Art Fundamentals

Origins of Art

• The word "art" comes from the Latin word "ars", meaning skill or craft.

Types of Art

• Drawing: a type of visual art that involves marking paper or another two-dimensional medium using different drawing instruments.
• Painting: the art of applying paint, pigment, or any other medium to a solid surface.
• Sculpture: the art of making symbolic or abstract objects in two or three dimensions, especially by carving stone or wood or casting metal or plaster.
• Photography: the art and practice of creating visual images either electronically or chemically, by detecting light or other electromagnetic radiation.
• Film: a series of still images that create the illusion of moving images when shown on a screen.
• Architecture: the art and science of constructing buildings and non-construction structures.
• Literature: writing that is regarded as having artistic merit.
• Music: a type of art and cultural activity whose medium is arranged in time with sound.
• Dance: a performing art form composed of sequences of human movement chosen deliberately.
• Theatre: a collective type of fine art that uses live performers to portray an event or imagined event in a specific location.

Categories of Art

• Visual arts: art forms that create works that are primarily visual in nature, such as drawings, ceramics, painting, crafts, and film.
• Fine arts: an art form practiced mainly for its aesthetic value and beauty rather than its functional value.
• Contemporary arts: modern art forms such as assemblage, mixed-media, collage, and photography.
• Decorative arts or Crafts: includes ceramics, pottery, stained glass, tapestry, mosaic, and others.

Art Terms

• Mimesis: means to imitate.
• Subject of Art: refers to any person, objects, scene, or event described in a work of art.
• Representational art: represents an object or event in the real world.
• Non-representational art: art without reference to anything outside itself.
• Artist: a person dedicated to the creative side, making visually pleasing work only for the enjoyment and appreciation of the viewer, with no functional value.
• Artisan: a manual worker who makes items through skill and experience, creating beauty as well as being functional.
• Medium: the material used by an artist to express their feelings or thoughts.
• Technique: the approach, method, or process used to create a work using a material or medium.
• Collage: means to paste.