M2-Overview & Objectives

Module 2 - The Process of Art

OVERVIEW
This module explores the artistic process and the art industry surrounding it: from
individual artists turning ideas into works of art to collaborative creative projects, public
art and the viewer. It covers the following topics:
 The Artistic Process
 The Individual Artist
 Artistic Training Methods and Cultural Considerations
 Art as a Social Activity

OBJECTIVES
Upon successful completion of this module, you should be able to:
• Describe specific processes used by visual artists.
• Compare and contrast art as a social activity and a singular creative act.
• Identify and discuss historical forms of artistic training.
• Describe the cultural ties to artistic process and training.

M2-The Artistic Process

THE ARTISTIC PROCESS

How many times have you looked at a work of art and wondered “how did they do that”?
Some think of the artist as a solitary being, misunderstood by society, toiling away in the
studio to create a masterpiece, and yes, there is something fantastic about a singular
creative act becoming a work of art. The reality is that artists rely on a support network
that includes family, friends, peers, industries, business and, in essence, the whole society
they live in. For example, an artist may need only a piece of paper and pencil to create an
extraordinary drawing), but depends on a supplier in order to acquire those two simple
tools. Whole industries surround art making, and artists rely on many different materials
in order to realize their work, from the pencil and paper mentioned above to the painter’s
canvas, paints and brushes, the sculptor’s wood, stone and tools and the photographer’s
film, digital camera and software or chemicals used to manipulate an image.

M2-The Individual Artist

THE INDIVIDUAL ARTIST

Inasmuch as we have seen art as a community or collaborative effort, many artists work
alone in studios, dedicated to the singular idea of creating art through their own
expressive means and vision. In the creative process itself there are usually many steps
between an initial idea and the finished work of art.

M2-Artistic Training Methods and Cultural Considerations

ARTISTIC TRAINING METHODS & CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS

For centuries craftsmen have formed associations that preserve and teach the ‘secrets’ of
their trade to apprentices in order to perpetuate the knowledge and skill of their craft. In
general, the training of artists has historically meant working as an apprentice with an
established artist. The Middle Ages in Europe saw the formation of guilds that included
goldsmiths, glassmakers, stonemasons, medical practitioners and artists, and were
generally supported by a king or the state, with local representatives overseeing the
quality of their production. In many traditional cultures, apprenticeship is still how the
artist learns their craft, skills and expressions specific to that culture. Some nations
actually choose which artists have learned their skill to such a degree that they are
allowed and encouraged to teach others.
 M2-Art as a Social Activity
ART AS A SOCIAL ACTIVITY
Some of the grandest works of art are made not by a single person but by many people.
Pyramids in Egypt and Mexico are massive structures, built by hundreds of laborers
under the direction of designers and engineers. Egyptian pyramids are tombs for
individual royalty, while those in Mexico function as spiritual altars dedicated to gods
or celestial) objects. They are typically placed at a prominent site and give definition to
the surrounding landscape. Their construction is the cumulative effort of many people,
and they become spectacular works of art without the signature of a single artist.
A more contemporary example of art making as a community effort is the AIDS
Memorial Quilt) Project. Begun in 1987, the project memorializes the thousands of lives
lost to the disease through the creation of quilts by families and friends. Blocks of
individual quilts are sewn together to form larger sections, virtually joining people
together to share their grief and celebrate the lives of those lost. The project is evidence
of the beauty and visual spectacle of a huge community artwork. Today there are over
40,000 individual blocks. The quilt project is ongoing, growing in size, and exhibited
throughout the world.
Many artists collaborate with non-artists in arrangements designed to produce work for a
specific place. Public art is a good example of this. The process usually begins with a
select panel of the public and private figures involved in the project who call for
submissions of creative ideas surrounding a particular topic or theme, then a review of the
ideas submitted and the artist’s selection. Funding sources for these projects vary from
private donations to the use of public tax dollars or a combination of the two. Many states
have “1% for Art” laws on the books which stipulate that one percent of the cost of any
public construction project be used for artwork to be placed on the site.
 M3-Overview & Objectives
Module 3 - Artistic Elements
OVERVIEW
Just as spoken language is based on fundamental letters, sounds and grammar, visual art
is based on elements and principles that, when used together, create works that
communicate ideas and meaning to the viewer. We can refer to them as the building
blocks of composition in visual art. A composition is the organized layout of an image or
object according to the rules of design. The best way to understand the elements and
principles is to study them within a variety of artworks.

In this module you will begin to learn the “language of art” through a structured approach
to terms and examples used to describe and analyze any work of art. The basis of this
language is the artistic elements– the irreducible and abstract ingredients that generate
creative form. This module includes the exploration of the following artistic elements:
 The point
 Definitions and qualities of line
 Shapes: positive, negative and planar issues
 Figure / Ground Relationships
 Mass
 Space
 Color: its qualities and combinations
 Texture

OBJECTIVES
Upon successful completion of this module, you should be able to:
• Define and describe the artistic elements and principles.
• Compare and contrast art as a social activity and a singular creative act.
• Explain the historical forms of artistic training.
• Discuss the cultural ties to artistic process and training.

