Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Pablo Picasso - The African Period

Picasso's Rose Period was followed by an even more radical departure in style. From 1907 to 1909 Picasso's art was influenced by his interest in so-called "primitive" arts, especially African Masks. This period, consequently, became known as the African Period. His paintings, typified by simplified, angular forms, were rendered in a muted palette of reds and browns.

Around this time, the French empire was expanding into Africa, and African artifacts were being brought back to Paris museums, exposing Picasso to a truly unique form of art. It explored emotional and psychological areas not seen in western art, which was regarded by the avant garde as subservient to the world of appearances. For them, the faculty of imagination, emotion and mystical experience was more important than that of mere sight. In African art, which possessed remarkable expressive power, they saw a response to those higher faculties.

Picasso's most remarkable achievement from this period, the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, came at the beginning of 1907 and is arguably the most influential painting of the twentieth century. Following this work, Picasso began painting in a style influenced by the two figures on the right side of the painting, the figures themselves inspired by African masks, with their striped patterns and oval forms.

Pablo Picasso - The African Period

In 1907 the painting was considered extremely daring. The influence of African art led to distortions and visual incongruities. For example, at the bottom right of the picture, the figure's head is turned in a way which is anatomically impossible. Surprisingly, even Picasso's fellow painters, stalwarts of the avant garde, reacted negatively to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Henri Matisse is alleged to have told Picasso that he was trying to ridicule the modern movement.

Pablo Picasso - The African Period
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I have a passion for studying the history of western art, and its numerous influences. My own drawings and paintings have been profoundly influenced over the years by the artists that came before me, as well as a number of talented artists still living today. Visit me at [http://www.oilandpigment.blogspot.com]

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Native American Paintings

Native American paintings painted by American Indians are highly popular in the United States and other countries. Many tourists purchase them as a souvenir or a gift for their loved ones. Native American paintings are contemporary and unique. Traditional native paintings were less prominent and were merely used to adorn functional items. The most popular form of ancient Native American painting is Navajo Indian sand painting. The art of Navajo sand painting has been passed on to future generations and was originally a magnificent religious art.

Contemporary Navajo artists make commercial versions of the conventional sand paintings. Other modern artists are greatly influenced by Western painting styles to illustrate their art. They portray their perception of worldly things and people using modern technique and vibrant colors. They have combined traditional designs and styles with modern techniques to form excellent masterpieces. Their tribal heritage is reflected in their work of art.

Many non-Native painters paint ordinary pictures and sell them as Native American pieces of art. They are usually fake artists who try to make a fast buck by trying to copy work of other artists.

Native American Paintings

To buy original prints or Native American paintings, buyers can research on the Internet. They can verify the credibility of the art sites and even check for customer feed back. Buyers have the option of going through various details of the painting such as the colors used, the style, and the artist. Many sites provide the names of eminent Native American artists and offer information about various art websites that sell authentic paintings. Buyers from other countries can also purchase their favorite painting through these websites. Many online art suppliers charge separately for handling and shipping while some may offer free services depending on the location and the type of painting.

Some of the well-known Native American artists are Joanne Swanson, L. David Eveningthunder, Dana Tiger, and Urshel Taylor. Jerome Bushyhead was also very famous for contemporary portraits and timeless paintings.

Native American Paintings
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Paintings provides detailed information on Paintings, Oil Paintings, Famous Paintings, Abstract Paintings and more. Paintings is affiliated with Oil Paintings For Sale.

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012

The Effects of Mass Media

In this day and age, Mass Media is all over. It surmounts the activity of the people. It shapes, forms and influences the buying decisions of the majority through its incessant advertising schemes bombarding our daily existence and it seems that there is no stopping it. As a result, this leads to the invincible effects of Mass Media to the society and its people.

The effects of Mass Media in the present time is both extraordinary and dreadful. On the positive sense, Mass Media makes the lives of the people at ease, along with Information and Communication Technologies, they produce a breakthrough and innovative standard of living for the people to embrace and to live by.

