Japan 高校（専門学科）1〜3年 Fine Arts (specialist)

Chapters: 13

1. Introduction to Fine Arts

Basic theory of art · Nature and art; art in life and society · Intellectual property and portrait rights

Basic Theory of Art – Every picture, poster or statue is built from a few simple parts. The elements of art are dot, line, shape, form, colour and texture. The principles are the rules of arranging them: balance, contrast, rhythm and unity. When you know these, you can look at any artwork and say why it works, and you can make your own with more confidence.
Nature and Art; Art in Life and Society – Nature is the oldest teacher of artists. Shells spiral, bees build six-sided rooms, trees branch and water makes ripples. Artists notice these patterns and make them bold and clear in paintings, tiles, cloth and buildings. Art is also part of daily life and society: it decorates things we use, tells stories, shows who we are and brings people together at festivals.
Intellectual Property and Portrait Rights – When you create something new, such as a painting, a photo, a song or a design, the law treats it as your intellectual property. The maker has rights over it. Other people must ask before copying or selling it. A portrait right protects a person's own face and image, so you should ask before sharing or selling a photo of someone. Rules differ between countries, but the idea of respect, permission and credit is the same everywhere. This page is for learning, not legal advice.

2. Art History

Japanese art and culture · Eastern art and culture · Western art and culture · Contemporary art and culture

Eastern Art and Culture – Eastern art grew in India, China, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. It is linked by trade routes and by Buddhism, but each place gave it its own face: carved temples in India, ink and calligraphy in China, prints, gardens and tea in Japan, and huge stone temples in Southeast Asia.
Western Art and Culture – Western art is the art of Europe and the lands it influenced. It runs on a timeline: Greek and Roman art stressed balance and measure, Medieval art reached for heaven with spires and coloured glass, the Renaissance brought depth and a focus on people, and Modern art broke the rules with new shapes and colours.

3. Appreciation Studies

Research on works and artists · Research on conservation and restoration of cultural properties · Research on exhibition planning and layout · Art criticism

Researching Artworks and Artists – To research an artwork, collect five kinds of clues: what you see, who made it, when and where it was made, how it compares with other works, and which sources prove it. Then write what you found, with proof, in your own words.
Art Conservation: Caring for Artworks – Art conservation means protecting artworks so they last. Most damage comes from light, wrong humidity and temperature, dust and pollution, insects and careless handling. Preventive conservation controls these risks before damage happens. When a work is already damaged, a conservator records it, then cleans, stabilises and carefully repairs it using reversible materials and the least possible change.
Art Exhibitions: Planning, Displaying and Viewing Art – An exhibition is a planned public showing of artworks where works, viewers and a venue meet. Venues include museums, galleries, public spaces and online platforms. Planning means choosing a theme and audience, selecting works, then arranging, lighting and labelling them along a visitor path. Viewers respond by describing, analysing, interpreting and judging.
Art Criticism: How to Look at and Judge Artworks – Art criticism is careful talk about art. A common method has four steps: describe what you see, analyse how the parts are arranged, interpret what it means or makes you feel, and judge its worth with reasons. Critics also look from different viewpoints (form, feeling, context) and use proper art words. The same method works for paintings, sculpture, buildings, dance, drama and film.

