VOCABULARY
VOCABULARY
ABSTRACT: Art that does not represent recognizable objects,
but instead conveys its meanings purely through the formal elements,
such as colour and form.
ACRYLIC: A water based paint that when dry forms a plastic film.
"ADDITIVE" PRIMARIES: The primaries of coloured lights (red
/ green / blue),
as used on stage and T.V. screens.
"ADDITIVE" MIXING: Combining coloured light to create other colours.
AERIAL PERSPECTIVE: The use of colour to create a sense of distance
in a picture,
in which colours are painted paler and bluer the further they appear
from the eye.
AESTHETICS: The study of 'art' and 'beauty'.
Taste.
ALLA PRIMA: A painting completed in one
session, with out any subsequent modifications made.
ALLEGORY: A story in which the literal presentation
also has another parallel meaning.
ANTI-CERNE: A white outline by leaving a bare
strip between two colours.
AQUARELLE: Transparent use of watercolour.
AQUATINT: Granulated effects, giving the impression
of a wash in an etching.
ARCHITECTONIC (Architectual): A term used to
describe structure with in a composition.
ART: Creative skill in painting, drawing,
sculpting (also in music, dance, etc) and any of the work produced thus.
ARTEFACTS:
Something made by man, especially by hand.
ARMATURE: Framework used as a support inside a sculpture.
ASSEMBLAGE: Collage of three-dimensional found objects.
ASYMMERTY: Not symmertrical. Where to halves of a painting are obviously
different.
BACK GROUND: The
illusion of the something of in the distance
BACK LIGHT (CONERJOUR): Light behind the artist's subject.
BODY COLOUR: An opaque watercolour, achieved by adding white to a colour.
BRILLIANT COLOUR: Colour of a high intensity and purity.
BROKEN COLOUR: Mixed or tertiary colour.
BRUSHWORK: The way a painter handles a brush, e.g. with thick broad
strokes, or short stabs, or with smooth control, etc.
CALLIGRAPHIC: Marks made with an ink pen, or a brush, that have the
same quality as handwriting.
CAMERA OBSCURA: A darkened box, with a pinhole, from which a tracing
can be making of a real scene.
CAPRICCIO (Caprice): Fantasy pictures.
CARICATURE: An exaggerated
representation of a person's characteristic features.
CARTELLINO: Label.
CARTOON: A preparatory drawing.
CARTOUCHE: An oblong
shape enclosing hieroglyphs that spell the name of a royal or a god ancient
Egypt.
CHIAROSCURO: (light
/ dark) Strong contrasts of light and shade in a painting for dramatic
effect.
CHINE COLLE: A black
and white print, with coloured tissue paper added during the printing process.
CLASSICAL: Greek and Roman art.
COLLAGE: Various materials glued to a 2D surface, sometimes combined
with painting and drawing.
COMBINES: Like a collage only including 3D found objects.
COMPOSTION: The formal arrangement of a picture.
CONERJOUR: (see BACK LIGHT)
CONTOUR: A line defining shape and/or form.
CONTRAPOSTO: A twisting posture of a body, with torso and legs on the
same axis but in different planes.
COMPLEMENRARY COLOURS: colours that are opposite each other in the
colour wheel,
and so mutually enhance one another when placed next to each other,
i.e. red / green.
COSTRUZIONE: Early form of linear perspective, used between the 1st
and 15th centuries, using only one vanishing point,
producing a certain amount of distortion.
CRAFT: Creative skill in producing decorative artefacts.
CROSS HATCHING: Shading or tone created by areas of parallel lines
overlaid.
CURVILINEAR: A composition dominated by circles or rounded, flowing
lines.
CUBISM: Style of art in
which objects are represented as geometrical shapes,
that becomes a picture puzzle for the viewer to unravel.
DESIGN: 1) Drawings, sketches, plans.
2) Applied arts, for commercial use.
DIPTYCH: A two paneled painting, which is hinged together, thus forming
a freestanding unit.
DRY BRUSH: Painting with a brush that has had excess liquid squeezed
out of it, usually between two fingers.
EARTH
COLOURS: Colours made from natural pigments of the earth, such as Ochre.
