easel art- a kind of fine arts, the works of which are of an independent nature and do not have a direct decorative or utilitarian purpose (in painting - paintings; in graphics - prints, easel drawings and popular prints). The name comes from the machine (easel, sculpture machine), on which many works are created. Easel graphics, depending on the nature of the technique, are divided into two types: print and drawing. An engraving is an impression on paper. The main forms of existence of easel graphics are museum and exhibition collections and expositions.

Easel graphics - a kind of graphic art, the works of which:

• independent in purpose and form;
• not included in book or album ensembles;
• are not included in the context of the street or public interior;
• have no application.

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.

G. Holbein.
Portrait of Thomas Eliot.
Around 1530. Drawing

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. An example is the portrait drawings of the artist G. Holbein the Younger.

Most of these drawings are made as studies for picturesque portraits, but they are given such vivid human characters and their professional skill is so great that it is difficult to find anything equal in the art of drawing.

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 makes it an independent and significant work.

Charcoal is the favorite medium of many artists. The charcoal drawing is usually done 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

I. Repin. L. N.
Tolstoy at work.
1891. Pencil

K. Kollwitz.
Domestic worker.
1906. Coal

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.

W. Van Gogh. Landscape. Feather

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. For example, Van Gogh's landscape, made with a steel pen with a predominance of short strokes in different directions, allowed the artist to express different objects, their texture and the space connecting them.

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 a whole gamut of wonderful feelings in a person's soul, make them feel the diversity and 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 a bird, the flight of clouds in the sky. 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. 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.

Xu Bei-hong.
A fast galloping horse.
1930s. ink

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. famous work Xu Bei-hong "Fast galloping horse" due to high skill and perfect mastery of technique, a complex movement is simply, freely and confidently conveyed

Easel works are performed not only in any one technique. Very often graphics in one work combine two, three or even more different techniques, which expands the creative possibilities and enriches the artist's pictorial resources. Often, easel works are made with black material using color.

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, Van Dyck, Rubens, French artists Watteau, Fragonard, Ingres, Daumier and many artists of various countries of the world.

Of the Russian artists of the past, such masters of drawing as O. A. Kiprensky, A. A. Ivanov, I. E. Repin, V. A. Serov, P. A. Fedotov, 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, N. A. Tyrsa, D. A. Shmarinov, V. V. Lebedev, N. N. Zhukov, G. Reindorf, A.F. Pakhomov, B.I. Prorokov, O.G. Vereisky, and many others.

"Graphic arts(Greek γραφικος - “written”, from Greek γραφω - “I write”) - view visual arts, which uses lines, strokes, spots and dots as the main visual means. (Color can also be used, but, unlike painting, it plays an auxiliary role here. When drawing graphics, they usually use no more than one color (except for the main black), in in rare cases, two). In addition to the contour line in graphic art, a stroke and a spot are widely used, also contrasting with the white (and in other cases also colored, black, or less often textured) paper surface - the main basis for graphic works. A combination of the same means can create tonal nuances. The most common distinguishing feature of graphics is the special relation of the depicted object to space, the role of which is largely played by the background of the paper (in the words of the Soviet master of graphics V. A. Favorsky, “the air of a white sheet”).

By technique Graphic arts ( view will depict. Art) is divided into drawing and printed Graphics (a type of fine art) The most ancient and traditional type of graphic art is drawing, the origins of which can be seen in primitive rock carvings and in ancient vase painting, where the image is based on line and silhouette. The tasks of drawing have much in common with painting, and the boundaries between them are arbitrary: watercolor, gouache, pastel, tempera can be used to create both graphic and pictorial works in character and style. Drawing brings together painting and its uniqueness, while works of printed graphics (a type of fine art) - engravings and lithographs - can be distributed in many equivalent copies. The engraving is known from the 6th-7th centuries. in China, from the 14th-15th centuries. in Europe, lithography arose only by the 19th century. Before the advent of photomechanical reproduction, printed graphics (a type of fine art) served to reproduce paintings and drawings.

