Jonathan Morgan
Adjunct Professor of Art at Lone Star College & South Dakota State University, PhD candidate at IDSVA
Paper thickness is also important to consider
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Examples of Compressed (left) & Natural (right) Charcoal for Artists
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Sanguine looks like red chalk/charcoal, but is in fact a rock used by painters to sketch
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Pastels are traditionally oil-based drawing media
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Example of a detailed graphite drawing
Introducing color to a pencil drawing can have a dramatic effect
Pen and ink drawings have a very illustrative effect
Example of a pen and ink line drawing
Example of a pen and ink drawing
Ink can be used to make paintings, as well as drawings
Many bold effects are possible within ink paintings
Much like pencil drawings, adding color has a huge effect with ink painting
There is a long tradition of ink painting in East Asia
Example of a Southern School Song Dynasty Painting
A Northern School Song Painting
Fujiwara no Takanobu
Minamoto no Yoritomo
1179 CE
Hanging Silk Scroll
Watercolor paintings behave like ink paintings but use different materials
Tempera paint is another water-based painting medium
Entry into Jerusalem, Duccio, 1308-1311 CE
Tempera was most often used in the European Medieval era for paper-based works like book illustrations
Fresco is another old art media from the Mediterranean area that was especially popular in Ancient Rome and the Renaissance
Sibila Libica, Michelangelo, 1512 CE
School of Athens, Raphael, 1509-1511 CE
Demonstration of the fresco painting process
The Tribute Money, Masaccio, 1425 CE
The Tribute Money, Masaccio, 1425 CE
(fresco)
Merode Altarpiece, Robert Campin, 1428 CE
(oil paint)
The advantages of oil paint
Note the extreme detail possible when using oil paints
Last Supper, Leonardo, 1495-1498 CE
Choosing the wrong media/technique can have dire consequences...
Street Artists have pioneered the use of spray paint to create their works
Group of Animals (off Rivington Street, London), Roa, c. 2010 CE
Stencils also feature heavily in spray painted works
Some artists still choose traditional paint brushes regardless of location
As the drawing to the left shows, the method is similar to rubber stamps and linocut.
Tugboat Printshop
Golden Apple Tree
2015 CE
Tugboat Printshop
Overlook
2016 CE
Katsushika Hokusai
Great Wave Off Kanagawa
1831 CE | Ukiyo-e Woodblock Print
Chintz Panel from the 18th Century
Impossible Trident Illusion
D.H. Schuster
1964 CE
Tilted Table Illusion
James Gibson
1937 CE
Which way is the top piece leaning?
Optical Illusions often employ basic elements to fool your eyes.
They sort of "hijack" your brain's natural pattern recognition abilities through clever use of lines, shapes, and color.
Tilted Table Illusion
James Gibson
1937 CE
The Tilted Table is an example of a Zöllner illusion
Zöllner illusion
Johann Karl Friedrich Zöllner
1860 CE
Are the horizontal lines to the right straight and even?
Café Wall Illusion (aka Münsterberg illusion)
Hugo Münsterberg
1894 CE
Shepard Tables
Roger Shepard
1990 CE
Which of the two tables appears longer?
Proving the Shepard Tables Illusion:
The radius of each circle remains the same.
Proving the Shepard Tables Illusion:
The radius of each circle remains the same.
Müller-Lyer Illusion
Franz Carl Müller-Lyer
1889 CE
Which arrow appears longer?
Bertano-Müller-Lyer Illusion (examples)
Franz Bertano
1882 CE
Bertano-Müller-Lyer Illusion (moving example)
Franz Bertano
1882 CE
Dynamic Müller-Lyer Illusion
Gianni Sarcone
2015 CE
Expanding Black Hole Illusion
Laeng, Nabil, & Kitaoka
2022 CE
Irradiation Illusion
named by Hermann von Helmholtz
1867 CE
(possibly 1632 CE by Galileo)
Which square looks bigger?
"A Bulge" (Irradiation Illusion example)
Akiyoshi Kitaoka
1998 CE
Rotating Snakes
Akiyoshi Kitaoka
2003 CE
Example of a Peripheral Drift Illusion
Anomalous Motion Illusion
Paul Nasca
2010 CE
Is there anything 'hiding' in the image below?
By Jonathan Morgan
ARTS 1301, Lone Star College, Prof. Morgan | Updated Spring 2025
Adjunct Professor of Art at Lone Star College & South Dakota State University, PhD candidate at IDSVA