Basic Elements of Fine Arts
Fine arts have the basic elements of subject, medium, line, color, texture, volume, perspective, form and style. SUBJECT answers the question: “What is the work of Art about?” If it is a realistic painting, the viewer sees immediately what the painting is about. Thus in Carlos Francisco’s ‘Kaingin’ and ‘Sinigang’ the subject is clearly conveyed in the painting which depicts respectively, men and women planting on a clearing and a woman ‘bangus’ while the menfolk are doing their chores. Napoleon Abueva’s sculpture “Planting Rice” shows two women bent, obviously planting rice seedlings. In modern paintings and sculptures, however, representation is discarded and only an idea or feeling is suggested.
MEDIUM – The materials used by the artist in creating a work of art are referred to as medium. It answers the question: “What is it made of?” It also denoted the means by which an artist communicates an idea. Some of the mediums used by painters are fresco, tempera, oil and water color.
Fresco - is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the pigment and, with the setting of the plaster the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. Fresco may thus be contrasted with secco mural painting techniques, on plasters of lime, earth, or gypsum, or applied to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
Buon fresco technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, fresh (hence the name) lime mortar or