Archive for April, 2007
Watercolor painting can be a very interesting hobby. As a matter of fact, any type of art as a hobby can be fulfilling, considering that you are trying to create something out of a blank white sheet of paper or canvas or whatever material you wish to use. On a hobby such as watercolor painting, you can be able to create wonderful works with practice. And with practice, you would require a bit of discipline, patience and creativity. Your interest in your hobby would ensure that you have all these ingredients put in place and that will make you excel better at the craft in time.
What makes watercolor painting so interesting as well as challenging is that the paint used is not the only factor in creating the best watercolor paintings. The use of quality brushes as well as quality paper all work in order to allow you to make the best results for your creations. Even the best colors may not be as vibrant when used on poor quality paper and vice versa. Poor quality brushes may not help in creating the desired composition on paper. A good combination between the three- the watercolor pigment, the paper and the brush- should be achieved in order to get the best results. Here are some watercolor basics that you may need to know as you get into watercolor painting as a hobby.
Choosing The Right Materials
Watercolor makes use of different materials from other painting techniques. The paint used is water-based. There are watercolor paints that show different levels of transparency. These paints are available in either tubes or in pans. Pan watercolors are hard cakes and are less expensive. It allows greater control for mixing but may wear the watercolor brush faster. Tube colors on the other hand are softer and can be used direct from the tube and into the paper.
In watercoloring, there are different paint brushes being used in order to achieve the different effects on paper. Watercolor brushes are made in order to hold water and are fairly softer compared to brushes being used in acrylic and oil painting. Watercolor brushes can come in flat, round, mop or fan. There are also several specialty brushes that are used in order to create special lines or effects. Good quality brushes are those that retain a consistent pointed tip (for round brushes) even after being used a number of times. The best watercolor brushes are those that can absorb a sufficient amount of water. The softer natural hair brushes are often preferred although they can be quite expensive. There are also synthetic as well as mixed brushes to choose from.
The paper used being used in watercolor painting can properly support the paint as well as tough enough to withstand continuous painting action. Lesser quality paper may break down since watercolor paints make use of water that may weaken ordinary paper easily when it becomes wet. That is why watercolor paper is usually thicker that your ordinary paper in order to be able to hold the color without breaking down.
April 26th, 2007
If you are interested in drawing, it can become into a worthwhile as well as fulfilling hobby. Drawing requires continuous practice in order for one to become good at. It is not something that can be learned just by reading about it. In needs always having a pencil and paper on hand and an ideal subject. One may then start drawing away to create a masterpiece, dependent on one’s adeptness in the use of his hands, the creativity and the vision of the mind.
Many people might see drawings as incomplete artworks. Sketches in pencil may not be considered by most as worth appreciating, mainly because it may lack the color that most paintings offer. But pencil drawings can have a uniqueness and an artistry of its own. Techniques and methods in pencil drawing are practiced and studied so that one may be able to excel in what can be a very fulfilling hobby for some. If you are on your way to try out drawing as a hobby, here are some useful tips that you may be able to use.
- Make sure that you use the right materials for drawing beginners. Even the type of pencil and the paper being used is important for someone beginning to learn about the fundamentals of pencil drawing. At the start, beginners like you should opt to use soft and darker pencil grades. You can choose from using B, 2B and 4B pencils or those with darker values. The paper that you draw on is also just as important. The surface and texture of the paper that you are using might affect how your drawing might eventually end up. If you see yourself creating pale drawings even though you are already using darker pencils, chances are that it might be the paper. Avoid using shiny-looking paper with a sheen that may be too smooth for the pencil particles to attach to. Try using cheap sketch paper or office photocopy paper for your next drawing.
- Practice your drawing skills by using solid objects instead of drawing images in photographs. Using photos flattens the features of what you will be drawing. You will not be able to practice drawing objects on paper with perspective. Perspective adds a certain artistry and life in your drawings and it is something that you should learn early on if you wish to be good in your hobby later on. Try drawing a live plant for example. This will help you how to picture out a solid object and how to use its perspective and transfer it into paper.
