MODULE 5

PAINTING

INTRODUCTION
Painting is an important form in the visual arts, bringing in elements such as
drawing, composition, gesture, narration, and abstraction. Paintings can be
naturalistic and representational, photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolic,
emotive, and/or political in nature.
In this chapter, you will be exposed to the fundamentals of painting: elements, color
wheel, symbolism and meaning of colors, the mediums in painting and it

characteristics
LEARNING OUTCOME

At the end of this lesson, students are expected to:

• identify the elements of Painting;
• show the importance of the color wheel;
• convey an idea about the symbolism and meaning of the colors; and
• demonstrate knowledge about the mediums in Painting and its
characteristics.

CONTENT

Elements of Painting

Painting is a style of creating an expression by applying colors to a flat

surface or any mediums like canvas, clay, glass, paper, walls, leaf, paper, or woods.
Abstraction or composition, drawing, and other aesthetics may serve to manifest the
expressive and conceptual intention of the artists (Mayer, 1970). It is an unspoken
and mostly unrecognized dialogue, where paint speaks silently in masses and
colors, and the artist responds in moods. Paint records the most delicate gesture. It
tells whether the painter sat or stood or crouched in front of the canvas (Elkins,
1998). It loaded with narrative content, symbolism, or emotion.

A beautiful painting is not made by photographic likeness, but rather by good

composition. For the artist, the harmony in his/her artwork will depend on the
selection of appropriate devices, peculiar to the medium and the use of certain
principles to relate them. A unique style emerges when an artist recognizes his or
her personal preference of dominant design elements and consciously or
unconsciously emphasizes these dominant elements (Ocvirk et al., 2008; Gatto,
2000). The significant aspects of the painting are the line, color, texture,
perspective, shapes, and symbols (Nohay, 2018).

Line. It is the simplest element in the painting. It has a continuous marking made by
a moving point to outlines shape and can contour areas within those outlines. It can
suggest movement (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and
curved). Each line has its meaning: vertical line stress
action, strength, dynamism; horizontal lines means
serenity, calmness, stability; diagonal line express
tension, movement; curved lines appear softness,
flexibility, gentleness.

Color. The Artists used colors to convey feelings and

moods within their painting. It is the result of wavelengths of
lights reflecting of objects. It is composed of three distinct
qualities such as the hue, saturation, and value. Hue is
merely the name of the color. Red, yellow, and the blue are
the primary color. Their mixture that produces the
secondary colors are green,
orange, and purple.

Texture. It is a component of two-sided and three-

sided designs and distinguished by its perceived
visual and physical properties. It is used to describe
the way a three- dimensional work feels when
touched. In two dimensional models, such as
painting, it may refer to the visual "feel" of a piece
(Isaac, 2017).

Perspective. It is an art technique for creating an

illusion of three dimension with depth and space. Its
real goal is creating a viewpoint for the audiences
that will best communicate the subject and serve its particular message. Perspective
is the same as “viewpoint” and “position.” It is what makes a painting seem to have
form, distance, and look "real" (Evans, 2002). It is projected according to its levels
namely: foreground, middle ground, and background.

The foreground is the visual plane that appears closer to the

viewers. On the other hand, the middle ground is the part between the
foreground and the part of which is which is called the background. The
foreground of a composition is the illustrative plane that appears closest to
the viewer, while the background is the plane in a composition perceived
farthest from the viewers. The middle ground is the illustrative plane between
the foreground and the background. The scale of these elements often
associates to the dominance in a picture. The foreground is frequently the
most dominant due to the larger perceived size of the picture objects.

Shapes. It is an element in painting that helps express ideas.

It helps to interact, and independently evoke agitation,
purposeful energy, direction, etc.They maybe circles,
rectangles, ovals, or square. It is an area with defined
boundary created by a variety of color, value or texture of the
areas adjacent to it.

Symbols. The Artists often include symbolic objects in their paintings that have a
special meaning or a special message. It is used to express ideas such as death,
hope, life, etc.
The Color Wheel and its Categories

Colors play a fundamental role in our lives and how

we respond to our environment. It is the visual
perceptual property corresponding in humans to the
categories called blue, green, red, and others. It has
two main types, warm and cool colors.