EGG TEMPERA: The use of egg yoke to bind pigment into paint.
EMBELLISH: To enrich and adorn.
EXPRESSIONISM: Theory
that art depends on expression of an artist's creative self, and not on
mere reproduction.
FAUVISM: (Les Fauves = The Wild Beasts) Name given by hostile critic
to artists such as Matisse,
who exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1905.
Characteristics of Fauvism are brilliant colour, abstract shapes, and
distortions of figurative forms.
FINE ART: High quality painting, sculpture, etc.
FORESHORTENING: Depicting an object on a 2D surface, that appears to
be coming out towards the viewer, smaller then it should be, so that it
looks right in perspective.
FORM: Structural qualities of an artwork.
FORMAL ELEMENTS: Descriptive words in Art that are not a matter of
opinion, i.e. colour, line, texture, etc.
FOREGROUND: The part
of a picture that appears nearest to the viewer.
FRESCO: Method of painting watercolour into a wet plaster wall before
it dries.
FROTTAGE: A rubbing from a textured surface.
GENRE: Categories of art's subjects, such as landscape, still life,
abstract, etc.
GLAZE: Thin transparent layer over a dry colour application
GOLDEN SECTION (Golden Mean): A composition that is based on divisions
by thirds.
GOUACHE: Opaque watercolour.
GRAPHIC: Illustrative and descriptive drawing, i.e. diagrams.
GRISAILLE: Monochrome painting in greys, sometimes as an under painting.
GROUND: Foundation surface of a painting.
HATCHING: Areas of lines, or short strokes, lied down in parallel to
create tone.
HIEROGLYPH: A system
of picture writng, especially as used in ancient Egypt.
HORIZON LINE: An imaginary line drawn across a picture plane,
representing sea level in the background, where parallel lines converge
at a vanishing point.
HUE: The result of mixing a colour with a tone. True colour.
ICON: A picture with a religious quality, often used as an object of
worship.
ICONOGRAPHY: The study of ideas and subject matter, in a work of art.
ICONOLOGY: The general meaning of a work of art in its historical and
cultural context.
IMPASTO: Thick, heavy application of paint.
IMPRESSIONISM: An art style that tries to render fleeting moments of
light and reflections, rather than detail.
KEY: The predominant tone and colour values in a painting, where light
is 'high key' and dark 'low key'.
LANDSCAPE: Rectangular picture surface that is horizontal.
LAYOUT: Design term for COMPOSITION.
LINE: Long narrow mark.
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE: The use of parallel lines, on a 2D surface, to
describe the 3D qualities of high, width and depth.
LOCAL COLOUR: The actual colour of an object in natural diffused light.
MEDIA: Material type used for an artwork, i.e. watercolour, clay, etc.
MEDIEVAL: Art of the
Middle Ages.
MEDIUM: Material or substance used to produce a piece of art.
MID-GROUND: The picture
plane between the 'foreground' and the 'background'.
MODELLING:(in painting) The building up of light and dark areas to
make them look three-dimensional.
MONOCHROME: A painting
in one colour.
MONOTYPE: A printmaking process, which produces only one print.
MOSAIC: A picture that is made of smaller bit of colour, usually glass
or stone.
MONUMENTAL: Art that is, or appears to be, on a vast scale.
NATURALISM: Art that represents objects as they are observed.
NEGATIVE SPACE: The area around and in between a represented object.
NEUTRAL COLOURS: "Colours" on the white-grey-black scale.
NON-WESTERN ART: Art from that is not from
the 'Western Tradition', i.e. Aboriginal
Art, African Art, Egyptian,
etc.
OBSERVATIONAL STUDY:
OIL PAINT: Pigment that is mixed and applied with oil.
ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE: 'Linear perspective', where only one set of
parallel lines converge to a 'vanishing points'.
OPAQUE: Not transparent.
OP ART: Art that uses abstract
means to produce 'optical' effects of movement in the eye.
OPTICAL MIXING: When colours are blending in the eye, rather then physically
on the painted surface.
ORTHOGONALS: Parallel lines that converge to a vanishing point.
PALETTE: Both the surface on which the colours of a painter are laid,
and the range of colours chosen.
PASTICHE: A work of art using borrowed styles and elements, but not
necessarily a direct copy.
