Definition of Painting

French – peindre and peint meaning “to

paint”

Latin – pingere meaning “to paint” or “to

decorate with color”

The art that has most to do with revealing the

visual appearance of objects and events.
Definition of Painting
EYE – chief organ involved in painting

2-D surface

Process of applying colored pigments to

flat surface, usually canvas, paper, wood,
or plaster.
Definition of Painting
In Western tradition, painting is the
QUEEN OF THE ARTS.
Definition of Terms
Pigment – dry coloring matter, usually an
insoluble powder, to be mixed with
water, oil, or another base to produce
paint and similar products
Medium/Vehicle – liquid that holds the
particles of pigment together without
dissolving them
Binder – an ingredient that ensures that
the paint will adhere to the surface
Mediums of Painting
It is impossible to tell which painting
medium is the oldest, but we know that
ancient peoples mixed their pigments with
fat and honey.

Techniques perfected in the ancient world

that are still in use today: ENCAUSTIC and
FRESCO
Mediums of Painting
ENCAUSTIC
• consist of pigments mixed with wax and
resin
• When the colors are heated, the wax
melts and the paint can be brushed easily
• When the wax cools, the paint hardens
• Greek – “burning in”
Mediums of Painting
FRESCO
• Pigments are mixed with water and
applied to a plaster support, usually a
wall or ceiling coated in plaster
Mediums of Painting
FRESCO
• Above all, a wall-painting technique
• It has been used for large-scale murals
since ancient times
• The plaster can be painted only when it
has the proper degree of dampness
Mediums of Painting
FRESCO
• Frescoes have survived to the present
day from the civilizations of the ancient
Mediterranean, form China and India, and
from the early civilizations
Mediums of Painting
FRESCO

Fresco secco – dry fresco

Buon fresco – true fresco
Fresco secco

Saint George
fighting the dragon
Buon fresco

Head of Bramante in
the guise of Euclid
Mediums of Painting
TEMPERA
• Shares qualities with both watercolor and
oil plant
• Aqueous medium
• It dries to a tough, insoluble film
• Retain their brilliance and clarity for
centuries
Mediums of Painting
TEMPERA
• It is a paint in which a vehicle is an
emulsion, which is a stable mixture of an
aqueous liquid with an oil, fat, wax, or
resin
• CASEIN – derivative of milk, one of the
many vehicles that can be used to make
tempera colors.
Mediums of Painting
TEMPERA
• EGG YOLK – famous tempera vehicle
• Tempera dries very quickly, so colors
cannot be blended easily once they set
down
• GESSO – a mixture of white pigment and
glue that sealed the wood and could be
sanded and rubbed to a smooth, ivory-
like finish
Colette 3,
egg tempera
Mediums of Painting
OIL
• It consist of pigment compounded with
oil, usually linseed oil
• The oil acts as binder, creating as it dries
a transparent film in which the pigment is
suspended
• It dries very slowly
Mediums of Painting
OIL
Advantages:
• It can be work in an almost infinite range
of consistencies, from very thick from
very thin
• Oil paint is a sensuous medium
Mediums of Painting
OIL
Advantages:
• The colors can be blended subtly
• Layers of paint can be applied on top of
other layers with little danger of
separating or cracking
• The artist can rework sections of the
painting almost indefinitely
Mediums of Painting
OIL
Disadvantages:
• The advantages can become a liability
when the artist is pressured for time
• Oil paints dries so very slowly that it may
be weeks or months before it is truly
“set”
Mediums of Painting
WATERCOLOR
• Consist of pigment in a vehicle of water
and gum Arabic
• GUM ARABIC – a sticky plant substance
that acts as the binder
• The most common support is PAPER
Mediums of Painting
WATERCOLOR
• Commonly thought of as an intimate art,
small in scale and free in execution
• Often used for small and intimate works
Mediums of Painting
WATERCOLOR
• Easy to carry and requiring only a glass
of water for use
• Could readily be taken on outdoor
sketching expeditions
• Favorite medium of amateur artists
Mediums of Painting
WATERCOLOR
• Can be painstaking because any mistake
committed by the artist is easily seen
• Medium used by entire painting tradition
of East Asia. The leading characteristics
of watercolors is their transparency
Mountain Stream
John Singer Sargent
Mediums of Painting
GOUACHE
• Opaque watercolor with inert white
pigment added
• INERT PIGMENT – pigment that becomes
colorless or virtually colorless in paint
Mediums of Painting
GOUACHE
• It serves to make colors opaque, which
means that when used at full strength,
they can completely hide any ground or
other color they are painted over
• Like watercolor, it can be applied in
translucent washes, although that is not
its primary use.
Mediums of Painting
GOUACHE
• It dries quickly and uniformly and is
especially well-suited to large areas of
flat, saturated color
Mediums of Painting
ACRYLIC
• Challenger of oil paint as the principal
medium for Western painting
• POLYMER PAINT – more exact name for
acrylic
• The vehicle consist of acrylic resin,
polymerized its simple molecules linked
into long chains through emulsion in water
Mediums of Painting
ACRYLIC
• As it dries, the resin particles coalesce to
form tough, flexible, and waterproof film
• It can mimic the effects of oil paint,
watercolor, gouache, and even tempera
• It can be used on both prepared and raw
canvas, and also on paper and fabric
Mediums of Painting
ACRYLIC
• It dries quickly and permanently
• Artists using acrylics usually rest their
brushes in water while working, for if the
paint dries on the brush, it is extremely
difficult to remove
Elements of Painting
LINE
• Path traced by moving point
• Simplest, most primitive, and most
universal means for creating visual art
• Maybe thick or thin
• All lines in the drawing are symbolic
Mermaid
Keith Haring
Elements of Painting
LINE
• Horizontal Line
• Rest, quiet, relaxation, contemplation
• Vertical Line
• Tree, standing man, chimneys, towers
• Pointed, balanced, forceful, and dynamic
Elements of Painting
LINE
• Diagonal line
• Line of action
• Running man, tree in a hard wind, rain
• Curved line
• Shows action and life and energy
• Rounded hills, trees bent with fruit, curved
arms, cheeks
Elements of Painting
LINE
• Curved line
• Single curve – single arc
• Double curve – S shape
• Double slow curve – “line of grace” or “line of beauty”
• Quick curve – arc of a small circle
• Slow curve – arc of a large circle
Elements of Painting
HARMONY
• Principle which produces an impression
of unity through the selection and
arrangement of consistent objects and
ideas
• Sense of oneness
Elements of Painting
HARMONY
• Five aspects of Harmony:
• Line and shape
• Size
• Texture
• Idea
• Color
TeRa’au Rahi
Paul Gauguin
Elements of Painting
HARMONIOUS LINES AND SHAPES
• A combination of lines results in SHAPE
• Applying the three types of line to shapes
that are seen in combination with one
another are in PERFECT HARMONY
Elements of Painting
HARMONIOUS LINES AND SHAPES

