Art Vocabulary Definitions
Balance – When all the parts of a painting or sculpture are combined to produce a favorable distribution of elements.
Brayer – a hand roller for inking printing blocks and plates.
Calligraphy - The art of fine handwriting. It is an ancient Chinese technique closely linked to painting.
Collage – Pictures made from pieces of paper, fabric, photographs and other collected materials. It comes from the French word coller meaning “to paste”. Collage was used first by the Cubists in the 1900s.
Composition - The arrangement of the individual parts of a picture to make a whole.
Geometric – Shapes created using math.
Horizontal - Parallel to the horizon.
Hue - The name of a color, such as red, blue or green.
Landscape – A view of scenery such as fields, trees, rocks, sky as the subject of a picture.
Mixed-media – Two or more media used in the same picture, such as paint and oil pastel or pencil and ink.
Mobile – A sculpture with a carefully balanced arrangement of moveable parts that hang from a wire or string and usually move from the air current.
Mosaic - An ancient process of decorative art using small colored pieces of tile, glass, or pebbles pressed into plaster or other ground.
Mural – A wall or ceiling painting painted directly on the surface or permanently fixed in place, large scale to match its setting.
Neutral - Beige, tan, brown,gray, black or white.
Negative space - The space in an artwork not occupied by subject
matter but used by the artist as part of the design.
Organic shape - Organic shapes are free in form. they can twist and turn at random to become any kind of shape.
Perspective -A method of representing a subject that is in three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.
Pointillism -A painting procedure in which dots or spots of color are used to create colors and values by making the eye do the mixing.
Portrait -A head and shoulder drawing or painting of a person.
Print - An impression pulled from an original plate, stone, block, screen or negative.
Print - An impression pulled from an original plate, stone, block, screen or negative.
Proportion - The mathematical relation of things to the whole, the harmonious relationship between the parts of the form.
Realism - People or objects are represented as they are seen in real life.
Relief – A variation of elevation in sculpture which creates a raised effect.
Sculpture - The art of three-dimensional or relief carving and modeling.
Relief – A variation of elevation in sculpture which creates a raised effect.
Sculpture - The art of three-dimensional or relief carving and modeling.
Still Life - Inanimate objects such as fruit or flowers arranged in a composition to be drawn or painted.
Symmetry - Formal in balance, with elements of equal or near equal weight on either side of a real or implied line.
Three-Dimensional – Showing height, width and depth.
Two-Dimensional – Flat, having only two dimensions, height and width.
Value scale - The range fromlight to dark , including white, grays and black. Colors can be evaluated on this scale.
Two-Dimensional – Flat, having only two dimensions, height and width.
Value scale - The range fromlight to dark , including white, grays and black. Colors can be evaluated on this scale.
Vertical - Up and down at right angles to a base line.
Weaving – An ancient technique of making textiles (fabric) using thread. The threads called the warp and woof/weft are interlaced.
