Pillars of art

We have learnt about the history of art, traditions of art all around the world... Artists from India who have made a mark internationally in their lifetime. But what are the pillars of art? Why do some art have figures and some are just colours? Some have different mediums and some are only made with pencil and nothing else. They all still have a deep impact and command on their subject. Still Life / Nature is one such pillar This is the study of drawing an apple or a chair or a bunch of grapes with sunlight making these objects glow or even the entire landscape. When we draw these objects first with a pencil, we learn the dimension and perspective. When we colour the object with a base colour we set a tone. And when we make textures and lighting over the object, we give it life by making tone and shade. Mastering this subject itself made many artists, from the Renaissance period to modern period, famous. This technique is not only used for non living objects but also used when you see paintings that have a crowd of people with the light falling from one angle. The way the skin glistens and drapes of their clothes shine all depends on how well you master this subject. Geometry Geometry is another important subject where we understand the importance of placement of objects or even colours on the canvas and its perspective. Giving depth to a landscape of mountains and roads creates an illusion of you walking into the scenery. A bunch of flowers in a vase needs to be of the right dimension to show the significance. Unless, of course, your style is surrealism. Then by all means make the proportions intentional. Typography Typography is a study of alphabets and numbers. The entire range of alphabet and numbers are created in a particular theme and used for a script accordingly. This is used for books, novels, headlines, posters, movie opening and closing credits, animation, advertisements, product designing, and most importantly, making logos for a brand for it to look enticing. Illustration Illustration is the amalgamation of all these subjects. This needs as much practice as a musician does with his instrument. It starts with drawing construction lines (geometry) and then giving a shape and dimension (still life) and giving a final characteristic and persona to the subject (typography). If you have complete knowledge of illustration you can conquer most of the creative art fields, for example, movie making, fine arts, lithography, and the most important is Animation. I say Animation is the most important because these ‘cartoons’ or ‘action figures’ are drawn with the least number of lines using the most emotive of expressions to convey their emotions. Imagine if you take Mickey Mouse as a live character. Would you be fascinated by a black colour rat wearing red shorts and having long fingernails? This is what illustrating a persona means, they make a rat look softer and the minimalistic lines give him a humorous and friendly character. Red shorts look fun and creates attraction and white fluffy gloves on the hands make mickey mouse look safe and cuddly. You can also eventually create action figures like the Avengers or Calvin and Hobbes. Still Life / Nature: Edward Ladell Famous still life painter Look at the way the sunlight reflects off of water, fruit and leaves. Giving it a dimension and softness. Geometry: Sacred geometric art creates patterns and fractals Typography: Each curve and line of the alphabet has an emotion or a meaning Illustration: Animated characters