Philosophy of Arts

Philosophy of art, the study of the nature of art, including concepts such
as interpretation, representation and expression, and form. It is closely
related to aesthetics, the philosophical study of beauty and taste.

Aesthetics, or esthetics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the

nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (itself a
subdivision of philosophy and branch of aesthetics). It examines subjective
and sensori-emotional values, or sometimes
called judgments of sentiment and taste.
Aesthetics covers both natural and artificial sources of aesthetic experience
and judgment. It considers what happens in our minds when we engage
with aesthetic objects or environments, such as viewing visual art, listening
to music, reading poetry, or exploring nature. The philosophy of art
specifically studies how artists imagine, create, and perform works of art,
as well as how people use, enjoy, and criticize their art. It deals with how
one feels about art in general, why they like some works of art and not
others, and how art can affect our moods or even our beliefs.

Medium and technique

In art, a medium is the material that artists use to create their art. It's that
simple. Whatever a piece of art is made out of is its medium. The plural of
medium is media. So, one piece of art can be made of one medium or
several media.

Medium of the visual arts

The visual arts are called such because, being composed in space, they
can be seen. Their appreciation is experienced through the eyes, primarily,
and through the sense of touch, particularly in sculpture.
 PAINTING
 The medium of painting is color. Color is applied on surfaces such as
canvass, cloth, wood, paper and the likes to produce images and
meanings.
 Pigment is that part of painting that provides the color, and pigment is
taken from organic sources like trees, vegetables and other natural
elements.


Spolarium by Juan Luna.

The painting was submitted by Luna to the Exposición Nacional de Bellas
Artes
in 1884, where it garnered a gold medal.
 OIL
Features : Color pigments are ground and mixed with linseed oil to
produce a liquid-like constituency whose viscosity (thickness or fluidness)
can be thinned by turpentine or any other solvent. It is a flexible medium. It
is slow to dry, but it can be applied by any kind and size of airbrush. It can
cover or overlay previous layers, thus, create translucent effects in the
combinations of colors, or even erase what a painter may wish to change.

Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (oil)

ACRYLIC
 Features : This is the most common medium, easily accessible and
inexpensive. It is versatile as this synthetic paint may be mixed with water
to tamper thickness or thinness. It is flexible and can be applied to any
space. It is quick to dry and does not crack or turn yellow with age.

Miss Sasha Colette (acrylic)

 WATERCOLOR.
Features : Pigment in watercolor is mixed with water rather than with oil. It
dries quickly, hence, it is a difficult medium to control. It is characterized by
the transparency of its texture which is controlled by the amount of water
that the artist mixes with the paint.

Watercolor Painting
 TEMPERA.
Features : Pigments are taken from organic pigments mixed with egg. It is
usually applied on wooden panels surfaced with gesso (combination of
gypsum and gelatine). It dries quickly.

Egg Tempera Painting by Niccolo Semiticolo (tempera)

 FRESCO
Features : Fresco painting is produced when organic pigments are mixed
with water and applied to a damp plaster wall. This allows water to seep
into the surface and become a part of the wall and remains so until the wall
falls. This was the process that Michelangelo used in painting the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo (fresco)

 ENCAUSTIC
Features : Encaustic process adds colored pigments to heated beeswax.
The mixture is then applied to porous surfaces like wood. This is an ancient
technique used to paint portraits and other images on coffins.

Encaustic Painting
 DRAWING
Drawings are the outlined designs of paintings. It is the most fundamental
of the skills in the visual arts and is the route artists take to acquire
technique. It often sets the final designs in paintings, the rough draft of a
proposed work.The mediums used in drawing are pencil, lead, ink, pastel,
chalk, charcoal, crayons and silverpoint.
 Charcoal
Charcoal is one of the oldest drawing media - see, for instance, the
ancient Nawarla Gabarnmang charcoal drawing (26,000 BCE) - and is
commonly used by artists even today, in stick or compressed powder form.
The sticks are usually made from twigs of willow (or linden wood) which are
subjected to a slow-burning process that reduces the wood to carbon.
Sticks come in varying thickness ranging from the very thick (used by
scene painters), to medium and thin sticks (used for more detailed
drawings).

Contemporary Charcoal Drawing

By William Rose.
 MOSAIC
Mosaic is the art of creating a picture by assembling pieces of colored
glasses, stones, and other materials. These small cubic pieces glued to a
surface by glue or plaster to create images are called tesserae. Mosaic art
was important in the interiors of cathedrals which depicted the life of Christ
or the various events in the Bible.
 STAINED GLASS
Stained glass art uses assembled pieces of colored glass to create
pictures. The translucent glass pieces allow light to produce various color
values to affect a glorious atmosphere. These pieces are assembled with
strips of lead or iron placed in positions that will hold the glass pieces.
Subjects were religious personages and images complementing the
teachings of the Church.
 TAPESTRY
Tapestries were the art forms of royalty, as tapestry artists were usually
members of royal families who wove these from expensive silk and gold
threads. These were hung on walls of castles, palaces and cathedrals. It is
produced by weaving two sets of interlaced threads on a vertica loom : one
set running parallel to the length (called the warp) and the other, width
(called weft).