Detailed notes

🎨 Drawing and Painting – Detailed Notes for Study + Exams

🧑‍🎨 DRAWING

🔹 What is Drawing?

Drawing is a fundamental process artists use daily.

“Artists may use drawing as a tool to investigate a subject, to explore new ideas, or to create studies for a larger project.”

🔹 Drawing as a Study Tool

Leonardo da Vinci often created preparatory sketches.

“Used as a study or preparatory sketch for a more complex painting.” (e.g. Study for Madonna with the Yarnwinder)

Frank Gehry used quick drawings for visualizing architectural ideas (e.g. Guggenheim Bilbao)

✏ Common Drawing Materials:

Pencil – defines contours
“A pencil line is often used to define the contours of the subject.”
Charcoal – good for values, shading
“Charcoal is a good material for developing light and dark values to create form.”
Pen and Ink – fluid, graceful lines
“A nib, or metal point, is dipped into an ink well to produce fluid, fine lines.”
Brush and Ink – expressive and fast
“Since crosshatching can be such a time-consuming process, an artist may choose to use a brush with ink.”

🧰 Techniques in Drawing:

Crosshatching:

“When an ink line is repeated and crossed, it is a technique used to create areas of light and dark.”

Dilution: Ink can be diluted with water for tonal range (e.g. Marlene Dumas, Models)

🎯 Contemporary Drawing

“Contemporary artists have taken drawing to a new level on par with painting and sculpture.”
Examples:

Amy Sillman (100 from the bathtub drawings)
Jenny Saville (Muse on stool, Reproduction drawing IV)

🎨 PAINTING

🔹 Common Painting Media:

Encaustic
Tempera
Fresco
Watercolor
Oil
Acrylic

🟡 Encaustic Painting

Mixed with hot wax
Dries fast, difficult to manipulate

“The wax dries quickly and binds the color to the surface.”
“Requires a hot plate to keep the paints liquid.”

Famous artists:

Fayum Portraits (Roman Egypt)
Jasper Johns, Flag (1954–55)

🥚 Tempera Painting

Made with egg yolk

“Tempera paints are made by mixing pigments with egg yolk.”

Captures fine detail, but slow

“Some artists still choose this method… to capture fine details.”

🧱 Fresco Painting

“Earliest frescos were found in Herculaneum and Pompeii.”

Wet plaster + pigment = durable image

Painted in daily sections before the plaster dries

“As the plaster dries, the pigment becomes suspended in the plaster.”

Famous fresco examples:

Giotto, Arena Chapel (1304–1306)
Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel (1512)
Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry Murals (1933)
Jose Clemente Orozco, Prometheus (1930)

💧 Watercolor

Mixed with gum arabic (soluble binder)

“A great material to describe sky and water”

Traditionally used on paper
Comes in trays or tubes

Artists:

John Constable, Hampstead (1833)
William T. Wiley

🛢 Oil Painting

“Oil paints are much more flexible and easier to work with than fresco or tempera.”

Advantages:

Slow drying, so colors can be mixed on the surface
Became dominant medium since 16th century

Key artists:

Leonardo da Vinci – Ginevra de’Benci
Jan van Eyck – Man in Red Turban
Rogier van der Weyden, Descent from the Cross
Vermeer – The Milkmaid
Titian – Bacchus and Ariadne, Venus of Urbino (Venetian School celebrated colorito)

🎨 Acrylic Painting

Developed in the 1940s–1950s by Leonard Bocour & Sam Golden

“First acrylic paints that could be sold in tubes and used like oil paints.”

Dilutable with water
Fast drying, less toxic
Poured or stained onto canvas

Artists:

Morris Louis – Untitled (1959–60)
Helen Frankenthaler – Untitled (1968)
Kerry James Marshall – Better Homes, Better Gardens (1994–95)

Exam Tip:

Know the differences between media:

Medium	Binder	Surface	Key Traits
Encaustic	Wax	Wood/Board	Durable, ancient
Tempera	Egg yolk	Panel	Fine detail, slow
Fresco	Wet plaster	Walls	Durable, large scale
Watercolor	Gum arabic	Paper	Light, transparent
Oil	Linseed oil	Canvas/Wood	Flexible, blendable
Acrylic	Polymer + Water	Canvas	Fast-drying, pourable