FINE ARTS

Fine Arts

This category includes those artworks that are created primarily for aesthetic reasons ('art for art's sake') rather than for commercial or functional use. Designed for its uplifting, life-enhancing qualities, fine art typically denotes the traditional, Western European 'high arts', such as:

• Drawing

Using charcoal, chalk, crayon, pastel or with pencil or pen and ink.

• Painting

Using oils, watercolour, gouache, acrylics, ink and wash, or the more old-fashioned tempera or encaustic paints. For an explanation of colourants, see:Colour in Painting and Colour Pigments, Types, History.

• Printmaking

Using simple methods like woodcuts or stencils, the more demanding techniques of engraving, etching and lithography, or the more modern forms like screen-printing or foil imaging.

• Sculpture

In bronze, stone or wood, or clay.