ABSTRACT - A restructuring or altering of observed forms. They may become so simplified that they seem almost nonobjective in character. Reorganization of natural impression to meet the needs of form and expression.
ADDITIVE - To create by the building up of materials, color, values, etc.
AESTHETIC - The theory of the artistic or the beautiful; traditionally a branch of philosophy, but now a combination of the philosophy, psychology, and sociology of art.
ANALOGOUS COLOR - Neighboring colors on the color wheel, which have one hue in common.
ASSEMBLAGE - The creation of 3-D objects by taking things or fragments of things from their accustomed structures or environments and combining them in a new context.
ASYMMETRICAL BALANCE - Visual control of contrasts through a "felt" equilibrium between parts of a picture.
AXIS - The centerline, either actual or implied. A main line of direction or motion. A line in a composition to which other elements refer.
BALANCE - Equilibrium of all contributing parts in a work of art to create unity.
BlO-MORPHIC - See organic
CALLIGRAPHY - Refers to the use of script-like or fluid line.
CHIAROSCURO - A term derived from Italian and literally meaning light-dark. It refers to the technique of representation, which concentrates on the illusion of 3-D forms described in the composition.
COLLAGE - The addition of materials of all kinds to a 2-D piece. Painted and drawn passages are combined with scrap material to create the desired effects.
COLOR - The character of surface created by the response of vision to the wavelength of light reflections.
COMPLEMENTARY COLORS - Two colors, which appear directly opposite each other on the color wheel.
COMPOSITION - The act of organizing all of the elements of a work of art into a harmonious unified whole.
CONTENT - The essential meaning, significance, or aesthetic value of an art form.
CONTOUR - The boundary or line that separates a figure, object, mass or area from its surrounding.
CUBISM - A term given to the artistic style, which used mostly planular shapes, usually geometrical in character.
CURVILENEAR - Curved line. DESIGN - A framework or scheme of a pictorial construction on which the artist bases the formal organization of his total work. (form)
DISTORTION - Any change made by an artist in the size, position or general character of forms based on visual perception, when those forms are organized into a pictorial image.
DOMINANCE - The featured or controlling part of a work of art.
ELEMENTS - Line, color, shape, texture, value.
EXPRESSION - Term meaning special characteristics of form, which mark the work of an artist or group of artists.
EXPRESSIONISTIC - Art in which there is a desire to express what is "felt" rather than perceived or reasoned.
FlGURE GROUND - See positive-negative.
FORM - a. The final and total appearance of the art object. Organization and use of the elements of art; principles of organization, the technique, and the media. b. An object or rendering of an object so that it appears to be 3-D and volumetric.
FORMAT - The outside boundary of a piece. The frame.
FORESHORTENING - A drawing technique that distorts the relative proportions of an inclining or horizontal figure or form in order to heighten the illusion of receding space.
FREE STANDING - Sculpture 'in-the-round'. degrees. An object one can observe from 360
GEOMETRIC - Things which are regular in character and follow the exact rules of mathematical construction.
GRAPHIC - a. Refers to forms physically existing in a two-dimensional space relationship. b. Drawing and printing.
HARMONY - Combination or adaptation of parts, elements, or related things so as to form a consistent and orderly whole.
HIGHLIGHT - Area of a form, which receives directly the greatest amount of light falling on it.
HUE - Name of a color.
IMPRESSION AND IMPRESSIONISM - A strong immediate effect produced in the mind by an outward or inward agency. Specific movement known as impressionism was a late 19th century movement primarily connected with painters such as Claude Monet; Pisarro.
INTENSITY - Brightness or dullness of a hue.
INTUITION - Something that is felt or arrived at without rational procedure. Instinctive.
KINESTHETIC - The sensation of movement, which can be, realized either physically or visually through structuring of the art elements.
LINE - A line is a track made by a moving point.
LOCAL COLOR - Naturalistic color of an object, i.e., blue sky, red apple, green grass.
MASS - The form of matter, cohering together in one body; a compact body. A 3-D form, a type of shading.
MOTIF - A visual element or a combination of elements, which is repeated often enough in a composition to make it the dominating feature of the artist's expression.
NATURALISM - The doctrine that nature should be represented objectively, without interpretation by the artist.
NON-OBJECTIVE - An approach to art in which the visual signs are entirely imaginary and are not based on anything the artist has ever seen.