- Learn about proportions and how you can put them into your drawing. This is especially true if you want to learn drawing human figures. Every body part, be it in humans and animals are made according to proportion. Having no idea about proportion would make your drawings look amateurish and unrealistic. It would be a good idea if you try to learn the basic principles of proportion and how you may be able to use it in what you draw.
Drawing will really take some practice and more in order to master. But don’t let the hard work deter you from making it into a hobby. There is a certain fulfillment that you can get by trying to learn a new skill, more so if it is something that you enjoy doing. Instead, try to keep up your interest in drawing no matter how bad you think your first work would come out. With practice, you will be able to improve your work little by little. In no time, you would be able to create your own drawing masterpieces that you can be proud of.
April 17th, 2007
Art has been a part of man’s quest for knowledge. Man aimed to capture and the concretion of what comes to the imagination of the human psyche. Objects with a physical or tangible counterpart are easier to recreate in a painter’s canvas and an artwork of extreme beauty can be produced. But what about the metaphysical realm where so-called objects may not have a physical counterpart? How would artists make them as a subject of a painting for example? What is invisible and the stuff of dreams and how artists would try to recreate them somehow helped in giving birth to Surrealism.
Surrealism began as a cultural movement that transcended artworks in the form of paintings. It has also become known as a movement in poems, film and music from the 1920’s until today. Surrealism as an art movement was seen and originated from the beliefs of Dadaists, who believed that too much of irrationality in thoughts and values have been bringing the terrible conflict that was then happening in the world especially during World War I.
Surrealism was said to be the founded mainly by the French writer Andre Breton who was known then as a Dadaist. He wrote the three manifestos about surrealism, notably the “Surrealist Manifesto” in which he defined surrealism as pure psychic automatism. Breton had training in the field of medicine and psychiatry where he was able to encounter the theories of psychoanalysis first hand which had a great influence on the art movement.
Surrealists are interested in trying to capture what the human psyche are trying to convey unconsciously. Surrealism takes great interest in the metaphysical aspect of life and tries to capture images that has been considered as a product of a dream or of the unconscious mind. That is why most surrealist paintings were generally based on dreams and irrational fantasies. Surrealist paintings, because of their metaphysical principles, were usually filled with familiar objects and images which were painted to look strange or mysterious. Surrealist painters and artists aimed to make people take a look at things differently through their odd paintings and other artworks. The uniqueness and mostly irrational combination of images that form part of the artwork might help stir up feelings in the back of peoples minds and make them view things a a different light.
Salvador Dali was an artist most famous for his Surrealist art works. He was known to create surrealistic masterpieces that boggled the mind yet sparked some interest due to their fantastic yet fascinating compositions. One of his most notable works included a painting named “Persistence of Time” which was famous for depicting a number of melting pocket watches over a surrealistic sea and yellow tinged cliffs as background. Surrealist painters such as Dali aimed to bring out the inner realities, fantasies and messages that might come out from the human unconscious mind. Surrealistic are thought of as a link between the spiritual aspects and the realistic objects of the material world.
April 17th, 2007
Dadaism was an art and cultural movement that developed in 1916 through an agreement between a group of young artists in Zurich, Switzerland. It was the time of war. In fact, the first World War was ongoing during those times. The movement started with that fateful gathering of poets, writers, painters and other young artists who protested to the ongoing war around the world. These young artists believed that the war started because of the rationalization, intellectual rigidity, reason and logic, aside from bourgeois interests led to the horrors of war. They believed that rejecting logic and embracing irrationality would bring about the change in the situation of the ongoing war. With this belief, the Dada movement was born.
Dadaism in art was actually considered by its proponents as “anti-art”. Dadaists protested against accepted conventions and the academic and cultured aspects of art. What traditional art tried to represent, Dadaists tried to represent the opposite. If traditional artists strived for putting some air of meaning in their art works, Dadaists made artworks with no perceptible meaning or, at least, didn’t convey any particular message. Dadaist artworks can be interpreted differently by different people, depending entirely on the perceptions of the viewer.
