Graphics and its types
Art is one of the most important and interesting phenomena in the life of society, an integral part of human activity, which plays a significant role in the development of not only an individual, but also society. The essence of art is determined by the fact that it represents the most complete and effective form of aesthetic awareness of the surrounding world. Of course, art had to take various forms in order to embody all the ideas, thoughts, feelings of people not in the form of abstract concepts, but in a very concrete form. For this, art has a special, only inherent means - an artistic image. With the help of artistic images, art conveys ideas in the unity of content and sensual forms. However, the artistic image appears completely different in different types of art. Each art form has its own speciality, sets its own tasks and creates its own means and techniques to solve them. All the arts have their own language and a certain originality of artistic possibilities. In this work, I will try to reflect as accurately as possible the features of creating an artistic image in the art of graphics.
Firstly, graphics refers to spatial (plastic) arts, that is, a graphic work of art has a specific material carrier and does not need a temporary component as temporary arts that develop over time (music, artistic word).
Secondly, graphics belong to the visual arts, that is, it reflects reality in visual, visually perceived images, in which the forms of reality itself are recognized and, thanks to the method of generalization, typification, imagination of the artist, it is possible to aesthetically reveal the temporal development of events, spiritual appearance, experiences, thoughts, relationships of people, to embody social ideas (in in contrast to architecture, which does not depict the surrounding world, but creates its own world, unlike the reality given to us by nature).
Graphics can be divided into three types:
monumental - closely related to the architectural ensemble, for example, a poster (monumental printed graphics), wall graphics, cardboard;
machine tool - performed “on the machine”, which has no connection with a certain interior, the purpose and meaning of the work is completely exhausted by the artistic content (drawing, print, splint);
decorative - book illustrations, postcards, any graphic images on any object that do not have a special artistic value, but serve to organize the surface of the object. Also decorative graphics include floristry - compositions created with the help of down trees, straw and other “living” materials.
The specifics of the art of graphics is drawing.
Drawing (as an artistic and expressive means), although it is used in all types of fine art, but in graphics it is the leading, defining beginning and is used in a purer form. Therefore, drawing can be considered the main means of graphics (as plastic - in sculpture, color - in painting).
The word “graphics” itself originates from the Greek grapho - I write, I draw. The drawing demonstrates the character, temperament, mood of the artist. The language of graphics is based mainly on the expressive possibilities of a line, a stroke, a spot (sometimes color), the background of the base (usually a sheet of paper - white or tinted) with which the image forms a contrasting or nuanced ratio. Despite the fact that color in graphics is of great importance, but it is still used more limited than in painting. Graphics tend to be 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).
Easel graphics : print and drawing
Print - from the French estamper - stamp, print - print on paper. The initial image is not made directly on paper, but on a plate of some solid material, from which the drawing is then printed, stamped using a press. At the same time, it is possible to get not one copy of the impression, but many, that is, to replicate the graphic image. Printing is also used in applied graphics, posters, book illustrations. But there the printed form is made from the original, made by the artist, photomechanical, by machine. In the easel graphics for the print, the printed form is created by the artist himself, so a number of copies of authentic works of art of the same artistic value are obtained, completely preserving the living and non-direct imprint of the creative work of the author.
The process of creating a printed form 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 chisel. Graphic works printed from an engraving printing plate are called engravings.
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;
in-depth engraving - the paint fills the indentations, the drawing is below the background level.
Lithography- the printed form is the surface of a stone (limestone). The stone is very smoothly polished and degreased. The image is applied to the lithographic stone with a special bold lithographic ink or pencil. The stone is wetted with water, then the paint rolls, sticking only to the previously applied pattern. Lithography was invented in 1798. In the 19th century, it became widespread in easel and socio-critical magazine graphics. (French artist Honoré Daumier: “Lower the curtain, the farce is played” 1834, “Transnonen Street, April 15, 1834” 1834, from 1837 to 1851. - approximately 30 lithographic series - “Robert Manners", “Parisian types", “Respectable bourgeois", “Figures of Justice".)
Algraphy - flat printing, the technique of execution is similar to lithography, but an aluminum plate is used instead of a stone.
Woodcut - woodcut, cut with a special chisel. 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. Woodcut appeared in the Middle Ages due to the need for printing. (German artists Albrecht Durer: “Four Horsemen” 1498 and Hans Holbein Jr. series of engravings “Images of death” 1524-1525)
Linocut - engraving on linoleum. The technique is very close to woodcut. Linoleum is an inexpensive, affordable material. Linocuts are simpler in execution 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 etched and non-etched printing. There are a large number of techniques of this type of engraving - dry needle technique (closest to the author's graphics, since 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 the metal plate. The scratched places are etched with acid, and the resulting in-depth image is filled with paint and printed on paper. (French artist Jacques Callot: series “Great disasters of war” 1633, series “Inferior” 1622.)
Dry needle - the drawing is applied directly to the metal by scratching the strokes on the surface of the metal board with the tip of a hard needle.
Mezzo-tinto - from the Italian mezzo - medium and tinto - colored. A kind of in-depth engraving in which the surface of a metal board is roughened by a lapidary, giving a solid black background when printing. The sections of the board corresponding to the bright places of the drawing are scraped, smoothed, polished.
Aquatint - from the Italian aquatinta - an engraving method based on acid etching the surface of a metal plate with deposited 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.
Woodcut is more rigid, harsh, compared to engraving on metal. In style, woodcut is prone to exaggeration, generalization, tends to a bright, expressive image. Wood is a self-willed, heterogeneous material that dictates its own conditions. Metal is more organized, malleable. Woodcuts are inaccessible to thin, gently flying lines, a dense network of cross-strokes, which in metal engraving create a gradual transition from a light spot to a dark one. Woodcut is more suitable for creating satirical works, it is more popular.An engraving on metal made, for example, in the etching technique, as a rule, includes a strict system of parallel and cross strokes corresponding to the shape of the depicted object. Etching is most accessible to the creation of volume, space, light.
Lithography stands quite apart. As the most unobtrusive, flexible and obedient means of expressing artistic ideas. An artist can draw on a stone as on paper, and what he depicts is accurately printed on a sheet.
