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Styles and trends in the visual arts. Illustration styles - how to develop your style

Styles and trends in the visual arts. Illustration styles - how to develop your style

27.04.2019

We continue the section "Needlework" and the subsection "" article. Where we offer you definitions of several known and unknown modern and not so styles, and also illustrate them as clearly as possible.

Styles of art in pictures are needed, in particular, so that you can find out what style you draw (or do needlework in general), or what style suits you best for drawing.

Let's start with a style called "realism". Realism- this is an aesthetic position, according to which the task of art is to capture reality as accurately and objectively as possible. There are many sub-styles of realism - critical realism, socialist realism, hyperrealism, naturalism and many others. In a broader sense of the word, realism is the ability of art to truthfully, unvarnished depict a person and the world around him in life-like, recognizable images, while not copying nature passively and dispassionately, but selecting the main thing in it and trying to convey in visible forms the essential qualities of objects and phenomena. .

Example: V. G. Khudyakov. Smugglers (click to enlarge):

Now let's move on to a style called "impressionism". Impressionism(French impressionnisme, from impression - impression) - a style where artists tried to most naturally and impartially capture the real world in its mobility and variability, to convey their fleeting impressions. Impressionism did not raise philosophical problems and did not even try to penetrate the colored surface of everyday life. Instead, impressionism focuses on the superficiality, the fluidity of the moment, the mood, the lighting, or the angle of view.

Example: J. William Turner (click to enlarge):

Next on the list we have a much lesser-known style than Impressionism and Realism called Fauvism. Fauvism(from French fauve - wild) - the name was formed because the paintings left the viewer with a feeling of energy and passion, and the French critic Louis Vocell called the painters wild animals (fr. les fauves). This was the reaction of contemporaries to the exaltation of color that struck them, the “wild” expressiveness of colors. So a random statement was fixed as the name of the whole trend. Fauvism in painting is characterized by the brightness of colors and the simplification of form.

The next style is modern. Modern- (from French moderne - modern), Art Nouveau (French art nouveau, lit. "new art"), Jugendstil (German Jugendstil - "young style") - an artistic direction in art, where the basis was the rejection of straight lines and angles in favor of more natural, "natural" lines, interest in new technologies. Art Nouveau strove to combine the artistic and utilitarian functions of the created works, to involve all spheres of human activity in the sphere of beauty.

An example of Art Nouveau architecture is in the article "Gaudi's Magic Houses". An example of a painting in the Art Nouveau style: A. Mucha "Sunset" (click to enlarge):

Then let's move on. Expressionism(from Latin expressio, “expression”) - an expression of the emotional characteristics of images (usually a person or a group of people) or the emotional state of the artist himself. In expressionism, the idea of emotional impact, affectation, was put in opposition to naturalism and aestheticism. The subjectivity of the creative act was emphasized.

Example: Van Gogh, "Starry night over the Rhone":

The next trend that we will touch on is cubism. Cubism(French Cubisme) - a direction in the visual arts, characterized by the use of emphatically geometrized conditional forms, the desire to "split" real objects into stereometric primitives.

Further style called "futurism". Style name futurism derived from the Latin futurum future. The name itself implies a cult of the future and discrimination of the past along with the present. The futurists dedicated their paintings to trains, cars, airplanes - in a word, attention was paid to all the momentary achievements of a civilization intoxicated with technological progress. Futurism repelled from Fauvism, borrowing color finds from it, and from Cubism, from which it adopted artistic forms.

And now we move on to a style called "abstractionism". Abstractionism(lat. abstractio - removal, distraction) - the direction of non-figurative art, which abandoned the image of forms close to reality in painting and sculpture. One of the goals of abstractionism is to achieve "harmonization", the creation of certain color combinations and geometric shapes in order to evoke various associations in the contemplator.

Example: V. Kandinsky:

Next on the list is the trend of "Dadaism". Dadaism, or dada - the name of the current comes from several sources: in the language of the Negro tribe Kru it means the tail of a sacred cow, in some areas of Italy this is the name of the mother, it can be the designation of a children's wooden horse, nurse, a double statement in Russian and Romanian languages. It could also be a reproduction of incoherent infant babble. In any case, Dadaism is something completely meaningless, which from now on has become the most successful name for the whole movement.

