Artistic Skills and Techniques

ARTISTIC SKILLS
 With the broadening of the art world, many people are getting
confused about what qualifies as an artistic skill.
 Artistic skills are abilities that are possessed by artists who
operate within a fine art capacity.
 Each artist uses different mediums to develop their artistic skills.
A medium is defined as the material, or the substance out of
which a work is made. Through these materials, the artists
express and communicate feelings and ideas.

The medium also defines the nature of the art form as follows:
A “medium” can refer to the materials used to make a work of art (such
as clay, wood, paint, fabric, charcoal, etc.) and also refer to creation
techniques such as sculpture, printmaking, watercolor, or pottery.
1. The sculptor uses metal, wood, stone, clay, and glass. Sculptures fall
within the category of “three-dimensional” arts because they occupy
space and have volume. Pottery is a form of sculpture. Other examples
are nudes or figures such as Guillermo Tolentino’s Oblation, ritual objects
such as bulul wood carvings in the cordillera, or the santos or carvings of
saints in Christian churches
2. The architect uses wood, bamboo, bricks, stone, concrete and various
building materials. Buildings are also called “three-dimensional”.
However, architecture has the added element of time since we move into
structures.
3. The painter uses pigments (e. g. watercolor, oil, tempera, textile paint,
acrylic, ink, etc.) on a usually flat ground (wood, canvas, paper, stone wall
such as cave paintings.)
4. The printmaker uses ink printed or transferred on a surface (wood,
metal plates, or silk screen) that is keeping with a duplicating or
reproducing process. Prints and paintings are further classified as “two-
dimensional” arts, because they include the surface or ground on which
coloring substances are applied. However, while paintings are unique and
one-of-a kind, prints can be reproduced in several pre-determined
editions.
5.The musician uses sound and instruments (including human voice),
while the dancers use the body. A T’boli chanter sings creation stories in a
way that is different from a classical singer or pop music influenced by the
Western music scale.
6. The dancer uses the body and its movement. Dance is often
accompanied by music, but there are dances that do not rely on musical
accompaniment to be realized. Dance can tell stories, but the other times,
they convey abstract ideas that do not rely on a narrative.
7. The theater artist integrates all the arts and uses the stage, production
design, performance elements, and script to enable the visual, musical,
dance and other aspects to come together as a whole work.
8. The photographer and filmmaker use the camera to record the outside
world. The filmmaker uses the cinematographic camera to record and put
together production design, sound engineering, performance, and
screenplay. In digital photography and film, the images can be assimilated
into the computer, thus eliminating the need for celluloid or negatives,
processing chemicals, or print.
9. The writer of a novel, poetry, nonfiction, and fiction uses words. The
designer, the performance artist and installation artist combine use of
the range or materials above.

TECHNIQUE
Technique is the way artists use and manipulate materials to achieve the
desired formal effect, and communicate the desired concept, or meaning,
according to his or her personal style (modern, Neoclassic, etc.). The
distinctive character or nature of the medium determines the technique.
Technique involves tools and technology, ranging from most traditional (for
example carving, silkscreen, analog photography, and filmmaking) to the
most contemporary (digital photography, digital filmmaking, music
production, industrial design, and robotics).
Here are some of art techniques used by artists:
1. Collage
- is the technique of an art production used
in the visual arts where the artwork is made
from on assemblage of different forms, thus
creating a new whole. Collage may
sometimes include magazines and
newspaper clippings, ribbons, paints, bits of colored or handmade papers,
portions of other artwork

or texts, photographs, and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper

or canvas.

2. Decollage
- is the opposite of collage; instead of an
image is being built up all or parts of existing
images, it is created by cutting, treating
away or otherwise removing pieces of an
original image. The French word
“Decollage” in English means “Take-off” or
“To become Unglued” or “To become
unstuck”. Example of decollage include cut-
up technique. Similar technique is the
lacerated poster, a poster in which one has
been over another.

3. Graffiti
- are writing or drawings that have been
scribed, scratched, or painted illicitly on
a wall or other surface, often in a public
space. Graffiti range from simple written
words to elaborate wall paintings.
Graffiti may express underlying social
and political messages, and a whole
genre of artistic expression is based
spray paint graffiti styles.

4. Land Art
- earth works, or earth arts is an art movement in which landscape and
the work of art are inextricably
linked. It is also an art form that is
created in nature, using natural
materials such as soil, rock (bed
rock, bolders, stones), organic
media (logs, branches, leaves), and
water which introduced materials
such as concrete, metal asphalt, or
mineral pigments.
5. Digital Arts
- is an artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as an essential
part of the creative or presentation process. Digital art is work made with
digital technology or presented on digital technology. This includes images
done completely on computer or hand-drawn images scanned into a
computer and finished using a software program like Adobe Illustrator.
Digital art can also involve animation and 3D virtual sculpture renderings
as well as projects that combine several technologies. Some digital art
involves manipulation of video images. After some resistance, the impact
of digital technology has transformed activities such as paintings, drawing,
sculpture, and music/sound art, while new form such as net art.

6. Mixed Media
- It refers to a work of visual art that combines various traditionally
distinct visual art. For example, work on canvas that combines paint, ink
and collage. When creating a painted or photograph work using mixed
media, it is important to choose the layers carefully and allow enough
dying time between the layers
to ensure the final work will
have structural integrity, if many
different layers are imposed.
Many effects can be achieved by
using mixed media. Found
objects can be used in
conjunction with the traditional
artist to attain a wide range of
self- expression.

7. Print Making
- is the process of making artworks by painting, normally in the paper.
Prints are created by transforming ink from a matrix ink from a matrix or
through a prepared screen to a sheet of paper or other material.
Common types of matrices include metal plates, usually copper or zinc, or
polymer plates for engraving or etching; stone aluminum of polymer for
lithography; blocks of wood crafts and wood graving; and linoleum for
linocuts. Screen made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screen-
printing process.
8. Frottage
- is the technique of rubbing with crayon
on a piece of paper which has been
placed over an object or an image. The
impression of the image can be created
using leaves, woods, wire screen, or metal
with embossed image or words.

9.
Decalcomania
- is the process of applying gouache to
paper or glass then transferring a
reversal of the image onto canvas or other
flat materials.

10. Decoupage
- is done by adhering cut-outs of paper
and then coating these with one or
transparent coating of varnish.

11. Eggshell mosaic

- is an artistic technique that uses tiny
parts of eggshell to create a whole
image or object. Mosaics are usually
assembled using small tiles that are

square, but they can also be round or

randomly shaped.

12. Trapunto painting

- is the technique used by Pacita Abad
where her canvases are padded, sewn,
and often filled with sequins, beads, shell, buttons, tiny mirrors, bits of
glass, rickrack, swatches of precious textiles and other things that she
picks up from her travels and journey.

Question

What are the techniques in contemporary arts?

1. Collage 7. Print making
2. Decollage 8. Frottage
3. Graffiti 9. Decalcomania
4. Land art 10. Decoupage
5. Digital arts 11. Eggshell mosaic
6. Mixed media 12. Trapunto painting

Identify the techniques:

1. Assembling to create new whole - collage
2. Rubbing with crayons - frottage
3. Cut outs then costing with varnish - decoupage
4. Transferring a reversal image - decalcomania
5. Using padded, sewn materials - trapunto painting
6. Take off, unglued - decollage