Each method of creating art requires specific materials or mixed materials and skills. Many methods overlap and rely on or combine materials and skill-sets. Virtually all art is founded on the skill to draw and thus drawing is the first set of skills to master.
Drawing
So what is drawing? There are many ways to implement drawing as a stand-alone art genre. The technical aspect of drawing is using a marking instrument such as a pen or pencil, or a piece of charcoal or crayon, for example, to create lines and areas of pigment on a substrate such as paper, wood, cloth, or walls. Drawing can also be created with sharp instruments that remove pigment or material to expose an underlying color or create a texture that appears to be a line. The genre of classic figure drawing is easily recognizable from the nude figures that are the subject of figure drawing as fine art.
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The grand masters such as Da Vinci and Michelangelo, and more modern artists such as Picasso and Jenny Saville, all demonstrate exceptional drawing skills in every media they utilize(d).
Painting
Painting often begins with a drawing to guide the artist as he or she applies pigments (color-specific natural or man-made powders) mixed with an extender or binder (gels or oils) to a substrate (paper, canvas, wood, etc). The three most common media in painting are:
- watercolor
- acrylic paint
- oil paint
Let's consider each media in more detail.
Watercolor painting uses pigments mixed with water-based media such as paste or solid cakes of color, natural hair bristle brushes (camel, squirrel, beaver), and sometimes fixatives to adhere the thin transparent layers or washes to the substrate.
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High-quality watercolor paints, brushes, and papers are typically expensive. Contrast and illusion are created with resist methods to produce white highlights, and by incorporating pen and inks to emphasize lines and details. The papers used are heavy and thick. The way the paper is created will enable more or less water and pigment to be absorbed. Watercolor paintings created on the highest quality papers can last for many decades.
Acrylic paints are water-based media that incorporate pigments with a thick binding agent typically requiring brushes with man-made bristles, dry relatively quickly when thinned with water and clean up with soap and water. The pigments are bright, blendable, long-lasting, and normally less expensive than high-end watercolor or oil-based paints. Acrylic paints lend themselves nicely to creating impasto, or highly textured paint surfaces. The impasto work can be a form of sculpture when extreme.
Oil paints are rarely used straight from the tube. They require extenders such as linseed oil, Damar resin varnish, or thinners to blend and apply the pigments to the chosen substrate.
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Quality oil paints can be very expensive but last a long time as they dry very slowly, especially if used with linseed oil. Paintings made with oil paints last the longest, often hundreds of years when created with quality materials. Oil painting can be done on many surfaces including paper, wood, canvas, and cloth.
The most common substrate used for acrylic and oil painting is heavy cotton or linen canvas stretched over a frame made from wooden stretchers. The canvas must be sealed to create the desired surface for painting. The most common product used to seal and prime a canvas is Gesso, a very thick paint-like product that is applied and let dry before beginning work on the canvas. Once the canvas is dry the preliminary drawing can be created directly on the Gesso-covered surface. A completed painting is often coated with a finish or glaze to preserve the work. Many glazes or varnishes are Ultraviolet Resistant to help preserve the original colors and integrity of the materials used.
Sculpting
Sculpture is three-dimensional art created from either additive or subtractive methods. Additive sculpting requires building a form from one or more raw materials.
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The clay pots made in elementary school and the St Louis Arch are easily recognizable forms of additive sculpting. Subtractive sculpting utilizes carving, cutting or scraping tools, and drilling or sanding methods to remove material to create a form. Marble statues are the most commonly recognized form of subtractive sculpting
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Printing
Printmaking is a process that begins with a piece of work created as an etching or engraving on a metal plate, a painting or drawing scanned for reproduction, carved planks of wood in reverse contrast pictures, and/or any method that enables the artist to replicate an original work of art accurately and quickly. Etching and engraving are both done using copper plates. Etching requires tar painted on the surface of the plate which is scratched through to create a drawing. The plate is submerged in acid which erodes the exposed copper to form grooves. Ink is rolled onto the surface and wiped into the grooves, the plate is placed in a press with paper on top and compressed to transfer the ink from the etched plate to the paper. Engraving is similar except there is no tar. The surface is scratched with either hand engraving knives or electric engraving tools to create an image for printing. Woodcut prints are essentially engraving done on wood. Woodcuts are typically bolder and more abstract. All of the methods that create prints from plates with the ink below the surface of the plate is called intaglio printing. Relief printing uses ink resting on the surface like a wood-cut plank.
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A lithograph uses a smooth stone face and a resist method to create prints in many colors, each print colored by hand on the surface of the stone and transferred to paper with water or oil that resist each other and make the ink move to the paper.
Photography
Photography is the process of capturing an image with the use of light and refraction of that light. The equipment used to create photographs has evolved and changed dramatically over time. Today we can take photographs using digital technology on our phones and complex digital cameras. Some cameras are WiFi-enabled and can upload images directly to the internet or the user's phone.
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The old methods using film that can be processed, developed, and printed at home are still used by many artists specializing in photography as art. Artists also use photography to gather reference images they use for accuracy in paintings and prints. Art elements of design, contrast, highlights, lighting, placement, focus, exposure, and perspective are all required to create photographic art. Experiment with or without tripods, lens adapters for special effects, and software to manipulate images, and the artist can print out the best products on a home printer.
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