4. Drawing

Drawing (dessin) · Sketching · Expressive materials · Appreciation

Drawing and Painting – Drawing is a way of seeing and thinking: we use it to record what we observe, to remember, to plan designs and to express ideas. A good drawing starts by blocking in: seeing objects as simple shapes (sphere, box, cylinder) and checking proportions with light lines. Line then defines edges, and line weight (heavy or light) shows what is near or far. Light gives form: on a lit object we see the highlight, mid-tone, core shadow, reflected light and cast shadow. Tonal value runs from white to black; strong contrast of light and dark is called chiaroscuro, and a picture can be in a high key (mostly light) or low key (mostly dark). Dry media (graphite, charcoal, pastels, coloured pencils) build tone with hatching, cross-hatching, stippling and blending; wet media (ink, watercolour, gouache, acrylic, oil) build it with washes, layers (glazes) and mixing colours. Linear and atmospheric perspective show space, and figure drawing uses proportion, gesture and foreshortening. Artists record ideas in sketchbooks and use traditional, alternative and digital tools safely and sustainably.
Sketching: From Simple Shapes to Quick Figures – A sketch is a quick, loose drawing that catches the main shapes, proportions and light of what you see. Good sketching follows a path: look and measure, see simple shapes, block in with light construction lines, add tone from one light source, then refine. Quick figure sketches start with a line of action and use the head as a unit (an adult is about 7½ heads tall).
Art Materials and Techniques: Choosing the Right Media – Artists choose materials (media) for the look they want. Every paint is pigment (coloured powder) mixed with a binder that sticks it to the surface: oil for oil paint, gum arabic for watercolour, acrylic resin for acrylic, egg for tempera. Dry media include graphite pencils (H = hard and light, B = soft and dark), charcoal, pastels and coloured pencils. Wet media include ink, watercolour, gouache, acrylic and oil. Transparent media let light and lower layers show through; opaque media cover them. The support is the surface: paper (with different weights and textures), canvas, wood panel, walls. 3D processes include modelling clay, carving, construction and casting; printmaking makes many copies from one block, plate or screen. Digital media add tablets, photo and video. Good artists test materials, refine work by experimenting, and use them safely and sustainably.

5. Composition (Design Basics)

Form and colour · Materials · Plane and 3D composition · Appreciation

Colour Theory: The Colour Wheel, Harmonies, Mixing and Meaning – Colour theory is a set of simple rules for mixing and combining colours. In paint, red, yellow and blue are the primary colours; two primaries make a secondary (orange, green, violet); a primary plus its neighbouring secondary makes a tertiary, giving a 12-part colour wheel. Every colour has three dimensions: hue (its name), value (light or dark: tints, shades, tones) and saturation (bright or dull). Harmonies such as complementary, analogous, triadic and monochrome help colours work together. Warm colours seem to come forward and cool ones go back. Light mixes by adding (RGB makes white); paint and ink mix by taking light away (CMY makes near-black). Colour also carries feeling and cultural meaning.
Materials and Their Properties – Everything we make is built from materials: wood, metals, plastics, glass, ceramics, fabrics and composites. Each has properties such as strength, stiffness, hardness, flexibility, density, heat and electrical conduction, transparency, water resistance and cost. Designers choose a material whose properties fit the job, think about how it will be shaped and joined (screws, nails, glue, welding, soldering, stitching), and consider safety, cost and the environment. Clothes are made from natural fibres (cotton, wool, silk) and synthetic fibres (polyester, nylon), each with its own feel and use.

6. Painting

Japanese-style painting (nihonga) · Watercolour painting · Oil painting · Manga and illustration · Other painting · Appreciation

Art Materials and Techniques: Choosing the Right Media – Artists choose materials (media) for the look they want. Every paint is pigment (coloured powder) mixed with a binder that sticks it to the surface: oil for oil paint, gum arabic for watercolour, acrylic resin for acrylic, egg for tempera. Dry media include graphite pencils (H = hard and light, B = soft and dark), charcoal, pastels and coloured pencils. Wet media include ink, watercolour, gouache, acrylic and oil. Transparent media let light and lower layers show through; opaque media cover them. The support is the surface: paper (with different weights and textures), canvas, wood panel, walls. 3D processes include modelling clay, carving, construction and casting; printmaking makes many copies from one block, plate or screen. Digital media add tablets, photo and video. Good artists test materials, refine work by experimenting, and use them safely and sustainably.
Manga and Illustration – Manga tells a story with pictures in panels, read in order. A manga page is built in layers: layout, pencil, ink, screentone, then speech bubbles and sound words. Illustration is a drawn picture that explains or decorates words in books, posters and ads. Both use line, shape and layout to guide the reader's eye.
Other Painting Media – All paint is pigment (coloured powder) held by a binder. Change the binder and the paint behaves differently. Acrylic uses a plastic polymer and dries water-resistant. Tempera uses egg yolk. Gouache is opaque, chalky watercolour. Ink wash uses water to make many greys. Fresco paints into wet lime plaster so colour becomes part of the wall.