REPETITION CONTRAST TRANSITION

Diagonal Composition
Piet Mondrian
Elements of Painting
VALUE (Light and Dark)
• Amount of light in a given painting
• Relative degrees of light or luminosity
• White is the highest and black is the lowest
• MEDIUM – a point between white and black
• LIGHT – a point between white and medium
• DARK – a point between medium and black
Elements of Painting
VALUE (Light and Dark)
• In architecture and sculpture, values
change with the light; in painting, values
are fixed.
Elements of Painting
LIGHT and SHADOW
• Light and shadow or light and shade
• Also known as Chiároscuro from Italian
word meaning “light and dark”
Elements of Painting
LIGHT and SHADOW
• Means of modelling a figure in depth, a
means of articulating the form.
• In painting, the effect of light and shadow
must be simulated
Elements of Painting
COLOR
• Painting is predominantly an art of color
• The appeal of color is universal
• Colors gives us much pleasure
Elements of Painting
COLOR
• Function of light
• Without light, there can be no color
 Elements of Painting
COLOR
• Prang Color System

Dimension of colors:
• Warmness/coolness–Hue/name of the color
• Lightness/darkness – Value of the color
• Brightness/dullness–Intensity/chroma of color
 Elements of Painting
HUE
• Term used to indicate the name of the color
 Elements of Painting
HUE

Normal Colors
• ROYGBIV

Neutral Colors
• Black, White, Gray
 Elements of Painting
HUE
Classes of Colors:
• Primary
• Binary
• Intermediate
• Tertiary
• Quaternary
Elements of Painting
HUE

Six Standard Colors of Prang Chart

Elements of Painting
HUE
• Primary Colors – red, yellow, blue
• Binary Colors – violet, green, orange
• Intermediate Hue – YG, BG, BV, RV, RO, YO
• Tertiary Colors – smoky yellow, slate blue,
old brick red
• Quaternary Colors – violet, green, orange,
much neuralized
Elements of Painting
HUE
• Warm and Cool Colors
• Warmest Colors – red and orange
• Coolest Colors – blue and blue-purple
• Green – between heat and cold
Elements of Painting
HUE
• Warm colors have cheerful comforting
effect. They are associated with sunlight
and firelight
• Cool colors have a quieting influence. They
are associated with sky, water, shade, and
so on
• As the color grows colder and darker, it
may become really depressing
Elements of Painting
HUE
• Color scheme – color harmony, a selective
use of two or more colors in a single
composition
• Complementary harmonies – involve
colors directly opposite with one another
on the color wheel
• Obvious pairings: R&G, V&Y, B&O
Pool in a Brook, Pond
Brook, New Hamshire