Yet for the young people especially for the teens, the upshot of Mass Media to their lives is in some manner destructive. Mass Media is by some means damaging their innocence of reality and their genuine perception of the outside world.

The Effects of Mass Media

Teens of today were consumed by constant media messages. Anywhere they rest their eyes they will be exposed to countless advertising and marketing messages. Predominantly, the entertainment media largely influences these young people to act and behave in a certain way that will subsequently be accepted by the society and the people around them.

Mass Media exposes different revolutionary sides of reality and of life. Still, it becomes the most celebrated and widely used by the people in this day and age.

In due course, the effects of Mass Media will forever strike humanity and modify its way of living.

The Effects of Mass Media
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Francis Lloyd Sauza is blogger who loves music, arts, geography, history and communication. He likes surfing the web, writing, reading, singing, traveling, listening to music. He's also a Visual Artist and having his area of expertise in Computer Graphics Lay outing, Designing, and Painting, he truly love the outdoors.

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Friday, November 16, 2012

The Psychology of Art

On the need to differentiate between the structural and functional aspects of the psychology of art...

The psychology of art is a complex topic and this description serves only as an introduction to a 'developing' field of study. Psychology forms the basis of many aspects of life and art or expression of art in any form and especially through sculpture and painting is also based on psychological theories and understanding. The relation between psychology and art is almost inevitable; there can be no art without psychology and vice versa. The artist begins with a blank canvas on which he/ she projects his or her own psychological being and art remains as the medium of such projection. Thus art can best be defined as a medium through which an artist or creative individual projects his or her feelings and frustrations and deeper psychological necessities. This way art is intricately linked to psychology. Yet the psychology of art as a formal discipline has not found extensive recognition and has only very recently gained popularity in western universities.

The psychology of art is however a fascinating field of study as it analyzes the core of creativity and provides explanation for the mental processes of the artist in particular and the creative individual in general. Yet interestingly, psychology of art is not just limited to understanding the mental processes of the artist but also the mental processes involved in perceiving the art. Thus a psychology of art provides explanation and understanding of the phenomena of creativity, the mental processes of the artist, as well as the thought processes of the perceiver. It is comprehensive in its approach not only because of its range of explanation but also because art psychology involves explanations from different branches of psychology such as Gestalt psychology of perception, psychology of form and function/order and complexity, Jungian psychoanalysis, the psychology of attention and Experimental psychology as well as Freudian symbolism.

The Psychology of Art

The psychology of art is interdisciplinary, successfully integrating art, architecture, philosophy (metaphysics and phenomenology), aesthetics, study of consciousness, visual perception, and psychoanalysis. From philosopher John Dewey to psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung, intellectuals of the 20th century influenced the emergence of a psychology of art that seemed to have moved beyond the mind processes of the artist to include the process of creation and also its perception examining art from biological, social, psychological and philosophical perspectives. Dewey and Jung both influenced the study of art within social and cultural contexts and are largely responsible for the understanding of art in its present form.

Art is obviously a creative process and is thus a deep psychological process as well. Art could well be explained with the theory of perception and as a cognitive process. The Gestalt theory of visual perception would offer one of the foremost explanations on art creation and perception. The Gestalt theorists were the 20th century psychologists who systematically studied perceptual processes in humans and some of the famous Gestaltists were Wolfgang Köhler, Kurt Koffka, Max Wertheimer, and Kurt Lewin. The principles of perception as given in Gestalt psychology focused on proximity or contiguity, similarity, continuity, closure, area/symmetry and figure and ground.

