To better understand how a work of art is created, let's briefly dwell on those aspects. creative process, which are inherent in any kind visual arts.

The idea, concept, content of the work force the artist to choose from a variety of visual means exactly those that allow him to carry out his plan with the greatest completeness and persuasiveness. Often a graphic artist prefers any one technique, deeply and comprehensively masters his favorite material. Consequently, the technique chosen by the master perfectly matches the creative direction of the artist, his character and temperament - which means that he can best express his thoughts in the language of this technique.

The creation of any work of art is preceded by painstaking work on the study and accumulation of materials related to the chosen topic. The artist inquisitively studies the era, the situation, gets acquainted with literary and visual material, recalls how this topic was solved by other artists. During this period, the artist usually performs a lot of auxiliary preparatory work from nature and from memory (sketches, sketches, sketches). The preparatory period will be the shorter, the richer life experience artist, the wider his horizons and the more perfect his skill. Having collected the preparatory material, the artist should not repeat what he has gone through: he looks at any phenomenon of life with his eyes modern man, gives this phenomenon a modern assessment and from these positions seeks to have its say in art, whether it is a historical or modern subject.

The most important moment of creativity is the difficult process of a kind of translation of life material into the language of fine art, its transformation into images of realistic art, generalization and typification of images, selection of the most essential and important. If the artist, completely dispassionately and equally indifferently, like an optical instrument, reflected everything that the eye sees, without making his own judgment, his own assessment, without making any selection, without defending anything and calling for nothing, that would be naturalistic alien to us. approach to art.

In the hands of the artist - strong means of emotional impact. Skillfully using them, he can evoke a wide variety of feelings in the viewer: dramatic tension, anxiety, excitement, solemnity, epic calm, thoughtfulness, lyrical sadness, etc. But luck will accompany the artist only if he skillfully places on canvas or paper, all the elements of the image, carefully weigh and find the nature and place of each of them, coordinate them well with each other. It's called composition artwork. Great importance has a rhythmic structure. Depending on the location and alternation of individual elements (figures, objects, lines, color and tonal spots), the rhythm of the work can be smooth, melodious or nervous, restless, stormy. In search of the most perfect compositional solution, the artist by all means singles out and even exaggerates the characteristic features of the main, constituting the essence of the work, and very restrainedly interprets everything else.

The main thing in a work of art is its deep ideological content, social significance, its role in raising high feelings in a person. But the artist's work would not be artistic and would not fulfill its task if it did not deliver aesthetic pleasure to the viewer, did not satisfy his desire for everything beautiful, did not develop his taste. Consequently, a work of art with a high ideological content must certainly have a beautiful decorative system, please the eye of the viewer. In an effort to realistically, fully and tangibly convey the phenomena of the world around us, the artist should not cross a certain line, beyond which art ends with its conventions and the meaningless copying of nature begins, destructive for art, the pursuit of an illusory depiction of purely physical aspects of the world around. In graphics, it is absolutely necessary that a realistic image does not destroy the plane of the paper, organically associated with the material on which it was created. Only under this condition are the integrity and composure of the work preserved within the bounds of the sheet. It is impossible, for example, to consider such a perspective-volumetric effect of the image as a creative achievement, when not only the plane of the canvas or paper seems to be perforated, but also the wall on which such a work hangs.

Easel graphics include works of graphic art that have independent significance. They are not related to the literary text (like, for example, book graphics and posters) and do not have a narrow practical purpose (like, for example, works of applied graphics). Easel this group of graphics is called by analogy with easel painting, whose works are created on a special machine - an easel. Easel graphics are characterized by a wide range of topics and a variety of visual means. In order to diversify a chosen theme, graphic artists often create whole series of easel works. All sheets of such series are united not only by a common theme, but also by the methods of execution. Our viewers are well aware of such series of Soviet graphics as "V. I. Lenin in 1917" by E. A. Kibrika, "This should not happen again" by B. I. Prorokov (ill. 4), "We will not forget, we will not forgive! " D. A. Shmarinov, "Metro" by L. V. Soyfertis (ill. 5) and others.

The materials of easel graphics are very diverse. Let us dwell on the easel works created by such widespread materials as pencil, ink, black watercolor and others. These works are often preparatory exercises, auxiliary material for any work (painting, print, illustration, etc.). They can be made both from nature and by representation. This includes very quick sketches, capturing individual character traits nature (sketches), more detailed drawings or elaborate, finished things. Many of these ancillary drawings are so masterful and so rich in content that they acquire the value of a first-rate work of art. A typical example is the portrait drawings of the artist G. Holbein the Younger. Most of these drawings were made as studies for picturesque portraits, but they are given such vivid human characters and so great their professional excellence that it is difficult to find anything equal in the art of drawing (ill. 6).

We know many wonderful works of graphics in the pencil technique. Artists use a fairly diverse range of pencils. The most common are graphite pencils of various degrees of softness. The stroke of the graphite pencil has a beautiful gray tone and a slight sheen. A very beautiful rich black and velvet touch is given by the so-called Italian and charcoal pencils. Often, artists work with pencils made from colored pigments (sanguine, colored chalk pencils, etc.). A pencil is a very flexible, obedient material that allows you to work in a variety of ways within a small sheet. I. E. Repin, in a pencil portrait of L. N. Tolstoy, created a penetrating image of a great and wise, simple and humane writer with stingy and noble means. Of course, such a drawing goes beyond just a natural sketch. Deep content and beautiful form make it an independent and significant work (ill. 7).