7. Printmaking

Woodblock printing · Copperplate printmaking · Lithography · Silk-screen printing · Other printmaking · Appreciation

Woodblock Printing – In woodblock printing the artist cuts away the parts that should stay white, inks the raised parts, and presses paper on the block. The print is a mirror image, and one block can make many prints. Colour prints use one block for each colour, lined up with registration marks.
Copperplate Printmaking (Etching and Engraving) – In copperplate printmaking, lines are cut or bitten into a metal plate. Ink is pushed into the grooves, the surface is wiped clean, and a heavy press squeezes damp paper into the grooves. The ink comes out onto the paper as lines. This is called intaglio, and the print is a mirror image.
Lithography – Lithography prints from a completely flat stone or plate. The picture is drawn with a greasy crayon. Grease holds oily ink, and the wet blank parts push ink away because oil and water do not mix. Paper is pressed on the stone to take a mirrored print. A colour print needs one stone for each colour.
Printmaking – Printmaking makes images by moving ink from a prepared surface (the matrix or plate) onto paper with pressure. There are four main families: relief (ink on raised parts: woodcut, linocut), intaglio (ink in cut grooves: engraving, etching, drypoint), planographic (flat surface, grease and water: lithography) and stencil (ink through openings: screen printing). The print is a mirror image. A plate can give an edition of matching prints; a monotype gives only one.

8. Sculpture

Carving · Modelling (clay) · Other sculpture and 3D forms · Appreciation

Sculpture Techniques – Sculpture is art in three dimensions. It can be relief (attached to a background: low or high) or in the round (free-standing, seen from all sides). There are four main ways to make it: subtractive carving (remove material from stone or wood), additive modelling (build up clay or wax, often over an armature), casting (pour a liquid such as molten bronze into a mould) and construction or assemblage (join parts). Sculptors plan with drawings and a maquette, choose a degree of realism from realistic to abstract, and use pose, direction and real motion to show movement.
Computer Simulation – A model is a simplified description of a real system that keeps only what matters. A computer simulation runs that model step by step in time to see what would happen. It has variables (the state), rules (how the state changes), parameters (numbers we can set) and often randomness, so we repeat runs and average. We check a simulation against real data (validation). Simulations are used for weather, traffic, disease spread, flight training and design, because they are cheaper, safer and faster than real tests, but they are only as good as their model and data.

9. Visual Design

Basics of visual design · Design for communication purposes · Spatial design · Projection and representation · Appreciation

Elements of Art and Principles of Design – The elements of art are the building blocks an artist uses: line, shape, form, colour, value, texture and space (many teachers also add the point). The principles of design are the rules for arranging those blocks: balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, rhythm and pattern, proportion and scale, and unity with variety. Knowing both helps you make art on purpose and talk about any artwork clearly.
Graphic Design – Graphic design is planning pictures, words and shapes so that a message is clear, useful and attractive. Designers use elements (line, shape, colour, type, image, space) and principles (alignment and grid, hierarchy, contrast, proximity, repetition, balance and white space). They follow a process: brief, research, ideas, sketches, digital drafts, feedback and final artwork. Graphic design is used in posters, logos, book covers, packaging, signs, websites and apps.
Campus and Room Design: Making Spaces That Work and Feel Good – Good space design starts with the jobs a space must do. A room is split into zones for sleeping, studying and storing. Furniture is placed so that paths from the door stay clear. Daylight from a window helps reading, so a desk near the window saves electricity. Light colours make a room look bigger and brighter, dark colours make it look smaller and calmer, and a few strong colours work as accents. A school campus is designed the same way: shade trees, benches, play areas and paved paths give every student a place. Before building, designers draw a floor plan to scale, for example 1 cm on paper for 50 cm in real life.