Thus Gestalists described perception as a process that involved not just the object but also the context as perception of objects is affected by what surrounds these objects so to Gestaltists, things are always 'more than the sum of their parts'. As art is also primarily about perception, our perception of any art object would depend on these Gestalt principles as well and we tend to see continuity or closure or even perceive movement in static objects. Gestalt psychology has been used extensively to describe and understand 'visual illusions'. For example, objects which are situated closer to each other will be perceived as forming a group. If you've seen some of these pictures that explain the principles of Gestalt, you'll quickly understand that there is more to art than simple brush strokes; art is as much a process of perception (including illusion) as it is a process of creation. If an artist successfully creates a visual illusion, he is almost like a magician. Yet art has several dimensions in its study and explanation and from Gestalt understanding of form and structure that provides a 'structural' explanation of the organizational principles of art, we have to understand the 'functional' features of art as well. This in turn is provided by psychoanalysis and symbolism.

In the early 20th century Sigmund Freud pioneered the study of art in its psychoanalytic form by considering the artist as essentially a neurotic who deals with his psychic pressures and conflicts through his creative impulses. Freud was interested in the 'content' or subject matter of art that reflected the inner conflicts and repressed wishes of the artist and art to Freud as to any psychoanalyst today is considered as essentially a projection of the artist's mind and thought process. Freud believed that unconscious desires and fantasies of the artist makes way from the internal and manifests as the external on canvas through art. Thus if an artist fantasizes about beautiful virtuous women, he paints angels in heaven as a sort of 'sublimation' of his deeper wish. Thus any art work is directly related to the artist's inner world and his unconscious regions of the mind.

One school of art that was directly influenced by the Freudian theory and directly manifests the unconscious is Surrealism which began in the early 20th century, initially as an offshoot of a cultural movement, Dadaism. Surrealism emphasizes on the integration of art and life and with psychoanalytic influences focuses on the unconscious desires. From the psychology of Jacques Lacan to the philosophy of Hegel, Surrealism was largely shaped by philosophy, psychology and cultural changes and has been one of the most revolutionary movements in the history of art.

Some of its famous proponents were André Breton and more recently Salvador Dali. In fact Dali's work could be seen as almost a visual representation of Freud's emphasis on dream analysis, unconscious desires as well as hallucinations and free association. Sexual symbolism, an important part of Freudian analysis has been extensively used by surrealists. Freud and surrealism highlighted a closer link between madness, sexuality and art but this sort of portrayal met with some opposition as well. On the other hand, Carl Jung's psychoanalysis and emphasis on art as a form of cultural expression was more acceptable to some artists and Jung remains as the most influential psychoanalyst in art history with his optimistic and constructive portrayal of art. According to Jung, art and other forms of creative endeavor could access the 'collective unconscious' and provide considerable insights on not just the process of creativity but also the cultural elements in the mind that are carried across generations. In Jungian psychology art as a psychological process would be an assimilation of the cultural experiences of the artist so it is accessible to an wider community.

Thus the psychology of art as it develops to a major discipline and area of study could be considered as having two distinct branches -

o Structural Psychology of Art - that which emphasizes on the 'structural' aspects of perceiving art through form, organization as understood with Gestalt principles and general emphasis on structure, also with the principles of physiology and visual perception

o Functional Psychology of Art - that which emphasizes on art as a creative process representing the 'functional' aspects or mental dynamics of the artist, the content rather than the form and could be understood with the insights of psychoanalysis and phenomenology.

The structural branch relates mainly to the perceiver and the process of perception of art and the functional branch relates to the artist and the process of creation of art. Both these dimensions would be equally important and complement each other in a comprehensive conceptual psychology of art.

The Psychology of Art
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Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Major Goals in Art Education For Children

What goals are likely to promote inquiry in art as a child? Art makes sense to children when they experience it as a basic form of expression and as a response to life. The two modes of experience-expression and response-are interdependent. Both are essential in the goals for personal fulfillment, for studies of the artistic heritage and for studies of the social aspects of art.

In order to find personal fulfillment through art, children need to learn how their lives can be enriched by their own efforts to create art and respond to visual forms.

Children enjoy manipulating art materials and even without guidance they may produce works that have expressive meaning. The activity and chance successes are poor measures of learning. If, as the saying goes, "one picture is worth a thousand words," one truly creative experience in art is worth a thousand aimless experiments with art media. We may experience pride and inner strength that come from shaping forms that express something about ourselves, genuine self-expression is not easy.

