Art and Photography Blog

4 Ways Painting Impacts the Art Scene

This post was contributed by Kelsey Allen, who writes about the art careers. She welcomes your feedback at KelseyAllen1010 yahoo.com, as well as comments on this post.

Painting has been the epitome of every movement within the art world and has served to bring about many masterpieces, regardless of the time period. While mostly sculptures brought about the earliest renditions of art, this thereby evolved into the paintings of the Renaissance and onward within the art world. With the advent of new technologies in the twentieth century, we have been introduced to many new forms of visual media and the arts, including revolutionary steps in photography, videography, and many other related fields. Painting has served to be a backdrop of sorts for every related arts field, as you can always draw or paint a sketch of what you are aiming for and then use new technology to get the finished product.

Visual media Painting was the original way many movies advertised themselves before the days of digital animation and proved to be the original methods in which cartoon classics like Bambi were originally constructed. While computers have done away with the work-by-hand methods, if we did not have computers, much more advertising would use painting as a resource. Even now, many musical artists have painters design their album covers, such as Tool, which translates their band into a more “artsy” character overall.

Technology Painting was one of the first steps in the ever-evolving world of art that has since transcended into the digital age. Computers now nearly do our painting for us and design graphics with such perfection that no human could ever come close. With this constant reliance on technology, painters have begun to be pushed to the side, although there is still a great respect for every artist who can still paint or draw on their own.

Human knowledge Within most introductory art history classes, you are taught the timeline of the progression of art, starting with many pre-historical sculptures and cave drawings. Once painting gets introduced to these early humans, you begin to notice the progression in art, as vases take on more intricate patterns and the addition of color takes these early works to a whole new realm. It becomes obvious that once the early civilizations discovered the use of color and painting, they were able to communicate more effectively and become more stationary in life rather than simple hunter/gatherers. The impact of painting in this regard was monumental toward the whole of evolution. Society

Even now, there is a special connotation about most artists, in that many people around the world strive to be able to simply paint one scene on canvas. There is a romantic ideal about painting on an easel in your backyard that so many people wish to make a reality, regardless if they have any talent or not. Even within this busy world of technology and speed, sometimes everyone just wants to take a break to take in all of nature and relax in its beauty in order to document it through art. While painters still dominate the coffeehouse industry (paintings are typically hung in this type of eclectic atmosphere), they have since influenced the newest genre of photographers to focus more on the abstract rather than “set” images that anyone can photograph.

Good Typography from Noisy Decent Graphics

Noisy Decent Graphics is a blog written by a London based graphic designer. It is “primarily about graphic design followed by design in general and then some related stuff about communication, ideas and inevitably brands.” There was a recent post where the writer offered a few basic suggestions on typography and asked for more suggestions from his readers. Many good ones were received. Thanks to the IF team to pointing to this.

Paul Graham on Good Design

Last November Paul Graham spoke at the Berkman  Center. As the notice said, “In a recent essay, "Taste for Makers," Paul argues that successful design, from math to software to painting, relies on the same aesthetic principles. Taste is therefore not a matter of subjectively appreciating fine works but is a required capability for creating great software. The essay shares some very interesting design principles that apply to software design as well as art. Paul has experience in both fields.  A few concepts. Good design is simple. Good design solves the right problem. Good design is suggestive. There are many more principles carefully defined with examples. Wikis are a good candidate for this. Brian Lamb quoted Charlie Mingus in his essay on wikis. “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. “ Take a look at what Paul wrote. It is full of good reminders.

Maps of Science - Information Esthetics

Here is an interesting web site, Maps of Science. which offers maps of relationships in scientific research,  Fortunately it does not just offer the visually interesting diagrams but also provides analysis. You can look at topics, industries, geographic locations and even two cities, Boston and Paris, so far. It says “Boston has strength in nodes (indicating a greater than expected number of publications on a topic) and edges (the lines between nodes, indicating a greater than expected number of publications that bridge two topics). The majority of strengths are in medicine.  Of particular prominence is research on Alzheimers, AIDS, Cancer and the health care system.   In the top of the diagram are major strengths in astrophysics.” You can also drill down to look inside specific areas. The work is based on Thomson’s 2003 citation databases.  Thanks to John Maloney for sharing this.  Information Esthetics will provide a free copy for the price of shipping. Information Esthetics is a “fledgling organization dedicated to exploring those areas where information content can enhance esthetic experience and esthetic consideration can enhance information content.”  Maps of Science is an outcome that is both useful and aesthetically pleasing.

Great Design Books from Png Ming

There are many great design books. The Japanese blog, Ping Mag, has put together a comprehensive review of the best graphic design books money can buy, described as a “a ramshackle list of design texts that I consider utterly invaluable to the education of a graphic designer.”

He adds, "The education of graphic designers is often a haphazard process. A number of designers working today came to their positions without formal design education. Undergraduate design education often leaves much to be desired…I understand my place in history a little bit better because of these texts - they helped inform both my work and my attitude toward my profession.”

Ping Mag gives a short review of each book. The emphasis is on type rather than images.

The books they suggest are:

1. A History of Graphic Design by Philip Meggs

2. The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

3. Looking Closer I-III, Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography, Graphic Design History, Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design, The Education of a Typographer

4. Design Writing Research by Ellen Lupton & J. Abbott Miller

5. Stop Stealing Sheep by Erik Spiekermann and E.M. Ginger

6. Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

7. Josef Müller-Brockmann: A Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design by Lars Müller

8. Jan Tschichold: A Life in Typography by Ruari McLean

9. Unjustified Texts: Perspectives on Typography by Robin Kinross

10. Type and Typography by Phil Baines and Andrew Haslam, Thinking with Type by Ellen Lupton and Oubunshotai by Akira Kobayashi

There is also Idea Magazine and Eye Magazine, as well as Speak Up, a design criticism forum. Thanks to the IF Team for pointing to this blog post.