10. Craft Design

Basics of craft design · Projection and drafting · Crafts · Product design · Traditional crafts · Appreciation

Material, Form and Colour in Crafts – Every craft is shaped by three choices. Material decides the texture, weight and feel. Form (shape) decides how it stands, holds and looks. Colour decides the mood. A good maker picks all three to suit the job and the user.
Traditional Crafts – A traditional craft is a way of making useful and beautiful things by hand, using local materials and skills passed from one generation to the next. Pottery shapes and fires clay, weaving interlaces warp and weft threads, paper-cutting uses folds to make symmetric patterns, and woodwork joins wood with cut joints. The craft spirit means patience, precision, respect for materials and pride in careful work.
The Design Process: From Problem to Product – The design process is a loop of steps designers use to solve a real problem for real people: investigate the need, define it in a brief and a measurable specification, generate many ideas, build a prototype, then test and evaluate it against the specification. Whatever fails sends you back round the loop. This repeating is called iteration, and it is how almost every product, app, building and artwork is improved.

11. Information Media Design

Basics of information media · Visualising information · Communication, exchange and sharing · Appreciation

Basics of Information Media – An information medium is the carrier that takes a message from a sender to a receiver. Text, pictures, sound and video are four common media. Each is strong in a different way, so a good designer picks the medium that fits the message and the audience, and keeps noise low.
Data Visualisation: Turning Numbers into Pictures – Data visualisation means showing data as a picture so patterns are easy to see. Use a bar chart to compare categories, a pie chart for parts of a whole, a line chart for change over time, a scatter plot for the relationship between two numbers, and a histogram for how values are spread. A good chart has a title, labelled axes with units, and an honest scale that starts at 0 for bars.
Communication, Exchange and Sharing of Information – Communication means a message goes from a sender to a receiver through a medium, and a reply (feedback) comes back. A good message is simple, fits its audience and medium, and avoids noise. Sharing spreads the message to many people, so the sender must also care about truth, credit and privacy.

12. Moving-Image Expression

Knowledge and use of equipment, tools and materials · Planning, composition and direction · Editing, compositing and processing · Appreciation

Film Equipment and Tools: Camera, Tripod, Light and Mic – A good video needs four things done well: a steady camera, enough light, clear sound and safe storage. Each tool fixes one problem: the tripod stops shake, the lamp fixes a dark picture, the microphone fixes weak voice, and a memory card with a backup keeps your work safe.
Video Editing: From Raw Clips to a Finished Film – Making a video has two big parts. Production is shooting the clips and photos. Post-production is everything after: retouching photos, editing clips on a timeline (trim, join, add title and sound layers), then exporting the result as a video file for screens or a high-resolution image for print. Editing is where the story is really made: the order and length of the clips decide how the viewer feels.

13. Environmental Design

Living environment and form · Exhibition planning and form · Stage direction and design · Other environmental design · Appreciation

Living Environment and Form: Shaping Spaces for People – The places where we live, such as homes, yards, streets and parks, are shaped by people. Good shapes follow what people need: the right size (human scale), light and shade, easy movement, and a pleasant feel. Trees, paths, seats and buildings work together to make a space comfortable.
Art Exhibitions: Planning, Displaying and Viewing Art – An exhibition is a planned public showing of artworks where works, viewers and a venue meet. Venues include museums, galleries, public spaces and online platforms. Planning means choosing a theme and audience, selecting works, then arranging, lighting and labelling them along a visitor path. Viewers respond by describing, analysing, interpreting and judging.
Stage Design: How Theatre, Film and TV Sets Are Made – Stage design (scenography) plans and builds the place where a story happens. A designer chooses painted, sculpted and structural scenery, works with the stage machinery (fly tower, lights), draws plans to scale, and builds flats, platforms and props in a workshop. Film and TV sets are built only for what the camera sees, and today digital drawing and new technology help every step.
Environmental Design: Shaping Spaces People Use – Environmental design is the art of shaping the places where people live, work, learn and meet. Besides buildings, exhibitions and stages, it covers paths, signs, lighting, seats, plants, street furniture and temporary installations. A good design works well (function), looks pleasant (form), and fits people and nature.