PATTERN: Repeatable design.
PERFORMANCE ART:
Artwork that is designed to be staged as a piece of thertre.
PERSPECTIVE: The system for representing the three-dimensional world
on a 2D surface.
PHOTOMONTAGE: A 'collage' made of photographs.
PICTORIAL SPACE: The illusionary space created 'behind' the picture's
surface.
PICTURE PLANE: The flat surface on which a picture is painted.
PICTURESQUE: Something that would be an effective image in a picture.
PLASTICITY: The impression of a solidity of a figure in a 2D work.
POETIC COLOUR: A 'suggestion' of observed colour, that also shows the
artist emotional or decorative preference.
POP ART: Art that uses
images from 'popular culture'.
PORTRAIT: 1) A depiction
of a face.
2)Rectangular picture surface, which is vertical.
POST-IMPRESSIONISM:
Art that grew out of 'Impressionism'.
PRIMARY COLOURS: (first colours) The fundamental colours (yellow
/ red / blue),
which cannot be created by mixing.
READY MADE: Real objects, that the artists has not made, that are displayed
as Art.
RELIEF: Carvings, or 2D pictures, that project slightly from the surface.
RENAISSANCE:(Rebirth)
Art that reflected a revival in learning in the 14th - 16th centuries.
REPRESENTATIONAL: Art that is intended to stand for the real world.
RESIST: A material that displaces another material,
i.e. wax will displace any watercolour wash placed over it, so showing
through the wash.
SATURATION: The depth or "colourfulness" of a colour, and its freedom
from grey.
SCALE: The appearance of size, rather then actual size.
SECONDARY COLOURS: The colours (orange /
green / purple)
made by mixing two primaries together, i.e. yellow
+ blue = green.
SHAPE: The outline of a 'form'.
SILHOUETTE: Outline
of an object as seen against light.
SOURCE MATERIALS: Images from photographic origins, which are used
to develop an artwork.
SPACE: Open areas.
SPECTRUM: The range of colours produced by splitting white light, as
with a prism.
STENCIL: Cut out, that
is used transfer a design.
STILL LIFE: A painting, or drawing, of an arrangement of inanimate
objects.
STIPPLING: Applying paint in small dots or stabs.
STYLE: The distinctive characteristics of an artwork.
SUBJECT MATTER: The theme of an artwork, i.e. "Mother and child".
"SUBTRACTIVE" MIXING: The mixing of pigments to make colours.
SURREALISM: Art that
depicts the subconscious and irrational.
SYMBOL: An image that represents something else, i.e. 'a dove' = 'peace'.
SYMMERTY: A balanced composition.
TECHNIQUE: A method of production.
TEMPERATURE (COLOUR): Refers to a colour's relative warmth or coolness,
i.e. blue = cold, red = hot.
TERTIARY COLOUR: The mixing of all the primary colours to make brown,
i.e. yellow + red +
blue = brown.
TEXTURE: A surface of materials (or the illusion thereof), which are
especilly perceived by the sense of touch.
THREE POINT PERSPECTIVE: 'Linear perspective', where all three sets
of parallel lines converge to their 'vanishing points'.
TONE: The scale of white to black. Or the lightness or darkness of
a colour.
TRANSCRIPTION: A copy of an artwork, which has been made by to gain
practical study experience of an artwork.
TRIPTYCH: A set of three related artworks that are displayed, or hinged.
together.
TROMPE L'OEIL (Deceive the eye): Illusionary painting to trick the
onlooker the painting is real.
TWO POINT PERSPECTIVE: 'Linear perspective', where all two sets of
parallel lines converge to their 'vanishing points'.
UNDER PAINTING: Preparatory painting that is underneath the surface
of a finished painting.
VANISHING POINT: A point in 'linear perspective', where a set of parallel
lines converge.
WASH: Thin coat of colour.
WATERCOLOUR: Pigment that is mixed and applied with water, usually
in transparent layers.
WESTERN ART: Art in the
'Western Tradition', that is Art that has followed on in the 'Renaissance'
mold.
WET-INTO-WET: Painting, where wet paint is allowed to mix with paint,
already on the painted surface, that has not dried.