Significantly, a color wheel (also known as a color

circle) is a visual representation of color arranged
based to their chromatic relationship. It is a circle
shape that is divided evenly into 12 segments which
display different color according to its pigment value. It
also shows the relationship between the primary
colors, secondary colors, and complementary
colors.Other colors can also be categorized based on the following:

Complementary Colors. These colors sit contrary to each other on the color wheel.
Because they are opposites, they tend to look lively when used together. When you
put complementary colors together, each color seems more noticeable. Examples of
these colors are red and green.

Analogous Colors. These colors sit next to each other on the color wheel. They
tend to look pleasant together because they are closely related. Orange, yellow-
orange, and yellow are an example of analogous colors.

Neutral Colors. They are sometimes called “earth tones.” These colors don’t
usually show up on the color wheel. Neutral colors include black, white, gray, and
occasionally brown and beige.

Warm Colors. These colors are made with orange, red, yellow or some
combination of these. Colors of the sunset give a feeling of brightness and heat.

Cool Colors. These colors are made with blue, green, purple or some combination
of these. These colors make you think of cool and peaceful things, like winter skies
and still ponds.

Symbolism and Meaning of Primary Colors

Colors can affect our actions and emotions and on how we respond to various
people, things, and ideas. Much has been studied and written about color a oknd its
impact on our daily lives.

Red Color. This is noted as the warmest of all types of colors. It is most chosen by
extroverts and one of the top choices among males. It is a color which is associated
with fiery heat and warmth and has strong symbolism about life and vitality. It is also
essential to human life because:

a. It increases enthusiasm and interest.

 b. It gives more energy.
c. It reinforces action and confidence.
d. It protects us from fears and anxieties.

Blue Color. This is known as the calmest color like that of the sky and ocean. It is
the color of inspiration, sincerity, and spirituality and often the chosen color by
conservative people. This color is important to human life because:

a. It is a sign of calmness and relaxation.

b. It opens the flow of communication.
c. It broadens our perspective in learning new information.
d. It implies solitude and peace.

Yellow Color. This is considered as the easiest color to recognize. It is symbol

creativity and intellectual vitality. It also symbolizes wisdom, happiness and brings
awareness and clarity.

The yellow color is vital to human life because:

a. It helps us in making decisions.
b. It relieves us from burnout, panic, nervousness, exhaustion.
c. It sharpens our memory and concentration skills.
d. It protects us from depression.

Mediums in Painting

There are different mediums in paintings used today. It helps to describe the
elements that bind the colors in the paint (Martin, 2004). The following are examples
of the methods used in painting:

1. Oil- It is the type of slow-drying paint that consists of particles of pigment

suspended in drying oils such as linseed oil, poppy seed oil, safflower oil and
walnut oil.
2. Pastel- It is an art medium in the shape of a stick or crayons. It consists of
pure powdered color and a binder. Dry pastel can be classified as soft
pastels, pan pastels, hard pastels, and pastel pencils.
3. Acrylic- It is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer
emulsion which becomes water-resistant when dry.
4. Watercolor- It is the medium which the paints are made of colors suspended
in a water-soluble vehicle. It is usually transparent and appears luminous
because the pigments are laid down in a relatively pure form with few types of
filler obscuring the pigment colors.
5. Ink- It is a liquid that contains colors and dyes and is applied to a surface to
produce an image, text, or design. It is for drawing with a brush, or pen.
6. Encaustic- It is heated beeswax to which colored stains are added. The paste
is then applied to a woodbased canvas.
7. Fresco- It refers to any of several related mural painting types, executed on
walls, ceilings or any other kind of flat surface. The term fresco comes from
the Italian word “affresco” which means “fresh.”
8. Gouache- It is a water-based paint consisting of pigment and other materials
designed to be used in an opaque painting technique.
9. Enamel- It is a paint that air dries to a durable, usually glossy and solid finish.
It is used for outdoor coating surfaces or otherwise subject to variations in
temperature.
10. Spray paint- It is the type of paint that comes in a sealed pressurized battle
and released in a fine spray.
11. Tempera- It is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored
pigment mixed with a watersoluble binder method.
Classifications of Painting Styles