What helped in the rapid spreading of the Dadaist movement is the fact that it was formed by artists from different nationalities. Switzerland was a neutral country to the ongoing war which became the ideal location for exiles of other countries affected by the war. This included the young artists who came from different European countries affected by the war. After the war ended sometime during 1918 that the Zurich Dadaists went back to their home countries and spread the philosophies and beliefs of the movement to others. The movement eventually spread into other European countries such as France, Germany, The Netherlands and eventually found its way into the US via New York.
It the way that Dadaism tried to approach its art- that of rejecting traditional aesthetics and culture- it became a big influence in the development of future art movements such as Surrealism and other forms of Modernism art. Among its influential members include Marcel Duchamp who was a French artist who became an American citizen and helped shaped the development of post-WWII Western art. He is best known for exhibiting a urinal as art and named it “Fountain”. Max Ernst was another artist that was a noted Dadaist. He was known as a mixed media artists and was also known to have developed the art technique called frottage in which a pencil or other drawing tool is being used to capture an a textured image on paper by rubbing the said tool into the textured surface of the image.
Man Ray is also a noted Dadaist. Even though he considered himself first and foremost as a painter, he was more famous for his contributions in avant-garde photography most notably for his fashion and portrait photographs. His works in film, painting, sculpture, assemblage among other media were also known to be the the first examples of what became known as in the art circles as performance or conceptual art.
April 17th, 2007
Impressionism as an art movement came out in France sometime during the mid 19th century that began to go against the rules of academic painting. During that time, the most popular paintings were then created following the rules and standards instituted by the influence of European schools of art. Impressionism was borne out of going against the stylistic as well as the technical standards that academic art was known for.
A few Paris-based artists during the 1860’s were beginning to go against the rigid and detailed standard artworks that prevailed then. Many were more focused in recreating art through the use of accepted norms and principles of line and color. The Impressionism art movement advocated the art of quick on-the-spot painting, something that academic painters then abhor. Early Impressionist painters began instituting importance of color over line. Characteristics of Impressionist paintings include visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on the effects of light and its changes, ordinary subject matter and unusual visual angles.
The term “Impressionism” was first coined by the growing art movement’s critic Louis Leroy in one of his satiric reviews. He took it from the title of one of Claude Monet’s painting named “Impression: Sunrise” in order to poke fun at the exhibit of the painter’s works sometime in 1874. The term eventually became the word that described the upcoming art movement.
Impressionism aimed to capture what the eye can see at first glance. Impressionist painters became interested in capturing how certain subjects appear in different light settings at different times of the day. Impressionism also started the practice of using pure and unmixed color on canvas and not blending them as was the custom then. To get a certain color mix, Impressionists would brush two colors separately and let the colors play together in the eyes of the viewer to create a different hue. Impressionist also began painting more realistic scenes instead of dramatic compositions as their subject matter. The paintings try to emphasize overall effects of the subject matter rather than the intricate details.
Claude Monet was considered as the leading figure of the Impressionist movement. It was after one of his paintings that the movement was named after. Monet was particularly interested in trying to capture the momentary effects of light and color on his paintings. He was also known for doing a series of paintings on one subject matter but depicted in different light and weather conditions. Among his famous works were his “Water Lilies” painting series which was done at his own lily pond garden in Giverny. Also as famous are his “Haystacks” series, a collection of paintings of haystacks as seen at different times of the day.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was also one of the noted Impressionist painters. He was known for his paintings of women and groups of people in simple and ordinary settings. Renoir was known for his paintings in vibrant light as well as saturated color in which his female nudes are cited as examples. Another noted Impressionist painter was Mary Cassatt who was famous for painting women, emphasizing on the intimate bonds seen between mothers and their children.
April 17th, 2007
Oil paints are extremely versatile. They can be used thickly in impasto or extremely thinly in glazes; they can be opaque or transparent. Here are a few tips to help you get the most from your oils.
Oil Painting Tip 1:
Always lay your oil paints out on your palette in the same order so that, with time, you’ll be able to pick up a bit of a colour instinctively.
Oil Painting Tip 2:
The proportion of oil (medium) should be increased for each subsequent layer in an oil painting – known as painting ‘fat over lean’– because the lower layers absorb oil from the layers on top of them. If the upper layers dry faster than the lower ones, they can crack.
Oil Painting Tip 3:
Avoid using Ivory Black for an underpainting or sketching as it dries much slower than other oil paints.
