Elements and Principles Vocab

Fine Art

Art produced/inteded for beauty and expression rather than utility. Uses any of the art forms (visual art, literature, poetry, music, dance, performing arts, and etc. Something requiring highly developed techniques and skills.

Visual Art

Artwork, such as paninting, photography, and sculpture that appeals primarily to the visual sense and typically exists in permanent form.

Design

Arrangment of visual elements in a artwork.

Composition

The placement of visual elements on a 2-D surface/picture planes. Putting together and can apply to any work of art (music/writing) that is arranged using conscious thought.

Medium/media

The materials and methods used to create an image/object in drwing, painting, sculpture and other arts. Are 2-D (height and width) and 3-D (height, width, and depth).

Plane

A flat surface.

Picture Plane

The 2-D surface defined by height and width. The actual flat surface on which the artisit executes a pictorial image.

Picture Frame

The outermost limits/boundaries of the picture plane. These limits are representes by the edges of a canvas/paper or by the margin drawn within these edges.

2-D

Having height and width. Refers to the flat surace of a drawing/painting. Refered to as a shape

Illusion

The apperance of depth on a two-dimensional surface.

3-D

Has height, weight, and depth. Refered to as a solid. Forms a occupy a volume of space such as sculpture and architecture.

The Elements of Art/Design

Line, shape, form (aka mass/volume), space, tecture, value, and color (sometimes time and motion).

Line

The path of a moving dot/mark (or implied mark) between two end points.

Point

A location in space. In drawing points are usually depicted as dots.

Actual Line

A continous, uninterrupted line. Solid line

Implied Line

A line not actually drawn but suggested by elements in the work. Impressions of lines created by a series of points or lines perceived by changed in visual texture, value, or color.

Contour Line

The outline that defines a form.

Outline

The outermost line of an object/figure, by which it is defined or bounded.

Hatching

Fine parallel lines drawn/engraved to represent shading.

Cross-hatching

Intersecting sets of parallel lines used to shade a drawing.

Shape

A 2-D area, the boundaries of which are defined by lines or suggested by changes in color or value.

Geometric Shapes

Regular lines and curves. Usually based on the mechanically drawn line.

Organic Shapes

Having forms and shapes derived from living organisms. Based on the forms of nature, which are usually rounded, irregular and curving.

Contrast

A drastic difference between elements such as color or value (i.e. black and white).

Postive Shape

A shape defined by its surrounding empty space.

Negative Shape

An empty space given shape by its surrounding area.

Figure-grounded Relationship

The relationship between positive and negative shapes.

Figure-ground Reversal

Positive and negatice shapes can be reversed or are ambiguous.

Form

An object that can be defined in 3-D: height, width, and depth.

Volume

The space fulled or enclosed by a 3-D figure/object.

Mass

A volume that has, or gives the illusion of having, weight, density, and bulk.

Geometric Form

Regular solid forms such as cubes, pyramids, spheres, and cylinders.

Organic Form

Irregular and unpredictable forms like most things in the natural world.

Relief

a rasied form on a largely flat background.

In the Round

A freestanding sculptured work that can be viewed from all sides.

Texture

The surface character of materials as experienced by the sense of touch, or the implied surface of a work.

Actual/Tactile Texture

The the texture of an object or picture, as determined by the sense of touch.

Implied/Simulated Texture

Simulated texture in a work of art; the use of line, color, and other visual elements to create the illusion of various textures in flat drawings and paintings.

Impasto

Thick paint. The application of a medium such as paint so that an actual texture is built up on a surface.

Space

The distance between indentifiable points/planes.

Foreground

The part of a work depicted as nearest to the viewer.

Middle Ground

The part of the work between the foreground and background. Many works of art have none only foreground and background

Background

the part of a work depicted as behind the main figures. the part of the work depicted furthest from the viewer's space. Often behind the main subject matter

Overlapping

placing one object in front of another.

Size

things closer to us look larger and things further away look smalle.

Position (Vertical Placement)

lower figures in the picture are near and higher figures are further away.

Perspective

a sytem for portraying 3-D space on a 2-D surface

Linear Prespective

a system using imaginary sightlines to create the illusion of depth. Uses mathematical principles. The technique was perfected by Italian Renaissance artists to portray visual depth in the natural world by using diagonal parallel lines that appear to converge in the distance at one or more vanishing points.

Vanishing point

the point in a work of art at which imaginary sightlines appear to converge, suggesting depth.

Horizon Line

imaginary line that mimics the horizon and represents the viewer’s eye level.

One-point Perspective

a perspective system with a single vanishing point.

Two-point Perspective

a perspective system with two vanishing points.

Three-point Perspective

a perspective system with three vanishing points.

Atmospheric Prespective

Where forms in the distance are blue, indistinct, and misty. Closer objects have warmer tones and clearer outlines while objects set further away are cooler and become hazy.

Isometric Perspective

a system using diagonal parallel lines to communicate depth, showing multiple viewpoints simultaneously. Originally used in China, it is now common in computer graphics.

Foreshortening

a perspective technique that depicts a form at a very oblique, often dramatic, angle to the viewer in order to show depth in space. Used most often to describe depicitions of the human figure.

Value

The lightness/darkness of a plane/area.

Modeling

In two-dimensional works of art, the creation of the illusion of depth or roundness through the use of light and shade. in sculpture, the process of shaping a pliable material, such as day or wax, into a 3-D form.

Chiarocuro

The use of light and dark in a painting to create the impression of volume. Light/Dark

Highlight

The area of highest reflected light.

