Introduction to Art Concepts

Learning Objectives

• Students will be able to identify various definitions of art.
• Students will be able to determine the characteristics that make art unique.
• Students will be able to understand the elements of art.
• Students will be able to differentiate different forms of art.

Imagine Life Without Art

• Art provides color and substance to human experience.
• Art stimulates senses and cognitive abilities, allowing emotions and subjective expression.

The Nature of Art

• Art is a tangible manifestation and product of human activity.
• Art allows for the expression of individuality through skill.
• Art is a means of communicating insights and emotions.
• The appreciation of art's forms, colors, shapes, lines, and movements transmits emotions.

Art as Defined in Varied Ways

• Plato viewed art as a mere imitation or copy of reality, stating true forms were created by God and are perfect.
• Tolstoy believed art produces objects or elements from the external environment that please the senses, unifying people through shared feelings.
• Veron defined art as an external manifestation created through lines, movements, sounds, colors, and emotions, highlighting its subjectivity.
• Da Vinci considered art the "Queen of all sciences, communicating knowledge to all generations."

Elements of Art

• Forms: Includes geometric forms like cones, cubes, spheres, and cylinders; and how 3D shape creates depth, width, and height. A 2D artwork can create an illusion of 3D by using shading and modelling.
• Lines: Include straight, curved, diagonal, dashed (dotted), perpendicular, wavy, horizontal, vertical, parallel, spiral, zig-zag, and curly lines. Lines are strokes that create outlines and imply connection between points. Lines have width (thickness) and direction (length).
• Color: Includes primary, secondary, intermediate, analogous, complementary, split complementary colors, hues, tints, and shades. Hue is a term or title assigned to colors; intensity is the vividness; value is the lightness or darkness.
• Space: Includes foreground, middle ground, and background, along with positive and negative space (the area between or within objects).
• Texture: Can be real (physical surface of a 3D object) or implied (illusion of texture created through visual elements like brushstrokes, color, or value).

Forms of Art

• Visual Arts: Appeals to the visual sense and used various mediums like paint, to create a lasting representation of the artist's imagination. Examples include drawing, painting.
• Drawing: Is creating an image, diagram, or form using tools like pen, ink, brush, pencil, markers, charcoal crayons. Drawing uses techniques like hatching, scribbling, stippling, and blending.
• Painting: Is a creative expression using pigment or color on a surface for aesthetic value. It may be naturalistic, photographic, representational, abstract, narrative, or political in style.
• Ceramic: Takes form of pottery, sculpture or figurines from non-metallic materials using heat.
• Photography: Produces images of objects, people, events or the environment through light and radiant energy. Camera features like Retro, Lomo, Vintage, and Comic book effects can be utilized.
• Architecture: Is the creative process of designing structures. Architecture is a combination of science and art. It's based on an implied or apparent plan for objects and systems, like urban planning and landscape architecture.
• Sculpture: Uses carving, modelling from materials like metals, ceramics, wood, or stone.
• Weaving: Creates fabric or cloth from interlaced yarns (fibers).
• Literary Arts: Imaginative writing with established artistic value, including prose, poetry, drama, and fiction and non-fiction.
• Performing Arts: Intended to entertain. Examples include dance (sequenced body movements), theatre (collaboration, actors acting out real life or imagined stories using speech, dance, music), music (creative use of sound, rhythm, pitch, and harmony), and opera.