Charcoal is the favorite medium of many artists. The charcoal drawing is usually performed on rough paper, and sometimes on canvas, and is distinguished by a beautiful velvety tone, a wide and energetic stroke. The artist K. Kollwitz in the work "Domestic Worker" perfectly used the possibilities of charcoal drawing, creating the image of a simple woman, exhausted by hard work (ill. . eight).

Sauce is often found in graphics - a drawing material made from a very fine black powder, held together with an adhesive. Sometimes the sauce is applied as a dry powder, but most often diluted with water.

Feather drawing has special qualities. The artist works with diluted ink or special ink, using ordinary steel, as well as goose and reed pens, sharpening them in a special way. Different nibs give different strokes - sometimes very sharp and thin, sometimes soft and wide. Feather drawing is beautiful for its clarity, purity and elegance of strokes of various shapes. From the illustration we have given, it can be seen how a mobile, transparent and light pen stroke allowed G. S. Vereisky to very vividly convey light, a slight haze in the air, and busy traffic on a city street (see frontispiece).

The method of drawing with liquid black materials (most often ink) with the help of brushes, the so-called felt pen or sharpened wooden sticks, is widespread in Soviet graphics. This technique is distinguished by a very diverse, free and temperamental combination of strokes and spots of one deep black tone. Many of the drawings by O. Vereisky, A. Kokorin, V. Goryaev, E. Charushin and other Soviet masters were made in this way.

But the work with ink, black watercolor, gouache, tempera and other black materials diluted with water is especially widespread in graphics. The brushes that the chart works with are very diverse. The tonal nuances of this technique are endless.

Chinese masters have achieved extraordinary perfection in this area. Their art is so significant that it is necessary to tell about it in more detail. The traditions of this art have been formed for centuries, and in the work of such masters as, for example, Qi Bai-shih and Xu Bei-hong (Ju Peong), they have reached great perfection. The plots of the works of Chinese artists are most often drawn from nature. These simple plots are solved with such inspiration that they awaken in the soul of a person a whole range of complex and beautiful feelings, make them feel the diversity and unique beauty of the world around them. Chinese masters are able to evoke in the viewer the feeling of such changeable phenomena as the murmur of water jets, a gust of wind, the flight of clouds in the sky, the flight of a bird. Chinese masters work with ink on especially thin paper, which absorbs moisture well. Chinese ink (liquid or dry - in sticks) is rightly considered the best in the world. Dry ink is rubbed with water in special stone ink pots. Chinese brushes are very diverse and carefully selected. Drawings are most often done on vertical strips of paper. It is difficult to convey all the richness of this technique. In some places of the drawing, the artist applies ink with a quick, precise movement with a drier brush, the ink does not have time to blur on paper and lays down clearly. In other places, a wet brush intentionally lingers on paper longer, the ink spreads and gives soft, blurry juicy spots. Some places are drawn on the reverse side of thin paper so that especially delicate spots appear on the front side. The works of Chinese masters are notable for their compositional perfection. Images are very often combined with inscriptions, and the hieroglyphs themselves are used as decorative and compositional elements of the work. In these works, we are attracted by the stinginess of visual means, the great accuracy and accuracy of the drawing. AT famous work Xu Bei-hong "Fast galloping horse", thanks to high skill and perfect mastery of technique, a complex movement is simply, freely and confidently conveyed (ill. 9).

Easel works are performed not only in any one technique. Very often, graphics in one work combine two, three, and even more various techniques, which expands the creative possibilities and enriches the stock of visual means of the artist. Quite often, easel works are made in black material with the use of color in the restrained, stingy manner of color schemes characteristic of traffic.

Magnificent examples of easel paintings were created by Italian masters Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Tintoretto, German artists Holbein, Dürer, Menzel, Dutch and Flemish masters Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck, French artists Watteau, Fragonard, Ingres, Daumier and many artists of various countries of the world.

Of the Russian artists of the past, we will name such masters of drawing as O. A. Kiprensky, A. A. Ivanov, P. A. Fedotov, I. E. Repin, V. A. Serov, M. A. Vrubel. In Soviet art, easel drawing was further developed in the works of such artists as E. A. Kibrik, G. S. Vereisky, Kukryniksy, D. A. Shmarinov, N. A. Tyrsa, V. V. Lebedev, N. N. Zhukov, G. Reindorf, A.F. Pakhomov, B.I. Prorokov, O.G. Vereisky, L.V. Soyfertis and many others.

Graphic arts- a type of fine art. The word graphics comes from the Greek word grapho, which means to write, draw, scratch.

Graphic works, unlike paintings, convey the most important thing without unnecessary details. They seem to reflect the idea of ​​the work. Graphic works can be black and white, sometimes color. As a result, the surrounding world in graphics is very expressive, but somewhat conditional, figurative.

Independent, individual works are called easel graphics. Several easel sheets, united by a common idea, form a graphic series.

Types of graphics. Graphics combines two groups of works of art: drawing and printed graphics.