And now we turn to Suprematism. Suprematism(from lat. supremus - the highest) - expressed in combinations of multi-colored planes of the simplest geometric outlines (in the geometric forms of a straight line, square, circle and rectangle). The combination of multi-colored and different-sized geometric figures forms balanced asymmetric Suprematist compositions permeated with internal movement.

Example: Kazimir Malevich:

The next movement, which we will briefly consider, is the movement with the strange name "metaphysical painting". Metaphysical painting (Italian Pittura metafisica) - here the metaphor and the dream become the basis for thinking beyond the ordinary logic, and the contrast between the realistically accurately depicted object and the strange atmosphere in which it is placed enhanced the surreal effect.

An example is Giorgio Morandi. Still life with mannequin:

And now we are moving on to a very interesting trend called "surrealism". Surrealism (French surréalisme - super-realism) is based on a combination of dream and reality. The primary goal of the Surrealists was spiritual elevation and separation of the spirit from the material. One of the greatest representatives of surrealism in painting was Salvador Dali.

Example: Salvador Dali:

Next, we move on to such a trend as active painting. Active painting (painting by intuition, tachisme, from the French Tachisme, from Tache - spot) is a trend that is painting with spots that do not recreate images of reality, but express the unconscious activity of the artist. Strokes, lines and spots in tachisme are applied to the canvas with quick hand movements without a premeditated plan.

The penultimate style for today is pop art. Pop art (English pop-art, short for popular art, the etymology is also associated with English pop - jerky blow, clap) generates works of art for which elements of "folk culture" were used. That is, the Image borrowed in mass culture is placed in a different context (for example, the scale and material change; a technique or technical method is exposed; information interference is revealed, and so on).

Example: Richard Hamilton, "What Makes Our Homes Today So Different, So Inviting?":

Accordingly, the last trend for today is minimalism. Minimal art (English Minimal art), also Minimalism (English Minimalism), Art ABC (English ABC Art) is a trend that included geometric forms, cleared of any symbolism and metaphor, repetition, neutral surfaces, industrial materials and manufacturing method.

Thus, there are a huge number of styles of art - which pursue their own goals.

Head:

We draw a figure that resembles an egg turned upside down with a sharp end down. This figure is called OVOID.
Vertically and horizontally, we divide it exactly in half with thin lines.

vertical
the line is the axis of symmetry (it is needed so that the right and left parts
turned out to be equal in size and the elements of the image did not appear on
different level).
Horizontal - the line of the eyes. We divide it into five equal parts.

In the second and fourth parts are the eyes. The distance between the eyes is also equal to one eye.

The figure below shows how to draw the eye (the iris and pupil will
not fully visible - the upper eyelid partially covers them), but we are not in a hurry
to do this, first finish our sketch.

Divide the part from the line of the eyes to the chin by two - this is the line on which the nose will be.
Divide the part from the line of the eyes to the top of the head into three equal parts. The upper mark is the line from where the hair grows)

The part from the nose to the chin is also divided into three parts. The top mark is the lip line.
The distance from the upper eyelid to the tip of the nose is equal to the distance from the upper edge of the ear to the lower one.

Now we make our standard blank sob in three streams.
lines,
drawn from the outer edges of the eyes will show us where to draw the neck.
Lines from the inner edges of the eyes - the width of the nose. Lines drawn in an arc from
the center of the pupils is the width of the mouth.

When you colorize the image, notice that the raised
parts (forehead, cheeks, nose and chin) will be lighter, and the eye sockets, cheekbones,
the contour of the face, and the place under the lower lip - darker.

The shape of the face, eyes, eyebrows, lips, nose, ears and
etc. all people are different. Therefore, when drawing someone's portrait, try
see these features and superimpose them on a standard workpiece.

Another example of the fact that everyone's facial features are different.

Well, here we see how to draw a face in profile and half a turn - the so-called "three quarters"
At
drawing a half-turn face, you need to take into account the rules
perspective - the far eye and the far side of the lip will appear smaller.

