This section of our website is dedicated to defining important art terms.

A

Abstract - Imagery which departs from representational accuracy, to a variable range of possible degrees, for some reason other than verisimilitude.

Accent - In design, a distinctive feature or quality, such as a feature that accentuates or complements a decorative style.

Achromatic - Color having no chroma-- black, white and grays made by mixing black and white.

Aesthetics - The branch of philosophy that deals with the nature and value of art objects and experiences.

Alla Prima Painting - A method of oil painting in which the picture is completed with the first application of paints to the entire area, instead of being built up by layering.

Analogous - Color that are next to each other on the color wheel and are closely related.

Anthropomorphism - The representation of inanimate object, animals, deities, or other phenomena, whether real or fictitious, in human form, with human characteristics and behaviors.

Armature - A skeleton-like framework to give rigid internal support to a modeled sculpture, typically of either clay or wax.

Artists Proof - One of a small group of prints set aside from an edition for an artist's use; a number of printer's proofs are sometimes also done for a printer's use.

Assemblage - A composition made of various materials.

Asymmetry - The parts of a design organized so that one side differs from the other without destroying the overall harmony.

B

Balance - A principle of design, it refers to the way the elements of art are arranged to create a feeling of stability in a work.

Bas Relief - A French term meaning "low-raised work." This art, along with high relief, is know collectively as relief sculpture-- meant to be seen primarily from one direction, as opposed to sculpture which is in the round or full round.

Bleed - Pigments that run into an adjoining area or up through coats of paint, usually undesirably see bleeding through and bleed-proof).

Bird's Eye - As if seen from an altitude or from a distance; a comprehensive view; also called an aerial view.

Butt Joint - A right angle made by joining two pieces of wood, broad edge to narrow edge, without mitering.

C

Calligraphy - Careful hand-lettering, or the decorative art of lettering in an ornamental style using brushes or pens.

Caricature - A representation in which the subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect.

Cast - To form (molten metal, or liquid plaster or plastic, for example) into a three- dimensional shape by pouring into a mold; or something formed by this means.

Color Field Painting - Paintings with solid areas of color covering the entire canvas.

Color Scheme - The colors an artist uses and the way they are combined in an artwork.

Color Wheel - A radial diagram of colors in which primary and secondary, and sometimes intermediate colors are displayed as an aid to color identification, choosing, and mixing.

Commercial Art - Advertising and other visual art the primary purpose is to serve ends other than those of fine art.

Compass - A mechanical tool that has two hinged, adjustable legs for drawing different sizes of circle and arcs.

Complementary Colors - Colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel.

Composition - The plan, placement or arrangement of the elements of art in a work, usually according to the principles of design.

Contemporary - Current, belonging to the same period of time. Usually referring to our present time, but can refer to being current with any specified time.

Contrast - A large difference between two things; for example, hot and cold, green and red, light and shadow.

Cool Colors - Color often associated with water, sky, spring, and foliage, and suggest coolness. These are the colors that contain blue and green and appear on one side of the color wheel opposite the warm colors.

Crafting - Technical skill, manual dexterity, considered apart from the fine arts, or from the cerebral, expressive, or aesthetic aspects of them.

Cropping - To trim one or more of a picture's edges, or to place one or more of the edges of an image so that only part of a subject can be seen within the image.

Cubism - One of the most influential art movements (1907-1914) of the twentieth century, Cubism was developed by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1882-1973) and Georges Braque (French, 1882-1963), who were greatly inspired by African sculpture, by painters Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906) and Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1991), and by the Fauvists.

D

Dada - An early twentieth century art movement which ridiculed contemporary culture and traditional art forms.

Damping the Paper- Applying water to canvas/paper.

Dry Brush - Applying relatively dry inks or water paints lightly over a surface, creating an area of broken color-- the new color having attached to the high spots but not to the low, so that traces of the paper or under color remain exposed.

E

Edition - A set of identical prints, sometimes numbered and signed, pulled by, or under the supervision of the artist.

Emulsion - A suspension of small globules of one liquid in a second liquid with which the first will not mix.

Expressionism - A quality of inner experience, the emotions of the artist (expressive qualities) communicated through emphasis and distortion, which can be found in works of art of any period.

Eye Level - On the same height level as a person's eye.

F

Facade - The front or face of a building. The facade accents the entrance of a building and usually prepares the visitor for the architectural style found inside.

Ferrule - The metal or plastic device that that aligns and anchors paintbrush bristles or hairs in an adhesive.

Firing - A process of applying heat to make hard pottery in an ovenlike enclosure called a kiln.

Folk Art - Art made by people who have had little or no formal schooling in art. Folk artists usually make works of art with traditional techniques and content, in styles handed down through many generations, and often of a particular region.

