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 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.
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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 color pencils, crayons, charcoals, pastels,
and markers.
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.
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.
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.
Filmmaking: Filmmaking
is the process of making a motion-picture, from an initial conception
and research, through scriptwriting, shooting and recording, animation
or other special effects, editing, sound
and music work and finally distribution to an audience; it refers
broadly to the creation of all types
of films, embracing documentary, strains of theatre and literature
in film, and poetic or experimental practices, and is often used
to refer to video-based processes as well. |