Introduction
Visual and performance arts help artists to pass information and meanings that people cannot learn through the study of other disciplines. It uses creative thinking techniques that depend on human imaginations, discoveries, and opinions. This discipline gives learners opportunities to think critically, formulate goals, and choose appropriate media to use in passing messages. In addition to passing messages, they help individuals to explore thoughts and cultural practices hence, develop efficient creative thinking, teamwork, and administration skills. Artists use varied modes to create and express ideas.
Painting
Painting is the art of using paint or color pigments to express specific concepts by artists. In painting, artists need to know how different paints convey messages and how to blend different paints to convey the desired artistic message. Panting involves varying visual elements and techniques. Paints are of two categories: mineral spirit and water paints.
Artists use different painting techniques to express desired messages, they include oil, watercolor, wall painting, and acrylic painting. Oil painting is a common technique by artists. It gives several color preferences mostly mixed with drying oil. The Number of oil pigments used by artists depends on the desired effects to be expressed by the painting. Oils never easily wear out, and they give the artist enough time for reworking. The watercolor painting uses water as the thinner. Overlapping of colors in this technique is impossible. In addition, it limits the artist to apply the technique on some surfaces that do not easily dry. Unlike water painting, acrylic painting gives artists opportunities to choose different colors. Its rate of drying is faster as compared to oil painting and it maintains color pigments, unlike oil painting where the paint may turn yellow as it dries. Lastly, in fresco (wall painting), pigments used are suspended in water. It is the most difficult painting technique because it is not reversible. Once used artist cannot modify the painting (Book rags, 2006, Para. 1-2).
For paintings to maintain their subject matter, painters must include features that make the painting unique and pleasing. These elements are texture, arrangement of lines, tones, shapes, and colors. Painters use lines to show ends where planes intersect. They help to create movement and texture. Tonal variations create varying moods and emphasis specific emotions. In addition, artists use visual styles (texture) to give paintings appealing diverse looks (Oopt, 2006, Para. 1-16).
Music
Music is an art that performs a verbal part of performing arts using sound as the main medium of conveying messages. Musicality determines how well music content expresses varying emotions. It should have ideas that are self-sustaining for it to convey messages and emotions correctly. The common music elements are pitch (controls melody and organization), dynamics, rhythm (made of pulse and accents), and helps to create musical patterns. On the other hand, harmonies in music give music continuous tones of sound hence, an interesting flow. The importance of music depends on the culture and social groupings. Commonly used music techniques are the motet, cantata, opera, and oratorio. Artists express Cantata using movements; hence, it is mainly choral with a single or many soloists, accompanied by an instrumental ensemble. A motet is a music technique that uses Latin manuscripts; it is choral but polyphonic with a chorus, orchestra, and a vocal soloist. Oratorios are in form of narrative texts but lacks costumes and support surroundings. In oratorio singers, present the music using choruses, orchestral instruments, and duets. To present music correctly, singers have to ensure the musical tone and melody match (Book rags, 2006, Para.6-7).
Theatre
This section of performing arts uses theoretical live performances to convey messages in form of entertainment. Performances are dramatic if they can only represent certain illusions. Theatres use verbal communications, music, dances, and signs, hence uses both the visual and performing arts concepts. Common techniques of theatre are drama, plays, musical theatre, and melodrama. Plays depict certain human aspects, hence conveying the desired faults and weaknesses. Comedy is the second form of theatre that mainly uses verbal and acting as the main mediums of passing information. Drama primarily uses speeches or organized written texts to convey messages. It involves acting to bring out the desired effects. Lastly, music theatre uses songs, dances, discussions, and procedures to emphasize specific emotions and messages.
To make better theatre performances better, artists must use elements such as the script, plots, exposition, and characters. The script carries all the dialogue by actors whereas the plot gives the play’s structure. To help discover the play’s characters artists use expositions, because majority of the plays commence from middle of events. Lastly, characters are the main components of a play, for they are the main motivating factors in a play.
Dances
Dances lay emphasis on human nature in time and space. The most common dance techniques are ballet, tap, fork, and modern. Dances depend on moral, aesthetic, cultural, and artistic problems and involve body movements and other virtuoso methods. Dance movements are either symbolic or non-symbolic depending on the emotions and messages that dances should convey. Modern dance is the most modern form of dance that centers on voluntary and natural body movements. Ballet is the most traditional of all forms of dancing which depicts specific human cravings and occurrences with choruses, duets and single dancers. Fork dances are the most common used to convey information by artist. They have movements, costume, content and patterns that are unique depending on culture. Lastly, tap dance is a type of dance done on hard flours, using shoes that have medal bottoms. In most cases, they are for entertainment.
Common elements of dances are form, formalized movements, mime, and pantomime. Music form determines how steps are connected and consistent, hence making the dance more orderly. Formalized movements establish specific movements that the dancers use whereas mime and pantomime helps artists to formulate movements, which exactly fit the characters that the dance should portray (Hochman, 1984, pp. 216-234)
In conclusion, visual and performing arts use different ways to convey varying emotions and messages. Hence, it is artists’ duty to select best methods to convey the desired messages. In addition, the modes of expression chosen by artists should elicit correct human imaginations and perceptions of events.
Reference
Book rags. (2006). Various ways to express oneself artistically. Web.
Hochman, S. (1984). McGraw-Hill encyclopedia of world drama: an international reference work. New York: McGraw-Hill companies.
Oopt. (2006). Elements of compositional painting: importance of composition. Web.