Modern graphics

History of occurrence

The most ancient and traditional type of graphic art is drawing, the origins of which can be seen in primitive rock carvings and in ancient vase painting, where the image is based on line and silhouette. The tasks of drawing have a lot in common with painting, and the boundaries between them are mobile and largely arbitrary: watercolor, gouache, pastel and tempera can be used both to create graphic works themselves and paintings in style and nature. Graphic art includes both drawing itself and printed works of art (engraving, lithography, etc.), based on the art of drawing, but having their own visual means and expressive possibilities. In graphics, along with completed compositions, sketches from nature, sketches for works of painting, sculpture, architecture (drawings by Michelangelo, L. Bernini in Italy, O. Rodin in France, Rembrandt in Holland, V. I. Bazhenov in Russia) have independent artistic value. . Lacking such a volume of fullness of possibilities as painting, in creating a spatial illusion of the real world, graphics with great freedom and flexibility vary the degree of spatiality and flatness; for graphic works, thoroughness of volume-spatial construction, thoroughness in developing the finest elements of texture and revealing the structure of an object can be characteristic.

The heritage of graphic art is diverse. It is marked by the works of such world famous masters as Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Francisco Goya (1746-1828), Gustave Doré (1832-1883), Japanese artists Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), Hiroshige Ando (1797-1858) and engraver and draftsman Hokusai Katsushika (1760-1849), whose work had a significant impact on European art late XIX- the beginning of the XX century.

Of the modern masters of graphics, the most famous is the Dutch artist Maurice Escher, who was one of the first to depict fractals and became famous after the publication of the book “Grafiek en Tekeningen”, in which he himself commented on 76 of his best works. Stochastic fractals are contained in fractal monotype (stochatypy), which is especially characteristic of Lea Livshitz's painting.

Graphics happens:

Depending on the purpose of the schedule, it is divided into several types.

easel graphics (easel drawing, print, popular print)

Easel graphics - a kind of graphic art, the works of which: - are independent in purpose and form; - not included in book or album ensembles; - are not included in the context of the street or public interior; - have no application. The main types of easel graphics are: easel drawing and easel sheet of printed graphics (print). The main forms of existence of easel graphics are museum and exhibition collections and expositions.

book graphics (illustrations, vignettes, splash screens, drop caps, cover, dust jacket, etc.)

Book graphics is one of the types of graphic art. This includes, in particular, book illustrations, vignettes, headpieces, drop caps, covers, dust jackets, etc. The history of drawing has been largely associated with the handwritten book since antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the development of engraving and lithography has been connected with the printed book. AT ancient world a font appeared, also related to graphics, since the letter itself is a graphic sign.

Magazine and newspaper graphics Journal (from French journal) - a printed periodical. In accordance with GOST 7.60-2003 "Printed publications" "a periodical journal publication with a permanent heading and containing articles or abstracts on various socio-political, scientific, industrial and other issues, literary and artistic works"

Like a newspaper, a magazine is one of the main mass media and propaganda, it influences public opinion, shaping it in accordance with the interests of certain ideological groups, social classes, political parties, and organizations. With the advent of computer layout technologies and the spread of commercial printing houses with the possibility of full-color printing in Russia at the end of the 20th - beginning of the 21st century, magazines became the main advertising medium for premium and luxury goods. As a rule, they are addressed to strictly defined groups of readers and are either world and all-Russian publications or advertising catalogs.

With the advent of the Internet, magazines began to appear online. First, archives of printed publications began to be posted on websites, and later online magazines began to appear. They did not come out in print, but existed exclusively on the Internet. Now some of them have an audience several times larger than similar printed publications.

Types of magazines:

Magazines, like newspapers, are classified: by periodicity - there are no daily magazines, only weekly and monthly ones, as well as those published every two months or less often; by format; by topic; by the nature of the presentation of information (style). Features of magazines Due to the fact that magazines are published less often than newspapers, they are characterized by low efficiency in providing information, but they have more opportunities for detailed analysis of events, reflections, summing up, etc.

Computer graphics Computer graphics (also computer graphics) is a field of activity in which computers are used both as a tool for synthesizing (creating) images and for processing visual information received from the real world. Computer graphics is also called the result of such an activity.

Miniature (book graphic variant) Miniature (from lat. minium - red paints used in the design of handwritten books) - in the visual arts, paintings, sculptural and graphic works of small forms, as well as the art of their creation.

Miniature forms are depicted as |pictograms]], banners, etc.).