Let's go to the picture human figure.
In order to depict the body as correctly as possible, you need to know a few secrets, as when drawing portraits:

The unit of measure for the human body is the "length of the head".
- human height is on average 7.5 head lengths.
- Men, of course, are usually slightly taller than women.
-
Of course, we start drawing the body from the very head that we will
measure everything. Have you drawn? Now we postpone its length seven more times down.
This will be the growth of the depicted.
- The width of the shoulders is equal to two head lengths for men and one and a half lengths for women.
- At the place where the third head ends :), there will be a navel and an arm bent at the elbow.
- The fourth is the place where the legs grow from.
- The fifth is the middle of the thigh. This is where the arm length ends.
- Sixth - bottom of the knee.
-
You can not believe me, but the length of the arms is equal to the length of the legs, the length of the arm from the shoulder
to the elbow will be slightly less than the length from the elbow to the fingertips.
- The length of the brush is equal to the height of the face (note, not the head - the distance from the chin to the top of the forehead), the length of the foot is equal to the length of the head.

Knowing all this, you can quite plausibly portray the figure of a person.

Taken in a group dedicated to graffiti VKontakte.

Lip shapes

nose shape

Eye shapes

Forms of women's brogues

The proportions of the child's figure differ from
adult proportions. The less times the length of the head is hindered in growth
child, the younger he is.

In a child's portrait, things are a little different.
The child's face is more rounded, the forehead is larger. If we draw a horizontal
line through the middle of the child's face, then this will not be the line of the eyes, as
was in the portrait of an adult.

To learn how to draw a person not only
standing like a pillar, we will temporarily simplify our image. Let's leave
only the head, chest, spine, pelvis and fasten to all this
arms and legs. The main thing is to keep all proportions.

Having such a simplified version of the human figure, we can easily give him any pose.

When we have decided on a pose, we can
grow meat on our simplified skeleton. Do not forget that the body, it is not
angular and does not consist of rectangles - we try to draw smooth
lines. At the waist, the body gradually narrows, at the knees and elbows too.

To make the image more lively, character and expression must be given not only to the face, but also to the pose.

Hands:

Fingers on such smooth as a board, the joints in the entire skeleton are the widest parts of the bones.

The number of styles and trends is huge, if not endless. The key feature by which works can be grouped by style is the unified principles of artistic thinking. The change of some ways of artistic thinking by others (alternating types of compositions, techniques of spatial constructions, features of color) is not accidental. Our perception of art is also historically changeable.
Building a system of styles in a hierarchical order, we will adhere to the Eurocentric tradition. The largest in the history of art is the concept of an era. Each era is characterized by a certain “picture of the world”, which consists of philosophical, religious, political ideas, scientific ideas, psychological characteristics of the worldview, ethical and moral norms, aesthetic criteria of life, according to which they distinguish one era from another. These are the Primitive Age, the era of the Ancient World, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the New Age.
Styles in art do not have clear boundaries, they smoothly pass one into another and are in continuous development, mixing and opposition. Within the framework of one historical artistic style, a new one is always born, and that, in turn, passes into the next. Many styles coexist at the same time and therefore there are no “pure styles” at all.
Several styles can coexist in the same historical era. For example, Classicism, Academicism and Baroque in the 17th century, Rococo and Neoclassicism in the 18th century, Romanticism and Academicism in the 19th century. Such styles as, for example, classicism and baroque are called great styles, since they apply to all types of art: architecture, painting, arts and crafts, literature, music.
It should be distinguished: artistic styles, trends, trends, schools and features of the individual styles of individual masters. Within one style, there can be several artistic directions. The artistic direction is made up of both signs typical of a given era and peculiar ways of artistic thinking. The Art Nouveau style, for example, includes a number of trends from the turn of the century: post-impressionism, symbolism, fauvism, and so on. On the other hand, the concept of symbolism as an artistic movement is well developed in literature, while in painting it is very vague and unites artists who are so different stylistically that it is often interpreted only as a worldview that unites them.

Below are the definitions of eras, styles and trends that are somehow reflected in modern fine and decorative arts.

