Art is the expression or application of human creative skills and imagination typically

in a visual form. such as painting or sculpture producing works to be appreciated

primarily for their beauty of emotion power. “The art of Renaissance”. “Art” is derived
from arti, which denotes craftsmanship, skill, mastery of form, and inventiveness. It
serves as a technical and creative record of human needs and achievements.
Gombrich’s Delphic observation suggests that art is something which artists do.

Some definitions of art according to philosophers:

•Art is that which brings life in harmony with the beauty of the world. -Plato
•Art is the whole spirit of man. -Ruskin
•Art is the medium by which the artist communicates himself to his fellows
-Charleton Noyes
•Art is anything made or done by man that affects or moves us so that we see or feel
beauty in it. -Collins and Riley

Elements of Arts

Line: the boundaries for shape.

Horizontal Line. These are lines that run parallel to the ground.
Vertical Line. These are lines that move up and down.
Diagonal Line. These are lines that are slant.
Curved Line. These are lines that change direction gradually.
Zigzag line. These are lines that are made by combining diagonal lines that change
direction
Shape: the forms made from the lines, such as circles
Geometric Shapes. These are also called as regular shapes.
Organic Shapes. These are also called as freeform shapes.
Positive Shapes. It is the solid forms in a design and occupies positive space.
Negative Shapes. It is the space around the positive shape
Static Shape. It appears stable and resting.
Dynamic Shape. It appears as if moving and active.
Color: the visual spectrum of light that is found in a rainbow. create the mood or
atmosphere of an artwork.
Tone: the lightness or darkness of colors
Size: smallness or largeness
Perspective: the illusion of distance, such as near or far
Pattern: visual repetition, such as polka-dots or stripes
Texture: the look of flat, smooth, bumpy, or rough, without the need to be touched
Optical Texture: An artist may use his/her skillful painting technique to create the
illusion of texture.
Physical Texture: An artist may paint with expressive brushstrokes whose texture
conveys the physical and emotional energy of both the artist and his/her subject.
Space: the creation of visual perspective which gives the illusion of depth

VISUAL ART
- refers to art forms that express their message, meaning, and emotion through visual
means. The intent of visual art forms may be to visually please the viewer through an
artwork.

Forms of Visual Art

Fine Arts - a creative art whose product are appreciated primarily or solely for their
imaginative, aesthetic or intellectual content.
Contemporary Arts - art concerned with the production of high-quality objects that are
both beautiful and useful.
Decorative Arts- defined as all artworks that are produced in our present time.

Fine Arts
• Drawing - is the simplest type of visual art. It only requires a drawing tool, such
as a pencil, and a surface, such as paper.
• Painting - done on a surface, such as a canvas, a rock, or a ceiling.
• Sculpture - has a three-dimensional form. It may be made of ceramics, metal,
wood, plastic, or even ice.
• Printmaking - is an artistic process based on the principle of transferring
images from a matrix onto another surface, most often paper or fabric.
• Photography - is made with a camera. A manual camera requires film.
• Graphic Art - subcategory of visual art that includes traditional art medium
such as drawing, painting, and printmaking as well as innovative medium such
as photography and computer-generated art.
• Calligraphy - the art of beautiful handwriting
• Filmmaking - art that uses modern technologies and through, we make it art
through the things that we capture and the nature or background we use.
• Architecture - the art and technique of designing a building
• Fashion Design - is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction
and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories
Decorative Arts
• Ceramics - A ceramic is a material that is neither metallic nor organic. It may
be crystalline, glassy or both crystalline and glassy.
• Glassware - Glassware consists of objects made of glass, such as bowls,
drinking containers, and ornaments.
• Basketry - Basketry, art and craft of making interwoven objects
• Jewelry - Jewelry is a decorative objects worn on your clothes or body that are
usually made from valuable metals, such as gold and silver, and precious
stones
• Furniture - Furniture includes objects such as tables, chairs, beds, desks,
dressers, and cupboards.
• Textile - Textiles are materials made of natural or synthetic fibers.

Contemporary Arts
• Assemblage - is art that is made by assembling disparate elements – often
everyday objects – scavenged by the artist or bought specially.
• Collage - a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in
music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus
creating a new whole.
• Installation - The term installation art is used to describe large-scale, mixed-
media constructions, often designed for a specific place or for a temporary
period of time.
• Performance Art - is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions
executed by the artist or other participants
• Land Art - or earth art is art that is made directly in the landscape, sculpting
the land itself into earthworks or making structures in the landscape using
natural materials such as rocks or twigs
• Minimalist Art - Minimalism is an extreme form of abstract art developed in the
USA in the 1960s and typified by artworks composed of simple geometric shapes
based on the square and the rectangle

What makes a visual art?

• A visual art is work that has visual characteristics such as shapes and colors
that most people will be able to not only see but find emotion or meaning with
when they look at it.
What is the main focus of visual arts?
• The main focus of visual arts is creative expression through visual means.
What is semiotic?
Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce are the founders of semiotics.
Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretations.
The word semiotics is derived from the ancient Greek word “semeion” which means
sign.

What is sign?
Signs can take many forms. They can be words, numbers, sounds, photographs,
paintings and road signs and more. A sign is anything that creates meaning. It’s
anything that can be used to represent something else.

Assumptions and Natures of Arts

1. Art is universal. Art is timeless, spanning generations and continents through and
through.
2. Art is not nature. Art is man’s expression of his reception of nature. It is his way of
interpreting nature. Art is made by man, whereas nature is a given around us.
3. Art involves experience. Art is the “actual doing of something.” Examples are Radio
DJ, Choreographer, Painter, and Sculptor.