Eliot Porter
Elements of Painting
HUE
• Analogous Harmonies – combine colors
adjacent to one another on the color wheel
Elements of Painting
HUE
• Aspects of color in vision:
• Colors can affect the mood of an individual
• Colors have the property of seeming to
advance or to recede
• Colors have very definite effects upon each
other
Elements of Painting
HUE
• Psychological Meaning of Color
• Red – increases appetite and consumption
• Blue – lowers a person’s blood pressure,
pulse, and respiration rate. It is often
associated with freedom (sky, ocean). It has
calming effect, a color of truth and heaven
• White – innocence and purity
Elements of Painting
HUE
• Psychological Meaning of Color
• Yellow – divinity, degradation, treason, deceit
• Orange – intelligence, knowledge
• Gold – fame, wealth
• Red – blood, love, hate, passion, power
• Brown – spiritual death, renunciation of the
world
Elements of Painting
VALUE
• Describes the lightness or darkness of
color
W
HL
L
LL
M
HD
D
LD
B
Elements of Painting
VALUE
• Tints and Shades
• TINT – value that is lighter than the normal
color
• Pink is a tint of red
• SHADE – color darker than the hue’s normal
value
• Maroon is a shade of red
Elements of Painting
VALUE
• Light value seem to increase the size of an
object.
• Black and dark values seem to decrease
the size of an object.
Elements of Painting
INTENSITY or CHROMA
• Also called saturation
• Dimension that tells the brightness or
dullness of a color – its strength or its
weaknesses
Elements of Painting
INTENSITY or CHROMA
• The “Law of Color Areas” says that:

The larger the area to be covered, the less

intense the color should be. The smaller the
area, the brighter the color may be.
Elements of Painting
TEXTURE
• Perception of touch
• Rough or smooth, bumpy or slippery, slick
or grainy, soft or hard
• The painter uses texture for variety, focus,
or unity
Elements of Painting
BALANCE
• Feeling of rest
• “Law of Areas” which states:
Large areas of color should be quiet in effect,
while small amounts may show strong
contrasts; the larger the amount used, the
quieter the color should be, and the smaller the
amount, the more striking the contrast may
become.
Elements of Painting
BALANCE
• Two kind of balance
• Formal balance
• Informal balance
Elements of Painting
BALANCE
• Formal Balance
• If the objects are alike or equally forceful in
appearance, they will attract the same amount
of attention, and therefore should be
equidistant from the center
• Bisymmetrical balance and Obvious balance
Elements of Painting
BALANCE
• Formal Balance
• Bisymmetrical Balance
• When the objects on each side of the center are
identical
• Obvious Balance
• When the objects are not alike but are equal in
their power and attraction
Music
Pinturrichio
Elements of Painting
BALANCE
• Informal Balance
• Occult or asymmetric balance
• More suitable and affords greater opportunity
for variety of arrangements
Southern France
Derain
Elements of Painting
RHYTHM
• Form of movement, but it must be
recognized that not all movement in design
is rhythmic
• Easy, connected path along which the eye
may travel in any arrangement of lines,
forms, or color
Elements of Painting
RHYTHM
• Methods of Obtaining Rhythmic Movement
• Rhythm through Repetition
• Rhythm through a Progression of Sizes
• Rhythm through a Continuous Line Movement
• Radiation
• Volume
Rhythm through
Repetition
Rhythm through a
Progression of Sizes

Nautilus Shell
Rhythm through a Continuous Line Movement
Radiation
Volume

Cumaean Sybil
Michaelangelo
Elements of Painting
SPACE
• In painting, it can only be represented a
space on a 2-D surface unlike in architecture
• The most obvious techniques for creating
space in painting are the various types of
perspectives
Elements of Painting
PERSPECTIVE
• Technical means by which we perceive
distance in painting, the means by which we
are made to see the position of objects in
space.
Elements of Painting
PERSPECTIVE
• Two major types of perspectives:
• Linear perspective
• Has to do with the direction of lines and the size of
objects
• Aerial perspective
• Has to do with changes in appearance due to
atmosphere
Linear Perspective

The Dead Christ

Andrea Mantegna
Aerial Perspective
Elements of Painting
EMPHASIS and SUBORDINATION
• Emphasis – attention is drawn more on the
certain parts of a composition than to
others
• Subordination – certain areas of the
composition are purposely made less
visually interesting
Still Life with Compotier,
Pitcher, and Fruit

Paul Cézanne
Wood’s Midnight Ride

Paul Revere
The Painter’s Tool
EASEL
The Painter’s Tool
PALETTE
The Painter’s Tool
BRUSHES
The Painter’s Tool
FLEXIBLE SPATULA or PALETTE KNIFE
The Painter’s Tool
Methods of Painting
• Realism • Expressionism
• Abstraction • Futurism
• Dadaism • Symbolism
• Impressionism • Surrealism
• Fauvism
• Cubism
• Pointillism/Divisionism