The drawing is considered unique because it exists in a single copy. In the old days, artists painted on papyrus, later on parchment, from the 14th century. - on the paper. The tradition of drawing on fabric has survived to our time.

Papyrus is a writing material made from the marsh papyrus plant.
Parchment is a writing material made from the skin of animals.

Graphic techniques. The image can be created with pencil, charcoal, ink, sanguine (a red-brown pencil made from a special type of clay), and other means. About the work created with colored crayons, we will say: made in the pastel technique.

A. Bazilevich. Illustrations for I. Kotlyarevsky's poem "Aeneid" (gouache)

G. Malakov. Illustrations for Lesya Ukrainka's poem "Robert Bruce, King of Scotland" (linocut)

Albrecht Durer. Illustration for the "Apocalypse" (woodcut)

Unlike a drawing, printed graphics exist in many copies. To obtain them, an engraving is used - an image on a solid material, which is covered with paints, and then printed on paper.

There are different engraving techniques: woodcut, linocut, etching, lithography. With the advent of engraving, the emergence of the printed book and the development of book graphics are associated.

In everyday life, we most often encounter industrial graphics. These are postage stamps, posters, theater programs, labels, brand names, drawings on boxes for cakes and sweets, etc.

Linocut- a drawing carved on linoleum. The pattern is cut out on a linoleum plate with steel cutters of various configurations. Depending on the shape of the incisor, the line that it leaves can be very thin, sharp or wide, rounded. This is how a mold is made. Then printing ink is applied to it using special equipment - rollers.

Printed linocut on a printing press. In this case, the layer of ink applied to the form is printed on paper. A paper print is called linocut, or, more generally, like all other printing techniques, printmaking.

Woodcut(woodcut) - an image made with cutters on a wooden surface. Not all tree species are suitable for this. Artists use pear, oak, beech, boxwood.

The wooden surface is carefully polished and even smoothed with wax. The drawing is cut out in the same way as on the linocut, but the greater hardness of the wood allows you to enrich the image with trifles and details. It is more difficult to do this kind of work.

An impression is printed in the same way as a linocut, using a printing press on special stamp paper. This technique is ancient and has come to us from time immemorial. This is how the first printed books were made.

Etching, or engraving on metal, are several techniques for making a printing plate from metal (copper, zinc). The pattern is applied to a pre-treated, polished, smooth plate. It can be engraving, scratching. Such work requires exceptional precision and physical effort.

There are ways to make drawing easier. The plate can be covered with a protective layer of a special varnish and "draw", removing only the varnish. Then such a plate is immersed in a container with acid, and instead of an engraver, the acid makes depressions in the metal. Paint is applied to the etching plate by hand.

The print is made on a printing press. Soft paper, clinging to the plate, sort of selects the paint from the recesses.

Lithography It's a stone engraving. For it, a special, lithographic stone is used. The system for drawing a picture on a stone is very complex. It can be scratching, drawing with a brush and ink, and drawing with a pencil. In all these cases, materials intended only for lithography are used.

Printed on a printing press. Lithography allows you to achieve subtle gradations (transitions) of tone, similar to a pencil or watercolor drawing. Due to this, lithographic prints sometimes resemble watercolor drawings.

T. Shevchenko. Blind Man in the Cemetery (etching)

E. Kibrik. Illustration for the story of Romain Rolland "Cola Breugnon" (lithograph)

1. Compare works made in the techniques of linography (woodcuts) and a drawing made in pencil by hand. What is the difference?
2. Think about what shades of mood can be conveyed with the help of different types graphics and graphic techniques.

Think together what literary work could be illustrated in the technique of woodcuts, etchings, lithographs, pastels. Why?

Monotype- this is an imprint of paint from any surface onto paper. Such a print exists in a single copy, as indicated by the “mono” particle in the title. It's something in between printed graphics and drawing.

Create a graphic composition using the monotype technique.

Tools and materials: several sheets of paper, gouache, dishwashing detergent or liquid soap, brushes. Work plan:

• Dilute the paints in small bottles and add a little soap solution to them in a ratio of 1: 5. The paints should not be completely liquid, but not very thick either.
• With a brush, apply paints to a sheet of paper, picking up the colors that you like, and let them dissolve one into another a little.
• With a quick movement to this sheet, press another sheet of paper for half a minute to a minute
• Separate the sheets of paper and let the prints dry.
• Consider the result, try to see any plot or a single image in the colored spots.
• Use brushes and paint or other materials to finish your work, adding details and elements that are missing.

Student work made in the technique of monotype

Stages of work on a monotype

Narbut Georgy Ivanovich(1886-1920) - Ukrainian graphic artist. A significant influence on the formation of the creative manner of the master had a connection with the St. Petersburg art association"World of Art", whose members paid much attention to the revival of the art of the book. Narbut's early works are illustrations for fairy tales. In illustrations for I. Krylov's fables, the artist uses an old graphic style - a silhouette, which he then repeatedly turned to.

In 1917-1920 Narbut worked in Kyiv; passion for ancient Ukrainian art inspired him to create a series of outstanding works. Since January 1919, Narbut was the rector of the Academy of Arts in Kyiv.

