Realism

• presents the world as we actually see it more than other styles do
• gives the important details which typify the object or event
• outlines are clear and exact
• may be more concerned with anatomy and details than with inner nature
• details are three-dimensional and proportional; perspective makes the viewer feel like he/she is seeing it in real life
• the picture has vitality; it does not seem frozen in time or space.

e.g. Manet–French artist

Impressionism

• primarily concerned with properties and proportions of light and colour
• often places dots or slashes of unmixed colour next to one another to simulate natural light
• creates an illustration of a scene which a viewer then recreates with his/her eyes
• distances viewer by placing him/her outside the action, yet draws them in with luminous beauty; often dreamlike
• not concerned with recording minute details
• concerned with a momentary, fleeting impression; records a spontaneous, personal, individual response to a specific situation
• emphasises vibrant character of animate and inanimate objects; produces living, palpitating shadows.

e.g. Impressionism–art style

• uses unusual or shocking colours, with rough rapid brushwork
• figures are often distorted or out of proportion; may be heavily outlined
• emphasis is on artist's own self-expression, his/her uninhibited emotional expression
• concern for essence of subject; attention is focused on structural qualities rather than outward details
• leans toward abstraction; more undisciplined than realism or impressionism.

e.g. Expressionism: art select

Surrealism

• depends more on subject than technique
• combines incongruous images in unnatural juxtaposition
• often uses meticulously detailed realism to make the scene believable
• attempts to tap the store of hidden images in the viewer's mind
• often highly romantic or fanciful
• uses many symbolic visual references
• combines colours, forms, and textures in truly unique ways.

e.g. Salvador Dali posters

Folk Art

• artistic expressions of folk cultures from every part of the world; may reflect ethnic, national, or religious groups
• art of peoples or cultures with no writing system who record their culture through art
• often representative of rural or peasant communities; such groups are usually isolated from principal centres of culture and thus have developed their own continuous tradition
• motifs, symbols, and decorative patterns of the culture are used by the artist, but adaptations may be made
• often includes a simplification of line, colour, space, and volume; uses simplified line and abstracted forms for symbols of plants and animals.

e.g. Warren Kimble posters

Naïve Art

• often found in untrained or self-taught artists
• creates forms outside of the rules of accepted artistic principles; shows a lack of knowledge of artistic conventions such as perspective
• often shows a broad scene without use of perspective; figures are usually frontal posture or profile
• may have a child-like quality, and a disregard of anatomy
• represents essence of things from the artist's own experience
• characterised by openness, spontaneity, intensity
• sometimes resembles folk art.

e.g. Katy Edwards naïve art

• playful distortion of basic structure of object or anatomy of person or animal; gross exaggeration, flat painted figures
• lively line creates movement and humour; shows movement and vitality
• juxtaposes circumstances in playful ways; incongruous and incompatible characteristics and situations are depicted
• object is humour, sometimes mockery.

e.g. Gentleman Briggs

• really a technique, but often spoken of as if it were a style
• made up of pictures, objects, or paper pasted on the background
• uses natural objects and other non-painting objects
• image is completed by drawing or painting on the collage
• often combined with other techniques.

e.g. Collage art gallery