Vocabulaty List
Abstract: refers to a composition in which the arrangement and configuration of elements is designed to create a visual effect that is not dependent on realistic depiction. A concentration on the essential, an idea or term considered apart from some material basis or object.
Abstraction: the act of abstracting, the separating from the concrete. To derive. To epitomize- to abridge, summarize, concentrate. A brief statement of the chief points of a larger work; a condensed record or representation.
Additive Mixing: refers to a mixing of light of distinct wavelength or color.
Analogous Hues/Colors: a small portion of the hue circle; hues and/or colors that contain a common hue and/or color: yellow-green-yellow-yellow-orange. Analogous hues and/or colors are considered harmonious.
Asymmetry: arrangements of elements or units which imply balance but are placed in such a way as to create a dynamic sense.
Axis: an implied line which runs through a work, usually the center, to which other elements in the work refer; an implied division of space producing balance and movement of pictorial elements.
Cast Shadow: a dark shape, or image cast on the ground or other surface by an object that intercepts or blocks light.
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) The Post Impressionist French painter whose work laid the transition from 19th Century Impressionism to 20th century Modernism. Cézanne's work demonstrates a mastery of design, color, composition and draftsmanship. His often repetitive, sensitive and exploratory brushstrokes are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable. He used planes of color and small brushstrokes that build up to form complex fields, at once both a direct expression of the sensations of the observing eye and an abstraction from observed nature. Two subjects that he is well known for are still-lifes of apples and landscapes of Mt. Sainte-Victoire.
Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779) 18th Century French painter considered a master of still-life painting. Chardin's work had little in common with the Rococo painting that dominated French art in the 18th century. At a time when history painting was considered the supreme classification for public art, Chardin's subjects of choice were viewed as minor categories.[4] He favored simple yet beautifully textured still lifes, and sensitively handled domestic interiors The pictures are noteworthy for their formal structure and pictorial harmony.[4] He used blocky simple forms perfectly organized in space, and few colors, mostly earth tones. He was a master of textures, shapes, and the soft diffusion of light.
Chiaroscuro: in two-dimensional composition, the description of a form by modeling with value changes, i.e., form readable through light and dark contrasts.The rendering of forms through a balanced contrast between pronounced light and dark areas.
Color: our perception of hue, intensity, value and temperature reflected from a surface, or transmitted through a transparent substance such as glass.
Color Contrasts: Hue, Saturation/Intensity, Value and Temperature.
Complementary Hue/Color: one of a pair of hues or colors usually considered to be in extreme contrast to one another. The hues lie opposite each other on the hue circle. (e.g. blue-orange, red-green, yellow-violet)
Composition: The arrangement of the visual elements within the picture plane to make a whole. Effective composition has fluid eye movement, balance and unity.
Concept: an underlying idea or understanding.
Conceptual: concerning the idea in a work of art.
Contrast: (syn: conflict, opposition, tension) occurs when there is a visual difference between things or qualities being compared.
Curvilinear: consisting of, or contained by, a curved line or lines.
Decorative Space: The space created within a picture for aesthetic reasons not illusionistic goals, it maintains the 2D characteristics of the picture plane.
Diluted Color: A color or hue whose intensity or purity has been lessened or weakened by the addition of one or more of the following: white, black, gray or the complement or indirect complement of that color or hue.
Dominance: occurs when certain elements have a greater visual strength than others in a composition. (Syn: dominant, preponderant, greater proportion or ratio, outweighing). As a design principle, Dominance resolves contrast or tension and integrates a work into a unified whole.
Dynamic: the opposite of static; a condition of movement and energy.
Expressionism: an approach to art that emphasizes extreme subjectivism and self exploration on the part of the artist. This process necessitates a breakdown of formalist conventions.
Field: general effect of a plane parallel with the picture plane created by a continuous formal or informal arrangement of numerous dots, marks, lines, color or gradations. Acts as the ground, in a figure/ground relationship.
Figure: the focal elements (lines, shapes, etc.) in a two-dimensional design or composition. These elements are often called the positive shapes or space.
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Focal Point: a center of activity, attraction or attention; a point of concentration on a picture plane.
