Britannica's Practical Guide to the Arts

The fine art of painting is as varied as the life from which it springs. Each artist portrays different aspects of the world. A great artist is able to take some aspect of life and give it depth and meaning. To do this, an artist will make use of the many devices common to painting. These include composition, color, form, and texture. This engaging and dazzling reference covers the elements and principles of design in painting and the various mediums, forms, imagery, subject matter, and symbolism employed, adopted, or created by the painter. Key artworks are reproduced to clarify concepts.

Looking at a work of art, like listening to music, becomes a rewarding experience only if the senses are alert to the qualities of the work and to the artist's purpose that brought them into being. The language of sculpture must be learned. In this in-depth study, readers examine the materials, tools, methods, styles, and practices that are involved in sculpting and many of the techniques that have been used by accomplished artists who have contributed to sculpture as a fine art, from the marble gods of Phidias to the mobiles by Alexander Calder.

Throughout history, music has been an important accompaniment to other art forms, most notably drama, and to traditional rituals. Today, music dominates the arts. It is broadcast to the farthest corners of the globe by means of radio, film, television, musical theatre, and the Internet. Live performances, meanwhile, have never ceased to entertain, inform, and impact contemporary society. This comprehensive volume examines music notation, sound, and structure; musical composition and form; the various characteristics of instruments as well as their classification and history, including electronic instruments; musical performance and expression; and styles and genres of music in Western cultures.

Drawing is the technique of producing images on a surface, usually paper, by means of marks, usually of ink, graphite, chalk, charcoal, or crayon. Although drawings differ in quality, they have a common purpose––to give visible form to an idea and to express the artist's feeling about it. Besides the way in which they feel about their subjects, artists reflect in their drawing their individual approaches to techniques and tools. In line drawings, for example, form is usually expressed by line only. This volume deals with drawings' aesthetic characteristics, mediums of expression, subject matter, and some leading artists and their works.

Photography is generally considered to have had its birth in 1839, when Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre first revealed his photographic process to the public. Increasingly, cameras have become more automated and electronic over the years. In spite of the increasing sophistication of the equipment, however, the photographer's eye continues to be all-important. Photography remains a unique human act. This compendium focuses on the technology of photography, the camera and its parts, types of lenses, shutters and speeds, films and filters, making photographs, exposing film, lighting, darkroom techniques and processing, printing photographs, and some of the practical applications of the medium.