VISUAL ARTS

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Visual Arts

Module 3 Living with Art

Welcome to the second module on the Visual Arts

Great artworks do not just happen by accident. They take planning, patience,
and knowledge in carefully selecting, combining or contrasting all the visual
elements that would carry the artist’s intended meaning.

At the end of this module you are expected to:

1) Identify the Ten Reasons Why art is Indispensable
2) Enumerate the Types of Art
3) Identify the steps to begin an artwork.

The Importance of Art

10 Reasons Why Art is Indispensable
1) Art communicates feelings and emotions expressively and forcefully;
2) It connects people around the world
3) It stimulates our thoughts when recreating the message of the artist
4) It is a great tool for learning
5) It reminds us of people’s selfless actions and nationalism
6) It serves as a source of inspiration and aesthetic pleasure;
7) It makes the surrounding look better and complete
8) It commemorates certain occasions
9) It transforms us into highly cultured and respectable human beings and
10) It makes us human

TYPES OF ART
A. Major Arts
1. Architecture- is the art or science of building specifically the art or
practice of designing and building structures and especially habitable
ones.
2. Dance- is a sport and art form that generally refers to movement of
the body usually rhythmic and used as a form of expression, social
interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting.

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3) Fashion Design- is the applied art dedicated to clothing and lifestyle
accessories created within the cultural and social influences of a specific
time
4) Literature- comes from the Latin word littera which means letter. In a
broad sense, it means any written work
5) Music- is an art form whose medium is sound organized in time. Common
elements of music are pitch which governs melody and harmony rhythm,
tempo, meter and articulation, dynamics and the sonic qualities of timbre
and texture.

B. Minor Art
1) Decorative Art- is concerned with design and decoration of object that is
chiefly prized for its utility, rather than for its purely aesthetic qualities
like ceramics, metal ware, furniture, textiles, clothing, and others
2) Graphic Art- refers to the art of drawing or painting or print making
which focuses on visual communication and presentation
3) Industrial Art- is tantamount to practical arts, such as engineering, metal
working or carpentry
4) Plastic Art includes those visual art that involve the use of materials that
can be molded or modulated in some way often in three dimensions clay,
paint and plaster
5) Popular Art- refers to any dance, literature, music, theatre, or other art
form intended to be received and appreciated by ordinary people in a
literate and technologically advanced society dominated by urban
culture.
6) Painting -is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other
medium to a surface like wall, paper, canvas wood and glass
7) Sculpture- It can be defined as the art or practice of creating three
dimensional forms or figures through carving, modeling, and casting

STEPS TO BEGIN AN ARTWORK

1) Conceptualize a good subject
 The first step in making a good art is to conceptualize what you
want to communicate with your intended audience. This would
serve as your starting point.
2) Choose the size you want
 How big do you want to portray your object? The scale of an art
can change its entire feel, so it’s essential to have a purpose for
making artwork larger or smaller than life remembers the size
matters.
3) Create your own crop
 Often the most powerful lines in a work of art are the four things
the most artists don’t even think to control. The edges of your
canvas or paper are responsible for containing and shaping your
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Visual Arts

final work of art. Why settle for drawing inside somebody else’s
lines.
4) Think about placement
 The way you place shapes on a 2 dimensional surface lend levels of
importance meaning and balance to a piece. The edges of your
canvas or paper are responsible for containing and shaping your
final work of art
5) Control your line
 Any subject you choose will have at least an outline as well as
other lines to give it depth, texture and detail. Our eyes naturally
follow lines so use that to your advantage in capturing the viewers
gaze. Let your lines flow to the center of your work or to spots that
you want the viewer to look at. Angled or curved lines are
generally add more visual interest and movement, but too much
can be chaotic. Horizontals and verticals lend strength solidity and
impressiveness but can be boring.
6) Balance positive and negative space
 Positive space is any object or shape that stands out from the
background and registers to the eyes as something. Negative space
is the background or space around objects. Usually its suggested
that you keep approximately equal amounts of positive and
negative space to make a work feel more balanced.
7) Add Contrast
 Visual art should have a full range of values from dark to light.
Without bright highlights and dark shadows an image will often
fell gray or washed out and will be interesting. Darker areas in
predominantly light section will stand out and draw the eye and
the same is true for the reverse.
8) Simplify distracting element,
 Too many shapes, lines or colors can distract or confuse viewers. If
you want the viewer to notice or return consistently to one part of
the painting simplify the rest of it. Decide what the focus should
be and it your eyes get distracted change it. Another way to
simplifying your art is to get closer to a single object.
9) Choose your colors deliberately
 Bold color will catch attention so use them purposefully where you
want people to look. Any color that all alone surrounded by
another color will make objects closer to the viewer so use them to
create depth and space cold colors blue purple and some green
will cause objects to recede in the distance. When an object in the
back of your painting is too warm it’ll distract from your overall
composition and pull attention where you don’t want it.

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 References and Supplementary Materials
Books and Journals
1. Fernandez, Steven Patrick (2010) Making Theatre; The Craft of the Stage. Iligan City:
MSU – Iligan City: MSU Iligan Institute of Technology, Mindanao State University

.Online Supplementary Reading Materials

1. http://www.saylor.org/courses/arth101b
2. http://www.sbctc.edu
3. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sac-artappreciation/part/context-and-
perspectives/