G. Narbut. Illustration for T. Shevchenko's poetry "Dream" (ink)

Pablo Picasso(1881-1973) - a brilliant personality in the art of the twentieth century. Picasso is a Spaniard by origin, but he lived most of his life in France. Already in the 1900s, Picasso declared himself as a mature master. His early paintings belong to the so-called "pink" and "blue" periods ("Girl on a ball"). In 1907, Picasso created the painting "Avignon Girls", which begins the history of a new trend in the art of the twentieth century. The artist has always experimented a lot. 1937 dates back to a large canvas "Guernica", which is one of the pinnacles in the work of Picasso. It is dedicated to the death of the Spanish city and its inhabitants as a result of an air bombardment. The artist's talent was also clearly manifested in graphics (one of his most famous graphic works is Don Quixote), sculpture, and ceramics.

Pablo Picasso. Don Quixote

Types of graphics are classified according to the method of creating an image, purpose, as a manifestation of mass culture.

According to the way the image is created, the graphics can be printed(circulation) and unique.

Printed graphics and its types

Printed graphics are created using author's printing forms. Printed graphics make it possible to distribute graphic works in numerous equivalent copies.
Previously, printed graphics (print) served for repeated reproduction (illustrations, reproductions of paintings, posters, etc.), because. in fact, was the only way to mass print images.
At present, the copying technique has developed, so printed graphics have become an independent art form.

Types of printed graphics

print

An engraving (fr. Estampe) is a print on paper from a printing plate (matrix). Original prints are those made by the artist himself or with his participation.
The print has been known in Europe since the 15th century. Initially, printmaking was not an independent section of fine art, but only a technique for reproducing images.

Types of print

Types of prints differ in the way the printing form is created and the printing method. Thus, there are 4 main print techniques.

Letterpress: woodcut; linocut; engraving on cardboard.

Woodcut

A woodcut is an engraving on wood or an impression on paper made from such an engraving. Woodcut is the oldest wood engraving technique. It originated and spread in the countries Far East(VI-VIII centuries). The first examples of Western European engravings made in this technique appeared at the turn of the 14th-15th centuries.
The woodcut masters were Hokusai, A. Durer, A. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, V. Favorsky, G. Epifanov, Ya. Gnezdovsky, V. Mate and many others. other.

I. Gnezdovsky. Christmas card

Linocut

Linocut is a method of engraving on linoleum. This method arose at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. with the invention of linoleum. Linoleum is good stuff for large engravings. For engraving, linoleum with a thickness of 2.5 to 5 mm is used. Linocut tools use the same tools used for longitudinal engraving: angular and longitudinal chisels, as well as a knife for precise cutting. small parts. In Russia, N. Sheverdyaev, a student of Vasily Mate, was the first to use this technique. In the future, this technique for the manufacture of easel engravings and especially in book illustrations was used by Elizaveta Kruglikova, Boris Kustodiev, Vadim Falileev, Vladimir Favorsky, Alexander Deineka, Konstantin Kostenko, Lidia Ilyina and others.

B. Kustodiev "Portrait of a Lady". Linocut
Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Frans Maserel, German expressionists, American artists worked abroad in the linocut technique.
From contemporary artists linocut is actively used by Georg Baselitz, Stanley Donwood, Bill Fike.
Both black and white and color linocut are used.

R. Gusev. Colored linocut. Still life "Egg"

Engraving on cardboard

Type of print. A technologically simple type of engraving, it is used even in art classes.
But in the twentieth century some significant graphic artists have used board prints in their professional practice. A relief print for printing is made using an application made up of individual cardboard elements. The thickness of the cardboard must be at least 2 mm.

Engraving on cardboard

Gravure: etching techniques (needle etching, aquatint, lavis, dotted line, pencil style, drypoint; soft varnish; mezzotint, engraving).

Etching

Etching is a kind of engraving on metal, a technique that allows you to get prints from printing plates (“boards”), in the process of creating an image on which the surface is etched with acids. Etching has been known since the beginning of the 16th century. Albrecht Durer, Jacques Callot, Rembrandt and many other artists worked in the etching technique.

Rembrandt "The Sermon of Christ" (1648). Etching, drypoint, cutter

Mezzotint

Mezzotint ("black manner") - a type of engraving on metal. The main difference from other etching styles is not the creation of a system of depressions (strokes and dots), but the smoothing of light places on a grained board. Mezzotint effects cannot be obtained in other ways. The image here is created due to the different gradation of light areas on a black background.

Mezzotint technique

flat print: lithography, monotype.

Lithography

Lithography is a printing method in which ink is transferred under pressure from a flat printing plate to paper. Lithography is based on the physico-chemical principle, which implies obtaining an impression from a completely smooth surface (stone), which, due to appropriate processing, acquires the property of accepting special lithographic ink in its individual sections.

Universitetskaya Embankment, 19th century, lithograph by Muller after a drawing by I. Charlemagne

Monotype

The term comes from mono... and Greek. τυπος - imprint. It's kind printed graphics, which consists in applying paints by hand on a perfectly smooth surface of the printing plate, followed by printing on the machine; the impression received on paper is always the only one, unique. In psychology and pedagogy, the monotype technique is used to develop the imagination of older preschool children.