	- an artistic style that was formed in the countries of Western and Central Europe in the XII-XV centuries. It was the result of the centuries-old evolution of medieval art, its highest stage and at the same time the first pan-European, international art style in history. It covered all kinds of art - architecture, sculpture, painting, stained glass, book design, arts and crafts. The basis of the Gothic style was architecture, which is characterized by lancet arches soaring upwards, multi-colored stained-glass windows, visual dematerialization of the form. Elements of Gothic art can often be found in modern interior design, in particular, in wall painting, less often in easel painting. Since the end of the last century, there has been a gothic subculture, clearly manifested in music, poetry, and fashion design.
	(Renaissance) - (French Renaissance, Italian Rinascimento) An era in the cultural and ideological development of a number of countries in Western and Central Europe, as well as some countries in Eastern Europe. The main distinguishing features of the Renaissance culture: secular character, humanistic worldview, appeal to the ancient cultural heritage, a kind of "revival" of it (hence the name). The culture of the Renaissance has the specific features of the transitional era from the Middle Ages to the new time, in which the old and the new, intertwined, form a peculiar, qualitatively new alloy. Difficult is the question of the chronological boundaries of the Renaissance (in Italy - 14-16 centuries, in other countries - 15-16 centuries), its territorial distribution and national characteristics. Elements of this style in modern art are often used in wall paintings, less often in easel painting.
	- (from the Italian maniera - technique, manner) a trend in European art of the 16th century. Representatives of mannerism moved away from the Renaissance harmonious perception of the world, the humanistic concept of man as a perfect creation of nature. A sharp perception of life was combined with a programmatic desire not to follow nature, but to express the subjective "inner idea" of the artistic image that was born in the artist's soul. Most clearly manifested in Italy. For Italian Mannerism 1520s. (Pontormo, Parmigianino, Giulio Romano) are characterized by the dramatic sharpness of the images, the tragedy of the worldview, the complexity and exaggerated expression of postures and movement motifs, the elongation of the proportions of the figures, coloristic and light and shade dissonances. Recently, it has been used by art historians to refer to phenomena in contemporary art associated with the transformation of historical styles.
	- historical art style, which was originally distributed in Italy in the middle. XVI-XVII centuries, and then in France, Spain, Flanders and Germany in the XVII-XVIII centuries. More broadly, this term is used to define the ever-renewing tendencies of a restless, romantic worldview, thinking in expressive, dynamic forms. Finally, in every time, in almost every historical artistic style, one can find its own "baroque period" as a stage of the highest creative upsurge, tension of emotions, explosiveness of forms.
	- artistic style in Western European art XVII - early. XIX century and in Russian XVIII - early. XIX, referring to the ancient heritage as an ideal to follow. It manifested itself in architecture, sculpture, painting, arts and crafts. Classicist artists considered antiquity to be the highest achievement and made it their standard in art, which they sought to imitate. Over time, it was reborn into academism.
	- a trend in European and Russian art of the 1820s-1830s, which replaced classicism. Romantics brought individuality to the forefront, opposing the ideal beauty of the classicists to "imperfect" reality. Artists were attracted by bright, rare, extraordinary phenomena, as well as images of a fantastic nature. In the art of romanticism, a sharp individual perception and experience plays an important role. Romanticism liberated art from abstract classicistic dogmas and turned it towards national history and images of folklore.
	- (from lat. sentiment - feeling) - a direction of Western art of the second half of the 18th century, expressing disappointment in a “civilization” based on the ideals of “reason” (the ideology of the Enlightenment). S. proclaims feeling, solitary reflection, the simplicity of the rural life of the “little man”. J. J. Rousseau is considered to be the ideologist of S..
	- a direction in art that strives to display both the external form and the essence of phenomena and things with the greatest truth and reliability. How a creative method combines individual and typical features when creating an image. The longest time of existence direction, developing from the primitive era to the present day.
	- direction in European artistic culture of the late XIX-early XX centuries. Arising as a reaction to the domination of the norms of bourgeois "sanity" in the humanitarian sphere (in philosophy, aesthetics - positivism, in art - naturalism), symbolism first of all took shape in French literature of the late 1860s and 70s, and later became widespread in Belgium, Germany , Austria, Norway, Russia. The aesthetic principles of symbolism in many respects went back to the ideas of romanticism, as well as to some doctrines of the idealistic philosophy of A. Schopenhauer, E. Hartmann, partly F. Nietzsche, to the work and theorizing of the German composer R. Wagner. Symbolism contrasted the living reality with the world of visions and dreams. A symbol generated by poetic insight and expressing the otherworldly meaning of phenomena, hidden from ordinary consciousness, was considered a universal tool for comprehending the secrets of being and individual consciousness. The artist-creator was considered as an intermediary between the real and the supersensible, finding "signs" of world harmony everywhere, prophetically guessing the signs of the future both in modern phenomena and in the events of the past.
	- (from French impression - impression) a trend in art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which arose in France. The name was introduced by the art critic L. Leroy, who disparagingly commented on the exhibition of artists in 1874, where, among others, C. Monet's painting “Sunrise. Impression". Impressionism asserted the beauty of the real world, emphasizing the freshness of the first impression, the variability of the environment. The predominant attention to solving purely pictorial problems reduced the traditional idea of drawing as the main component of a work of art. Impressionism had a powerful impact on the art of European countries and the United States, aroused interest in scenes from real life. (E. Manet, E. Degas, O. Renoir, C. Monet, A. Sisley, etc.)
