Art Critiquing Process

The first thing that most people do when they look at a work of art is jump to their own opinion and say "I like it" or "I don't like it." But our statements and guesses need to be more educated. An educated discussion about a work of art is called a "Critique." Here is the following process for giving a critique about a work of art.

First start with "Description." Simply open your eyes and describe the picture and tell what you see. Describe everything you see including the materials.

Second: Give your "Analysis." This is where you use your knowledge of the elements and principles of art. How did the artist organize the artwork using the elements and principles?

Third: Now is time for "Interpretation." Does the artist give you any clues in the artwork about the message of the art? Express your opinions about what you think the artist meant. What does the work mean to you? What is the message of the piece?

Lastly: "Judgment" time. What do you think about this piece of work? Is it successful or not? Why? Back up what you say. You should be able to give some reasons why you like or do not like a work of art.

Famous Art

Art That We Use

Art that we use is called Applied Art. It is art that is functional. Without applied artists, our lives would be dull and uninteresting. Things that we need to use everyday are designed by applied artists. Applied artists make life a lot more fun.

The fields for applied artists are--

Industrial Designer: An industrial artist creates objects that are sold by the industry such as automobiles, appliances, and phones.

Graphic Designer: A commerical artist creates designs for communication through images and lettering for commericial purposes. Graphic desginers design advertisements, signs, bookcovers, CD covers, and web pages.

Interior Designer: Interior designers create what the inside of a room will look like.

Fashion Designer: Design the clothes that people wear keeping in mind the cultural and social influences and the times people live in.

Architects: Design buildings and structures that provide shelter. Almost every city has a unique landscape. City planners work with architects to design buildings and structures to keep the "city landscape" interesting and and distinguishable. The role of an Industrial Designer is to create and execute design solutions towards problems of form, usability, user The tem "form follows function" is widely used in architecture.

Photographers: is the process and art of recording pictures by means of capturing light on a light-sensitive medium, such as a film or electronic sensor through a camera. Photography has many uses for both business and pleasure. It is often the basis of advertising and in fashion print.

Did you know that Teaching: (yes teaching) is also considered an applied art?
"What sculpture is to a block of marble, teaching is to the soul." (J. Addison)

"I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework." (E. Ann)
"To know how to suggest is the art of teaching." (H. Amiel)
"Teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition." (J. Barzun)

Abstract Art and Realistic Art

Abstract Art: A style of art that does not show a realistic subject. Has no visual reference of the world. Abstract art usually includes geometric shapes, bold colors, and lines.

Realistic Art: A style of art that strongly displays realistic subject matter.

Test your knowledge: Which one of these pictures are abstract and which one are realistic?

Graffiti-- Fine Art or Folk Art? What do you think?

Post your response.

Fine Artists and Folk Artists

Fine Artist: Artists that have been educated in the arts. They usually use formal materials for creating art. (Canvas, acid free paper, oil or acrylic paint, etc.)

Folk Artist: Artists that practice art but have no formal education in the arts. They usually use informal materials to create art. They make art out of anything. (found metal, broken glass, discarded wood, junk, etc. (Note: Folk artists are frequently taken advantage of and exploited because of their lack of education in the arts.) **Quilting is also considered a folk art. The house below looks like there is a folk artist who lives there.

2 Dimensional and 3 Dimensional Art

Two Dimensional Art (2D): Art that is flat. Painting, drawing, and photography are considered 2d art. Artist may "trick your eye" by manipulating values to make a 2d work of art look 3d.

Three Dimensional Art (3D): Art that has height, width, and depth (thickness and deep space). Art that is not flat. Sculpture and architecture are considered 3 dimensional works of art.

Relief: Has 2D and 3D qualities. A relief is something that has 3 dimensional qualities protruding from a 2 dimensional background. Some sculpture is considered relief sculpture. Many pieces of architecture has pieces of relief art worked into the architecture.

Test your knowledge: Which work of art is 2d, which is 3d, and which one is a relief?

Color Wheel and Color Families

Color: The visual quality of objects caused by the amount of light reflected by them. Color is an element of art. Another word for color is hue.

Colorist: A person who uses color with great skill.

Color Scheme: A plan for combining colors in a work of art. Artists know that certain colors and color schemes can create certain moods or feelings in their artworks.

Pallette: A flat board on which a painter mixes color. Sometimes it refers to the color choices of an artist or designer.

Primary Colors: Colors that cannot be mixed from other colors. They are the parents of other colors. The primary colors are red, yellow, and blue.