Monotype
Everyone can master the technique of monotype. It is necessary to randomly apply paints (watercolors, gouache) on a smooth surface, then press this side to the paper. During the tear off of the sheet, the colors are mixed, which subsequently add up to a beautiful harmonious picture. Then your imagination begins to work, and on the basis of this picture you create your masterpiece.
The colors for the next composition are chosen intuitively. It depends on the state you are in. You can create a monotype with certain colors.
Screen printing: silkscreen techniques; cutout stencil.

silkscreen

A method of reproducing texts and inscriptions, as well as images (monochrome or color) using a screen printing plate, through which the ink penetrates onto the printed material.

I. Sh. Elgurt "Vezhraksala" (1967). silkscreen

Unique graphics

Unique graphics are created in a single copy (drawing, application, etc.).

Types of graphics by purpose

easel graphics

Picture is the basis of all types of fine arts. Without knowledge of the basics of academic drawing, an artist cannot competently work on a work of art.

Drawing can be performed as an independent work of graphics or serves as the initial stage for the creation of pictorial, graphic, sculptural or architectural designs.
Drawings are mostly created on paper. In the easel drawing, the entire set of graphic materials is used: a variety of crayons, paints applied with a brush and pen (ink, ink), pencils, graphite pencil and charcoal.

book graphics

It includes book illustrations, vignettes, splash screens, drop caps, covers, dust jackets, etc. Book graphics can also include magazine and newspaper graphics.
Illustration- a drawing, photograph, engraving or other image that explains the text. Illustrations for texts have been used since ancient times.
Hand-drawn miniatures were used in ancient Russian handwritten books. With the advent of printing, illustrations made by hand were replaced by engraving.
Some famous artists, in addition to their main occupation, they also turned to illustration (S. V. Ivanov, A. M. Vasnetsov, V. M. Vasnetsov, B. M. Kustodiev, A. N. Benois, D. N. Kardovsky, E. E. Lansere, V. A. Serov, M. V. Dobuzhinsky, V. Ya. Chambers.
For others, illustration was the basis of their work (Evgeny Kibrik, Lidia Ilyina, Vladimir Suteev, Boris Dekhterev, Nikolai Radlov, Viktor Chizhikov, Vladimir Konashevich, Boris Diodorov, Evgeny Rachev, and others).

(fr. vignette) - decoration in a book or manuscript: a small drawing or ornament at the beginning or at the end of the text.
Typically, vignettes are based on plant motifs, abstract images, or images of people and animals. The task of the vignette is to give the book an artistically designed look, i.e. this is the design of the book.

Vignettes
In Russia, the design of the text with vignettes was in great fashion in the modern era (vignettes by Konstantin Somov are known, Alexandra Benois, Evgenia Lansere).

dust jacket

Applied Graphics

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec "Moulin Rouge, La Goulue" (1891)
Poster- the main type of applied graphics. In modern forms, the poster took shape in the 19th century. as commercial and theatrical advertising (posters), and then began to perform the tasks of political agitation (posters by V. V. Mayakovsky, D. S. Moor, A. A. Deineka, etc.).

Posters by V. Mayakovsky

Computer graphics

In computer graphics, computers are used as a tool for creating images and for processing visual information obtained from the real world.
Computer graphics are divided into scientific, business, design, illustrative, artistic, advertising, computer animation, multimedia.

Yutaka Kagaya "Eternal Song" Computer graphics

Other types of graphics

Splint

Type of graphics, an image with a caption, characterized by simplicity and accessibility of images. Originally a kind of folk art. It was carried out in the technique of woodcuts, copper engravings, lithographs and was complemented by freehand coloring.
Lubok is characterized by simplicity of technique, laconism of visual means (a rough stroke, bright coloring). Lubok often contains a detailed narrative with explanatory inscriptions and additional (explanatory, complementary) images to the main one.

Letter graphics

The graphics of the letter form a special, independent area of ​​graphics.

Calligraphy(Greek calligraphia - beautiful writing) - the art of writing. Calligraphy brings writing closer to art. The peoples of the East, especially the Arabs, are considered unsurpassed masters in the art of calligraphy. The Koran forbade artists to portray living beings, so artists improved in ornaments and calligraphy. For the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, the hieroglyph was not only a written sign, but also a work of art at the same time. The text, written ugly, could not be considered perfect in content.

Sumi-e art(sumi-e) is a Japanese adaptation of a Chinese ink painting technique. This technique is most expressive due to brevity. Each brush stroke is expressive and significant. In sumi-e, a combination of simple and elegant is clearly manifested. The artist does not paint a specific subject, he depicts the image, the essence of this subject. Works in the sumi-e technique are devoid of excessive detail and give the viewer room for imagination.

Graphic art, or graphics (from the Greek "grapho" - I write, draw), is one of the types of fine arts.

In terms of content and form, tasks and methods, graphics have much in common with the art of painting. Both painting and graphics, unlike other types of fine arts (for example, sculpture, whose works are created in real volumes), have at their disposal a plane (canvas, paper, wall). Many generations of artists have developed methods and techniques that allow the painter and graphic artist to create an image on this plane that seems real. So, on a two-dimensional plane, an illusion of three-dimensionality is created, and this is one of the conventions inherent in pictorial and graphic art. There are a number of common features for graphics and painting. What, after all, distinguishes graphics from painting and from other types of fine arts?

