In recent years, oil painting has gradually entered the homes of ordinary people. When decorating the walls of their homes, people often choose some watercolors, Chinese paintings and oil paintings. Oil painting, in particular, is more favored by people.
In China, the painting market is roughly divided into three categories: Chinese painting, Western painting and folk painting.
Chinese painting emphasizes charm and interest, and pen and ink, while Western painting is not.
Western paintings include oil paintings, woodblocks, copperplates, drawings, watercolors, gouaches and other paintings. Among them, oil painting is the most expressive, practical and decorative painting.
Western oil painting has only been introduced into China for more than three hundred years, and it has been widely introduced into people's social life only in the early years of the last century. After the reform and opening up, oil painting creation of various styles and genres has a place.
Oil painting creation can be divided into theme painting, genre painting, landscape painting, portrait painting and still life painting. But regardless of the subject matter, the work mainly relies on two major elements: shape and color. In other words, oil painting uses the three major means of expression of shape, light and color.
shape, that is, form. This requires the painter to first have modeling ability and profound sketching skills. Without a good sketching foundation, if you want to paint a good oil painting, like a tall building without a foundation, you can't stand up.
Light, that is, the performance of light efficiency. After the rise of French Impressionism, it led to the study and performance of light. The painter's understanding of light tended to be scientific and rational. Therefore, the expression of light and shadow is more realistic and vivid. Light and shadow are important elements that set the atmosphere. This truth is not difficult to understand by looking at the lighting effect of the theater stage.
The most important element of oil painting is color. Colors are different from colors on a palette. The painter never puts the colors on the palette, that is, the paints made in the factory, on the canvas intact. These colors must be carefully and artistically modulated by the artist to achieve the softness and realism of the colors, and the harmony between the color blocks. This is what people usually call tone or tone. The color of an oil painting cannot be a colorful patchwork, nor can it be complex and dazzling, but should form a certain color tendency, and the change is gratuitous, subtle and delicate picture effect.
Tone is the soul of oil painting. There is no tone, that is to say, if an oil painting does not form a tone, there is no harmonious and varied color combination, then the oil painting can be said to have not reached the passing line. In addition to the above requirements, oil painting also pays attention to composition, brush strokes, rhythm, etc., which will not be detailed here.
Modern oil painting creation is roughly divided into two categories: abstract painting and figurative painting.
The so-called abstract oil painting is to extract the form of copying natural objects in the performance of the picture, and replace it with the expression of an idea and image. This kind of painting has no concrete image of nature, only blocks of color, lines, dot faces, and so on. The reader merely evokes associations and imagination from the combination of these color blocks. For example, the works of Master Zao Wou-Ki belong to this kind. There are various art theories of abstract painting, but they can be summarized in the words of an ancient Chinese person, that is, "elephants are invisible".
Usually, people have a misconception that impressionism, fauvism, futurism are all called abstract painting. In fact, these art schools only break through the framework of realism and classicism, and do not extract the image, at most they only modernize the image of reality, deform and exaggerate.
At present, there are also many painters who claim to be abstract in China, some painters have formed a certain style, and their works have considerable depth, but some people may lack a sketching foundation, and have not received strict training in realistic painting, mistakenly thinking that casual smearing is abstract painting. Such works are not deep in meaning, not very interesting, neither decorative interest, nor deliberate ingenuity, just form. In fact, it greatly distorts the main thrust of abstract painting.
In figurative painting, in addition to being completely realistic, there are many forms that are rich in decorative interest, deformed, or between abstract and figurative.
In short, today is a pluralistic era, and oil painting creation is also diverse in terms of content and expression. We can't favor one over the other, let the works of various genres shine in the hundred gardens of oil painting.
The above mainly refers to original oil paintings. The kind of computer painting, copying, limited print print, or the kind of shoddy "line painting" "produced" by factory methods is not in the scope of discussion.