Major Goals in Art Education For Children

Art has the potential for making feelings and ideas vivid; but to function expressively, an art form must be created so that it captures the precise feeling and imagery of our experience. Only then can art give substance to feelings that might otherwise remain undefinded, unclear, and unexplored. Few children are such natural artists that they can easily express themselves without a supportive environment. In order to achieve personal fulfillment through creating art, children need sensitive adult guidance in mastering the following pivotal moves in the artistic process: the creation of ideas for personal expression, the discovery of visual qualities to express ideas and feelings, and the use of media to convey an expressive intent.

In daily life, we ''look at'' much more than we truly ''see,'' "feel," and "experience." If we are sensitive to our aesthetic responses we realize that we are "moved" by something because our senses are fully activated. At such moments of realization, we experience a kind of insight so uncommon and so exact that we are in awe of our own powers of perception.

Art deals with human feelings, beliefs, and conduct. Studies in art-like those in the humanities-are loaded with implications about the ideal life and the values people hold. If we treat art as if it were only a matter of learning facts and mastering techniques, we deny its value-laden character. In the public schools of this country, subjects that center on human values are taught in a comparative manner. As teachers, we should clearly emphasize that art can also be understood and experienced in different ways

Learn to generate ideas for expression through art. Art does involve a struggle to find ideas and that varied sources in their experience can be tapped for inspiration. Children can learn to generate ideas by careful observation of their natural and constructed environment. Subjects are abundant-people, places, inanimate objects, plants, animals, weather, the seasons, and special events. Imagination is the ability to form images in the mind, especially of things, that are not ''real'' in ordinary life. Fantastic, futuristic, weird, mysterious, and dreamlike events can be a source of inspiration for art. Contemplating themes can serve as a source of motivation for art. Children can learn to express their personal feelings about such concepts as love, peace, and beauty as well as hate, war, and ugliness.Inventing the necessity. Ideas can come from problems and needs to everyday life, such as wanting to make a present for someone special.

Major Goals in Art Education For Children
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Thursday, November 8, 2012

The Beginner's Guide to Computer Animation - 3D Animation Software

Anyone that enjoys art and loves cartoons will most likely be intrigued with animation and find computer animation fascinating. Animation came alive with 2D animation then moved on into 3D, which has now become the way of the animation world. It would never have evolved to this point without the success of the 2D. In fact, it is still dependent on the skills required for 2D to be applied to 3D animation. Therefore, where you hear someone say the 2D animation is mundane then do not give it a second thought.

In modern technology where almost everyone is on computers at some point of time it is unlikely they will not be exposed to some type of animation . It must not be forgotten that animation is not just restricted to cartoon characters.

To put it simply any moving image that has been made to do so by the computer is computer animation. The technique used is a way to create the illusion of movement one image on the screen quickly is replaced by another one that is almost identical to the first one but not exact. It happens this same way with other media such as television and movies. Most often, this is accomplished with 3D computer graphics and the results are directed to the computer, but it could be for movies as well. You may hear this referred to as CGI meaning computer generated imagery.

The Beginner's Guide to Computer Animation - 3D Animation Software

Computer animation is just another method of creating animation by way of automation or computer technology. The principals are the same as when they are done by hand, it is just the computer is able to do much of the preparation work and rendering of the finished version. It duplicates the stop motion techniques of 3D and framing by 2D.

Using the computer for animation is a systematic process. To begin with, the object is built on the computer monitor. These are the models. Then the 3D figures have to have a virtual skeleton. To get the major movements such as for the eyes, mouth or clothing for example then the computer will create an action called tweening or morphing.

When dealing with 3D animations it is important to remember that all of the same fundamentals and basics of animation are utilized. In this case, though modeling must be complete prior to rendering. The rendering in tweened frame is done as needed.

As you can see with 3D animation, the majority of the work is done through the computer. Although the computer does the work it has to receive the instructions to do so, and that is where the 3D animator's job comes in. This means besides the fundamentals keen computer skills and a thorough knowledge of the capabilities of the software are a necessity.