Miniature painting is also common in the east. In India, during the Mughal Empire, the Rajasthani miniature became widespread. It was a synthesis of joint creativity of Indian and Persian masters.

Industrial Graphics Industrial graphics, a kind of applied artistic graphics. P. g. serves the sphere of production and marketing of industrial products (trade labels, brand names, packaging, publishing marks; advertising publications - catalogs, booklets, brochures, etc.) and the sphere of production management (business papers - letterheads, envelopes, etc.) . In terms of its tasks, P. advertising is closely related to commercial and industrial advertising, often being its integral part. Fonts, ornaments, various drawn (mostly symbolic) and photographic images, and color and printing solutions play an equally important role in the works of modern graphic art. P. g. comes from hallmarks and trademarks known from ancient times. In the process of development of commodity-money relations, it was formed as a special area artistic activity subject to the development of production and the market. P. g. finally took shape at the end of the 19th century, when teams of professional artists began to emerge, specializing in advertising, packaging design, etc. The first attempts to create a single corporate identity, covering both industrial buildings and products, and elements of P. g. (works by P. Behrens). The style development of P. g. is closely connected with common development plastic arts. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. characteristic of the "modern" desire to aesthetically saturate surrounding a person The subject environment was determined by the rapid development of P. g. within this style, in the 1920s. In the 1930s and 1940s, the influence of functionalism manifested itself in P. g. eclectic tendencies were often strong. Modern foreign P. g. is often included in the system artistic design(the so-called design graphics), widely using design methods typical for it; the focus on collective creativity prevails with a tendency to depersonalize the artist-performer. Special artistic bureaus are engaged in the production of art: developments created by order of firms go only under the brand name of these bureaus, while the performing artists remain, as a rule, nameless.

In pre-revolutionary Russia, painting did not develop into an independent field of creative activity; imitation of foreign models dominated. After the October Revolution of 1917, new Soviet state emblems were created, as well as samples of paperwork for institutions and industrial enterprises. In the 20s - early 30s. L. M. Lissitzky, A. M. Rodchenko, V. V. Mayakovsky, and others played an important role in the development of Soviet paving. E. E. Lansere worked in the P. region, and Kukryniksy in the 1940s. Since the late 1950s exhibitions of P. g. are arranged; in some republican unions of artists, subsections have been created that unite professional artists working in the area of ​​P. g.

And some other types of graphics.

Like manifestations mass culture specific types of graphics are in easel printed graphics - lubok, and in newspaper and magazine - caricature. A relatively young area of ​​graphics is also the poster, which took shape in modern forms in the 19th century. as a type of commercial and theatrical advertising (posters by J. Cheret, A. Toulouse-Lautrec, and then began to perform the tasks of political agitation (posters by V. V. Mayakovsky, D. S. Moor, A. A. Deineka in the USSR and T. Trepkovsky - in Poland).

Depending on the method of execution and the possibilities of replication, graphics are divided into unique and printed. Unique graphics - the creation of works in a single copy (drawing, watercolor, monotype, appliqué, etc.). Printed graphics (engraving) - the creation of printing forms, from which you can get several prints.

Optical illusions in graphics

Moritz Escher

Moritz Escher is a Dutch graphic artist. He is best known for his conceptual lithographs and engravings, in which he masterfully explored the plastic aspects of the concepts of infinity and symmetry, as well as the features of the psychological perception of complex three-dimensional objects.

DRIVING TO FALL

Escher had a slight mental disorder - he experienced a painful attraction to fall. When looking up, at a tower, a mountain, or an endless vertical, Escher fell into an ecstatic stupor. Many of his biographers and friends recall this. A pathological love for heights gave rise to his unique style of writing - whatever Escher portrayed, it was a violation of the obvious, falling down, turning inside out, mocking the forces of gravity and curvature of the spinal space.

The plots of Escher's "classical" works ("Drawing Hands", "Metamorphoses", "Day and Night", "Reptiles", "Meeting", "House with Stairs", etc.) are characterized by a witty understanding of logical and plastic paradoxes. In combination with virtuoso technique, this makes a strong impression. Many of Escher's graphic and conceptual finds became symbols of the 20th century and subsequently were repeatedly reproduced or "cited" by other artists.

