rich and complex traditions. Modern and Contemporary Art has moved away from the historic value of craft and documentation in favour of concept; this led some to say in the 1960s that painting, as a serious art form, is dead. This has not deterred the majority of living painters from continuing to practice painting either as whole or part of their work. The vitality and versatility of painting in the 21st century belies the premature declarations of its demise. In an epoch characterized by the idea of pluralism, there is no consensus as to a representative style of the age. Important works of art continue to be made in a wide variety of styles and aesthetic temperaments, the market place being left to judge merit.

Elements:
Intensity
What enables painting is the perception and representation of intensity. Every point in space has different intensity, which can be represented in painting by black and white and all the gray shades between. In practice, painters can articulate shapes by juxtaposing surfaces of different intensity; by using just color (of the same intensity) one can only represent symbolic shapes. Thus, the basic means of painting are distinct from ideological means, such as geometrical figures, various points of view and organization (perspective), and symbols. For example, a painter perceives that a particular white wall has different intensity at each point, due to shades and reflections from nearby objects, but ideally, a white wall is still a white wall in pitch darkness. In technical drawing, thickness of line is also ideal, demarcating ideal outlines of an object within a perceptual frame different from the one used by painters.

Color and tone

Color and tone are the essence of painting as pitch and rhythm are of music. Color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, white is. Some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including Goethe, Kandinsky, and Newton, have written their owncolor theory. Moreover the use of language is only a generalization for a color equivalent. The word "red", for example, can cover a wide range of variations on the pure red of the visible spectrum of light. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic and derived (complementary or mixed) colors (like red, blue, green, brown, etc.).

Painters deal practically with pigments, so "blue" for a painter can be any of the blues: phtalocyan, Paris blue, indigo, cobalt, ultramarine, and so on. Psychological, symbolical meanings of color are not strictly speaking means of painting. Colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this the perception of a painting is highly subjective.

Rhythm
Rhythm is important in painting as well as in music. If one defines rhythm as "a pause incorporated into a sequence", then there can be rhythm in paintings. These pauses allow creative force to intervene and add new creationsform, melody, coloration. The distribution of form, or any kind of information is of crucial importance in the given work of art and it directly affects the esthetical value of that work. This is because the esthetical value is functionality dependent, i.e. the freedom (of movement) of perception is perceived as beauty. Free flow of energy, in art as well as in other forms of "techne", directly contributes to the esthetical value.

Non-traditional elements
Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, for example, collage, and is not painting in the strict sense. Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as sand,cement, straw or wood for their texture. Mixed media, in visual art, refers to an artwork in the making of which more than one medium has been employed.

When creating a painted or photographed work using mixed media it is important to choose the

layers carefully and allow enough drying time between the layers to ensure the final work will have integrity. If many different media are used it is equally important to choose a sturdy foundation upon which the different layers are imposed. A phrase sometimes used in relationship to mixed media is, "Fat over lean." In other words: "don't start with oil paints. Plan to make them the final layer." Many effects can be achieved by using mixed media. Found objects can be used in conjunction with traditional artist media, such as paints and graphite, to express a meaning in the everyday life. In this manner, many different elements of art become more flexible than with traditional artist media.

Materials and tehniqus:

Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plainwoven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame. It is also used in such fashion objects as handbags and shoes.

Canvas is typically stretched across a wooden frame called astretcher, and may be coated with gesso before it is to be used; this is to prevent oil paint from

coming into direct contact with the canvas fibres, which will eventually cause the canvas to decay. A traditional and flexible chalk gesso is composed of lead carbonate and linseed oil, applied over a rabbit skin glue ground; a variation using titanium white pigment and calcium carbonate is rather brittle and susceptible to cracking. As leadbased paint is poisonous, care has to be taken in using it. Various alternative and more flexible canvas primers are commercially available, the most popular being a synthetic latex paint composed of titanium dioxide and calcium carbonate, bound with a thermoplastic emulsion. Many artists have painted onto unprimed canvas, such as Jackson Pollock,[2] Kenneth Noland, Francis Bacon,Helen Frankenthaler, Dan Christensen, Larry Zox, Ronnie Landfield, Color Field painters, Lyrical Abstractionists and others.