	- a trend in painting (synonymous with divisionism), which developed within the framework of neo-impressionism. Neo-Impressionism originated in France in 1885 and also spread to Belgium and Italy. The neo-impressionists tried to apply the latest advances in the field of optics in art, according to which painting, made by separate points of primary colors, in visual perception gives a fusion of colors and the whole gamut of painting. (J. Seurat, P. Signac, K. Pissarro).
	post-impressionism- conditional collective name of the main directions of French painting to. XIX - 1st quarter. 20th century The art of post-impressionism arose as a reaction to impressionism, which fixed attention on the transfer of the moment, on the feeling of picturesqueness and lost interest in the form of objects. Among the post-impressionists are P. Cezanne, P. Gauguin, V. Gogh and others.
	- style in European and American art at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Art Nouveau rethought and stylized the features of the art of different epochs, and developed its own artistic techniques based on the principles of asymmetry, ornamentality and decorativeness ty. Natural forms also become the object of stylization of modernity. This explains not only the interest in vegetative ornaments in the works of Art Nouveau, but also their compositional and plastic structure itself - an abundance of curvilinear outlines, floating shchix, uneven contours, reminiscent of plant forms. Closely associated with modernity is symbolism, which served as the aesthetic and philosophical basis for modernity, relying on modernity as a plastic implementation of its ideas. Art Nouveau had different names in different countries, which are essentially synonymous: Art Nouveau - in France, Secession - in Austria, Jugendstil - in Germany, Liberty - in Italy.
	- (from French modern - modern) the general name of a number of art movements of the first half of the 20th century, which are characterized by the denial of traditional forms and aesthetics of the past. Modernism is close to avant-gardism and opposed to academicism.
	- a name that unites the range of artistic movements that were widespread in the 1905-1930s. (Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism). All these areas are united by the desire to renew the language of art, to rethink its tasks, to gain freedom of artistic expression.
	- direction in art to. XIX - present. XX century, based on the creative lessons of the French artist Paul Cezanne, who reduced all forms in the image to the simplest geometric shapes, and color - to contrasting constructions of warm and cold tones. Cézannism served as one of the starting points for cubism. To a large extent, cezannism also influenced the domestic realistic school of painting.
	- (from fauve - wild) avant-garde trend in French art n. 20th century The name "wild" was given by modern critics to a group of artists who appeared in 1905 in the Parisian Salon of Independents, and was ironic. The group included A. Matisse, A. Marquet, J. Rouault, M. de Vlaminck, A. Derain, R. Dufy, J. Braque, K. van Dongen and others. , the search for impulses in primitive creativity, the art of the Middle Ages and the East.
	- deliberate simplification of visual means, imitation of the primitive stages of the development of art. This term refers to the so-called. naive art of artists who did not receive a special education, but were involved in the general artistic process of the late 19th - early 19th century. XX century. The works of these artists - N. Pirosmani, A. Russo, V. Selivanov and others are characterized by a kind of childishness in the interpretation of nature, a combination of generalized form and petty literalness in details. The primitivism of the form by no means predetermines the primitiveness of the content. It often serves as a source for professionals who borrowed forms, images, methods from folk, essentially primitive art. N. Goncharova, M. Larionov, P. Picasso, A. Matisse drew inspiration from primitivism.
	- a direction in art that has developed on the basis of following the canons of antiquity and the Renaissance. It existed in many European schools of art from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Academism turned classical traditions into a system of "eternal" rules and regulations that fettered creative searches, tried to oppose imperfect living nature with "high" improved, extra-national and timeless forms of beauty brought to perfection. Academism is characterized by a preference for plots from ancient mythology, biblical or historical themes to plots from contemporary life for the artist.
	- (French cubisme, from cube - cube) direction in the art of the first quarter of the XX century. The plastic language of cubism was based on the deformation and decomposition of objects into geometric planes, the plastic shift of form. The birth of cubism falls on 1907-1908 - the eve of the First World War. The undisputed leader of this trend was the poet and publicist G. Apollinaire. This trend was one of the first to embody the leading trends in the further development of the art of the twentieth century. One of these trends was the dominance of the concept over the artistic value of the painting itself. J. Braque and P. Picasso are considered the fathers of cubism. Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, Juan Gris, and others joined the emerging current.
	- a trend in literature, painting and cinema that arose in 1924 in France. It greatly contributed to the formation of the consciousness of modern man. The main figures of the movement are Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, Juan Miro and many other artists from all over the world. Surrealism expressed the idea of existence beyond the real, the absurdity, the unconscious, dreams, daydreams acquire an especially important role here. One of the characteristic methods of the surrealist artist is the removal from conscious creativity, which makes him a tool that in various ways extracts bizarre images of the subconscious, akin to hallucinations. Surrealism survived several crises, survived the Second World War and gradually, merging with mass culture, intersecting with transavant-garde, entered postmodernism as an integral part.
	- (from lat. futurum - future) literary and artistic movement in the art of the 1910s. Assigning itself the role of a prototype of the art of the future, futurism as the main program put forward the idea of dissolving cultural stereotypes and offered instead the apology of technology and urb anism as the main signs of the present and the future. An important artistic idea of futurism was the search for a plastic expression of the swiftness of movement as the main sign of the pace of modern life. The Russian version of futurism bore the name kybofuturism and was based on a combination of the plastic principles of French cubism and European general aesthetic settings futurism.