M3-The Point
THE POINT

A point is the visual element upon which all others are based. It can be defined as a
singularity in space or, in geometric terms, the area where two coordinates meet. When
an artist marks a simple point on a surface, (also referred to as the ground), they
immediately create a figure-ground relationship. That is, they divide the work between
its surface and anything added to it. Our eyes differentiate between the two, and their
arrangement has everything to do with how we see a final composition. The point itself
can be used as a way to create forms. For example, Pointillism is a style of painting made
famous by the French artist Georges Seurat in the late nineteenth century. He and others
in the Pointillist group created paintings by juxtaposing points – or dots- of color that
optically mixed to form lines, shapes and forms within a composition. Look at a detail
from Seurat’s ‘La Parade de Cirque’ to see how this works. His large canvas Sunday
Afternoon on the Grande Jatte )is a testament to the pointillist style and aesthetic. Its
creation was a painstaking process but one that generated new ways of thinking about
color and form.

M3-Definitions and qualities of line

DEFINITIONS & QUALITIES OF LINE

Essentially, when you put two or more points together you create a line. A line can be
lyrically defined as a point in motion. There are many different types of lines, all
characterized by their length being greater than their width. Lines can be static or
dynamic depending on how the artist chooses to use them. They help determine the
motion, direction and energy in a work of art. We see line all around us in our daily lives;
telephone wires, tree branches, jet contrails and winding roads are just a few examples.
*Actual lines
*Implied lines
*Straight or classic lines
*Expressive lines
*Outline, or contour line
*Cross contour lines
*Hatch lines
*Cross-hatch lines

Line quality is that sense of character embedded in the way a line presents itself. Certain
lines have qualities that distinguish them from others. Hard-edged, jagged lines have a
staccato visual movement while organic, flowing lines create a more comfortable feeling.
Meandering lines can be either geometric or expressive, and you can see in the examples
how their indeterminate paths animate a surface to different degrees.

Calligraphic lines use quickness and gesture, more akin to paint strokes, to imbue an
artwork with a fluid, lyrical character.

M3-Shapes: positive, negative and planar issues

SHAPES: POSITIVE, NEGATIVE & PLANAR ISSUES

A shape is defined as an enclosed area in two dimensions. By definition shapes are

always implied and flat in nature. They can be created in many ways, the simplest by
enclosing an area with an outline. They can also be made by surrounding an area with
other shapes or the placement of different textures next to each other – for instance, the
shape of an island surrounded by water. Because they are more complex than lines,
shapes do much of the heavy lifting in arranging compositions. The abstract examples
below give us an idea of how shapes are made.

Positive / Negative Shapes and Figure / Ground Relationships

Shapes animate figure-ground relationships. We visually determine positive shapes (the
figure) and negative shapes (the ground). One way to understand this is to open your
hand and spread your fingers apart. Your hand is the positive shape, and the space around
it becomes the negative shape. You can also see this in the example above. The shape
formed by the black outline becomes positive because it’s enclosed. The area around it is
negative. The same visual arrangement goes with the gray circle and the purple square.
But identifying positive and negative shapes can get tricky in a more complex
composition. For instance, the four blue rectangles on the left have edges that touch each
other, thus creating a solid white shape in the center. The four green rectangles on the
right don’t actually connect yet still give us an implied shape in the center. Which would
you say is the positive shape? What about the red circles surrounding the gray star shape?
Remember that a positive shape is one that is distinguished from the background.

Plane
A plane is defined as any surface area in space. In two-dimensional art, the picture plane
is the flat surface an image is created upon; a piece of paper, stretched canvas, wood
panel, etc. A shape’s orientation within the picture plane creates a visually implied plane,
inferring direction and depth in relation to the viewer.

M3-Mass
MASS

Mass, or form, refers to a shape or three-dimensional volume that has or gives the
illusion of having weight, density or bulk. Notice the distinction between two and three-
dimensional objects: a shape is by definition flat, but takes on the illusion of mass
through shading with the elements of value or color. In three dimensions a mass is an
actual object that takes up space. Eugene Delaplanche’s sculpture ‘Eve After the
Fall’ from 1869 (below) epitomizes the characteristics of three-dimensional mass. Carved
from stone with exaggerated physicality to appear bigger than life, the work stands
heavily against the space around it. Delaplanche balances the massive sculpture by his
treatment of the subject matter. Eve sits, her body turned on two diagonal planes, one
rising, the other descending, her right hip being the meeting point of the two. She rests
her head in her hand as she agonizes over the consequences of what she’s just done, the
forbidden apple at her feet as the serpent slinks away to her left.
Form and space, whether actual or implied, are markers for how we perceive reality. How
objects relate to each other and the space around them provide the evidence for the visual
order in our world. The artist’s creative manipulation of these elements determines the
stylistic qualities in a work of art that, in the end, always contains the subjective
fingerprint of the artist’s idea of the real.

