二维媒介、材料与技法

Focus: Drawing media make marks directly on a surface — the foundation of most 2-D work.

• Dry media: graphite (pencil), charcoal, conte, chalk and oil pastel, coloured pencil.
• Wet media: pen and ink, brush and ink, markers.
• Mark-making techniques: hatching, cross-hatching, stippling, blending, and scribbling.
• Choice of media and paper (tooth/texture) changes the line and value possible.
• Drawing is used both to investigate ideas (studies, sketches) and to make finished works.

Focus: Painting applies pigment suspended in a binder to a surface, building colour, value, and texture.

• Common media: watercolour (transparent), gouache (opaque water-based), acrylic (fast-drying), oil (slow, blendable).
• Support and ground (paper, canvas, board; primer/gesso) affect how paint behaves.
• Techniques: washes, glazing, wet-on-wet, dry-brush, impasto, and layering.
• Water-based paints dry quickly and clean with water; oils dry slowly and blend richly.
• Brush choice, dilution, and paint thickness control mark, edge, and texture.

Focus: Printmaking transfers an image from a prepared surface (matrix) to paper, allowing multiple copies (an edition).

• Relief (linocut, woodcut): ink the raised surface; the cut-away areas stay blank.
• Intaglio (etching, engraving): ink sits in incised lines below the surface.
• Planographic (lithography): image and non-image areas are on the same level, using grease and water.
• Stencil (screen printing): ink is pushed through open areas of a mesh.
• Prints are usually made in a numbered edition; the reversed matrix flips the image.

Focus: Collage assembles found materials onto a surface; mixed media combines two or more materials or processes.

• Collage glues papers, photos, fabric, or found objects into a composition.
• Mixed media layers, for example, drawing over paint, or print with stitching.
• These processes add actual texture and unexpected juxtapositions of image and meaning.
• Materials can carry meaning (a ticket, a map) beyond their visual role.
• Good mixed-media work still uses the elements and principles to stay unified.

Focus: Photography makes images with light and a lens; the same elements and principles apply to the frame.

• Key controls: framing/composition, focus, exposure (light), depth of field, and viewpoint.
• The rule of thirds, leading lines, and negative space compose a photograph.
• Light direction and quality (hard/soft) shape value, form, and mood.
• Editing (cropping, contrast, colour) is part of the creative process, not just correction.
• Digital and darkroom processes both count as lens-based 2-D art and design.

Focus: Digital tools create and edit images on a computer or tablet, working in layers and pixels or vectors.

• Raster images are made of pixels (photo editing, painting apps); vector images use math paths (scalable).
• Layers let an artist build, mask, and revise non-destructively.
• Digital colour uses RGB (screen, additive) or CMYK (print, subtractive).
• Resolution (DPI/PPI) affects print quality; keep files high-resolution for the portfolio.
• The same elements and principles guide digital work as any other 2-D medium.

Focus: Graphic design communicates a message visually; illustration makes images that support or tell a story.

• Design combines type, image, colour, and layout to communicate to a viewer or client.
• Visual hierarchy (size, weight, contrast, placement) guides the eye to what matters first.
• Typography — typeface, size, spacing, alignment — is a core design element.
• Illustration serves a purpose: editorial, book, product, poster, or narrative.
• Design and illustration are problem-solving: audience and message shape every choice.