Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice- 12th Edition: Space

Atmospheric Perspective

The illusion of deep space produced in graphic works by lightening values, softening details and textures, reducing value contrasts, and neutralizing colors in objects as they recede. (see perspective)

Decorative

Ornamenting or enriching but, more importantly in art, stressing the two-dimensional nature of an artwork or any of its elements. Decorative art (space) emphasizes the essential flatness of a surface.

Four-Dimensional Space

A highly imaginative treatment of forms that gives a sense of intervals of time or motion.

Fractional Representation

A pictoral device (used notably the Egyptians) in which several spatial aspects of the same subjects are combined in the same image.

Infinite Space

A concept in which the picture frame acts as a window through which objects can be seen receding endlessly.

Installations

Interior or exterior settings of media created by artists to heighten the viewers' awareness of the environmental space.

Interpenetration

The positioning of planes, objects or shapes so that they appear to pass through each other, which locks them together within a specific area of space.

Intuitive Space

The illusion of space that the artist creates by instinctively manipulating certain space-producing devices, including overlapping, transparency, interpenetration, inclined planes, disproportionate scale, fractional representation, and the inherent spatial properties of the art elements.

Isometric Projection

A technical drawing system in which a three-dimensional object is presented two-dimensionally; starting with the nearest vertical edge, the horizontal edges of the object are drawn at a 30-degree angle and all verticals are projected perpendicularly from a horizontal base.

Linear Perspective

A system used to depict three-dimensional images on a two-dimensional surface; it develops the optical phenomenon of diminishing size by treated edges as converging parallel lines that extend to a vanishing point or points on the horizon (eye-level) and recede from the viewer. (see also perspective)

Oblique Projection

A technical drawing system in which a three-dimensional object is presented two-dimensionally, the front and back sides of the object are parallel to the horizontal base, and the other planes are drawn as parallels coming off the front plane at a forty-five degree angle.

Orthographic Drawing

Graphic representation of two-dimensional views of an object, showing a plan, vertical elevation, and/or a section.

Perspective

Any graphic system including atmospheric perspective and linear perspective - used in creating the illusion of three-dimensional images and/or spatial relationships in which the objects or their parts appear to diminish as they recede in the distance.

Plastic

1. The use of the elements to create the illusion of the third dimension on a two-dimensional surface. 2. Three-dimensional art forms, such as architecture, sculpture, and ceramics.

Relief Sculpture

An artwork, graphic in concept but sculptural in application, that utilizes relatively shallow depth to establish images. The space development may range from very limited projection, known as "low relief," to more exaggerated space development, known as "high relief". Relief sculpture is meant to be viewed frontally , not in the round.

Reverse Perspective

A graphic system for depicting three dimensional images, commonly seen in traditional East Asian art, in which the "parallel" lines of objects or their parts seem to converge toward the viewer, rather than away into the distance. (see perspective)

Shallow Space

The illusion of limited depth. With shallow space, the imagery appears to move only a slight distance back from the picture plane.

Space

The interval, or measurable distance, between points or images; can be actual or illusionary

Structured Ambiguity

A condition in which the positive figure and the negative background seem to reverse roles, fluctuating back and forth between the two functions to create an ambiguous sense of space. Structured ambiguity is often employed as a transition between contrasting values or colors and is a valuable tool for creating optical illusions, denying space, and blending an image into its background.

Three-Dimensional

Possesses the dimensions of (or illusion of) height, width and depth. In the graphic arts, the feeling of depth is an illusion, while in the plastic arts, the work has actual depth.

Transparency

A visual quality in which a distance image or element can be seen through a nearer one.

Two-Dimensional

Possesses the dimensions of height and width, especially when considering the flat surface or picture plane.

Void

An area lacking positive substance and consisting of negative space. 2. A spatial area wthin an object that penetrates and passes through it.