Art

Essay Art - Chiaroscuro:

Chiaroscuro is the term used when artist use strong contrast between dark and light, it generally looks as if the light is coming from a limited space, from only one direction, highlighting the important frontal sides (the sides directed to the light) of the composition.

The Chiaroscuro was first invented by Leonardo Da Vinci. An exhibit  found out what his ideas were about this technique and what he actually said. (Color Vision & Art, 2006) “I would remind you O Painter! To dress your figures in the lightest colors you can, since, if you put them in dark colors, they will be in too slight relief and inconspicuous from a distance. And this is because the shadows of all objects are dark. And if you make a dress dark there is little variety between the lights and shadows, while in light colors there will be greater variety."

Chiaroscuro was even used in woodcuts. They are old master prints using two or more blocks printed in various colours. These were first invented in Germany in 1507 and then made in Italy right before 1516. Various printmakers used this technique and survived all through the 16th century. In German two-block prints, was printed in black and the tone block had flat areas in different colour. In Italy it was different; chiaroscuro woodcuts were with no keyblocks to create another effect altogether. 

Today chiaroscuro is not only restricted to art or woodworks, it is still used a lot in art but now it expanded to modeling, photography and even in digital art. Photography uses this technique to enhance the subject they are trying to portray, especially figures or portraits. Some turn this in black and white to soften the sharpness the light colours of the body, especially if it is nude. Same technique goes with modeling and digital art or even graphic design.

In digital art, some use this technique and evolve it into helping them create smooth shadows in portraits. Drawing on black background and use different shades of gray is way easier to see where shadows should be put and how well it blends then leaving the black background as technically black is not really a colour, and they recolour the gray hues into a realistic colour of their choice. 

My inspirational use: For my own final concept, as I would like it to be an advertisement poster, I  want to use chiaroscuro technique to make the main focus in my poster stand out. As most likely it would be a human figure as the main point, I believe it would stand out well in my idea of how I imagine the final piece would turn out to be.

I believe that in advertisement posters, the impact as people make eye contact with it, is the most important. The need to make the viewer drink in the most of what you want to tell them is extremely crucial as it takes less than a second for a person to decide if they either want to read on or just plainly dismissing it. I believe that using chiaroscuro will be best for highlighting movement in the poster with light, and even create the desired impact on the viewer.

Reference:

Color Vision & Art, 2006. da Vinci's chiaroscuro. [online] Available at: <

http://www.webexhibits.org/colorart/vinci.html > [Accessed 16th December 2013]

Wikipedia, 201?. Chiaroscuro. [online] Available at: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro > [Accessed 16th December 2013]

Leonardo Da Vinci, 148?, gall. [electronic print] Available at: <  http://www.tiffanyschultz.com/photoblog/2011/02/chiaroscuro-and-the-newsletter/ > [Accessed 16th December 2013]

Tiffany Schultz, 201?. Alex. [electronic print] Available at: < http://www.tiffanyschultz.com/photoblog/2011/02/chiaroscuro-and-the-newsletter/ > [Accessed 16th December 2013]

Bartolommeo Coriolano, 1630-1655. Madonna and child. [electronic print] Available at: < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Coriolano2.jpg > [Accessed 16th December 2013]

Farooky, 2013. Model painting process. [electronic print] Available at: < http://farooky.deviantart.com/art/Model-painting-process-409865244 > [Accessed 16th December 2013]

Movement.
Realism.

In the history of Art, Realism refers to a movement that happened between 1830s to 1870, were artists began to show the reality of life, facts and harsh truths other than the ideal, glorified or romanticized ideas. Gustave Courbet was a very important figure, as he is one of the first to stop and think. He threw focus on common men, workers, peasants and laborer's lives other than showing glory and importance to the higher, rich people. Showing society the harsh life of the poor was much more of an impact, a spot light to what was always taken for granted.

In one of Courbet's works : The Stonebreakers - 1849,

   
It shows movement as they are in the process of working. Their faces hidden yet their bodies show the hardship and constant struggle to keep working for their survivability which Courbet easily captured in this painting.

 
Bibliography: 
+ About.com, Realism - Art History 101 Basics. [online] Available at: <                                       http://arthistory.about.com/od/renaissancearthistory/a/Realism-Art-History-101-Basics.htm > [Accessed 26th October 2013]
+ Gustave Courbet, 1849. The Stonebreakers. [image online] Available at: < http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/the-stonebreakers.html > [Accessed 26th October 2013]


 
Movement.

Photography.

Photography was invented in the 1830s. Apparently, people already knew how it worked as it is believed that the Camera Obscura was invented in the 13-14th centuries. The Camera Obscura is generally a box or a room even, any place that you can close in complete darkness and a small hole on one side of it. The light coming through it will project the reflected image on the surface it meets. These basics were used for inventing the photography we have now. 

In 1825, the first photo picture was taken. 

 

This photo was taken by Joseph Niepce. It is a view from the window at Le Gras. The picture is not very interesting on its first impression, but due to some more detailed information, it is quite astonishing. The exposure for this was for eight whole hours therefore the most captivating part is that the sun had time to move from east to west as it is shown in the photo picture. Other than seeing the obvious time theme to the picture, I found more interest in the captured movement of the sun as in modern photography, it is not possible to capture anymore.

Bibliography:

+  Joseph Niepce, 1825. [image online] Available at: < http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/a-history-of-photography-part-1-the-beginning--photo-1908 > [Accessed 26th October 2013]

+  tuts+, 2010 A History of Photography Part 1: The Beginning. [online] Available at: < http://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/a-history-of-photography-part-1-the-beginning--photo-1908 > [Accessed 26th October 2013]