Style is the general direction of the development of art, the representative samples of which are united by the ideological meaning, transmission technique, and characteristic methods of creative activity. Styles in the art of painting were closely intertwined, developed into related trends, existed in parallel, enriching each other.

Picturesque styles and trends were formed under the influence of ideology, political and economic development of society, religion and traditions.

History of development

The history of the development of styles demonstrates the complex cultural evolution of society.

Gothic

It originated in France in the XI-XII centuries. The style developed on the territory of Western, and from the XIII - XIV centuries - in Central Europe. The origin and evolution of this direction were under the significant influence of the church. The Middle Ages is a period of dominance of church power over secular power, so Gothic artists worked with biblical subjects. Distinctive features of the style are: brightness, pretentiousness, dynamism, emotionality, pomposity, inattention to perspective. The picture does not look monolithic - it looks like a mosaic of several actions depicted on canvas.

Renaissance or Revival

Came from Italy in the XIV century. For about 200 years, this direction was dominant and became the basis for the development of Rococo and the Northern Renaissance. Characteristic artistic features of the paintings: a return to the traditions of antiquity, the cult of the human body, interest in details, humanistic ideas. This direction was not focused on religion, but on the secular side of life. The Northern Renaissance of Holland and Germany was different - here the Renaissance was perceived as a renewal of spirituality and the Christian faith that preceded the Reformation. Representatives: Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael Santi, Michelangelo Buonarroti.

