Visual arts facts for kids
The visual arts are types of art that you can mostly see. They create things like paintings, sculptures, and drawings. You can often touch these artworks too! Sometimes, visual arts are also called the plastic arts. They are different from performing arts, which are arts you watch or listen to, like music or dance.
Some examples of visual arts include ceramics (making things from clay), drawing, painting, sculpture (creating 3D shapes), and printmaking (making copies of images).
Modern visual arts use technology to create art. These include photography (taking pictures), video, filmmaking (making movies), and architecture (designing buildings).
It's good to remember that many art forms mix different types of art. For example, Movies and performing arts often use set design and costume design, which are visual arts, even though the main art form is performing.
The visual arts also include what are called the applied arts. These are about designing useful things that are also beautiful. Examples are industrial design (designing products like cars or phones), graphic design (designing logos, websites, or posters), fashion design (designing clothes), interior design (designing the inside of buildings), and decorative art (making everyday objects look nice).
Contents
What are Visual Arts?
Visual arts are all about creating things that appeal to your eyes. Artists use different materials and tools to make their ideas come to life. These artworks can show us stories, feelings, or just beautiful patterns. They can be found everywhere, from museums to the buildings around us.
Traditional Visual Arts
- Painting: This is when artists use colors, like oil paints or watercolors, to create images on a flat surface, often a canvas. Paintings can show landscapes, people, or abstract shapes.
- Drawing: Artists use pencils, charcoal, ink, or crayons to make marks on paper. Drawing is often a first step for other artworks, but it can also be a complete artwork on its own.
- Sculpture: Sculptors create three-dimensional artworks. They might carve wood or stone, mold clay, or join different materials together to make a shape you can walk around and see from all sides.
- Ceramics: This involves shaping clay and then baking it at high temperatures to make pottery, tiles, or sculptures. It's an ancient art form that combines art with practical uses.
- Printmaking: This is a way to make multiple copies of an image. Artists carve designs into wood or metal, or use screens, and then transfer the image onto paper or fabric using ink.
Modern Visual Arts
As technology grew, new forms of visual art appeared:
- Photography: Using a camera to capture images of the world. Photographers can tell stories, document events, or create artistic compositions with light and shadow.
- Filmmaking and Video Art: These involve using moving images and sound to create stories or artistic expressions. Movies are a popular form of filmmaking, but video art can be more experimental.
- Architecture: This is the art of designing buildings and other structures. Architects think about how buildings look, how they are used, and how they fit into their surroundings.
Applied Arts and Design
The applied arts combine creativity with practical uses. They make everyday objects and spaces more beautiful and functional.
- Graphic Design: This is about creating visual messages. Graphic designers make logos, websites, posters, and magazines. They use images and text to communicate ideas.
- Fashion Design: Fashion designers create clothing and accessories. They think about style, materials, and how clothes will be worn.
- Interior Design: This involves planning and designing the inside spaces of buildings. Interior designers choose colors, furniture, and decorations to make rooms look and feel good.
- Industrial Design: Industrial designers create products that people use every day, like cars, phones, or furniture. They focus on how these objects work and how they look.
Images for kids
-
The Church at Auvers, an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh (1890)
-
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. Museums constitute a primary forum for the display of visual arts.
-
Nefertari with Isis
-
Raphael: Spasimo (1514–1516)
-
Rembrandt: The Night Watch, 1642
-
Claude Monet: Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1866)
-
Paul Gauguin: The Vision After the Sermon (1888)
-
Ancient Chinese engraving of female instrumentalists
-
Albrecht Dürer: Melancholia I (1541)
-
The Chinese Diamond Sutra, the world's oldest printed book (868 CE)
-
Maurizio Bolognini, Sealed Computers (Nice, 1997). This conceptual art installation uses computer codes to create endless flows of random images which will never be accessible for viewing.
.jpg)
See also
In Spanish: Artes visuales para niños