It is important for anyone interested in a career in 3D animation to research all of the different areas of expertise that are required. Without doing so it is most difficult to make an informed decision as to whether this would be an appropriate career for you.

The Beginner's Guide to Computer Animation - 3D Animation Software
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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

What is a Still Life Drawing?

Still Life is an art term, that refers to a special kind of picture. It represents an arrange of inanimate objects (hence the name) such as a bowl, a cup or fruits. Usually the arrangement is made according to the artist's purpose. A Still life pencil drawing can be symbolic, with an underlying meaning, or aesthetic, in which case the purpose is to communicate beauty.

About Still Life Pencil Drawings

A still life work can have many purposes. If we work in color it can help us understand how color acts in real life, how the light bounces, and how an arrangement of colors can bring a special mood to the painting. Using colored pencils we can begin studies about color, and work in the finest details. But in the case of black and white pencil drawings, the purpose of the still life pencil drawing is different. A still life pencil drawing can help us study shapes and see how they interact on our eyes, we learn how to measure correct proportions and how they can make the difference between a good drawing and a remarkable drawing.

What is a Still Life Drawing?

When we get into shading, we then study tonal values. There are no colors here so we must learn how to see things in black and white mode, and correctly define which are going to be the dark and light areas on our still life pencil drawing.

Still lifes are the most available subjects in the world, and while some people may consider still life drawing boring, the fact is they teach us a lot. When you have no idea of what to draw, just make an arrangement of things you have at your house and start your still life pencil drawing. Don't take just as bring cups and fruits, but instead focus on what you can learn from this. If you keep practicing on drawing still life scenes you will find out that you have a much better understanding on how light works, and how objects relate to each other within a composition and color scheme.

What is a Still Life Drawing?
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Paolo Basauri is the owner of Pencil Drawing Madness, a blog about drawing, where you can find more about The Art of Pencil Drawing.

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Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Gestalt: Law of Proximity

The law of proximity is one of four visual perception laws as theorized by gestalt psychologists. Paul Martin Lester, the author of Visual Communication, an expert in the field wrote: "The law of proximity states that the brain more closely associates objects close to each other than it does [when] two objects are far apart."

We love to see people and things grouped together. Groupings and togetherness appeal to our inclination of wanting things to be neat and organized. Artistically speaking, by grouping people and things together, we are not only conforming to the law of proximity, but we are making room for other interesting information to be added to a layout that wouldn't fit otherwise.

There are other aspects to the law of proximity too. For instance, when we see two people next to each other in a photograph, we look to see what their relationship is or how they are communicating with each other. When birds are flying, we love to see how they group and fly in a *V* form together. At social gatherings, people tend to group together (even if there is plenty of space to spread out). Then again, we like to see groupings of the same species of plants in landscapes and find this to be visually pleasing.

Gestalt: Law of Proximity

In knowing about the law of proximity, designers, photographers, and artists are better able to create interesting, memorable images. When the law of proximity is used, viewers are more apt to take notice and interest in the visual messages being conveyed, because they are looking for underlying messages within the images and responding to them.
The law of proximity somewhat overlaps with harmony. Harmony is "the pleasing interaction or appropriate combination of the elements in a whole" as described by Tim McCreight, the author of Design Language. When an image is in harmony, it is pleasing to us because the elements or objects are supporting and complementing each other. We view this as positive energy. This type of image gives us closure and peace void of anxiety. It is no wonder why most people prefer harmonious artwork in home decor.

The law of proximity is another way humans organize their world. Look in the produce section of a supermarket and notice how this law takes on practical application. Visual clusters of stars are beautiful to view in the same way as seen with repetitive patterns and textures. At home, we have a place to stack our dishes and another place to hang our clothes. The law of proximity indicates that humans prefer to see group's of similar objects together. This explains why patterned material and grid-like designs are visually appealing. (revised 2/15/2006)

Gestalt: Law of Proximity
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