1. MS. TANGUAY FCHS VISUAL ARTI UNIT #9 2-D MEDIA

2. BY THE END OF THIS UNIT… I can name a variety of two-dimensional media and give examples of each. I can explain the history, origins, and expressive possibilities of two-dimensional media. I can explain the advantages and disadvantages of using particular media. I can identify the medium of an artwork.

3. 9.1 A QUICK LOOK AT 2-D MEDIA Two-dimensional media like paintings, photography, and printmaking have height and width but no real depth. Medium (pl. media) : the material an artist uses to make an artwork. Choice of medium is often related to the subject matter (what they want to show) and what the artist wants to express. Most media may be used in several ways (ex. pen and ink) Each medium has capabilities and limitations that the artist must understand in order to master the medium and achieve his or her purpose

4. 9.2 DRAWING Drawing media date back thousands of years. Pencils, charcoal, and India ink are monochromatic media Pencils and charcoal produce darker tones the harder you press on them. When India ink is used straight from the bottle, it is opaque. It can also me thinned with water to produce washes. Chalk pastel are dry media that offer artists a variety of colors. During the Ice Age, hunter-artists used pieces of charcoal and red ocher on cave walls to outline shapes of animals. Ancient Egyptians scribes used ink on sheets of papyrus. In the 1400s, European artists started using pencils.

5. You can get different values by changing the amount of pressure you put on the drawing tool. The amount of graphite in the pencil determines the type of line it can make. Colored chalks lie between drawing and painting media. Pastels were introduced in the 1700s. Allow the use of color with out the prep needed for painting but they are very fragile. Must be sprayed with fixative (a mixture of shellac and alcohol)

6. 9.3 PAINTING Painting media are made of colored powders mixed with a liquid. Watercolor is pigment mixed with water, is thin and transparent. Been around for centuries and were first used to add a little color to drawings. Became popular on their own in the early 1800s. To lighten a color you add water. If you want an area to be white you let the paper show through and don’t paint it. Tempera is pigment mixed with water and oil emulsion. They are creamy and opaque. Can be applied to paper, wood, or canvas. Egg yolk was the traditional emulsion but now we use casein (a milk product), gum arabic, and wax. To lighten a color add white. Paint areas white that need it. Water is used to thin only to make the paint flow better and is also used as a solvent to clean brushes. Was most popular in the late Middle Ages (1100-1500) used on wooden panels. It dries quickly, allows repainting, fine detail, and a matte finish. Colors tend to change while drying.

7. Gouache is considered a compromise between watercolor and tempera. Not as difficult or as expensive as tempera. It is opaque, water- based, and usually applied to paper. It is easier to control than watercolor. Tends to look flatter, “chalky” Oil paint, the best known painting medium, is made of pigment mixed with linseed oil. It dries slowly and can be used thinly or thickly. Turpentine is the thinner or solvent. Has been popular since the 1400s when it was first used for colored glazes over tempera paintings. In the 1500s, canvas replaced wood panels as the principle support making oil on canvas the most popular medium of all time. Oil is more flexible than tempera. It can be opaque or translucent. It dries very slowly, allowing more time to blend and create effects. Canvas is the most common support. It is light weight, allows for large sizes, is cheap. Oil rots canvas so to keep this from happening you must put glue (sizing) or gesso (a plasterlike substance) on before adding paints.

8. Acrylic paint is pigment mixed with a plastic material in a water-soluable liquid. It can be thinned or thickened, and dries much more quickly than oil paint. Came into use after World War II and is the newest paint medium. Can be applied to any support, including canvas and is the most versatile medium. Acts like watercolors when thinned with water, when polymers are added they can act like glazes, and they can be made thicker than oil paints. Extremely fast drying but can be slowed down with a retarder. Water is used to clean tools and brushes. If left to dry on tools it dries permanently and cannot be removed. Does not rot canvas so can be applied directly. Fresco is one of the oldest painting media. The artist spreads wet plaster onto a wall or ceiling, and applies colors before the plaster dries. Plaster dries quickly, so the artist must plan ahead so that they are able to paint it all within a few hours. Difficult to make in-process changes, it is not flexible or versatile. It is durable and permanent. Can stand up to air pollution better than other forms of painting.

