Japan 高校1年 Fine Arts I
Chapters: 3
1. Expression
Painting and sculpture · Design · Visual media (photo, video, digital)
- Fine Art: The Main Areas and How Artists Work in Them – Fine art is art made mainly to express ideas, feelings and ways of seeing, rather than to do a practical job. Its main areas are drawing, painting, sculpture, ceramics, printmaking, lens- and light-based media (photography and moving image), installation, land art and mixed media (collage and assemblage). In every area the artist researches, experiments with materials, develops ideas, records them in a sketchbook and presents a final response. Art courses usually ask students to work in one or more of these areas and to show how sources and artists influenced them.
- What Is Design? Fields, Form and Function, and Design for Everyone – Design is planning something on purpose so that it does a job for people. It has many fields: product, graphic, fashion and textile, interior, landscape, architecture and digital (UX) design. Good design joins form (shape, colour, material) and function (the job it does): "form follows function". Designers use elements and principles, fit objects to the human body (ergonomics), and try to make things that work for everyone (inclusive design) and do less harm to the planet (sustainable design).
- Visual Media: Photo, Video and Digital Pictures – Visual media are ways of making and sharing pictures that you see: photography (a still picture made from light), video and animation (many frames shown fast so things seem to move) and digital media (pictures made of pixels on a computer). In all of them you choose what to show, how to frame it and how to use light and colour.
2. Appreciation
Artworks · Role of art and art culture
- Art and Society: How Art Shapes the World Around Us – Art is not only something to hang on a wall. It is a language of feelings that people use to express what words cannot say. It can be individual, one person's view, or collective, made by and for a group, carrying a community's memory and identity through murals, folk art, songs and festivals. Art can point at problems and push for change, which is why it has often been censored; freedom of expression and its limits are still debated. Art also shows who holds power: who gets to make it, who is shown, and whether stereotypes are repeated or broken. Finally, art connects with every other field, from science and technology to music, dance and town planning. To understand a work in its society, ask: who made it, for whom, why, and what did it change?
3. Common items
Form, colour and their effects · Overall image and style
- 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.
- Overall Image and Style in Art – The overall image is the feeling and general impression you get when you look at the whole artwork first. Style is the way an artist, a group or a time keeps making the same kinds of choices about colour, shape, line, detail and subject. Spot the repeated choices and you can name the style and the mood.