A comparison of two works will help us to understand the originality of the art of graphics: a graphic one - a poster by D. S. Moor "Help" and a painting - a painting by S. V. Ivanov "On the Road. Death of a Settler". Both works are widely known and are among the best in our fine arts. But the visual means by which artists solve their problem are far from the same. Without going into too detailed an analysis of the works, we will try to understand what paths their authors went to the goal.

S.V. Ivanov tells about the great grief of the family of the migrant, who lost the owner-breadwinner, hope and support (ill. 1). The artist narrates in detail and consistently, without missing a single detail that allows him to reveal the idea more deeply. Having himself passed many difficult versts with the settlers, Ivanov greedily seeks to convey to them everything he saw and thought over. The artist persistently pursues his idea both in the color system of the picture, convincingly conveying the merciless heat of a summer day, and in the hopelessly dull landscape of the endless steppe, and in every human figure. The emotional structure of the picture is created not only by dramatic images of people, but also by reliable, meaningful details: a dark icon lying on the chest of a deceased, randomly scattered harness and simple belongings of a nomadic family, cart shafts lonely sticking out into the sky, etc. Figures of people, objects are painted with tangible materiality and volume, emphasized by short and sharp midday shadows. It is hardly necessary to add anything else, speaking of this wonderful picture. The artist created a courageous and revealing work, conveyed the harsh truth of peasant life in tsarist Russia.

Now let's turn to the product of the graph. D. Moor's poster was published in 1921. The young Soviet Republic, exhausted by a long civil war, in those years experienced another disaster: crop failure and famine that engulfed many provinces. The government called on all the people to help the starving. This call is embodied in the poster "Help" (ill. 2).

The poster is always distinguished by laconicism, stinginess of visual means. Moor deliberately limits the means of representation. Nothing superfluous, nothing distracting attention from the main thing: only the most important, only black and white. The lonely figure of the peasant is symbolic in the highest sense of the word; in it is the image of a distressed people. A white, almost ghostly silhouette, a clearly underlined skeleton in the drawing of arms and legs, gaping cavities of the eye sockets and mouth give the impression that death has already touched this person. The gesture of raised hands expresses an appeal, despair and last hope. Details in the poster

few, but especially expressive The solid black background of the poster is gloomy and terrible, like starvation; the only skinny and drooping ear of bread on this black background is a mournful sign of distress. Short, energetic inscription: "Help." Everything is said in one word. The image is decided deliberately flat, conditionally, since complex volumetric effects would only divert attention from the main thing. This poster, characterized by stinginess artistic means did its job perfectly. Such is the power of a somewhat restrained and conventional, but expressive and exact language charts.

Now let's move on to a more detailed description of the main features of the art of graphics.

First of all, graphics is an art based on drawing. Color in the art of graphics is used more limited than in painting. The main visual means of graphics are line, spot, chiaroscuro. These tools include the background, that is, the tone and color of the paper.

Let's take a closer look at these seemingly mean pictorial means. From a large number etchings by Rembrandt, we will choose at least three sheets: "Portrait of a mother" (ill. 3), "Landscape with three trees" and "Three crosses". See what a variety great artist uses a line (stroke). The most varied strokes: sometimes wide and dark, sometimes light and transparent, or even barely perceptible, like the thinnest cobweb; short and fractional, long and elastic, clear and smooth; strokes parallel, intersecting, intricately intertwined with each other, or simply dots - all this allows Rembrandt to solve a wide variety of tasks with a line. The portrait of the mother, warmed by the warmth of the heart, is soft and lyrical. The landscape is saturated with movement and permeated with light; in it, Rembrandt created a sublime, epic image of his native nature. Severe and courageous means solved a complex multi-figure dramatic scene in the Three Crosses. We see how flexible, varied and expressive the great master uses the line. And if we add to the expressiveness of the line an infinite variety of spots of various shapes, imagine that both lines and spots can be used in the finest tonal variations - from light and transparent to the deepest and darkest, then it becomes clear that rich visual means.

Using such an extensive arsenal of means, the artist achieves a very convincing transmission of light and space, the impression of the concreteness of the depicted, up to a sense of the nature of the materials (texture). skillfully using art form, subordinating the formal means to his will, directing them to the implementation of the idea, the artist creates a work that attracts viewers not only with its external side, but above all with its deep content. Looking at a work of graphic art, we often forget that we have a black and white image. Moreover, it often seems to us that we feel both color and movement - the impression of a perfect graphic work is so strong.

Often in an engraving or drawing, using contrasts of only black and white, the graph convincingly conveys a wide blinding stream of open direct light. But for painting - this is a task that is almost impossible.

In painting, color is the main visual means, and it is with the help of colored materials (paints) that an artistic image of the objective world is achieved. Color as one of the most essential features the environment around us is the basis of the art of painting. Numerous color combinations, its subtlest changes, its emotional impact and

is the most important means for the painter. The color (coloristic) possibilities of painting are extraordinarily diverse and allow solving very broad problems. It should be emphasized that color in painting is inextricably linked with drawing. Indeed, in reality, color is always inherent in specific objects, the shape of which is conveyed by the drawing. And the more perfect the painter's drawing, the more successfully he will solve color problems.