Mannerism

Direction in the development of painting of the XVI century. Ideologically opposite to the Renaissance. Artists moved away from the idea of human perfection and humanism towards the subjectivization of art, focusing on the inner meaning of phenomena and objects. The name of the style comes from the Italian word "manner", which fully reflects the essence of mannerism. Representatives: J. Pontormo, J. Vasari, Brozino, J. Duve.

Baroque

A lush, dynamic, luxurious style of painting and culture that originated in Italy in the 16th century. For 200 years, the direction has developed in France, Germany, Spain. Baroque painting is full of bright colors, special attention is paid to details and decorations. The image is not static, emotional, therefore the baroque is considered the most intense and expressive stage in the development of painting.

Classicism

It originated in Western European countries in the 17th century, after 100 years it reached the countries of Eastern Europe. The main idea is a return to the tradition of antiquity. Portraits, landscapes, still lifes are easy to recognize thanks to the dogmatic reproduction, the implementation of clear rules of style. Classicism was reborn into academicism - a style that absorbed the most striking features of antiquity and the Renaissance. N. Poussin, J.-L. David, Russian Wanderers worked in this style.

Romanticism

Replaced classicism in the second quarter of the 19th century. Artistic features: the desire to convey individuality, even if it is imperfect, emotionality, expressiveness of feelings, fantastic images. The art of romantic artists denies the norms and rules of the classical stage in the development of painting. Interest in folk traditions, legends, and national history is being revived. Representatives: F. Goya, T. Gericault, K. Bryullov, E. Delacroix.

Symbolism

The cultural direction of the late XIX - XX centuries, the ideological base was drawn from romanticism. In the first place in creativity was a symbol, and the artist was an intermediary between reality and the fantastic world of creativity.

Realism

Artistic research, which puts the accuracy of the transfer of forms, parameters, shades to the fore. Characterized by naturalness, the accuracy of the embodiment of the inner essence and the outer shell. This style is the most large-scale, popular and multifaceted. Its branches are modern trends - photography and hyperrealism. Representatives: G. Courbet, T. Rousseau, Wanderers, J. Breton.

Impressionism

It originated in the late XIX - early XX century. Homeland - France. The essence of style is the embodiment of the magic of the first impression in the picture. This short moment was conveyed by the artists with the help of short strokes of paint on the canvas. Such pictures are best perceived not at close range. The works of artists are filled with colors and light. Post-Impressionism became a phase in the development of style - it is characterized by a greater attention to form and contours. Artists: O. Renoir, K. Pissarro, K. Monet, P. Cezanne.

Modern

An original, bright style, which became the basis for the formation of many pictorial trends of the 20th century. The direction has collected the features of art of all eras - emotionality, interest in ornaments, plasticity, the predominance of smooth, curvilinear outlines. Symbolism became the basis for development. Modern is ambiguous - it developed in European countries in different ways and under different names.

avant-garde

Artistic styles that are characterized by the rejection of realism, the symbolism of information transfer, the brightness of colors, individualization and freedom of creative design. The avant-garde category includes: surrealism, cubism, fauvism, futurism, expressionism, abstractionism. Representatives: V. Kandinsky, P. Picasso, S. Dali.

Primitivism or naive style

A direction characterized by a simplified depiction of reality.

The listed styles have become the main milestones in the development of painting - they continue to transform into new forms of creative self-expression of artists.

Character design

Character creation techniques and the characters themselves in cartoons, comics and products with a variety of manifestations of character and emotions

Author
April 2, 2019, 17:45

Creating cool, memorable characters is easy if you know certain rules. This post captures some simple but useful points of the creation process.

Tell a story

Shapes and lines

Silhouettes

Proportions and exaggeration

Expression

Pose and position

Scale

Color

Shadows

Texture

That's all the main points, this list can really help and be useful even if you implement only a part of the points.

Author
December 18, 2016, 14:35

Sometimes we need to draw animals that look like people and there are some very simple ways to achieve this goal. Especially often the method of humanization is used in children's books and when creating mascots. There are several degrees of anthropomorphism (humanization).