Secondary Colors: Colors that are created by mixing two primary colors. These are the first born children of primary colors. Secondary colors are orange, green, and purple.

Intermediate Colors: Intermediate colors are colors created by mixing a primary and a secondary color. Intermediate colors usually have two colors in their name. Red-Orange, Blue-Violet, and Blue-Green are examples of intermediate colors.

Monochromatic Colors: A color scheme that uses different values of a single hue by showing tints and shades of the same color. During Picasso's Blue Period, he used a monochromatic color scheme for a series of paintings. He painted everything blue but used tints and shades of blue.

Complementary Colors: Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. An artist may slip in complementary colors somewhere in a picture to make an area of a picture "pop" or he/she may do a complete color scheme of complemenatary colors.

Tinted Colors : Colors that are lightened by adding white. For example- tinted red is pink. Tinted blue is sky blue.

Shaded Colors: Colors that are darkened by adding black. For example- shaded red is burgundy or maroon. Shaded blue would be navy blue or dark blue.

Neutral Colors: Universal colors. Black, white and gray are considered neutral colors. Some artists used tints and shades of brown as neutral colors.

Warm/Hot Colors: A family of colors that brings to mind warm feelings, things, and places. Sometimes used in an area of a picture to draw attention. Warm colors include reds, yellows, and oranges (the colors you would find in a fire). Warm colors are considered "aggressive" and come forward in a picture.

Cool Colors: A family of colors that brings to mind cool and soothing things, places, and feelings. Sometimes even sad. Cool colors are considered "passive" and would recede or move away from the eyes of a viewer. Blues, greens, and violets are considered cool colors.

Principles of Design

The Principles of Design are guidelines artist use to organize the elements of art into a composition.

Think of it as extra special techniques and touches artist may use to advance or create a higher level of work. The artist's goal is to make you think and manipulate your eyes. He or she can control your eyes by adding the following principles of design.

Balance -The way an artwork is deliberately and equally arranged by specific elements within a composition purposely organized by the artist. Balance can be symmetrical, assymmetrical, or radial.
Contrast/Variety- A deliberate way of arranging elements of art that are not alike in order to draw attention, create emphasis, and/or break up a monotonous area. Artist use this principle to add a little "pop" to their work.
Unity - The quality of feeling whole, together, and complete by manipulating elements of art. Artists will pull it together by working with or adding similar elements. For instance adding the same shape, same color in various points of the artwork gives it a feeling of being unified.
Emphasis -The importance given to certain areas of the art. The area that dominates the eyes of a viewer. An artist might give emphasis to an area by making it bigger, using contrast, using bright or hot colors, or using complementary colors.
Movement- An illusion created by the artist to convey action in a piece of stationery art. This can be achieved by repetition, adding lines, or careful placement of objects.
Pattern - Repeated lines, shapes, colors, forms, and or textures in an artwork.
Rhythm - Movement in art created by repeating certain elements of art.

Test your knowledge: How did Van Gogh use the principles of art in his painting "Starry Night?" How many principles can you recognize?

Elements of Art

The Elements of Art are like the basics in a cake recipe. If you wanted to make a cake, you couldn't make one without the basic ingredients. To create a work of art, you need the basic ingredients. Without the basic "ingredients" or elements of art, art could not be created. The basic ingredients of art are:
Line - A mark created by moving a point across in a particular direction. Sometimes lines can be direct, sometimes lines can be implied (you can't physically see a line but your eye moves in a certain direction anyway.) The artist can manipulates the elements to manipulate your eyes and gets your eyes to move around the picture in a certain flow or direction.
Shape - An object created by line that is represented in 2 dimensions (flat). Shapes can be geometrical or (regular shapes). Shapes can also be organic (irregular shapes).
Form - Forms can be created by putting shapes together to create a recognizable form. For example, if you put together a triangle on top of a square, most people would recognize that as the form of a house. Forms also can be 3 dimensional. A circle in three dimensional form becomes a sphere. A square in 3d form becomes a cube.
Color - The element derived from reflected light. (See post on Color Wheel and Color Families)
Space - The open or empty space around above, between, inside, or below objects. Space can be positive (used) or negative (empty).

Texture -The way something feels (actual texture) or the way it look like it feels (visual or simulated texture)
Value - The lightness or darkness of a color. Tints have a light value. Shades have a dark value.

Test your knowledge: Looking at the above works of art, see if you can recognize how the artist used the elements of art.