Part of the desire in painting particularly in the 21st century is the variety of
available art styles. The style in painting is in two senses: it can refer to the
distinctive visual elements, techniques, and methods that characterized one’s
artwork, and can refer to the movement or school that associated to the artists.
Such classifications include the following styles:

• Western Styles

a. Abstraction. It is an art in painting which does not attempt to

represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use
colors, shapes, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect. It
may be formed by reducing the observable phenomenon, typically to
retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose.

b. Expressionism. It is sometimes called emotional realism. In this

style, the artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience
rather than physical truth.

c. Baroque. It is characterized by dynamism (a sense of motion),

which is augmented by extravagant effects (e.g., sharp curves, rich
decoration). Among the most significant Baroque painters are
Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, Poussin, and
Vermeer.

d. Modernism. It is characterized by a cautious rejection of the styles

of the past and emphasizing innovation and experimentation of
materials and techniques instead to create better artworks.
• Modern Styles

a. Realism. It is a style of painting practiced before the invention of

the camera, where artists depicted landscapes and humans with as
much attention to detail and precision as possible. The artist’s
primary goal is to describe accurately and truthfully as possible
what is observed.

b. Symbolism. It is an art that represents the subject symbolically.

For instance, the “Spolarium” painting of Juan Luna depicts the
suffering of the Filipino people from the hands of the Spaniards.
Many works of art included by some writers who cover the
Symbolist era were produced in the middle of the century, or even
before.

c. Fauvism. It refers to art that used brilliant primary colors or color

illumination on subjects like pictures to emphasize comfort, joy, and
leisure. It comes from the French word fauves, meaning “wild
beasts” (this name refers to a small group of painters in Paris who
exhibited works notable for the bold and expressive use of pure
color).

d. Cubism. It is a form of abstraction wherein the object is first

reduced to cubes and then flattened into two-dimensional shapes. It
has been considered the most influential and powerful art
movement during the 20th century in Paris established by Georges
Braque and Pablo Picasso.

e. Surrealism. It is a type of art wherein the artist creates dreamlike

paintings that filled with mysterious objects. It is the opposite of
abstraction that attempts to portray the conscious mind through
unconventional means.
REFERENCES
SBCTC & Lumen Learning. (n.d.) Art Appreciation. Retrieved Last March 18, 2021
from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/masteryart1/
Ernesto Thaddeus M. Solmerano, Art Appreciation, First Edition, Copyright 2019
Sanchez, C.A. et al (2012), Introduction to the Humanities, Rex Book Store
Constantino,Bienvenido B. Jr.,(2014), Arts Across Time and Border
Cabasaan, William J. Jr., (2014), Humanities Philosophy and History of Arts
Tabotabo, Claudio V. et al. (2013), Introduction to the Humanities and the Basic of
Arts Appreciaiton
Regado, C. and Mendoza, J. (2013) Art Appreciation:Introductory Reading on
Humanities Focus on Philippine Art Science

RUBRIC
20 15 10 5
Understanding
The artwork is The art work is The artwork The artwork
Demonstration planned planned shows little shows no
that instructions carefully; adequately; evidence of understanding
and understanding understanding understanding of the concepts
concepts of most of some the concepts and
are concepts and concepts and and instructions.
understood. instructions is instructions instructions.
shown. shown.
Craftsmanship/
Skill The artwork The artwork The artwork The artwork
shows good shows average shows below shows poor
Neatness, craftmanship, craftmanship average craftmanship
precision, care. with some and attention craftmanship and no
attention to to detail. and little attention to
detail. attention to detail.
detail.
Creativity/
Originality The artwork The artwork The artwork The artwork
demonstrates demonstrates demonstrates lacks evidence
Inventiveness, some personal an average little personal of
expression of expression and amount of expression and personal
ideas and logical problem personal problem expression.
imagination. solving skills. expression. solving skills.
Effort Advanced Proficient Moderate Below Basic

What it takes to The student The student The student The student
finish the project put forth the put forth the put forth the put forth no
as well effort required effort required effort required effort or the
as to complete to finish the to finish the project was not
possible, the project project; used project; completed;
time dedicated well; used class time usedclass time class time was
to the project class time well. adequately. adequately. not used well.
inside and/or out
of class.