Types of paint: Oil

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oilespecially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body and gloss. Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known.

Pastel

Pastel is a painting medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure

powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation. The color effect of pastels is closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any other process. Because the surface of a pastel painting is fragile and easily smudged, its preservation requires protective measures such as framing under glass; it may also be sprayed with a fixative. Nonetheless, when made with permanent pigments and properly cared for, a pastel painting may endure unchanged for centuries. Pastels are not susceptible, as are paintings made with a fluid medium, to the cracking and discoloration that result from changes in the color, opacity, or dimensions of the medium as it dries.

Acrylic
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become waterresistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water) or modified with acrylic gels, media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting, or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media. The main practical difference between most acrylics and oil paints is the inherent drying time. Oils allow for more time to blend colors and apply even glazes over under-paintings. This slow drying aspect of oil can be seen as an advantage for certain techniques, but in other regards it impedes the artist trying to work quickly.

Watercolor
Watercolor is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper.other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather, fabric, wood and canvas. Finger-painting with watercolor paints originated in China.

Hot wax
Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface usually prepared wood, thoughcanvas and other materials are often used.

Gouache

Gouache is a water based paint consisting of pigment and other materials designed to be used in an opaque painting method. Gouache differs from watercolor in that the particles are larger, the ratio of pigment to water is much higher, and an additional, inert, white pigment such as chalk is also present. This makes gouache heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities. Like all watermedia, it is diluted with water.

Tempera
Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium (usually a glutinous material such as egg yolk or some other size). Tempera also refers to the

paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long lasting, and examples from the first centuries AD still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by the invention of oil painting.

Spray paint
Aerosol paint (also called spray paint) is a type of paint that comes in a sealed pressurized container and is released in a fine spray mist when depressing a valve button. A form of spray painting, aerosolpaint leaves a smooth, evenly coated surface. Standard sized cans are portable, inexpensive and easy to store. Aerosol primer can be applied directly to bare metal and many plastics.

Paintbrushes
Paintbrushes are used to apply ink or paint. These brushes are usually made by clamping the bristles to a handle with a ferrule.

Artists' brushes
Short handled brushes are for watercolor or ink painting while the long handled brushes are for oil or acrylic paint. Shapes

The styles of brush tip seen most commonly are:

Round: pointed tip, long closely arranged bristles for detail Flat: for spreading paint quickly and evenly over a surface. They will have longer Bright: shorter than flats. Flat brushes with short stiff bristles, good for driving

hairs than their Bright counterpart.

paint into the weave of a canvas in thinner paint applications, as well as thicker painting styles like impasto work.

Filbert: flat brushes with domed ends. They allow good coverage and the ability Fan: for blending broad areas of paint. Angle: like the filbert, these are versatile and can be applied in both general Mop: a larger format brush with a rounded edge for broad soft paint application

to perform some detail work.

painting application as well as some detail work.

as well as for getting thinner glazes over existing drying layers of paint without damaging lower layers.

Rigger: round brushes with longish hairs, traditionally used for painting the

rigging in pictures of ships. They are useful for fine lines and are versatile for both oils and watercolors.

Stippler and deer-foot stippler: short, stubby rounds Liner: elongated rounds

Egbert

Bristles
Types include:

watercolor brushes which are usually made of sable, synthetic sable or nylon; oil painting brushes which are usually made of sable or bristle; acrylic brushes which are almost entirely nylon or synthetic.

Handles
Artists' brush handles are commonly wooden but can also be made of molded plastic. Many mass-produced handles are made of unfinished raw wood; better quality handles are of seasoned hardwood. The wood is sealed and lacquered to give the handle a high-gloss, waterproof finish that reduces soiling and swelling. Metal ferrules may be of aluminum, nickel, copper, or nickel-plated steel. Quill ferrules are also found: these give a different "feel" to the brush.

Bibliography: 1. Reichold Klaus and Graf Bernhard Paintings that Changed the World

2.
3. 4. 5.

Jennings Siomon Collins Complete Artists Manual http://www.art-is-fun.com http://www.wikipedia.com http://emptyeasel.com