Graphics is limited in its color solutions and can never (and should not) compete in this respect with painting, imitate it and chase after the color richness available only to painting.

Recognizing drawing as the defining, leading principle of graphics, one cannot think that painting, color tasks are not characteristic of this type of art. The possibilities of the emotional impact of color, its properties are also used by graphics. But due to the special tasks of graphic art, the originality of graphic materials, color solutions in graphics differ significantly from color solutions in painting. Working with black material on white paper, the graphic artist distinguishes a lot of shades of black - from the warmest to the coldest. Paper is also almost never completely white, but always has a slight color cast. Graphics are not at all indifferent to what color to choose and what paper to work on in each individual case. Very often, an artist is attracted to a black and white image by only one color, which becomes especially significant, impressive. Involving two or three colors, rarely more, the chart is busy looking for the strength of each color, its most expressive arrangement, takes into account the interaction of neighboring colors, their possible overlap.

And what kind of art do many independent works created in the techniques of watercolor, gouache, pastel belong to? Such works obviously belong to the art of painting. Although they are executed on the "traditional" graphic material - paper, but they solve the same diverse and subtle color tasks, as, say, in oil painting. Watercolor, gouache and pastel, of course, are often used by the artist in graphic works, but with restraint, stinginess and conventionality inherent in graphics.

Let us dwell on the concepts of picturesqueness and graphic quality, which we often come across. When they talk about picturesqueness, they want to emphasize the richness of contrasts, the flexibility and variety of color and tonal relationships, which make it possible to get rid of the feeling of constraint, immobility in a work of art, to create the impression of liveliness, variability inherent in the world around us. In this sense, picturesqueness is characteristic of works of graphics, sculpture, and other forms of art. If they talk, for example, about the graphic quality of a painting, they mean a pronounced drawing, a clear separation of the elements of the picture from each other, as well as the predominance of mean, laconic color relationships.

Laconism, simplicity and clarity of pictorial language should be considered an essential and characteristic feature of graphic art. This is due to the peculiar tasks of graphics, the nature and properties of the materials at its disposal.

The next sign of graphic art is that the main material for creating and reproducing graphic works is paper.

The next characteristic property of graphic art is its closest connection with printing processes or printing reproduction. The so-called printing form, from which printing is made, can be created by the author himself (print) or photomechanically, by machine (poster, book and applied graphics). Consequently, the graphics have a happy opportunity for multiple repetition (circulation) of their works.

The most important qualities of graphic art are mass character, quick response to the demands put forward by life. Clarity, conciseness and expressiveness artistic language, availability, simplicity of materials, small size of works require relatively less time and effort to create a graphic artwork compared to other types of fine art. It is easy to see this at least in the following examples. In all periods of the life of modern society, graphics were the first to respond to the requirements of the time. In the harsh years of the Great Patriotic War the first "mobilized" from all the fine arts graphics. Literally on the second day of the war, posters, sharp political cartoons, drawings in newspapers appeared. Another example: a picture painted by a painter or a statue sculpted by a sculptor, the creation of which took a lot of time and effort, can appear in front of the viewer in the original only in one place, but graphics can be presented in the original in dozens, and if necessary, in hundreds. places. Moving works of painting and especially sculpture is difficult, cumbersome, and the distribution of graphic sheets is a very easy matter. Of all the visual arts, graphics lose their artistic merit least of all in reproduction, when photographing, and a significant part of the graphics is directly designed for printing reproduction.

Efficiency and multiplicity, clarity and expressiveness of the language make graphics a combative, widely democratic and most popular form of fine art. It is not for nothing that graphics have been and remain a powerful weapon in the ideological struggle. The angry, revealing etchings of Goya or the lithographs of Daumier are a political action of brave and courageous people against the reaction.

Graphics is the oldest of all fine arts. The first graphic images arose at the earliest stages of development human society during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Even before the ancient man turned to experiments in sculpture and painting, he created the first drawings that laid the foundation for the art of graphics. These images that have come down to us are usually scratched on the rocks, on the walls of caves, on bone plates. Such images are preserved on household tools, on weapons. These drawings not only recorded any events around the world, but for a long time served as a means of communication between people, replacing writing. So, with the help of various images, primitive man expressed his thought. Such drawings (cryptograms) contained certain concepts and narratives. Gradually, with the development of speech, such drawings began to designate not only phrases, but individual syllables, sounds. Their inscription changed until it took the form of letters familiar to us.

For a long time, graphic images had almost no independent meaning and were the decoration of certain objects. With the advent of writing, graphics began to be increasingly used in handwritten books, parchments, letters to decorate and clarify the text. And the very creation of fonts is a great art. It is enough to look, for example, at ancient Slavic manuscripts to understand that real artists worked on them. The art of handwriting, or calligraphy, has received an unusually wide development in China. Reproduction methods graphic images a person did not know for a long time, and all works were created in a single copy. Behind the emergence certain types graphics, graphic techniques and their development, we will follow when we get acquainted with them.

