Elements and Principles of Art

Vocabulary flashcards covering the elements, principles, and stylistic categories of art from the lecture slides.

Line

In art, a moving dot.

Measure (of Line)

Its length and width.

Expressive Qualities of Line

Can be precise or gestural, fluid and loose, and perceived as delicate, elegant, forceful or brutal.

Contour Lines

Lines created by the edges of things.

Actual Lines

Lines that are connected and continuous.

Implied Line

Discontinuous line or lines suggested by a series of points, perceived by the viewer.

Psychological Line

A perceptual connection created by characters looking, pointing, or gesturing towards objects or other people.

Horizontal Lines

Lines that suggest stability.

Vertical Lines

Lines that defy gravity and suggest assertiveness.

Diagonal Lines

Lines that imply movement and directionality.

Value

Lightness and darkness, of both black/white and color. Determined by the amount of light reflecting off the surface.

Value Contrast

Refers to the difference between shades of grey. High value contrast makes things easily perceptible, or 'pop'.

Chiaroscuro

The gradual shifting from light to dark through successive gradation of tones to give objects portrayed on a flat surface the illusion of a curved surface; shading on a curved surface.

Achromatic Colors

Black, white & grey (also called Neutrals).

Primary Colors

Red, blue & yellow.

Secondary Colors

A color produced when mixing 2 Primary colors (e.g., Orange, Green, or Violet).

Tertiary Colors

Colors created by mixing 2 secondary colors or a primary color and a secondary color (e.g., Brown, Magenta, or Cyan).

Impasto

Creates rough gouges on canvas through thick build-up of paint on canvas; the painting has a slightly 3-D appearance.

Actual Texture

Tactile texture in 2-D paintings, consisting of the surface of the canvas and any thickness of paint that can be felt.

Visual Texture

Simulated texture created by the artist's ability to fool the eye, or 'tromp l'oeill' (trick the eye).

Subversive Texture

Replaces a texture we expect with another that causes us to look twice.

Unity

Oneness or wholeness. A work of art achieves unity when its parts seem necessary to the composition as a whole.

Extreme Unity

Unity of shape, unity by color contrast, and/or unity between figure and ground. Shapes tend to be regular and even.

Visual Unity

Unity that relies on consistency or repetition of the elements of art in a composition, creating visual harmonies.

Conceptual Unity

Utilizes the unity of ideas, relying on relationships between meaning and function of images rather than visual harmonies.

Natural Rhythms

Orderly progressions that occur in natural phenomena and time, such as genetic codes, the order of revolving planets, ocean waves, and atomic vibrations.

Regular Repetition

The easiest and most precise way to create rhythm in visual art and architecture.

Scale

Refers to size, big or small, and the relative size of an object compared to others of its kind, its setting, or human dimensions.

Hierarchical Scaling

Technique where relative size is used to indicate relative importance of objects or people (commonly used in medieval manuscripts and Egyptian art).

Distortion of Scale

Challenges the viewer to look at the familiar in a new way, offering a new perspective on the form of things or the relationship between things.

Realism

Refers to the portrayal of people and things as they are seen by the eye or really thought to be, without idealization or distortion; also refers to a specific 19th-century school of art.

Representational Art

Also called Figurative Art; art that portrays, however altered or distorted, things perceived in the visible world in a recognizable form.

Expressionist Art

Art in which form and color are distorted by the artist in order to achieve a heightened emotional impact.

Abstract Art

Applies to art that departs significantly from the actual appearance of things; can be nonobjective or non-representational.

Cubism

Reduces natural forms into angular geometrical equivalents while keeping subject matter recognizable with little work.

Form

Refers to the totality of a work of art, including the elements, design principles, and composition.

Formalist Criticism

Art criticism that concentrates primarily on the elements and design of a work of art, rather than historical and other influences on the artist.