Oil Painting Tip 4:
Pigments containing lead, cobalt, and manganese accelerate drying. They can be mixed with other colours to speed up drying and are ideal for under layers. (Student-quality paints usually contain cheaper alternatives to these pigments, generally labelled hues.)
Oil Painting Tip 5:
Use linseed oil for an underpainting or in the bottom layers of any oil painting done wet on dry as it dries the most thoroughly of all the oils used as mediums.
Oil Painting Tip 6:
Avoid using linseed oil as a medium in whites and blues as it has a marked tendency to yellow, which is most notable with light colours. Poppy oil is recommended for light colours as it has the least tendency to yellow (although it does dry slower).
Oil Painting Tip 7:
Don’t dry your oil paintings in the dark. This may cause a thin film of oil to rise to the surface, yellowing it. (This can be removed by exposure to bright daylight.)
Oil Painting Tip 8:
If, as the paint on your palette dries it forms a lot of wrinkles, too much oil (medium) has been added.
Oil Painting Tip 9:
If you’re not sure whether a bottle of mineral or white spirits is suitable for oil painting, put a tiny quantity on a piece of paper and let it evaporate. If it evaporates without leaving any residue, stain, or smell, it should be fine.
Oil Painting Tip 10:
If you want to clean away a layer of oil paint or oil varnish, use alcohol, which is a powerful solvent.
April 17th, 2007
Japanese aesthetics is closely tied in with what is considered beautiful in Japanese culture. An astonishing and unsurpassed aesthetic sense is grasped, yet one can be bewildered as to how to make sense of it. This is particularly obvious in traditional music and theater such as Kabuki and Noh. There is a pace and distinctiveness in these arts unlike Western music and theater. This difference is such that by viewing Japanese arts from our typically (and I would even say, to a large extent hegemonic) Western viewpoint, we might miss the point, although we can greatly enjoy them, and acknowledge their unmistakable aesthetic.
In this article, I would like to briefly present three of the main principles of the Japanese aesthetic, principles that also play a role in other aspects of Japanese lives and minds, in the hope to give to travelers and enthusiasts of Japanese culture a way to better enjoy and aesthetically grasp Japanese arts.
These three concepts are the following: naru, which means “becoming”, ma, which is translated as “space”, but which means much more than a bare physical space, and jo-ha-kyû, an aesthetic concept which structures most forms of art and which is closely related to naru.
Naru
Naru means “becoming”, but a becoming dependent on time, in which all events of life flow progressively from one to another, or more specifically, in which each event is created from the previous one in an unbroken time span. The notion of becoming in Japanese philosophy is a creative process controlled by a vital energy called musubi (literally meaning the spirit of fecundity), which propels the events of life from one state to another through time. In this line of thought, time is viewed as a natural process through which life evolves. It is not an abstract concept distinct from life as is the case in Western cultures. Time is viewed as fundamentally fluid; it cannot thus be fixed and strictly organized. Time in this particular sense cannot be controlled or manipulated; it can only be grasped through its motions. It is a time impregnated with all that it brings to life. Time is thus perceived as a dynamic and evolutionary flow of life, each event being a creation or an outcome of the previous one. The concept of naru has its origin in traditional Japanese society before its main contacts with China and Chinese influences in the second half of the first millennium, predating the advent of Buddhism.
Ma
Ma, for its part, is generally translated as “space,” but it can also mean “time.” It refers to the space between events, as it is being perceived by someone, as well as being expressed by an artist. It is not an abstractly calculated space, as is conceived by Westerners, but rather a sensory, and I would even suggest, a “sensually” perceived space. For musicians and actors, ma refers to the expressive space between musical events; it becomes in this sense a measure of artistic expression. For art lovers, it is that space between oneself while perceiving, and what is being perceived in the flow of time.
April 17th, 2007
Revolutionary, madman, iconoclast, and murderer. Michelangelo Merisi’s complex life is mirrored in his radical art. He defied centuries of tradition to present ordinary scenes with models from the lower classes. His use of chiaroscuro- dramatic light and dark effects- was an important discovery that will be copied by many other artists and in different mediums.