ORJECTIVE - An impersonal statement of observed facts. In art the exact rendering by the artist of surface characteristic without alteration or interpretation of the visual image.
ORGANIC - Forms, which are irregular in form and resemble the freely developed ones found in life.
PATTERN - The systematic repetition of the elements of art, which remain essentially 2-dimensional in nature.
PERSPECTIVE - A mechanical system of creating the illusion of a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. Linear Perspective primarily line in treatment. Aerial or Atmospheric Perspective uses value and color modification to suggest or enhance the effect of space.
PICTURE PLANE - The flat surface on which the artist executes his pictorial image. The imaginary and transparent plane of reference used by the artist to establish the illusion of forms, which exist in a 3-D space.
PLANE - A two-dimensional shape existing in a three-dimensional space relationship.
PLASTIC - The quality that emphasizes the 3-D nature of a shape or mass.
POSITIVE-NEGATIVE - Positive areas are definite units, which are explicitly laid down; negative areas are the unoccupied or empty spaces.
PROPORTION - The comparison of elements one to another in terms of their properties of size, quantity, or degree of emphasis. Proportion may be expressed in terms of a definite ration such as "twice as big" or may be more loosely indicated in such expressions as "darker than", "more neutralized" or "more important than".
REALISM - A form of expression which retains the basic impression of visual reality but deviates only enough to relate and interpret universal meanings underneath surface appearance.
RECTILINEAR - Straight line.
RELIEF - A sculptural or three-dimensional form attached to a background from which it projects.
BAS-RELIEF - (or low relief) Sculpture in which the figures or forms are attached to a background and project only slightly from it.
HAUT-RELIEF - (or high relief) Sculpture in which forms project from a background to a considerable depth.
REPETITION - Method used to re-emphasize visual units by using an element more than once.
REPRESENTATION - A mode of representation in art in which details are arranged in such a way as to suggest to the imagination some concrete objects, person or scene.
RHYTHM - A continuance of flow which is accomplished by repetition of regulated visual units.
SHADE - A color plus black.
SHADES, SHADOWS - The area of form which is dark in value because little or no light strikes it directly.
SHAPE - A 2-D area that stands out due to a defined border or a change in color, value, texture, etc.
SPACE - Unlimited extension in all directions, the areas between points, shapes, masses, either real or illusionistic.
SPECTRUM - The band of color resulting when a beam of light is broken up into its component wave-length of hues.
SUBJECT MATTER - The raw material of experience leading to the creative act. The topic, theme, or motif of a work of art.
SUBJECTIVE - The personal as opposed to the impersonal; an individual attitude or bias through which the artist feels free to change or modify natural visual characteristics.
SUBTRACTIVE - To cut away from or remove.
SURREALISM - A movement in painting, literature, and the cinema beginning about 1924. It reflects the interest in human mentality taken by Freud and later psychologists. The artist is able to emphasize the sub-conscious generation of the art impulse through its frequent use of spacial alienation and irrational symbolism.
SYMBOL - Representation of a quality or situation through the use of an intermediate agent; an indirect understanding through form-meetings.
SYMMETRICAL BALANCE - Identical optical units distributed in equilibrium on either side of an axis in mirror-like repetition. Formal balance.
TACTILE - Referring to the sense of touch and visual appealing to our haptic sense.
TECHNIQUE - The method or skill with which the artist employs their tools and materials.
TENSION (PICTORIAL) - Dynamic inter-relationships of forces inherent in art elements which affect balance.
TEXTURE - The surface quality or feel of an object. Simulated Texture - The representation copying or imitation of a surface quality of a texture of an object or thing. Implied Texture - The use of marks or tools so as to suggest a textural quality-rough or smooth without going as far as to imitate or attempt to represent an actual texture. Artificial Texture - Any actual texture created by humans. Actual Texture - A surface that may be experienced through the sense of touch as opposed to experienced only through observation.
TINT - A color plus white.
TONE - Synonymous with value. Also, a softened color achieved by mixing a pure hue with gray or its complement.
VALUE - The tone quality of lightness or darkness given to a surface or an area by the amount of light reflected from it.
VOID - A penetration through an object, also an unfilled space.
VOLUME - The implied space occupied by or contained in a 3-D form.
WASH - A transparent layer or coating of color applied to a surface allowing underlying lines, shapes, or colors to show through. Any transparent medium may be lightly applied to previously painted shapes or areas in order to modify their appearance without completely hiding or covering them.
