What is Art?
Art - the product of creative human activity in which materials are shaped or
selected to convey an idea, emotion, or visually interesting form.
Visual arts - the arts whose objects are appreciated by viewing or through the
sense of sight.
Visual Arts are a class of art forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, and
others, that focus on the creation of artworks which are primarily visual in nature.
The visual arts are distinguished from the performing arts, language arts, culinary arts,
and other such classes of artwork. The definition is not strict, and many artistic
disciplines involve aspects of the visual arts as well other types
Artwork - A general term referring to any artistic production.
Common Types of Visual Arts
We have two ways of looking at this topic when we refer to art.
1. 2D Artworks – they are flat
has a dimension of height and width,
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Painting or 2-dimensional art viewed
only from front side.
Painting
Drawing
Printmaking
Photography
Textile Art
Body Art
Comics
Mosaic
Fernando Amorsolo, Afternoon Meal
Under the Mango Tree, 1961,Oil on Canvas
2. 3D Artworks - they are solid and has three dimension of length, width and depth
They can be viewed on all sides – front, back, sides, up, down
 Sculpture
 Architecture
 Ceramics/Pottery
 Landscape Design
 Jewelry
 Furniture
 Glass Art
When you view a sculpture or piece of pottery, a 3-Dimensional art, you need to view
it from all sides. If one were to view it just from the front, a lot of expression and detail
would be missed.
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Dimension - A measure of spatial distance.
Height - The first dimension, the measurement of the distance from the level of the lowest
point to the level of the highest point of a shape or space.
Width - The second dimension, after height. Width is usually the measurement of the extent of
a shape or a space from side to side.
Length - Usually refers to the longest dimension.
Depth - The third dimension. The apparent distance from front to back or near to far in an
artwork. When depth refers to an object's smallest dimension, then this distance can also be
called its thickness.
The Language of Art
Art is a powerful language. Through it, artists communicate thoughts, ideas,
and feelings. Like most languages, the language of art has its own special
vocabulary. Unlike other vocabularies, however, the vocabulary of art is not
made up of words. Rather, it is made up of visual elements. The visual elements
include line, shape, form, texture, value color and space.
The Elements of Art are the building blocks for a work of art. Artist use the
elements planned and organized ways. They are organized according to the Principles
of Design.
Elements of Art - The basic components used by the artist when producing works of art.
Those elements are color, value, line, shape, form, texture, and space.
Line - A mark with length and direction(-s). An element of art which refers to the continuous
mark made on some surface by a moving point.
Kinds of Line
1. Curve line - a mark with length and direction that forms an irregular
shape, or one that might be found in nature, rather than a regular, mechanical shape
Such convex, concave, scroll, spiral and wavy lines
Curve - A line or edge that deviates from straightness in a smooth, continuous way.
The lines that arc through space
Concave- having a surface or boundary that curves
or bulges inward
Concave
Convex - having a surface or boundary that curves or
bulges outward, as does the exterior of a sphere, or a balloon.
Convex
2. Straight line - a mark with length and direction that is straight and forms a geometric shape
Such as vertical, horizontal, diagonal lines
Straight - Extending continuously in the same direction without curves or other deviations
Vertical - The direction going straight up and down.
Horizontal - Straight and flat across, parallel to the horizon.
Diagonal - Having a slanted direction.
Vertical
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Horizontal
Diagonal
Shape - An element of art, it is an enclosed space defined and determined by other art
elements such as line, color, value, and texture.
Shape is an area enclosed by line, or seen as an area because of color or value changes.
Shapes have 2-dimensions – the height and width. They appear to be flat.
Kinds of Shape
1. Geometric Shapes – shapes that have smooth, even edges and angular corners.
They are typically made with straight lines or shapes from geometry, including circle, ovals,
triangles, rectangles and squares.
Dimension of Shapes
height
width
2. Organic or Natural Shape – shapes found in nature such as trees, leaves, animals etc.
Organic shapes are usually more rounded and appear most often in nature.
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Kinds of Subjects
1. Landscape - A painting, photograph or other work of art which depicts scenery such as
mountains, valleys, trees, rivers and forests. There is invariably some sky in the scene
Cityscape - work of art which depicts scene from a city or urban scenery.
Sunday Morning, Going to Town, Fernando
Amorsolo, 1961
2. Portrait - A work of art that represents a specific person, a group of people, or an animal.
Portraits usually show what a person looks like as well as revealing something about the
subject's personality.
Self-portrait -- A portrait an artist makes using himself or herself.
Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519),
Mona Lisa (La Joconde), c. 1503,
oil on wood panel
3. Still Life or Still-life - A picture of inanimate objects. Common still life subjects include
vessels, objects, furniture, books, clothing, settings, utensils, flowers, foods, etc., without
obvious stories or important people
Paul Cezanne (French) 1839-1906,
The Basket Of Apples, Oil on Canvas
Mahoning
by Franz Kline
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Roses & Lilacs, Raoul De Longpre