G

Gesture Drawing - This quick drawing captures the energy and movement of the subject. It does not necessarily have to be realistic.

Glaze - Color that is thinned to a transparent state and applied over previously painted areas to modify the original color. (see also Underpainting)

Gold Leaf - Used for gilding, gold or silver (for silver leafing) is beaten to extremely thin sheets.

Gouache - (Tempera) Opaque watercolors and the technique of painting with such colors using white to make tints.

Graphite - A soft black mineral substance, a form of carbon, available in powder, stick, and other forms. It has a metallic luster and a greasy feel. Compressed with fine clay, it is used in pencils.

Greenware - When clay is hard, but not yet fired it is referred to as greenware. The clay can be made wet and turned back into a useable material.

Grid - A framework or pattern of criss-crossed or parallel lines.

H

Harlem Renaissance - A largely literary movement in the uptown Manhattan neighborhood of Harlem in the mid- and late-1920s.

Harmony - A principle of design, it refers to a way of combining elements of art to accent their similarities and bind the picture parts into a whole.

Hieroglyphics - A system of writing using symbols or pictures (hieroglyphs) used by the ancient Egyptians.

Horizon Line - A level line where water or land seems to end and the sky begins. Vanishing points are usually located on this line.

I

Icon - Loosely, a picture; a sculpture, or even a building, when regarded as an object of veneration.

Impasto - A manner of painting where the paint is laid on thickly so texture stands out in relief.

Impressionism - An art movement and style of painting that started in France during the 1860s. Impressionist artists tried to paint candid glimpses of their subjects showing the effects of sunlight on things at different times of day.

Intensity - This term is used to describe the brightness, or the dullness of a color.

Intermediate colors - Obtained by mixing adjoining Primary and Secondary colors.

J

Joint - A connection between two pieces of material.

Juxtapose - The state or position of being placed close together or side by side, so as to permit comparison or contrast.

K

Kickwheel - A potter's wheel which is driven by kicking a revolving cement disk. The major alternative is a wheel driven by an electric motor.

Kiln - An special oven or furnace that can reach very high temperatures and is used to bake, or fire clay. Kilns may be electric, gas, or wood-fired.

Kinetic Art - Expressing movement. In art, kinetic refers to sculpture that moves, such as a mobile or stabile.

Kneaded Eraser - An eraser that can be manipulated into any shape in order to remove pencil and many other marks cleanly.

L

Landscape - A painting, photograph or other work of art which depicts scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers and forests.

Light Source - The place from which light emanates from.

Limited Palette - The use of only certain colors on an artwork.

Line - A line is an identifiable path of a point moving in space. It can vary in width, direction and length.

Linear Perspective - A system of drawing or painting in which the artist attempts to create the illusion of depth on a flat surface.

Luster - A high-gloss finish with iridescence.

M

Matting -The decorative and protective material used to support and separate the art from the glass or acrylic glazing.

Medium - A material or substance used to create a piece of art, such as oil paints, graphite, or watercolors.

Moulding - Embellished strips of wood, plastic, metal, or other materials that are assembled to frame a piece of art.

N

Naive art - Artwork, usually paintings, characterized by a simplified style, nonscientific perspective, and bold colors. The artists are generally not professionally trained.

Naturalism or Naturalism - A style in which an artist intends to represent a subject as it appears in the natural world -- precisely and objectively.

Newsprint - This paper comes in large sheets, and is inexpensive. Newsprint will eventually yellow, and is not a good choice for preserving artwork. Pen and market will bleed through newsprint.

O

Oil Cup - A container that can be clipped to your oil palette. One cup for the medium, the other cup for the brush cleaner.

Oil Paint - A definition by Windsor & Newton state: "Oils are one of the great classic media, and have dominated painting for five hundred years. They remain popular for many reasons: their great versatility, offering the possibility of transparency and opacity in the same painting; the lack of color change when the painting dries; and ease of manipulation."

One-point Perspective - A form of linear perspective in which all lines (describing straight edges that go from points nearer to points farther) appear to meet at a single point on the horizon.

Op Art - A twentieth century art movement and style in which artists sought to create an impression of movement on the picture surface by means of optical illusion.

Opaque - Something that cannot be seen through; the opposite of transparent, although something through which some light passes would be described as translucent.

Organic - Shapes that are not regular or even, using a combination of edges that are curved or angular.

Ornate - In typography, highly ornamental characters, usually letters. In the middle Ages, such letters were used as decorative initial letters on pages of manuscripts and books. Today ornate letters are used as novel, decorative elements employed very selectively in graphic design. Ornate is sometimes used to mean baroque or complex.

Oxidation - The firing atmosphere containing lots of oxygen. Oxides Applying metal oxides to the clay, mixing with water, you can create an effect of stained wood.