TYPES OF ARTIST
A.VISUAL ARTIST - Architect, Designer, Painter, Photographer Sculptor
B. PERFORMING ARTIST - Actor, Composer, Dancer, Instrumentalist, Singer
C. LITERARY ARTIST - Essayist, Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Scriptwriter

Medium and Technique

●Water Color. It is a simple coloring medium which has less luminous effect when
applied but easy to use.
●Fresco. It is paint on a moist plaster surface applied with lime water mixture.
●Pastel and Chalk. These are dry pigments held together by a gum binder and
compressed into stick.
●Oil. It is pigment mixed with linseed oil and applied canvass.
●Tempera. It is a mineral pigment mixed with egg yolk or egg white and ore.
●Encaustic. This was used by Egyptian in the portrait of face as in the case of
community done with wax colors by use of heat.
●Acrylic. This is the medium most widely used by the painters these days because of
the characteristics of transparency and quick drying.
●Stained glass. It is a combination of small pieces of colored glass held together by
hands of lead.
●Tapestry. It is a fabric consisting of warp where colored threads are woven to make
designs used in wall hangings or furniture cover.
●Mosaic. It’s a picture decoration which are cut small pieces of colored stones or glass
and glued or pasted on a surface with cement or plaster
●Crayons. These are pigments bound by wax and compressed into painted sticks
●Charcoal. This is made from carbonized materials from heating wood

The following are the mediums of

Visual Arts in 3-D – Stone, Granite, Marble, Jade, Ivory, Metal, Bronze brass, Copper,
Gold, Silver, Lead, Plaster, Clay, Glass, Wood

Techniques refer to the means, a process, or a method of using the medium

in a manner that he wishes to finish an artwork.

The following are the techniques used in creating the works of Art - Blowing Etching,
Printing Transfer design, Tinkering(experiment), Splattering, Throwing, Coloring,
Flowing, Cutting

THE IMPORTANCE OF VISUAL ARTS IN EDUCATION

• Brain research confirms that Arts education strengthens student problem-
solving and critical thinking skills, adding to overall academic achievement,
school success, and
• preparation for the work world.

• Art classes provide students a chance to develop cognitive and creative skills,
and to develop their imaginations.

• For some students, Art is their motivation for coming to school and an area
where they have success or excel, providing an important balance in their total
educational
• experience.

• The arts teach our students to be more tolerant and open through multicultural
and historical perspective and through their involvement in the creative process
itself.

Why does art need criticism?

Art needs criticism because it needs something outside of itself as a place of
reflection, discernment, and connection with the larger world. Art for art’s sake is fine,
if you can get it. But then the connection to the real becomes tenuous, and the
connection to the social disappears. If you want to engage, if you want discourse, you
need criticism (Campbell, 2012).
FUNCTIONS OF ART
Art can be generally classified into two:
a. Directly Functional – Art that we live in daily basis and serve tangible function in
our lives. Ex. Money, clothes, structures, furniture, architectural and
engineering, weapons, kitchen utensils and etc.
b. Indirectly Functional – art that are perceived through the senses. Ex. Painting,
theater, literature, music, sculpture.

What made art relevant towards the needs of mankind?

Art serves and saved human needs.

Four Artistic Function of Art

1. Aesthetic Function – instrument of man to be cognifant to the beauty of
nature
2. Utilitarian Function – use to give comfort, convenience, happiness to human
being.
3. Social Function – It bridges connection among people.
4. Cultural Function – aperture towards skills, knowledge, attitude, custom and
traditions of different of different people.

The Physical function

The Social function
The Personal function
The Motivated function- Communication, Art as an entertainment,The avante- grande/
political change, Art for Psychological/ healing purposes, Art for Social inquiry and Art
for Propaganda

• What is Abstract Art?

— it is an art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a
visual reality but instead use shapes, colours ,lines, forms and gestural marks to
achieve its effect.

Types of Abstract Art

Tachisme — was a reaction to cubism and is characterized by spontaneous
brushwork, drips and blobs of paint straight from the tube, and sometimes
scribbling reminiscent of calligraphy. Derived from the French word “Tache” or a
stain. It is a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s.
 Art Informel - it is a French term describing a swathe of approaches to abstract
painting in the 1940s and 1950s which had in common an improvisatory
methodology and highly gestural techniques.
Hard-edge painting— is an approach to abstract painting that became widespread in
1960s and is characterized by areas of flat colour with sharp, chear (or “hard”) edges.
The term “hard-edge painting” was coined by Californian critic Jules Langsner in 1959.
Suprematism - is an abstract art movement defined by use of geometric shapes and
bold colors. It also characterized by basic geometric forms such as circles, squares
like, and rectangles, painted in a limited range of colours.
Op art - is a short for “optical art” wherein the artists uses optical illusions to make
his artwork.
Expressionism — it refers to an art which is the image of reality is distorted in order
to make it expressive of the artists inner feelings or ideas.
Dada — was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in
negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war. In the other term, Dada
infamously called “anti-art” movement.
Cubism was one of the most influential art movement of 20th century. it is a style
of art begun in the early twentieth century in which objects are represented as if
they could be seen from several different positions.
Abstract expressionism - it is an art movement focusing on the utilization of
abstractions as means to express and/ or elicit emotions.
Color Field Painting — a branch of Abstract Expressionism that concentrates on
colorful shapes that emphasizes the literal flatness of the surface.
Surrealism. - it’s aim was, According to leader Andre Breton to “resolve the
previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a
super reality” or a Surreality.
Fauvism — it is a movement in painting typified by the work of Matisse and
characterized by vivid colors, free treatment of form, and a resulting vibrant and
decorative effect.
Lyrical Abstraction — is a type of painting that is characterized by its highly
expressive and emotive qualities.
Geometric Abstraction — is an art form that uses basic geometric shapes.