So, the distinguishing features, the main features of the art of graphics are as follows: graphics - a type of fine art, the basis of which is drawing; the main visual means of graphics are line, spot, chiaroscuro; color in graphics is used more limitedly and conditionally than in painting; the pictorial language of graphics is characterized by stinginess, conciseness in the use of artistic means; the main material on which graphic works are performed and reproduced is paper; a significant part of graphic art is closely connected with printing, reproduction or reproduction of works; the creation of works in graphics requires relatively less time than in other fine arts; the relative simplicity of technique, the fluidity of materials, the laconicism and precision of the artistic language make graphics an operational art, and the possibility widespread- the most widespread form of fine art.

Modern graphic art is divided into four main groups: easel graphics, book graphics, posters, and applied graphics. Following this system, let us now turn to a more detailed acquaintance with each of the types of graphics, simultaneously studying, as far as possible within the limits of the essay, graphic techniques, their history and creative process.

Although the word itself has Greek roots and means "I write", "I draw". In our time, it is an independent and multifaceted species, which has its own genres and canons.

Types of graphic art

According to their purpose, graphic works are divided into the following types:

• Easel graphics. As an art form, it is close to painting, as it conveys the vision and emotional world of the artist. Moreover, the master achieves this not due to the variety of the palette of colors and various techniques for applying them to the canvas, but with the help of lines, strokes, spots and paper tones.
• Applied graphics as a form of fine art. Examples of it surround us everywhere, it has a specific purpose. For example, the illustration of books helps the reader to perceive its content more easily, posters and posters carry knowledge or advertising information. This also includes product labels, stamps, cartoons and many others.

Any kind of fine art (graphics, pictures are no exception) begins with a sketch of a drawing. All artists use it as the first step before writing the main canvas. It is in it that a projection of the position of the painting object in space is created, which is subsequently transferred to the canvas.

Graphic drawing

Graphics, like graphics of any direction, begin with a drawing, like canvases in painting. For graphic drawing, paper is used, most often white, although options are possible.

his main hallmark is the contrast of two or more colors - black, white, gray. Other types of contrasts are possible, but even if the master uses a black pencil on white paper, the shades of the strokes are rich in variety from soft black to deep black.

Emotionally strong are drawings in black and white with the addition of one. It attracts the eye, and the focus of the viewer's eye is focused on a bright spot. Such graphics as a kind of fine art (the photo shows this very clearly) becomes an associative work when a bright accent evokes personal memories in the viewer.

Tools for creating a graphic drawing

The simplest and most affordable means are graphite pencils and a regular ballpoint pen. Also, masters like to use ink, charcoal, pastel, watercolor and sanguine.

The graphite pencil is the most popular tool. This is a wooden or metal case, in which either a greyish-black graphite rod is inserted, or a colored one, in which dyes are added.

Pastel pencils do not have a body, but their colors can be mixed to create new shades.

The ink has a rich black color, easily falls on paper, and is used for calligraphy, drafting and drawing. It can be applied with a pen or brush. To obtain various shades of black, ink is diluted with water.

Graphics as an art form has not bypassed such a tool as coal. Charcoal has been used for drawing since ancient times, and in the 19th century art charcoal was created from compressed coal powder and adhesive materials.

Modern masters of graphics also use felt-tip pens with a rod of different thickness.

Printed graphics

This is not all types used in printing.

book graphics

This type of fine art includes the following:

• Book miniature. An ancient way to design manuscripts, which was used in Ancient Egypt. In the Middle Ages, religious motifs were the main theme of miniatures, and secular subjects began to appear only from the 15th century. The main materials used by the miniature masters are gouache and watercolor.
• The design of the cover is the transfer of the emotional message of the book, its main theme. Here, the font, the size of the letters, and the pattern corresponding to its name should be harmonious. The cover presents the reader not only the author of the work, his work, but also the publishing house and the designer himself.
• Illustrations are used as an addition to the book, helping to create visual pictures for the reader for a more accurate perception of the text. This graphics as an art form originated in the days of printing, when manual miniatures were replaced by engravings. A person encounters illustrations in the earliest childhood, when he still cannot read, but learns fairy tales and their heroes through pictures.

Book graphics as a form of visual art in preschool education is learned through illustrated books that carry information in pictures for the youngest children, and through text with explanatory images for older children.

Poster as an art form

Another representative of graphic art is the poster. Its main function is to convey information using a short phrase with an image that enhances it. According to the scope of the posters are:

The poster is one of the most common types of graphics.

Applied Graphics

Another type of graphic art is the design of labels, envelopes, stamps and covers for videos and music discs.

• The label is a kind of industrial graphics, the main purpose of which is to give the maximum about the product with the minimum size of the image. When creating a label, the color scheme is taken into account, which should cause the viewer to like and trust the product.
• Covers for discs carry the maximum information about the film or musical group, passing it through the picture.
• The graphic design of stamps and envelopes has a long history. The plots for them are most often the events taking place in different countries, the world around and big holidays. Stamps can be issued as separate copies, as well as whole series, united by a single theme.

The stamp is perhaps the most common type of graphic art that has become a collector's item.

Modern graphics

With the advent of computer technology, a new kind of graphic art began to develop - computer graphics. It is used to create and correct graphic images on a computer. Along with its emergence, new professions appeared, for example, a computer graphics designer.