Drawing hands

METAMORPHOSIS

One of the most outstanding aspects of Escher's work is the depiction of "metamorphoses", which appear in various forms in a variety of works. The artist explores in detail the gradual transition from one geometric figure to another, through minor changes in outlines. In addition, Escher repeatedly painted metamorphoses that occur with living beings (birds turn into fish, etc.) and even “animate” inanimate objects during metamorphosis, turning them into living beings.

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 the computer. Along with its emergence, new professions appeared, for example, a computer graphics designer.

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. For a long time, people did not know how to reproduce graphic images, 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.

Graphic arts(Greek graphike, from grapho - I write), a type of fine art that includes drawing and different kinds printed graphics images based on the art of drawing, but with their own visual means and expressive possibilities.

Graphics is an ancient type of fine art. Drawings by ancient artists on the walls of caves; ornaments and drawings on ancient Greek vases; engravings and drawings of outstanding masters of the Renaissance - all this is beautiful graphics. In Russia, graphics in the form of ornaments and illustrations adorned handwritten and early printed books, and in the form of entertaining and cheerful engravings - folk prints painted with watercolors, adorned the homes of peasants and artisans.

By purpose, easel, book, newspaper and magazine, applied graphics and posters are distinguished.

easel graphics

Easel art is a kind of fine arts, the works of which are independent in nature and do not have a direct decorative or utilitarian purpose (in painting - paintings; in graphics - prints, easel drawings and popular prints). The name comes from the machine (easel, sculpture machine), on which many works are created.

Easel graphics, depending on the nature of the technique, are divided into two types: print and drawing. An engraving is an impression on paper. The main forms of existence of easel graphics are museum and exhibition collections and expositions.

book graphics includes illustrations (performing tasks of interpretation literary works), creating a font pattern, general design and layout of the book.

Depending on the size and location in the book, illustrations are divided into: - frontispiece, headpiece and ending; - half-page, strip and centerfold illustrations, which are respectively located on half a page, on the whole page and on two pages; - defense illustrations; - drawings in the fields.

Newspaper and magazine graphics- illustrations, design and design of printed publications, a specific mass form - caricature.

Along with the traditional, drawn or printed, but one way or another arising at the hand of the artist, computer graphics appeared. Computer graphics- technology for creating and processing graphic images by means of computer technology.

Forms a separate, independent region Letter graphics(epigraphy, font art, calligraphy).

According to the method of execution and the possibilities of reproduction (replication) of a graphic work, unique and printed Graphics are distinguished.

Unique Graphics- drawing watercolor, gouache, monotype, collage and other ways of creating a composition using various materials, resulting in a graphic work as a single, inimitable sample.

Printed Graphics makes it possible to obtain a certain circulation of relatively equivalent, identical works of art- prints from a board, from a metal plate, from a stone, a sheet of linoleum or other base, on which the corresponding pattern is applied (mirror in relation to the print).

Depending on the material, on the technical method of its processing (engraving), there are such varieties (“techniques”) of printed graphics: woodcut, linocut, zincography, lithography, engraving on cardboard, engraving with a chisel on copper, etching, mezzotint, aquatint, drypoint and others, sometimes appearing in pure form, sometimes as mixed media, both in black and white and in color.

Printing is used in applied graphics, posters, and book illustrations. The printing form is made from the original, made by the artist, photomechanically, by machine. In easel graphics for prints, the printing plate is created by the artist himself, so a number of copies of genuine works of art of the same artistic value are obtained, completely preserving the live and direct imprint of the author's creative work. The very process of creating a printing plate from any solid material - wood, metal, linoleum - is called engraving (from the French word graver - cut). The drawing is created by cutting, scratching with some sharp tool - a needle, a cutter. Graphic works printed from an engraving printing plate are called engravings.

Types of engraving:

Flat engraving - drawing and background are on the same level;

Convex engraving - paint covers the surface of the drawing - the drawing is above the background level;

Recessed engraving - paint fills the depressions, drawing below the background level.

Depending on the material from which the printing plate is created, there are different engraving types:

Lithography - the surface of a stone (limestone) is a printing form. The stone is very smoothly polished and degreased. The image is applied to the lithographic stone with a special oily lithographic ink or pencil. The stone is wetted with water, then the paint is rolled, adhering only to the previously applied pattern. Lithography was invented in 1798.

