Reviewing Methods and Materials - Painting...

Reviewing Methods and Materials…

Two-dimensional works of art and design:

Painting.

Students can begin to consider the advantages of using painting techniques in order to represent observations, ideas and emotions.

Support used:

What types of support has the artist or designer used for the paintings? Has the artist or designer used paper, card or cardboard, a canvas or linen fabric stretched over a board or a frame, a wooden sheet or block, a sheet of metal or plastic, plaster, or a ceramic surface?

Has the surface of the support for each painting been changed by the use of a medium that can change surface texture, such as plaster or an acrylic paste or liquid? Has the surface of the support for a painting been changed through the use of collage techniques that include the use of glues, fabrics or fibres, foils and found papers?

Has the surface of the support been changed through the use of a primer coat or undercoat? Has the primer coat or undercoat been left exposed in any section of a painting? What colour is the primer coat or undercoat?

Application of paint:

What type of paint has been used by the artist or the designer? Has the work been completed through the use of watercolours or gouache, acrylic paint, oil paint, enamel paint, egg tempera, or pigments mixed into melted wax or wet plaster.

How has the paint been applied? Has the artist used fingers, sticks, fabric or foam, hair brushes, knives or scrapers, rollers, or equipment that can help to spray or diffuse the paint over the support?

Has the artist used separate thin paint washes of paint? Has the artist used thin, overlapping washes of paint?

Has the artist or designer used stippling techniques or small dots of paint in order to render tonal sections?

Have tonal sections been rendered through the application of broad strokes of wet or semi-dry paint? Have these broad strokes of paint been applied in solid blocks, or have they been modulated? Have paint strokes been applied when the support, primer coat or undercoat was wet?
Has the artist applied paint in thick, textured and opaque layers? Are the paint surfaces smooth, or can the viewer easily detect brushstrokes or marks that show that fingers, sticks, knives, scrapers or other items have been used?

Has the artist or designer used other materials on the support surface, such as drawing media?

Has the artist or designer partially blended paint colours together on the support surfaces?

Has the artist used masking or resist techniques in order to create edges or textured surfaces on the painting support? Can the viewer easily easily detect the type of masking or resist techniques, such as layers of crayon wax?

Has the artist or designer used finely painted lines in order to define edges or details?

Has the artist or designer used paint to indicate tonal changes? Have tonal changes been depicted through the use of paint washes, blocks of painted tone, modulated paint strokes or lines, or modulated paint diffused through the use of a solvent or medium, or through the use of paint sprays or splattering techniques?

Have paint thinners, such as linseed oil or spirits, been used?

Is the paint surface matte or glossy in appearance? Have glaze mediums or finishes or varnishes been used?

Subject matter:

Has the artist or designer used painting techniques in order to produce realistic representations? Describe the representations.

Has the artist or designer used painting techniques in order to produce an abstracted representation? Describe the representations.