Shadow

Area of dark created when an pbject blocks light.

Reflected Light

light is reflected from the surrounding environment.

Cast Shadow

the shadow cast by the illuminated object.

Visible Spectrum

a small part of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can actually see

Additive Colors

mixing colors

Subtractive colors

mixing pigments

Hue

the property of a color that distinguishes it from others on the color wheel; the name of a color, or color family.

Value

lightness and darkness

Intensity/Saturation

the degree of purity or brilliance of a color. Also, the brightness or dullness of a hue. The \n colors of the visible spectrum (rainbow) are the most intense.

Primary Colors

a hue that in theory cannot be created by a mixture of other hues. In pigments the primaries are red, \n yellow, and blue.

Secondary Colors

a hue created by combining two primary colors. Orange, green, and violet.

Tertiary Colors

colors made by mixing a primary and an adjacent secondary. They are Yellow-green, yellow-orange, blue-green, blue-violet, red-violet and red-orange.

Color Temperature

refers to our sense of warm or cool colors. The color wheel can be divided into warm and cool sides from yellow-green to red-violet

Cool Colors

green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, and violet. They have a cooling and soothing effect. Associated with water, the sky and nature. Recede and move away from us.

Warm Colors

yellow, yellow-orange, orange, red-orange, and red. We associate them with the heat and light of the sun and fire. Project forward.

Neutrals

having no hue - black, white, or gray; sometimes a Brown color achieved by mixing two complementary colors

Tint

a color lighter than a hue’s normal value. A hue mixed with white

Tone

A hue mixed with gray.

Shade

a color darker than a hue’s normal value. A hue mixed with black.

Color Harmony (Color Scheme)

the selective use of two more colors and a single composition. One color affects another causing harmony or contrast.

Achromatic

neutral color scheme - black, white, and gray with no distinctive hues

Monochromatic

Color scheme that uses only one color and tints, tones and shades of that colo

Analogous Colors

hues containing a common color in different proportions. They are next to each other on the color wheel. Example: blue, blue-green and green create an analogous color scheme

Complementary Colors

two hues directly opposite one another on the color wheel and therefore assumed to be as different from one another as possible. When placed side-by-side complementary colors are intensified. When mixed together they produce a neutral. List of complements: \\n red and green \\n blue and orange \\n yellow and violet \\n yellow-green and red-violet \\n yellow-orange and blue-violet \\n red-orange and blue-green

Local Color

naturalistic color or the actual color of an object. The opposite is Arbitrary Color

Optical Color

our perceptions of color that can change with lighting conditions.

Afterimage

a perceptual phenomenon. Visual sensation that persists after the external stimulus that first caused it has ceased. When we look at a color for a long period of time and then look away you may briefly see the opposite color due to fatigue of the \\n cornea in the eyes. It is its complement.

Palette

A term for the board on which artists set out their paints 2. the range of pigments artists select. The terms restricted palette (few colors) and open palette (many colors) are often used.

Continous Narrative

(shows passage of time) when different parts of the story are shown within the same visual space.

Kinetic Art

a work that contains moving parts.

Mobile

suspended sculptures usually moved by natural air currents.

Unity

the imposition of order and harmony on a design. A sense of oneness, of things belonging together and making up a coherent whole. Can work visually as well as conceptually through a unity of ideas. Is created by combining elements to accent their similarities and bind the picture parts into a whole. It is often achieved through the use of repetition and simplicity. Harmony is a word often used interchangeably.

Variety

the diversity of different ideas, media, and elements in a work of art. Difference, which provides interest. Created by combining art elements in involved ways, to create intricate and complicated relationships Unity and this work together - Unity and this exist on a spectrum, with total blandness at one end, total disorder at the other. For most works of art, the artist strives to find just the right point on the spectrum with sufficient amount of unity enlivened by this.

Symmetrical Balance

also known as pure, formal or bilateral balance. It is a way of organizing the parts of a design so that one side duplicates or mirrors the other.

In art means that forms in the two halves of the composition on either side of an imaginary vertical dividing line or axis correspond to one another in size, shape, and placement.

When this is so perfect that the two sides of the composition are mirror images of one another it is called exact symmetry. Often the correspondence is very close but not exact.

Slight differences in the design create a composition known as relieved or approximate symmetry

Radial Balance

a composition in which all visual elements are balanced around and radiate outward from a central point. common in architecture and crafts.

Asymmetrical Balance (Informal Balance)

a way of organizing the parts of a design so that one side differs from the other without destroying the overall harmony. Is achieved with dissimilar objects that have equal visual weight or equal eye attraction. Visual weight is the apparent heaviness or lightness of forms arranged in a composition. If the composition seems to be balanced, it is because the visual weights in the two halves are very similar. Imbalance or out-of-balance is sometimes used for dramatic effect.

Scale

the size of an object or an artwork relative to another object or artwork, or to a system of measurement. Art objects can be created on a human scale, a monumental scale, or small-scale

Hierarchical Scale

The use of size to denote the relative importance of subjects in an artwork.

Proportion

the relationship in size between the works individual parts and the whole. Refers to size relationships within a \\n composition or work of art.

Canon of Proportions - A set of rules about the body parts in art.

The Golden Rectangle - A mathematical ratio that creates a pleasing proportion through the balance and harmony it creates.

Emphasis (Dominance)

the principle of drawing attention to particular content within a work. Attention is drawn more to certain parts of the composition than others