Michelangelo Merisi was born in the Lombardy hill town of Caravaggio on September 28, 1573. His professional name is derived from his hometown. He was apprenticed to the painter Simone Peterzano of Milan at the age of 11. He spent four years under Peterzano’s tutelage before heading for Rome in 1593. He then entered the employ of the painter Giuseppe Cesari for whom he painted genre paintings. Caravaggio’s talent was discovered by his first major patron, the Cardinal Francesco del Monte. He was commissioned to paint the ceiling of the church of San Luigi dei Francesci. There he fully unveiled his realistic and dramatic artistic style. The combination of figures in contemporary dress inhabiting a religious scene was not new, but the impression the picture made of an event from the distant past unfolding before the viewer’s own eyes was unmatched. Caravaggio pushed the figures up against the picture plane and used light to enhance the dramatic impact and give the figures a quality of immediacy. These devices were much imitated. This new approach to painting was sometimes at odds with the function of the altarpieces as the focus of devotional practice. Should a depiction of the death of the Virgin emphasize the theological importance of the event and show the Madonna as the ageless mother of Christ, as worshippers had come to expect, or should it emphasize the physical reality of death—as Caravaggio’s painting seemed to do? Should Christ’s burial be depicted as a tragic drama or as a sacred event? Much of Caravaggio’s work, such as his spellbinding Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, reveals the artist dealing with these crucial issues. In his last paintings, such as The Denial of Saint Peter, he revealed the psychological rather than merely physical dimension of the narrative.
Despite increasing fame, Caravaggio’s life was far from peaceful. He was often in trouble with the law and was often in prison. He was charged with murder in 1606 and fled Rome. He spent several months in Naples painting several works and encouraging other artists to follow his techniques. He travelled to Malta and was again arrested. He escaped jail and went to Sicily. It was in Sicily that he painted his masterpieces including the Burial of Saint Lucy and the Raising of Lazarus. He achieved the height of his art with the use of multi figured compositions of great drama and lighting. Unfortunately he died of a fever in 1610 from complications brought about by a wrongful arrest.
April 17th, 2007
Post-colonialism is primarily a set of theories focused on literature, film and philosophy. It basically deals with issues for societies that have undergone colonialism: the task of developing a national identity of years of foreign rule, of finding the right voice to express issues and concerns of their own culture. There isn’t a single definition of post-colonial theory but it is a method of dealing with colonialism. All the theorists agree that colonialism still lends an incredible amount of influence on the culture of the colonized long after achieving independence. While post-colonial theory deals mainly with literature and film, it has also been reflected in art.
Southeast Asia has been the most affected with colonialism in the twentieth century. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos were colonized by the French. Malaysia and Myanmar by the British; Indonesia by the Dutch; and the Philippines by the Spanish and the Americans. By the 1960s all of Southeast Asia has regained their independence. The daunting problem of self-rule and finding their own identity now face the young countries, and this can be seen in the art and culture of the countries.
Like all colonized countries, culture during colonialism is a slavish reproduction of the colonizers own culture. A prime example would be British India where the upper classes strove to be more British than the British. Southeast Asian art in the early decades of the twentieth century was highly influenced by European art. With the advent of independence and the birth of nationalism, artists eschewed those Western influences and turned to traditional and folk arts.
The traditional styles adopted by artists during the middle of the century spawned a debate over the relationship of the East and West. Anything modern was equated with Westernization and colonialism, while traditional styles symbolized the search for a national identity. But by the mid 80s and 90s Southeast Asian artists overcame their reluctance of using modern art. The post modern era has succeeded in the creation of many art works that are a blend of many sources but is still deeply personal and rooted in local concerns.
The rise of communism in some parts of Southeast Asia have stunted the growth of art especially in Burma, Vietnam and Laos. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge put a decisive end to the arts, along with all forms of intellectual life. Following their reign, however, the country begins to develop a vibrant cultural life. In Burma, there is still a very limited art scene.
National identity is still a major concern for many Southeast Asian nations in this millennium. The effects of colonialism has left an undeniable mark on the cultures of these nations and it is reflected in their culture most especially art and literature.
April 17th, 2007