Foreshortening: the diminishing of certain dimensions of an object or figure in order to depict it in a correct spatial relationship. In realistic depiction, foreshortening is necessary because although lines and planes that are perpendicular to the observer’s line of vision and the extremities of which are equidistant from the eye, they will be seen at their full size. Thus, for example, a figure’s arm outstretched toward the observer must be foreshortened – the dimensions of lines, contours, and angles adjusted – in order for the arm not to appear hugely out of proportion. The term foreshortening is applied to the depiction of a single object, figure, or part of an object or figure, whereas the term perspective refers to the depiction of an entire scene.
Form: 1) individual configurations that are described as three dimensional on a two dimensional plane. 2) the manner in which the artist presents his/her idea, i.e. a product of organization, design, composition and manipulation of materials and techniques; how the work is made.
3) to form; to make, mold, construct or formulate as in an idea.
Formal: addressing issues concerning the form related to the manner or means of presenting the idea.
Formalism: an approach to art that stresses certain rules of composition and order regardless of the degree of representation; a rational, intellectual attitude is emphasized often in an attempt to define the ideal. An attempt to express the universal rather than the personal is often the objective. In its most idealized version this approach is referred to as Classicism.
Format: the working area or space of a composition, specifically regarding the proportion of height to width.
Function: activity for which an object is specifically designed.
Geometric: the formal relationship between points, lines, angles, surfaces, and solids (as in mathematical geometry).
Glaze: A thin, fluid, transparent application of color so the color beneath comes through resulting in a new or more luminous color. Usually it is done over white or very light colors.
Ground as in Figure/Ground: the space around or between the figures, often called the negative shapes or space.
Ground: the physical surface of a two-dimensional format. In painting it refers to the material painted on the support to prepare it for painting.
Highlight: the area or point of most intense light on an image usually an aid in depicting form; the highest, or lightest light (value).
Hue: 1) a color found in the hue circle (or color wheel) that is 100% pure with nothing to degrade or change it. If another hue of the same temperature is mixed with the first hue, the product is still a pure hue (see hue circle), i.e., if red mixed with yellow the product is an orange hue. If a hue of different temperature is mixed with a hue, i.e. if an orange hue is mixed with a blue – green hue, the mixture will result in a color.
Hue Circle: (Syn: color wheel) a two-dimensional representation of approximate prismatic hues formed in a circle; spectral organization of hues when a circle based on a magenta-yellow-cyan is used.
Illusionism, illusionistic: Attempts to imitate the world as we see it.
Indirect Complement(S): any two hues or colors that contain all three subtractive primaries either of the RYB system (red, yellow, blue) or the MYC system (magenta, yellow, cyan).
Intensity: (Syn: chroma, purity, brightness, saturation). The relative degree of the purity of a color. A fully intense color is called a hue, i.e. it is 100% pure with nothing added to degrade or change it.
Intermediary Hue: a hue that lies between a primary and secondary hue on the hue circle.
Interval: a spatial “pause” between elements, such as a function of time or a negative space as existing between two positive areas.
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Key: in two-dimensional work, the prevailing range of values or colors, i.e., a low minor key has a range of low or dark values or colors expressing its tonality; tonality is often referred to as a high key or low key.
Light: the visible spectrum; a limited quantity of radiant energy which allows us to see color, form and space, i.e. makes visual perception possible.
Line: extension or movement in one direction; the path of a moving point; contour line: indication of an edge between two planes or volumes; gesture line: one that describes a movement or the essential rhythm, direction, and essence of a form.
two dimensional.
Local Color: The natural color of a particular object under uniform white light.
Local Value: How light or dark an object’s color is under uniform lighting conditions.
Luminance: the condition or quality of emitting light radiated by a colored surface other than as a result of incandescence; emitting light, shiny or bright.
Mass: a quantity of matter having measurable weight.
Metaphor: the figure of speech in which a name or descriptive term is transferred to some object to which it is not properly applicable but instead gives it poetic meaning (e.g. “No man is an Island”.
Mood: an overall feeling or emotion which characterizes a work.
Movement: to change from one position or location to another.