1. Animal with human emotions - when animals remain animals, but have human emotions and facial expressions. To enhance the effect, you can use human postures.

2. The animal performs human actions - the effect works great in opposition to the technique above, when one animal is only with emotions, and the other performs some actions. At this stage, the animals may or may not be wearing clothes, but they usually have paws rather than hands and are usually not shod. Very often, this technique was used by the famous English illustrator Betrix Potter (this is her illustration on the cover of the post).

3. Almost complete coincidence with humans - at this stage, in addition to the points above, animals wear clothes, shoes, usually walk on two legs and act like people. Sometimes such characters look like people with the head of an animal.

Here is a clear illustration of all degrees of humanization. The first penguin is just an animal, the second one has emotions, the third one is becoming more and more human, but still remains a penguin, and the last one is completely human.

I hope now it will be simple and easy for you to draw human animals)

Honestly, I thought about this question for a long time, because the answer “everywhere” categorically did not suit me. As a result, several understandable areas have gathered, taking into account the features of which it is possible to develop characters specifically for something.

Cartoon/Animation
The success of cartoons largely depends on the uniqueness and originality of the character, so the image is usually not taken from the ceiling, but carefully worked out. Cartoons can be 2D or 3D - it depends on how to draw a character. The character is accompanied by a set of schemes for its subsequent animation (frontal view, profile, emotion map, and so on). The introductory task is the director's group of the film. Usually in feature films, the artist works on the character throughout the shoot.

By the way, after the release of cartoons, many large studios release artbooks with the work process and a lot of stuff with the character.

Commercials
Usually short and with an emphasis on what is being sold. All actions of the character should be built around the product being sold. Essentially a cartoon in miniature, only less poses, environments and scenes. With the development of motion design, very often they are made from vector characters with a combination of different transitions and frame changes. It is enough to turn on the TV and wait for the advertisement - the characters there are very different.

Computer games
The starting point is the general theme of the game, its plot, setting (the environment in which the action takes place) and the role assigned to this character. For example, you want to create concept art for a main character for a shooter set during World War II or during the Crusade. Before starting to draw this character, the artist must carefully study the clothes of that time (military uniform, if the hero is a soldier), samples of weapons, etc. It is also important to work out every action of the character, how he runs, shoots, dies, and so on. Approximately like this.

Mascots
Mascot characters representing a company, brand, sports team, team, and so on. Mascots are often used as characters representing goods and services to consumers (for example, the clown Ronald McDonald). For street advertising, as a rule, they hire a person and dress him in a mascot costume. Still very bright mascots are usually used for the Olympic Games and at sports competitions (in the video below, just one of the symbols of the American basketball team). Even car brands can have their own mascots - for example, a Ferrari horse or a Lamborgini bull. At the same time, the character does not have to be cartoonish, a stylized brutal version can also be a mascot.

Book graphics/comics
As a rule, here you need to develop many different characters and their interaction with each other. Behavior, character and environment are closely related. The brighter the character, the easier it is to build a story around him. Comics in general are a separate large direction, very brightly represented in eastern countries such as Japan and the USA, but with a different style. Here is a great video on how to make characters different.

And here is a rather long, but interesting how to make a character cute.

figurines
Usually these are collection series with characters from games or cartoons, but it happens that a character is initially created only for a sculpture in a small edition. With the advent of 3D printing, the impossible becomes possible even for amateurs and it is not necessary to make a huge print run at once.
By the way, I have several figurines from the Game of Thrones, excellent characters)

If you know other interesting examples of using characters - share in the comments.

Author
February 15, 2016, 20:44

I decided to summarize all the useful tricks that famous illustrators advise to create high-quality and recognizable characters. The main thing in a character is its recognition and readability. Accordingly, without a clear silhouette, this is difficult to achieve. Therefore, the first step is to fill the character with black and check how it generally looks as a blur. Here are some silhouettes for example - of course you will recognize them immediately.

Denis Zilber works very cool with the silhouette, for example, here is the sequence of drawing his character and you can clearly see how he changed the pose in favor of the readability of the silhouette.