Color ranges from full to pastel {painting}. Blacks, grays, and whites are colors. Paintings can depict nature realistically, though with distortion or abstraction. Surface ranges from thin to thick.
halo around head {aureole, head}|.
Compositions have scenes behind main objects {background, art}, to complement subjects.
Paintings can use curved outlines {biomorphic abstraction}.
Writing {calligraphy}| can have floriated and foliated embellishments.
Paintings have color mixtures {color, painting}|.
colors
Primary pigments are blue, yellow, and red. Colors can be similar {analogous, color}.
brightness
Color has lightness or darkness {value, color}. Color can mix with white {tint}. Red with white makes pink. Color can mix with black {shade, color}. Red with black makes burgundy.
saturation
Colors can have less whiteness.
pigment mixing
Complementary colors mix to brown: red and green, orange and blue, and yellow and violet.
warm and cool colors
Red, orange, and yellow are warm colors. Green, blue, and violet are cool colors.
Warm colors and/or intense colors appear closer {advancing color}. Cool colors and/or dull colors appear farther {receding color}.
Warm colors and/or intense colors appear more exciting. Cool colors and/or dull colors appear more calming.
Warm pigments have higher saturation and lighter value than cool pigments have.
contrast
Adjacent large regions increase contrast. Small regions in large regions acquire large-region color {assimilation, color}. Adjacent small regions mix colors.
illumination spectrum and brightness
Color changes with illumination. Studio painters like daylight from north. Outdoor painters like south-France daylight. Paintings in galleries and homes have illumination that differs from original illumination.
In painting, triangles, lines, or circles determine main-object positions {composition, art}. For example, Christian altarpieces use triangle, to suggest the Holy Trinity.
locations
People or objects can be at center. People or objects can be in groups, be in isolation, or oppose each other. Objects can be at different depths.
viewpoint
Perspective has observation points.
number
Numbers of people and objects can balance or not.
movement
Object angles and contours can suggest motion or stillness.
mood
Line shapes and lengths can suggest mood, such as calm, energy, or tension. For example, smooth curves flowing into each other suggest calmness. Straight lines interrupting each other at angles suggest tension.
lighting
Painting uses light from above or side, with different brightness and color contrast.
surface
Painting has thin or thick surface.
Depth {depth, art} can be shallow or deep.
Extra features {embellishment, art} can range from full to spare.
Art {epigonal style} can use angles and squares.
Forms {geometric form, art} can be regular geometric forms, irregular forms, or no form.
Words and phrases, such as Prophet descriptions {hilyah}, can have bird or animal shapes.
Early Minoan and Greek art fills all spaces {horror vacui}.
Rings {nimbus, ring}| of light can be around head.
Paintings can have no recognizable objects or events {nonrepresentational art}| {non-objective art}.
Viewpoints {perspective, art} can be geometric, such as linear perspective, or flat, such as looking perpendicular to all scene surfaces.
Art {abstract art} can suggest scenes or ideas with pure lines and colors, using contours, composition, and contrast {abstractionism}|. All art uses abstractions.
Art {objective art} can depict actual objects or people.
Art can accurately represent scenes {realism, art}.
Japanese ink painting {suiboku}.
Japanese fine brush style {sumi style} uses special brushes for incisive strokes.
Illumination {lighting, art} can be from above, below, or side. Brightness ranges from light to dark. Contrast ranges from high to low.
Figures can be bright or dark {chiaroscuro}|, with light coming from undefined source.
Soft veiled hazy {sfumat}| atmosphere suggests more depth.
Flat picture can have strong colors, as in pre-Renaissance style {synthetism}.
Light from one source can highly contrast with dark areas {tenebrism} {dramatic illumination}.
An artistic technique {linear perspective}| depicts scenes as they appear to human eyes.
picture plane
Imagine standing in front of a window looking onto a street or yard. Window is a vertical plane, parallel to line between your eyes. Straight lines of sight go from eye to scene points. See Figure 1.
Lines go through window at unique points. Artists paint scene-point color at the unique point in the picture plane. See Figure 2. Farther scene points have higher picture-plane points.
lines
In linear perspective, vertical lines stay vertical. See Figure 3. Scene points 1 and 2 make vertical line, and their picture-plane points make vertical line.
In linear perspective, horizontal lines stay horizontal. See Figure 4. Scene points 3 and 4 make horizontal line, and their picture-plane points make horizontal line.
The ground is plane and meets wall in horizontal line in scene and picture-plane. Ground meets sky in horizontal horizon line in scene and picture-plane.
horizon
Horizon height depends on eye height. Observer high above ground sees large ground amount and low horizon. Observer close to ground sees small ground amount and high horizon.
Observer attention typically moves along eye-level line.
line convergence
In linear perspective, non-vertical and non-right-left parallel lines converge and intersect at vanishing point. See Figure 5. Scene points 5/6 and 7/8 make two parallel lines, and their picture-plane points form two lines that converge toward a horizon point.
For parallel lines in horizontal plane, vanishing point is on horizon. For parallel lines in plane that rises as it goes farther from observer, vanishing point is above horizon. For parallel lines in plane that goes lower as it goes farther from observer, vanishing point is below horizon.
history
In Early Renaissance, Europeans studied al-Hazen's book [al-Haytham, 1010] about perspective and began to paint using linear perspective.
In linear perspective, parallel lines that are not vertical or horizontal intersect at vanishing point, so line ends converge {convergence line, painting} {orthogonal line, painting} {vanishing line, painting}.
Where horizon line goes through imaginary window indicates eye viewpoint {eye-level}. Observer attention typically moves along eye-level line. Viewpoint depends on ground amount compared to sky amount. Eye-level/horizon high in window or painting shows much ground. Eye is looking down on scene from high above ground. Eye-level/horizon low in window or painting shows little ground. Eye is looking up at scene from close to ground.
Objects have lowest point, through which line {ground line} can be horizontally parallel to window plane.
Horizontal ground plane, including treetops, buildings, or hills, and sky or wall bottom meet in a horizontal line {horizon, painting} in windows or paintings. Where horizon line goes through window indicates eye level.
Imagine standing in front of a vertical rectangular window {picture plane} {plane of picture} looking onto a street or yard. The picture plane is a vertical plane parallel to the line between the two eyes.
Straight lines {line of sight} {sightline} go from eye to scene points.
Eye is reference point {station point} in linear perspective.
In linear perspective, parallel lines that are not vertical or horizontal intersect at a point {vanishing point}|, so line ends converge {convergence line, perspective} {orthogonal line, perspective} {vanishing line, perspective}.
Powdered chalk can be in wax {crayon}.
Pressure from another surface can apply oil to surface {decalomania}|.
Pigments can be in hot wax {encaustic}|.
Painter can apply water-based pigments onto wet lime plaster {fresco}|.
Rubbing something on other materials leaves impressions or tints {frottage}|.
Oval boards {palette, painting}, with thumbhole, can have different-color oil paints.
powdered chalk sticks {pastel}.
Pigments can be in egg yolk {tempera}|.
Water-soluble pigments dissolved in water can make paint {watercolor}.
People can draw paintings using projections from scene through cylinder or cone onto flat surface {anamorphic art}. Viewing the painting in cylindrical or conical mirrors reveals scene.
painted book {illuminated book}.
Greek oil jugs {lekythio} had paintings.
A painting can contain itself or a part of itself {mise en abyme} (place in the abyss).
painted banner {oriflamme}.
Paintings can be on several panels {polyptych}.
Painting can show all figure parts by spreading the figure flat, looking from top {split-style drawing}.
Artists can chisel flat wood blocks {woodcut}|, inked, and pressed to paper.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225