Naturalism: an approach to art that stresses careful observation in an analytic depiction of the real world.
Negative Space: The space between and around an object or shape.
Negative and Positive Space: two interlocking shapes which identify the perimeters of a particular space.
Non-Objective: refers to forms created by an artist that are not representational. The finished product does not represent something already existing.
Objective: refers to a rendering of subject matter by the artist with a minimum of subjective interpretation; to see something as it is.
Opaque: a solid that does not allow light to travel through it. It can be in any shape and made of any substance impenetrable to light. A piece of cardboard, heavy paper, wood etc. are examples of substances which are opaque.
Optical Mixing: the perception of a third color produced by many small dots or slashes of two colors placed in random next to one another, but not overlapping. The eye/brain system perceives a third color when the dot size and distance from the viewer is at an optimum for a specific combination of colors desired.
Organic: a curvilinear form (having properties of living organisms).
Pattern: 1) occurs when an element of a combination of elements are repeated in a recognizable system of organization. 2) a model or mold from which something is copied or made..
Perspective: a science or system used in two-dimensional composition to create the illusion of three-dimensional space. The system called LINEAR perspective is based on the premise that all parallel lines appear to converge as they recede in space. The system call ATMOSPHERIC (or AERIAL) perspective is based on the premise that the atmosphere, i.e. the distance, tends to lighten value, lower intensity (of a color) and cool colors.
Pictorial Axis: an implied line (in two-dimensional work) through a composition to which elements in the composition relate or refer.
Pictorial Space: The space in the picture defined by the parameters and surface of the picture plane. In modernist painting, qualities of depth are created by the interaction of the visual elements, not through illusionism or perspective.
Picture Plane: the plane surface (2D) of a material on which an image is created; that surface which lies within the perimeter or frame of a design/composition.
Plane: a flat surface area or shape.
Point: a place or position; an element of design having position but no dimension or extension.
Positive/Negative: the relationship between the figure and the ground in a two-dimensional composition. The relationship between solid forms or volumes and empty space or voids in a three-dimensional composition.
Primary Hue: 100% pure RED, YELLOW & BLUE. These hues cannot be made by mixing other hues. Primary colors refer to any red, yellow or blue.
Primary Hue (S): subtractive or pigment primaries: red, yellow, blue in the RYB system, and magenta, yellow and cyan in the MYC system thought to be the true subtractive primaries and
used in process printing to achieve black. The additive or light primaries: red-orange, blue-violet and green, the combination of these three wavelengths of light produce white light.
Process: a series of actions, changes or functions.
Proportion: the relative comparison in dimension between two or more elements in a design; quantity of emphasis or ratio between two or more aspects of a work.
Push/Pull: Interaction of visual elements in such a ways as cause the effect of one element advancing forward in space and another receding, often the effect reverses itself causing a dynamic tension.
Realism/Realistic 1) In a general sense, the artwork represents an image so that it conforms to the way we normally see things in color, form and detail. 2) A movement in art history in the 19th Century.
Reflected Light: that portion of light that is deflected from a surface, as distinguished from transmitted or absorbed light. It can sometimes be observed the shadowed portion of an object.
Refraction: the bending or deflection of a ray of light (heat, sound, etc.) from a straight course as it passes obliquely from one medium to another, i.e. from air to a transparent pigment; air to prism is a classic example.
Relative Value: a value that matches a specific color or hue in lightness and/or darkness.
Representation: an image, likeness, or reproduction in some manner of a thing.
Representational: refers to a composition in which depiction of a real subject plays a prominent part; the work “represents” the subject.
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Rhythm: the effect of an underlying repetitive structure or the periodic
occurrence of elements either with regular or irregular spacing.
Saturation: the degree of purity of a color. A HUE by definition has 100% saturation or is 100% pure. Synonyms: intensity, chroma, brightness.
Scale: the comparison of the ratio between the dimensions of representation and those of actual objects or space. The ratio may be specific as in a map where one inch equals one mile or inferred by visual clues in a way that might imply a particular size.
Scumbling: Application of paint so color beneath marks comes through in sporadically, usually done with dry brush marks over dark colors.
