Art Mediums Collage Making, Charcoal Drawing, Acrylic Painting and Water Color Painting - Research Paper Example

Research Four Art Mediums Collage Making, Charcoal Drawing, Acrylic Painting and Water Color Painting Collage MakingCollage making is generally a combination of hand-made papers, photographs, and parts of other artwork put/stuck or glued together to a canvas or a base. Collage making has a history of more than a hundred years, however, many artist used it more only after the 20th century in which it dramatically reappeared. The word collage is derived from the French term “coller,” which means to stick or glue together. Collage is considered as an art. News paper pieces, canvas, pieces of color paper, photographs, magazines, or any material that can glue on a canvas or base results into a beautiful piece of art known as collage (Browning 46-64). Collage making involves a lot of creativity. Pieces can be put together in a number of ways to create two different types of collage; two dimensional collage, and three dimensional collage. When pieces of paper are glued on the canvas or base-board, we get a two dimensional look; this is a 2D collage. Three dimensional look or 3D collage is obtained when broken pieces of wood, glass, stones etc., are glued on a base-board or canvas. As early as 1912, some great artist such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris were already doing some amazing collage art (Taylor 164). Just like any other form of art, collage is not difficult once you understand the technique and theme, it only becomes complex or simpler depending on what one as an artist is trying to achieve. Below are some sample collage artwork by some famous contemporary artists of the 20th century. Charcoal Drawing Charcoal is undisputedly one of the oldest art materials so is charcoal drawing. Our ancestors used charcoal to draw on cave walls. Charcoal is very easy to manufacture and thus it is an essential artistic tool. Since it is made from selected woods in little or no oxygen conditions, charcoal as an artistic material is stable over a long period of time. However, charcoal has less color saturation when compared to other artistic materials which have greater saturation but do not last long (Goldman 71). One major disadvantage of using is its dusting-off tendency. Despite this, charcoal drawing as an artistic medium is superb. The sensitivity and spontaneity of using charcoal as a drawing medium gives charcoal drawing an edge above the other drawing media (Fitzgerald 55-63). With charcoal drawing, very painterly drawings, as if done using a brush can be made. Charcoal drawing is so responsive, direct, and fast and is considered to be a less inhibiting medium. Charcoal drawing can produce both fluid and bold lines with greater host of textures as well as fine gradations for shadings. Several drawing techniques such as gestural drawing, contour drawing, and volume drawing can be used with charcoal. The soft nature of charcoal gives an artist a painterly feel. Charcoal is the only drawing medium which gives an artist the ability to imitate Chinese ink brush painting. This is because it is easy for an artist to imitate the contour lines o a Chinese painting in charcoal. With charcoal drawing, an artist is able to gesture without doing big shapes and getting down into detail. Just as many other drawing media, charcoal strongly responds to grain of the paper it is used on. Acrylic painting This painting medium is one of the newest. It was introduced as recent as 1955. Since its introduction, acrylic paintings have come a long way and now there is a wide-range of paints. Acrylic painting is a painting technique that offers both experienced and new artist a very flexible painting method. It is a water-based painting medium. The consistency and the usual texture of acrylic paintings is some-what similar to that of oil-paints. However, acrylics are available in a variety of densities unlike oils. They range from ink-like, very thin consistency that can be used in air brushes to various flow degree. This enables an artist to achieve 3Dlike effects (impasto). This gives one the choice of either using additives to mix the paint to create solid colors throughout the paste, or just letting the impasto dry out and then paint over it. There are various substances that can be added to acrylic paint that would help create all kinds of textures. In addition, on e can decide to use his/her own substance such as sand, or plaster to achieve a wide range of varieties of textured effects. It should be noted that, all the thicknesses and brands can all be thinned using water. However, Acrylics and oils are very similar in finish and styles. However, acrylics give important qualities to ones work although slightly different (Parramon 32-39). The greatest advantage of acrylic paints is that they dry really quickly since they are water soluble. Acrylic paintings do not yellow with age unlike oils and are permanent (Penney 48). They do not require harsh solvents for cleaning or dilution. They dry insoluble and when they are dry, they remain flexible unlike oil paintings which have a more brittle surface when dry (Law). Given that acrylics dry quickly, learning how to paint in acrylics is very difficult given that the amount of time for manipulating and mixing the paint is reduced. Contemporary artists such as Jennifer Morrison, Sally Trace, Nancy Standlee, and Dianne Johnson have done art works using acrylic paintings. Sample artworks from these great artists are illustrated below. Watercolor Painting Mixing pigments with a binder such as gum Arabic and then using with water to a support such as paper or vellum results in watercolor paint. The pigment is fixed to the support by the binder once the water has evaporated. Watercolor painting has been in use as early as 1750s long before the development of the British watercolor tradition. In the medieval times, artists used watercolor to illustrate the vellum pages of hand-written books. Water color is all about transparent color and thin washes. By adding Chinese white, watercolors can be made opaque. Most watercolor artists work on paper, however, the surface texture of the paper can greatly vary (Jelbert and Sidaway 63-71). The success and popularity of watercolor painting attracted very many illustrators such as Charles Green into the watercolor painting environment. With his illustration such as the Little Nell mending the Puppets dress, Green established his reputation. Other leading artists such as Sir John Everett Millais were also tempted in using watercolors to paint. For instance, he used watercolor to paint the portrait of his daughter Effie which he called “My second Sermon.” Some of their sample artwork is illustrated below (Meyer 61). Works Cited Blake, Wendon and Rudy De Reyna. Acrylic painting. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1979. Print. Browning, Marie. Creative Collage: Making Memories in Mixed Media. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc, 2008. Print. Capon, Robin. Watercolor Painting. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998. Print. Collage. Collage- an introduction. 2012. Web. 6 April 2012 . Fitzgerald, Edmond J. Painting and Drawing in Charcoal and Oil. Whitefish: Literary Licensing, LLC,, 2011. Print. Goldman, Ken. Charcoal Drawing. Irvine: Walter Foster Publishing, Incorporated,, 2011. Print. Graves, Douglas R. Life Drawing in Charcoal. New York: Courier Dover Publications, 1994. Print. Greenberg, Clement. Collage. September 1958. Web. 5 April 2012 . Hansen, Joan and William F. Powell. Acrylic Painting. Irvine: Walter Foster, 2003. Print. Jelbert, Wendy and Ian Sidaway. Watercolor Painting: Practical Techniques and Projects for Beginners. Southwater Publishing, 2005. Print. Johnson, Diane. Rose's Cottage. 2002. Web. 5 April 2012 . Law, Stephanie Pui-Mun. Acrylic Painting. Web. 5 April 2012 . Lewis, David. Watercolor painting techniques. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1983. Print. Meyer, Susan E. 40 watercolorists and how they work: from the pages of American artist. New York: Watson-Guptill Publication, , 1976. Print. Parramon, Jose Maria. Acrylic Painting. LEMA, 2000. Print. Penney, Jacqueline. Discover the Joy of Acrylic Painting. Cotati: North Light Books, 2001. Print. Pitz, Henry Clarence. Charcoal drawing. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications , 1971. Print. Talbot, Jonathan. Collage. New York: Jonathan Talbot, 2001. Print. Taylor, Brandon. Collage: the making of modern art. London: Thames & Hudson, 2006. Print. Read More