P

Paint Box - A piece of equipment used for storing brushes, paint, palette, and accessories when painting outdoors.

Painting Knife -Knives come in a variety of shapes and sizes. A trowel-type flexible knife.

Papier Mache - Papier mache is an ancient art consisting of paper and a binder, such as wallpaper paste or glue.

Pastel Colors - go from soft to brilliant in a stick form. When the paper is covered completely, it is known as a pastel painting. When the paper is exposed through the pastel, it is known as a pastel sketch.

Pencils - Pencils are categorized according to the hardness of the lead. The hardest lead is found in the 9-B, which gives you a sharp thin line. The opposite being a 9-B which creates a soft line which is thicker and darker.

Pens - Technical drawing pens produce a sharp line that never varies in width. They come in a range of colors, and widths which create different effects.

Perspective - Perspective creates the feeling of depth through the use of lines that make your image appear to be three dimensional. The closer the image is, the more detailed it will appear, and the larger it will be.

Pigment - Pigment is the material used to create the effect of color on any surface.

Pinch Pots - Beginning with a ball of clay, the artist can form a pot by pinching the clay to form the center opening. Plaster When mixed with water, this powder will harden into a chalk-like solid used to create sculptures, and other forms of artwork.

Porcelain - Porcelain is a combination of kaolin, silica and feldspar. You can work with porcelain as you would clay, but when you fire it correctly, the result will be similar to that of glass.

Primary colors - Red, yellow, blue.

Q

Quality - A characteristic, having a high degree of excellence.

R

Raku - This method of firing pottery results in irregular surfaces and colors. The pottery is removed when it is red hot. It is then placed in a bed of combustible materials and covered.

Reduction - Firing clay with an inadequate amount of oxygen.

Repetition - Repetition is created when objects, shapes, space, light, direction, lines etc. are repeated in artwork.

Rhythm - The regular repetition of particular forms or elements that occur in a work of art. Rhythm suggests motion.

S

Secondary colors - On the color wheel: colors found between the primary colors from which they were mixed. (Like green, orange, or violet)

Shade - Color with black added in order to make it darker. The opposite of shade is tint.

Shape - Shapes can be in the form of squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, and ovals.

Silver print - This generic term covers all prints made on paper that is coated with silver salts. Black and white photographs are usually silver prints.

Slab built - Clay slabs are cut into shape, and joined together with scoring and wet clay called slip.

Slip - A liquid form of clay. Slip is used to fill in pores, and even out the color. Slip is used to join clay.

Spectrum - The colors that are the result of a beam of white light that is broken by a form of prism into its hues.

Stencil - The process in which an area is cut out of paper, or material such as cardboard to enable paint or ink to be applied to a piece of paper, or canvas through the cutout.

Stoneware - Sturdier than earthenware, stoneware is waterproof even without being glazed.

Symbol - A symbol is a picture or image that tells a story of what it is without using words.

Symmetry - Symmetry is when one side of something balances out the other side.

T

Tempera - Tempera is a word used to describe any type of binder such as oil, water or egg that makes a pigment workable as a paint form.

Terra cotta - Commonly used for ceramic sculpture, it is a brownish-orange earthenware clay.

Tertiary colors - colors that represent a mixture of secondary colors.

Texture - Texture creates the feeling of an object.

Tint - Tint is the opposite of shade. Tinting is combining white with a color to make it lighter.

Turpentine (or Grumtine) - Used for cleaning equipment and to thin mediums.

U

Under painting - Preliminary painting used as a base for textures or for subsequent painting or glazing.

Unity - A feeling of completeness is created by the use of elements in the artwork.

V

Value - Shadows, darkness, contrasts and light are all values in artwork.

Vintage - A photograph printed within a few years of the negative being made.

W

Wash - A highly fluid application of color.

Watercolor - A translucent, water-based paint that comes in cake or tube form.

Wax Crayon - These crayons are ideal to use to loosen up your drawing style. Crayons are cost effective, and it is difficult to create really detailed drawings.

Wheel Thrown - Comes from an English term meaning 'spin'. The clay is placed on the potters wheel and the piece is formed while the clay spins on the wheel.

X

Xerography - A dry photographic or photocopying process in which a negative image is transferred and fixed as positive on a paper or other copying surface.

Y

Yellowing - In painting, a tendency on the part of binding media to turn a tint towards yellow. This is most likely to occur when linseed oil is included.

Z

Zoetrope - An optical device made of a vertical cylinder that spins around a pivot. Looking through slits in the outside of the cylinder gives an impression of movement to drawings on the inside.

Zone system - A photographic technique for producing photos with an optimum range of value, developed by Ansel Adams, photographer.