Comparison of painting and drawing as well as photography and mixed media

Venn Diagram Comparison Set 

Art is an inclusive term in the English language hence using it to denote skills and creativity could still be considered vague. Art has several different media styles that artist can choose from when doing “art.” As such, this paper entails a comparison of painting and drawing as well as photography and mixed media.

Drawing vs. Painting 

Paintings and drawings share several characteristics. Firstly, painters and drawers are both referred to as artists. Individuals who are responsible for producing paintings are referred to as painters while those involved in producing drawings are referred to as drawers. However, in the world of art, they are both referred to as artists. This is attributed to the fact that, unlike painting which has one expert, drawing is diversified with several experts such as house designers (architects), comic book illustrators (cartoonists), graphic designers, etc. hence the adoption of a collective term, artist. Secondly, both media are displays of artists’ point of view/opinion. This implies that in both medias the piece of work is controlled by the artists and can incorporate their bias (Mitchell, 2015). Thirdly, paintings and drawings use flat surfaces to display images. The flat surfaces help the artists to transfer their ideas into a physical form such as painting or a drawing. Some artists prefer the surface to be vertically orientated to provide them with a better point of view of their drawings or paintings. Finally, both paintings and drawings are interrelated since drawings are the base of paintings. To come up with a painting, the artists often have imaginary or physical drawings where they first draft their idea before painting it on the final canvas material (Hammond, 2017). As such, it can be noted that there are a lot of similarities between paintings and drawings, and sometimes it can be confusing to differentiate between the two.

On the other hand, there are distinguishing features between painting and drawing. Firstly, painting uses canvas, oil, watercolor, and acrylic materials to produce paintings while drawing uses crayons, charcoal, and pencils. As such, the materials used in drawing allows the artist to erase in case of errors and then redraw, unlike paintings which use colors and oils to produce permanent images, implying paintings cannot be erased or altered. Secondly, while painting requires time to dry due to the fluid materials used, drawings can be displayed immediately after the artist finishes their sketches. This is primarily attributed to the liquid material used in painting such as watercolor and acrylic which requires drying to avoid damaging the painting. Thirdly, the majority of drawings require mathematical formulae to ensure accuracy in alignment of different lines, shapes, objects, and curves especially in designing of houses (Mitchell, 2015). However, paintings only require brush strokes which are essentially under the control of the artists’ imagination hence no mathematical formulas are required. Fourthly, in paintings, depth is created using different lines and shadings to accentuate the brush strokes, while in paintings, the depth is created through shadowing although palettes are not required in drawing a human figure. Finally, paintings are normally used to represent more abstract and imaginary images – the imagination power of the artist – while drawings are typically real objects such as human figure, a cat, car, etc. (Hammond, 2017). Based on these differences between paintings and drawings, it can be concluded that paintings require abstract reasoning, critical thinking or outside-the-box perception to interpret the artist’s idea or intentions, something rare in drawings since the images are typical things seen daily in our livelihoods.

Mixed Media vs. Photography 

On the one hand, unlike paintings and drawings, mixed media and photography share few similarities. Firstly, both photography and mixed media use images, backgrounds, and scenes. As such, the artists can select backgrounds, images, and scenes of their choice, implying they have control of these three aspects. Secondly, considering both photography and mixed media can be a depiction of a real image, these images can be random, abstract, or detailed. There is no specificity on images in both media, it all depends on the artist's expertise and skills to take images (Thein, 2014). Finally, both media have the potential to have multiple focal points. The artist can use distortion or photo manipulation techniques such as lighting, exposure, and focus increasing the details to be incorporated in the final image as well as to enhance the quality of the final images.

On the other hand, mixed media and photography exhibit distinctive differences. Firstly, mixed media has an unlimited supply of materials, implying there are no restrictions as to what can be used hence all materials such as wood, metal, trash, adhesives, photographs, drawing, painting, gluing, carvings, and even craft supplies can be used. However, photography display is limited to a print. Secondly, considering the diversity in material usage, mixed media tends to be abstract with multiple physical viewpoints while the restriction of material usage in photography requires images to be strictly captured from the camera (Mitchell, 2015). Thirdly, while in mixed media the idea can be put into painting or drawing, photography limits the transfer of an idea into an image or change it hence photographers lack control of personalizing the image. Therefore, unlike mix media which is a depiction of something abstract, the end product in photography is pretty much what it is in real life. As such, the photographer is simply trying to capture the scene to be made a lasting image. Finally, mixed media images can be rendered into 3D or 2D images by making it look and feel lifelike although it does have a fixed viewing point, unlike photography where images are restricted to 2D image rendering or a flat surface (Thein, 2014). As such, mixed media is new to the scene, hence it is said to be a rebellion against traditional art (Mitchell, 2015). In conclusion, there are distinguishable differences between mixed media and photography, particularly in the type of materials used. Nowadays, it is common to find photographers taking images of the mixed media arts considering they share several features.

References

Hammond, L. (2017, December 11). The Value of Paintings vs. Drawings | Art Business. Retrieved December 19, 2018, from https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-business/value-of- paintings-drawings-art-business/

Mitchell, M. D. (2015). The meaning of things.  Magazine Antiques ,  182 (5), 124.

Thein, M. (2014). The difference between photography and most other art forms.

Retrieved December 19, 2018, from https://blog.mingthein.com/2014/11/30/difference- between-photography- and-most-other-art/