Art Words

primary colors

Colors from which other colors can be made: red, yellow, blue. You can not mix primary colors using other colors.

Secondary  Colors

that can be mixed from primary colors: orange, green, purple(violet).

tertiary colors
Colors made by mixing one primary color with one secondary color.  For example: red(P) + orange(S) = red-orange(T)

cool colors

varieties of blue, green, and purple(violet). In compositions they recede into the background.

warm colors

varieties of red, orange, and yellow.  In compositions they “pop out”.

Value

The lightness or darkness of a color.

Tint

 A color mixed by adding white.  The light value of a color. For example pink is a tint of red.

Shade

A color mixed by adding black. A dark value of a color, such as dark blue.

Monochromatic

 one color

Composition

Putting together a whole by the combination of parts

Form

an element of design that is 3D, has height, width, and thickness; is not flat

Texture

the way something feels when you touch it or the way something appears to feel when you look at it. for example rough, smooth

Perspective

Techniques for creating a look of depth on a two-dimensional surface

One point perspective

All parallel lines meet at a single point on the horizon or eye level line.

Horizon line

An imaginary line that shows where the earth meets the sky.

Vanishing point

In perspective drawings one or more points drawn on the horizon line where parallel lines that go back in space and seem to meet

Fine art printmaking

The creation of a master plate from which multiple images are made. Simply put, the artist chooses a surface to be the plate. Then the artist prepares the printing plate by cutting, etching or drawing an image onto the plate. Ink is applied (in a variety of ways) and paper is pressed onto the plate either by hand or by way of a hand-run printing press. The finished print is pulled from the plate.

Edition

A series of prints made form the same plate

Plate

A flat surface used for printing this could be linoleum, Styrofoam, metal, cardboard, stone or any one of a number of materials. - The image will be backwards on it 

Ink

A pigmented matter that prints an image

Brayer

A small roller used to apply the ink to the plate

Still Life

Art based on an arrangement of objects that are not alive and cannot move, such as fruit, flowers or bottles.

Abstract art

Art that is based on a subject you can recognize, but the artist simplifies, leaves out or rearranges some elements so that you may not recognize them.

Complementary Colors

Colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel.  When they are mixed together they make a neutral brown or grey. When they are used next to each other in a work of art they create strong contrast.

Balance

A principle of design that describes how parts of an artwork are arranged to create a sense of equal weight or interest. (Types: symmetrical, asymmetrical, and radial)

Center of Interest

The part of an artwork which attracts the viewer’s eye. Usually the most important part of the artwork; the main focus.

Negative space

The empty space surrounding shapes or solid forms in a work of art.

Positive space

The objects in a work of art not the background or shapes around them.

Proportion

The relation to one object to another in size, amount, number or degree.

Radial

Lines or shapes spread out from a center point

Asymmetrical

Two sides of the composition are different yet balanced

Symmetrical

Both sides of a center line are exactly or nearly the same, like a mirror image.

Cityscape:  An artistic representation, such as a painting or photograph, of a city.

Collage: A work of art made by assembling different forms and creating a new whole. A collage may include newspaper clippings, ribbons, bits of colored or hand-made papers, portions of other artwork, photographs, and other found objects, glued to a piece of paper or canvas.

Positive space: The areas of an artwork that IS the primary subject or object

Negative space: The area of an artwork, which is NOT the primary subject or object