Algraphia is a flat print, the execution technique is similar to lithography, but an aluminum plate is used instead of a stone.

Woodcut - woodcut, cut with a special cutter. The paint rolls onto the plane of the original board. When printing on paper, the areas cut out by the cutter remain white. The prints are a contour drawing with thick black lines.

Linocut - engraving on linoleum. The technique is very close to woodcuts. Linoleum is an inexpensive, affordable material. Linocuts are simpler to perform compared to woodcuts due to the synthetic origin of the material used (uniformity, the absence of artificial fibers interfering with the cutter).

Metal engraving is performed on zinc, copper, iron, steel. Metal engraving is divided into printing with etching and without etching. There are a large number of techniques for this type of engraving - the drypoint technique (the closest to the author's graphics, as it does not have a large circulation), mezzotint ("black print"), etching, aquatint, soft varnish (or tear varnish).

Etching - from the French eau-forte - nitric acid. The drawing is scratched with an engraving needle in a layer of acid-resistant varnish covering a metal plate. The scratched places are etched with acid, and the resulting in-depth image is filled with paint and printed on paper.

Dry Needle - drawing is applied directly to the metal, by scratching strokes on the surface of the metal board with the tip of a hard needle.

Mezzotint is a type of in-depth engraving in which the surface of a metal board is roughened by a cutter, giving a solid black background when printed. The sections of the board corresponding to the bright places of the picture are scraped, smoothed, polished.

Aquatint is an engraving method based on acid etching of the surface of a metal plate coated with asphalt or rosin dust and with an image applied with an acid-repellent varnish with a brush. It has a huge number of shades from black to white.

Depending on his ideas, the artist is free to choose different engraving techniques. The printing form is made from the original, made by the artist, photomechanically, by machine. In easel graphics for prints, the printing plate is created by the artist himself, so a number of copies of genuine works of art of the same artistic value are obtained, completely preserving the live and direct imprint of the author's creative work.

More accessible in execution is easel drawing (drawing is not one of the artistic means of fine art, but as an auxiliary work). The drawing is performed by the artist directly on a sheet of paper with some graphic material - pencil, charcoal, ink, sanguine, watercolor, gouache.

main graphic tool- drawing (plasticity - in sculpture, color - in painting). Drawing - an image made by hand. By eye, using graphic tools: contour line, stroke and spot. Drawing (as an artistic and expressive means) is used in all types of fine arts, but in graphics it is used in a purer form. The drawing demonstrates the character, temperament, mood of the artist. The drawing is usually black and white, in some cases in color. There are numerous varieties of drawing, differing in drawing methods, themes and genres, technique and nature of execution.

Drawing - an image made by hand. By eye, using graphic tools: contour line, stroke and spot. There are numerous varieties of drawing, differing in drawing methods, themes and genres, technique and nature of execution.

Graphic Expressiveness- contour line, stroke, contour, spot (sometimes color), background of a sheet (usually white paper), with which the image forms a contrast or nuance ratio. Color in graphics, unlike painting, often plays a supporting role.

Graphics gravitate towards monochrome, most often extracting artistic expressiveness from a combination of two colors: white (or another shade of the base) and black (or some other color of the coloring pigment).

The stylistic means of graphics are diverse: from quick, direct, quickly executed sketches, sketches, sketches to carefully designed compositions - pictorial, decorative, type.

Graphics materials varied, but, as a rule, the basis is a paper sheet. The color and texture of the paper play a big role. Paper - predetermines classic role white background, on which lines and spots acquire significant expressiveness; at the same time, a monochrome image on a contrasting white background forms a special aesthetic system, which makes it possible to characterize graphics as the art of "white and black". But this does not at all exclude rich polychromy or highlighting of the planes, depending on the artist's creative intent and the choice of materials (colored paper, colored pencils, watercolor, etc.).

The most common distinguishing feature of graphics is the special relation of the depicted object to space, the role of which is largely played by the background of the paper. A spatial sensation is created not only by areas of the sheet not occupied by the image, but often (for example, in watercolor drawings) and the background of the paper that appears under the colorful layer.