Schematic: a structural or procedural diagram, a diagrammatic representation.
Secondary Hue: 100% pure hue that lies between each primary hue on the hue circle;
ORANGE, VIOLET, & GREEN. Secondary color refers to any orange, violet or green, not necessarily hues
Sequence: a following of one thing after another.
Shade: a hue or color mixed with black.
Shadow: The area on an object or in space not receiving light.
Shape: a two dimensional configuration
Simultaneous Contrast: (Syn: simultaneity) the relative influence of one color upon another color in juxtaposition or very close proximity causing it to appear to have greater contrast.
Simultaneous: existing, happening, occurring, operating, etc., at the same time;
coincident in time.
Space, Spatial: an expanse which may be actual or perceived and which may be 2-dimensional (area), 3-dimensional (volume), and/or 4-dimensional (time); in 2-dimensional work, the illusion of depth which may be perceived as deep, i.e., moving far behind or in front of the picture plane, flat.
Spectrum: (light) The band of rainbow colors seen when sunlight is passed through a prism or a triangular piece of glass having length and the ability to break or refract white light into its component colors. These colors represent the visible wavelengths of radiant energy bounded by red at one end with a long wavelength and blue-violet at the other with a shorter wavelength. The invisible wavelengths on either side of the visible spectrum are call infra-red (red side) and ultraviolet (blue-violet side).
Static: without movement; pertaining to a fixed or still condition.
Structure: something made up of a number of parts held or put together in a specific way. The
manner in which parts held together or combined to form a whole.
Subtractive Mixing: refers to mixing of pigment or colored materials such as colored paint, glass, gels, inks, dyes, etc.
Support: The physical object on which a painting is made, for example canvas, wood, paper, etc…
Surface: The textural qualities of a painting’s support, brushwork and finish.
Symbol: something, representing something else by association, resemblance, or convention.
Symmetry: the use of identical or similar compositional elements or units on either side of a vertical axis, mirror image. BILATERAL symmetry: if the mirror imaging is done to both the vertical and horizontal axis. A highly static, centralized compositional effect is created.
Synthesis: the action of understanding in combining and unifying the isolated data of sensation into a cognizable whole. The putting together of parts of elements so as to make up a complex whole; the combination of immaterial or abstract things, or of elements into an abstract whole.
Temperature: one of the four color characteristics (hue, intensity, value, temperature) that refers to the relative feeling of warmth or coolness that a color evokes. Red, yellow, and orange are warm; violet, blue, and green are cool. Red-violet and yellow-green are called temperate.
Tertiary Color: a color made by the mixture of two secondary hues or colors.
Texture: the tactile quality of a surface. The texture may be actual or physical or implied as in a photograph or collage.
Tint: a hue or color mixed with white.
Tonality: the feeling or mood that the organization of values in a work produces.
Tone: 1) a hue or color mixed with its relative value. 2) Syn: value, shades are sometimes described as tones-this is ambiguous and confusing. 3) TO TONE- to lessen the intensity of a color as in “to tone down”.
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Translucent: glowing, colors which have the property of allowing light to pass
through them in a diffused, milky way.
Transparent: having the property of being clear or allowing light to pass through it completely so that something situated behind it, or beyond it can be seen in complete detail.
Transposition: to move from one place, time or medium to another; to transfer, shift.
Underpainting: Color put down that is later covered, used to influence later applications of color.
Unity: a wholeness of design; a cohesion of all the elements in a design or composition such that each part seems essential to the effect of the whole. The principles of contrast and dominance create a sense of unity in most situations, i.e., the principle of dominance resolves a conflict of competing contrast resulting in a feeling of visual wholeness.
Value: the relative degree of lightness or darkness of a surface or color;
Vanishing Point: the point on an established horizon line in a two-dimensional composition at which all parallel lines in that composition converge. One, two, three or more vanishing points may be employed in a composition for increasingly complex spatial illusions.
Volume: a quantity of space occupying three dimensions.
Weight: a measure of gravitational pull.
White Light: the final product of mixing the light primaries together. Red-orange, green and blue-violet are the light primaries; magenta, yellow and cyan are the light secondaries.
