Toktam Foroudi

_{^{About my}} Atelier

I would like to present a brief about my atelier. I have founded my own atelier in 2010 in order to expand my job and to provide education courses. During the years many students have been educated which fortunately some of them have good places in the art competitions. Different professional parts have been designed in the studio for the fields like watercolor painting, color pencil, charcoal painting, pastel and etc.

Copperplate calligraphy is another field which has been added to this atelier and the education terms for my students. During the education terms, following the progress of students seriously causes me and the students would be satisfied and to view this progress day by day. Using updated equipment and facilities help us to be better day by day.

_{^{A brief about}} Hyperealism

Hyperrealism is a relatively new art form that evolved from older movements; however, the traditional tools that are used to create art apply to this art genre as well. This includes paint, clay, graphite, ink, charcoal, and so on. Like all art forms, hyperrealism has some history behind it with a few pioneers that promoted and mastered the genre. Hyperrealism is based on the aesthetic ideologies of photorealism and was promoted by a handful of artists out of the USA and Europe. Super-realistic or hyper-realistic art gained traction in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. This is due to painters such as Chuck Close, Audrey Flack, Richard Estes, and Denis Peterson that created a painting based on photographs to achieve a hyper-realistic look that could easily be mistaken for a photograph.

_{^{A brief about}} Colored Pencil painting

A colored pencil is an art medium constructed of a narrow, pigmented core encased in a wooden cylindrical case. Unlike graphite and charcoal pencils, colored pencils’ cores are wax- or oil-based and contain varying proportions of pigments, additives, and binding agents. Water-soluble pencils and pastel pencils are also manufactured as well as colored cores for mechanical pencils. Colored pencils are made in a wide range of price, quality and usability, from student-grade to professional-grade. Concentration of pigments in the core, lightfastness of the pigments, durability of the colored pencil, and softness of the core are some determinants of a brand’s quality and, consequently, its market price. There is no general quality difference between wax/oil-based and water-soluble colored pencils, although some manufacturers rate their water-soluble pencils as less lightfast than their similar wax/oil-based pencils.

The rising popularity of colored pencils as an art medium sparked the beginning of the Colored Pencil Society of America (CPSA). According to its website, “[CPSA] was founded in 1990 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to artists over 18 years of age working with colored pencil”. The CPSA not only promotes colored pencil art as fine art, but also strives to set lightfastness standards for colored pencil manufacturers. Other countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia and Mexico – among many others – have formed their own organizations and societies for colored pencil artists. Colored pencils are commonly stored in pencil cases to prevent damage. Despite colored pencils’ existence for more than a century, the art world has historically treated the medium with less admiration compared to other art mediums. However, the discovery of new techniques and methods, the development of lightfast pencils, and the formation of authoritative organizations is better enabling colored pencils to compete with other mediums. Additionally, colored pencils are more affordable, cleaner, and simpler compared to other mediums.

_{^{A brief about}} Pastel painting

Pastel painting or pastel drawing starts with an implement of pigment mixed with chalk or clay and combined with gum to make a paste that is then hardened and made available as soft or hard pastels, pastel pencils, or oil pastels. Pastel lessons often discuss the medium in terms of both drawing and painting. It can be used to create broad strokes that appear buttery and solid like oil paints, but they can also be used to create precise lines and marks akin to any drawing implement. Further appeal of pastel painting lies in its wide range of colors and blending ability.

What makes pastels unique is that pastels aren’t mixed together the way other media like oils, watercolors, or acrylic paints are. An artist has to select the specific color and value they want, or he or she has to overlap several strokes of pastel so they blend in the viewer’s eyes to appear as if they have been physically combined. A pastel artist must have a wide assortment of pastel sticks to work with, and a strong sense of color layering.

_{^{A brief about}} Watercolor painting

Watercolor paint is an ancient form of painting, if not the most ancient form of art itself. In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean and Japanese painting it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns, often using inkstick or other pigments. India, Ethiopia and other countries have long watercolor painting traditions as well. Many Western artists, especially in the early 19th century, used watercolor primarily as a sketching tool in preparation for the “finished” work in oil or engraving. Until the end of the eighteenth century, traditional watercolors were known as ‘tinted drawings’.

_{^{A brief about}} Conté and Charcoal

Conté, also known as Conté sticks or Conté crayons, are a drawing medium composed of compressed powdered graphite or charcoal mixed with a clay base, square in cross-section. They were invented in 1795 by Nicolas-Jacques Conté, who created the combination of clay and graphite in response to the shortage of graphite caused by the Napoleonic Wars (when the British naval blockade of France prevented import). Conté crayons had the advantage of being cost-effective to produce, and easy to manufacture in controlled grades of hardness.

Artists’ charcoal is charcoal used as a dry art medium. Both compressed charcoal and charcoal sticks are used. The marks it leaves behind on paper are much less permanent that with other media such as graphite, and so lines can easily be erased and blended. Charcoal can produce lines that are very light or intensely black. The dry medium can be applied to almost any surface from smooth to very coarse. Fixatives are used with charcoal drawings to solidify the position to prevent erasing or rubbing off of charcoal dusts. The method used to create artists’ charcoal is similar to that employed in other fields, such as producing gunpowder and cooking fuel. The type of wood material and preparation method allow a variety of charcoal types and textures to be produced.

_{^{A brief about}} Copperplate Calligraphy

A copperplate script is a style of calligraphic writing most commonly associated with English Roundhand. Although often used as an umbrella term for various forms of pointed pen calligraphy, Copperplate most accurately refers to script styles represented in copybooks created using the intaglio printmaking method. The term Copperplate Script identifies one of the most well-known and appreciated calligraphic styles of all time.

Earlier versions of this script required a thin-tipped feather pen. Later, with the rise of industrialization, the use of more flexible and durable fine-point metal nibs became widespread. Many masters offered their contributions in defining the aesthetic canons of the copperplate script, but what really stood out as fundamental was the work of the writing master and engraver George Bickham, who in his book The Universal Penman (1733–1741) collected script samples from twenty-five of the most talented London calligraphers. Copperplate was undoubtedly the most widespread script in the period between the 17th and 18th centuries, and its influence spread not only throughout Europe but also in North America.

_{^{A brief about}} Graphics

Graphics are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture, in typesetting and the graphic arts, and in educational and recreational software. Images that are generated by a computer are called computer graphics. Examples are photographs, drawings, line art, mathematical graphs, line graphs, charts, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings, or other images. Graphics often combine text, illustration, and color.

Graphic design may consist of the deliberate selection, creation, or arrangement of typography alone, as in a brochure, flyer, poster, web site, or book without any other element. The objective can be clarity or effective communication, association with other cultural elements, or merely the creation of a distinctive style. Graphics can be functional or artistic. The latter can be a recorded version, such as a photograph, or interpretation by a scientist to highlight essential features, or an artist, in which case the distinction with imaginary graphics may become blurred. It can also be used for architecture.