Drawing techniques:

Pen - used for drawing with liquid dyes (ink, ink, watercolor). Depending on the shape of the pen tip, various lines and strokes are obtained, making it possible to convey big shape, and draw the smallest details. Drawings made with a pen are difficult to correct, as the dye solution penetrates deep into the structure of the paper. Feather technique requires the artist to be very collected, accurate, self-discipline.

Charcoal is an extremely soft, pliable material with a beautiful matte texture. It is made from evenly burnt thin branches or planed sticks of linden, willow or other tree species. Hard charcoal from pressed charcoal powder with the addition of a rough surface with a stick of drawing charcoal is common, they do not adhere well to paper and crumble. Finished drawings made with loose charcoal need to be fixed with a special fixative solution. Unlike natural drawing charcoal, compressed charcoal sticks produce greasy, viscous lines that are very difficult to remove. The technique of drawing with charcoal is diverse, since charcoal can draw thin, clear lines, and cover entire surfaces with the side.

Sanguina - rimless sticks of various red-brown tones. Unlike natural, artificial sanguine is made from kaolin and iron oxides. Sharpened sanguine sticks give fine lines and strokes. Like coal, sanguine can be worked with the end of a stick and flat. It is well rubbed with various shadings, rubber bands and thin emery skins. When rubbed, sanguine changes color and texture somewhat, but these qualities can also be used as new ones. means of expression in the drawing. The sanguine technique makes it possible to achieve subtle tonal transitions. The most commonly used warm red-brown tone. Close to physical. During operation, the sanguine stick can be wetted, which will allow for a greater variety of stroke thickness and density. The disadvantages of sanguine include the difficulty in conveying the depth of shadows.

Pastels are dry, soft, rimless colored crayons made from pressed, powdered pigments with the addition of glue, milk, chalk and plaster. Pastels are characterized by a matte texture, purity, softness of colors, which, as a rule, retain their original freshness for a long time. Drawing with colored crayons brings graphics closer to painting. Pastel pencils (sticks) draw on rough paper, cardboard. The delicate, velvety surface of the pastel must be protected from the slightest touch and shaking. In order to preserve the drawings made in pastel, they are not fixed with a fixative (this causes the pastel to lose its velvety and purity of color), but are carefully edged and glazed in a frame. "Pure pastel" is done with strokes and spots in one paint layer. But pastel colors can be mixed by applying one layer to another and rubbing them with shading or by hand.

The sauce is fatty black cylindrical sticks 8-10 mm in diameter, wrapped in rimless steel paper, made from compressed powder, soot or coal with the addition of glue. You can work with a line, strokes, spots using rubbing (dry sauce) and sauce dissolved in water with a brush (wet sauce). In drawing with sauce in a wet way, as in painting, pointed and flat brushes are used from fat-free calcined hair or wool of various animals - squirrel, badger, kolinsky and others. On the verge of painting and graphics is not only pastel technique, but also watercolor and gouache technique.

Watercolor - paints, usually on vegetable glue, diluted with water. Its main qualities are the transparency of colors, through which the tone and texture of the base (mainly paper, less often silk, ivory) shines through, the purity of color. Watercolor combines the features of graphics (the active role of paper in constructing an image and in conveying an artistic image) and painting (rich tone, building form and space with color). Specific watercolor techniques are blurring and streaks, which create the effect of movement and trembling of the image. Watercolors done with a brush often include pen or pencil drawings. Watercolor is combined with whitewash, gouache, tempera, pastel and other materials.

Gouache - paints consisting of finely ground pigments with a water-adhesive binder (gum arabic, wheat starch) and an admixture of white. Gouache is usually used to work on a variety of substrates - paper, cardboard, linen, silk. Gouache originated as a kind of watercolor, when white was mixed with water-based paints to achieve the density of the paint layer. In terms of technique, gouache is closer to watercolors, and in terms of artistic impact - to pastels. Currently, gouache is used to make original posters, book and applied graphics, sketches and decorative works. Colorful materials and techniques are determined by the type of graphics.

The main differences between graphics and painting:

Graphics (especially drawing, lithography) gives the artist more freedom than painting, due to the simplicity and accessibility of technology, the ability to work quickly, reflecting instantaneous emotional experiences;

Graphics are mainly illustrative, they are more decorative (often used to create illustrations for books, cartoons, etc.).

V.M. Ivanushkina, senior teacher