M3-Space
SPACE

Space is the empty area surrounding real or implied objects. Humans categorize space:
there is outer space, that limitless void we enter beyond our sky; inner space, which
resides in people’s minds and imaginations, and personal space, the important but
intangible area that surrounds each individual and which is violated if someone else gets
too close. Pictorial space is flat, and the digital realm resides in cyberspace. Art responds
to all of these kinds of space.
Clearly artists are as concerned with space in their works as they are with, say, color or
form. There are many ways for the artist to present ideas of space. Remember that many
cultures traditionally use pictorial space as a window to view realistic subject matter
through, and through the subject matter they present ideas, narratives and symbolic
content. The innovation of linear perspective, an implied geometric pictorial construct
dating from 15th century Europe, affords us the accurate illusion of three-dimensional
space on a flat surface, and appears to recede into the distance through the use of
a horizon line and vanishing points.
* One-point perspective
* Two-point perspective
* Three-point perspective

M3-Value
VALUE

Value is the relative lightness or darkness of a shape in relation to another. The value
scale, bounded on one end by pure white and on the other by black, and in between a
series of progressively darker shades of grey, gives an artist the tools to make these
transformations. The value scale below shows the standard variations in tones. Values
near the lighter end of the spectrum are termed high-keyed, those on the darker end are
low-keyed.

M3-Color
COLOR

Color is the most complex artistic element because of the combinations and variations
inherent in its use. Humans respond to color combinations differently, and artists study
and use color in part to give desired direction to their work.
Color is fundamental to many forms of art. Its relevance, use and function in a given
work depend on the medium of that work. While some concepts dealing with color are
broadly applicable across media, others are not.
The full spectrum of colors is contained in white light. Humans perceive colors from the
light reflected off objects. A red object, for example, looks red because it reflects the red
part of the spectrum. It would be a different color under a different light. Color theory
first appeared in the 17th century when English mathematician and scientist Sir Isaac
Newton discovered that white light could be divided into a spectrum by passing it
through a prism.
The study of color in art and design often starts with color theory. Color theory splits up
colors into three categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary.

Traditional color theory (primary, secondary, tertiary, tint & shade)

Color Mixing
A more quantifiable approach to color theory is to think about color as the result of light
reflecting off a surface. Understood in this way, color can be represented as a ratio of
amounts of primary color mixed together.

M3-Texture
TEXTURE

Texture is the tactile sense we get from the surface of a shape or volume. Smooth, rough,
velvety and prickly are examples of texture. Texture comes in two forms:
Actual: the real surface qualities we perceive by running a hand over an object
Visual: an implied sense of texture created by the artist through the manipulation of their
materials.
 ACTIVITY #1
A. Directions: Complete the following quotations about art appreciation using the
alphabetic table.

1 2 3 4 5
1 A B C D E
2 F G H I J
3 K L M N O
4 P Q R S T
5 U V W X Y
6 Z
“The aim of 1-1,4-3,4-5 is to 4-3,1-5,4-1,4-3,1-5,4-4,1-5,3-4,4-5
not the 3-5,5-1,4-5,5-3,1-1,4-3,1-4 1-1,4-1,4-1,1-5,1-1,4-3,1-1,3-4,1-3,1-5 of things,
but their 2-4,3-4,5-3,1-1,4-3,1-4 4-4,2-4,2-2,3-4,2-4,2-1,2-4,1-3,1-1,3-4,1-3,1-5.”
- Aristotle

“There is 3-4,3-5,4-5,2-3,2-4,3-4,2-2 more truly 1-1,4-3,4-5,2-4,4-4,4-5,2-4,1-3 than to

3-2,3-5,5-2,1-5 4-1,1-5,3-5,4-1,3-2,1-5.”
- Vincent Van Gogh

“1-1,4-3,4-5 is never 2-1,2-4,3-4,2-4,4-4,2-3,1-5,1-4, only 1-1,1-2,1-1,3-4,1-4,3-5,3-4,1-5,1-4.”

- Leonardo Da Vinci

“Art is a 1-3,3-5,3-2,3-2,1-1,1-2,3-5,4-3,1-1,4-5,2-4,3-5,3-4 between 2-2,3-5,1-4 and the

1-1,4-3,4-5,2-4,4-4,4-5, and the less the 1-1,4-3,4-5,2-4,4-4,4-5 does the 1-2,1-5,4-5,4-5,1-5,4-3.”
- Andre Gide

“A 3-3,1-1,3-4 4-1,1-1,2-4,3-4,4-5,4-4 with his 1-2,4-3,1-1,2-4,3-4,4-4

and not with his 2-3,1-1,3-4,1-4,4-4.”
- Michelangelo