9. Mosaic, another ancient art form is a picture made from thousands of tiny pieces of stone or glass called tesserae that are set into cement. Typically used to decorate a wall, ceiling, or floor. “Painting in stone”, it is colorful, durable. Most popular in the 1300s. Early Christians covered the walls and ceilings of their churches with mosaics made of glass so that they would reflect light. Images have to be simple and clear

10. 9.4 PRINTMAKING Prints are produced on paper, like drawings. Unlike drawings, prints can be reproduced many times. Prints are made with ink, paper, and a plate (surface on which the picture or design is made). Paper is pressed against the plate to create the print. Relief prints are made by carving into the surface of a plate. Ink clings to the uncarved surface of the plate. The image projects from the surface of the plate. The woodcut was the most traditional form of relief print but now we use linoleum cuts. You cut away the parts that are to remain white If doing colored relief prints requires that you create a separate plate for each color.

11. Intaglio prints are the opposite of relief prints: ink fills the lines cut into the plate, and is transferred to paper by the pressure of a press. An intaglio plate is metal, usually a sheet of copper or zinc. Two kinds of intaglio are engraving and etching. Engraving requires you to cut lines into the plate using a special gouge called a burin. An etching has you cover the plate with wax, called a ground, draws into the layer with a needle then places the plate in acid. The acid eats the exposed lines. Aquatint is a variation of etching, binding resin to the plate and blocking the areas not to be eaten by acid with shellac. Engraved lines look hard and steely, etched lines are softer and aquatint is gritty.

12. Lithography prints are made by drawing the image on the surface of the plate (block of limestone) with a greasy tool. The surface is dampened with water. Ink sticks to the drawn lines and is transferred to paper. Most widely used of all printmaking methods. It is based on the idea that oil and water do not mix. Finished result looks like a drawing done in charcoal or crayon Screen printing is when ink is forced through a fine screen on which a stencil has been created. The ink passes through the stenciled image to the paper or other surface. (T-shirts!!) Screens are made of nylon or polyester that is stretched tightly over a frame. Ink is forced through with a squeegee A separate screen is needed for each color printed

13. 9.5 PHOTOGRAPHY AND FILM Photography, like prints, photos can be reproduced many times. A photographer captures a scene on light-sensitive film using a camera. The film is developed in a chemical solution, and becomes a negative, a semitransparent image in which lights and darks are reversed. To print the image, the photographer passes light through the negative onto light-sensitive paper, which is then developed. Has become the modern folk medium (art of the general public). Though more and more people are using digital cameras, serious photographers use film for its superior reproduction qualities.

14. Film and video art record the moving images that can be viewed again and again. Films are made using cameras that take many still images. When the images are printed onto the film by the projector onto a screen, they re-create the motion the camera captured. (Flip books) The “peep-show” was a machine that created the illusion of motion. The viewer turned a crank to move a series of photographs making them appear to move. (Basis for the movie projector)

15. 9.6 VIDEO AND COMPUTER ART Videos refer to the picture portion of television. They are created by converting scanned images into electronic signals. The signals are transmitted to a television, where they are converted back into images by a “gun” that fires them at the screen. Many artists now use video instead of film. They use camcorders (handheld units that combine the functions of a camera and recorder). Camcorders are small, easy to operate, and relatively inexpensive. They produce high quality images. Tape is cheaper than film, you can play it back immediately

16. Computer art is electronic, like video art. Images are made up of pixels, tiny dots on the computer screen. Artists use special programs and techniques to create the illusion of three dimensions on the two-dimensional surface, just as painters and printmakers do. The technology is developing rapidly and constantly changing. To create a 3-D image computer artists follow the same rules that painters do (perspective, foreshortening, shading, etc.) using special programs.

17. 9.7 MIXED MEDIA Some artists combine several media in one work of art. These works are called mixed media. Some times these works combine 2-D and 3-D media which makes them hard to classify. Collage is a mixed media collection of materials (often papers) pasted on a flat surface. Invented in 1912 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque Montage is a collage made up of photographs or other pictures.