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Visual arts

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Art

   The Mona Lisa is one of the most recognizable artistic paintings in the
   Western world.
   The Mona Lisa is one of the most recognizable artistic paintings in the
   Western world.

   The visual arts are art forms that focus on the creation of works which
   are primarily visual in nature, such as painting, photography,
   printmaking, and filmmaking. Those that involve three-dimensional
   objects, such as sculpture and architecture, are called plastic arts.
   Many artistic disciplines ( performing arts, language arts, and
   culinary arts) involve aspects of the visual arts as well as other
   types, so these definitions are not strict.

   The current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine arts as well
   as crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts
   movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century,
   "visual artist" referred to a person working in the fine arts (such as
   painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the handicraft, craft, or
   applied art disciplines. The distinction was emphasized by artists of
   the Arts and Crafts movement who valued vernacular art forms as much as
   high forms. The movement contrasted with modernists who sought to
   withhold the high arts from the masses by keeping them esoteric. Art
   schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts in such
   a way that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of
   art.

   In colloquial speech, fine art is sometimes referred to as capital "A"
   art, or art with a capital "A."

Drawing

   Drawing is a means of making an image, using any of a wide variety of
   tools and techniques. It generally involves making marks on a surface
   by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface.
   Common tools are graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax
   colour pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels, and markers. Digital tools
   which simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques
   used in drawing are: line drawing, hatching, crosshatching, random
   hatching, scribbling, stippling, and blending. An artist who excels in
   drawing is referred to as a draftsman or draughtsman".

Painting

   Painting taken literally is the practice of applying pigment suspended
   in a carrier (or medium) and a binding agent (a glue) to a surface
   (support) such as paper, canvas or a wall. However, when used in an
   artistic sense it means the use of this activity in combination with
   drawing, composition and other aesthetic considerations in order to
   manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner.
   Painting is also used to express spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of
   this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures
   on pottery to The Sistine Chapel to the human body itself.

Printmaking

   Printmaking is creating for artistic purposes an image on a matrix
   which is then transferred to a two-dimensional (flat) surface by means
   of ink (or another form of pigmentation). Except in the case of a
   monotype, the same matrix can be used to produce many examples of the
   print. Historically, the major techniques (also called mediums)
   involved are woodcut, line engraving, etching, lithography, and
   screenprinting (serigraphy, silkscreening) but there are many others,
   including modern digital techniques. Normally the surface upon which
   the print is printed is paper, but there are exceptions, from cloth and
   vellum to modern materials. Prints in the Western tradition produced
   before about 1830 are known as old master prints. There are other major
   printmaking traditions, especially that of Japan ( ukiyo-e).

Photography

   Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of
   light. Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded
   onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed exposure. The
   process is done through mechanical, chemical or digital devices known
   as cameras.

   The word comes from the Greek words φως phos ("light"), and γραφις
   graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφη graphê, together meaning
   "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or
   "drawing." Traditionally, the product of photography has been called a
   photograph. The term photo is an abbreviation; many people also call
   them pictures. In digital photography, the term image has begun to
   replace photograph. (The term image is traditional in geometric
   optics.)

Computer art

   Visual artists are no longer limited to traditional art media.
   Computers may enhance visual art from ease of rendering or capturing,
   to editing, to exploring multiple compositions, to printing (including
   3D printing.)

   Computer usage has blurred the distinctions between illustrators,
   photographers, photo editors, 3-D modelers, and handicraft artists.
   Sophisticated rendering and editing software has led to multi-skilled
   image developers. Photographers may become digital artists.
   Illustrators may become animators. Handicraft may be computer-aided or
   use computer generated imagery as a template. Computer clip art usage
   has also made the clear distinction between visual arts and page layout
   less obvious due to the easy access and editing of clip art in the
   process of paginating a document, especially to the unskilled observer.

Plastic arts

     * Architecture
     * Ceramics
     * Land art
     * Metalworking
     * Paper art
     * Sculpture
     * Textile art
     * Woodworking
     * Glass

Art-related terms in visual arts

     * Collage
     * Comics
     * Composition
     * Computer art
     * Conceptual art
     * Contemporary art
     * Crafts
     * Decollage
     * Decorative art
     * Design
     * Drawing
     * Film
     * Found art
     * Graffiti
     * Graphic design
     * Illustration

                         * Image development
                         * Installation art
                         * Landscape art
                         * Mail art
                         * Mixed media
                         * Painting
                         * Photography
                         * Portraiture
                         * Old master print
                         * Printmaking
                         * Sculpture
                         * Sketch (drawing)
                         * sketchbook
                         * Sound art
                         * Textile art
                         * Video art

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_arts"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
