Glossary of Terms for Students

Background:

the part of a drawing or painting that seems to be farthest away when you look at it. It appears when the artist has used perspective to create the illusion of depth.

Balance:

a principle of design that involves arranging objects, shapes, people, and so on to create the impression that they have equal weight and importance.

Colour:

An element of design that is seen when light reflects off an object or surface. Colours have different hues (e.g. blue, red, yellow).

Composition:

how the elements of design are arranged and organized in an artwork.

Contrast:

the degree of difference between colour tones, values, and shapes. In drawing and painting, contrast can be created when artists add shadows.

Cross-hatching:

this effect is created in drawings when two or more sets of parallel lines cross each other. Cross-hatching creates the effect of shadow and depth.

Delaminate:

to take the layers off the artist's paper. For example, Margaret Lawrence sometimes finds that, to her dismay, the more colours and lines she adds to her drawings, the more she wears away her paper.

Diagonal:

a line that slants. Diagonals often suggest motion and drama.

Diorama:

a three-dimensional model that places objects and sometimes people within a larger setting. They resemble small-scale stage sets with props in place and actors ready to perform. They offer the "bigger picture" rather than a single, focused perspective because viewers can move around and see the scene from all sides and angles.

Elements of Design:

These are basic ingredients of artworks, the tools that each artist has to work with. They are colour, line, shape, form, texture, and space.

Emphasis:

A principle of design that gives a certain object or part of an artwork more importance than another. You will notice areas of emphasis first when you look at an artwork. An artist can create emphasis through contrast, size, placement, and so on.

Focal Point:

the place in the artwork that your eye will be drawn to and focused upon most strongly. Often, the focal point is at the centre of the sculpture, drawing, painting, or work of another medium, but it can be in other areas as well: it depends on where the artist decides that viewers should concentrate their gaze.

Foreground:

the part of the drawing, painting, or mixed media work that will seem closest to you when you look at it. The foreground appears when the artist uses perspective to give the rest of his or her work the illusion of depth.

Form:

an element of design that identifies objects which can be measured in three ways: according to depth, width, and length. Artists can give two-dimensional art the illusion of form by using such techniques as cross-hatching.

Geometric shape:

A shape not based on a natural form, but rather upon a square, a circle, a triangle, etc.

Harmony:

is created when separate parts of an artwork are made to relate to one another. Harmony is a principle of design that artists can use to influence how you see their work. It will often make you feel calm and content.

Horizon line:

the "line" at which the sky seems to meet the earth (or water).

Installation art:

artwork that results when a group of related sculptures or objects are placed together in a room or outdoor space. The installation artist creates an environment that the viewer can walk into or around. Often, installations are made for a specific place and cannot be shown elsewhere, unlike separate paintings and drawings that are transported from gallery to gallery. Installation art began to appear in the 1950s, and it thrives today.

Medium:

any material (e.g. paint, pencil, clay, etc.) used by an artist to create a work of art.

Middle Ground:

the area in a drawing or painting that is located between the foreground and the background.

Mixed media:

an artwork created from more than one medium (eg. paint and ink).

Movement:

a principle of design that directs your eye through the artwork in a certain way and in a certain direction.

Negative Space:

the empty or open areas around an object or a form. See positive space.

Optics:

An area of science that examines how the eye sees and how light behaves.

Organic shapes or forms:

shapes or forms that are not geometric and are based on natural objects (e.g. apples)

Perspective:

the method used by artists to make a flat surface look like it has depth (or is three-dimensional). Three different kinds of perspective are aerial, one-point, and two-point perspective.

Aerial perspective occurs when artists make certain objects or people fuzzier and duller in colour to show that these objects are farther away than others in the picture. The haziness imitates the dust, humidity, and pollution that occur in the air and that we see when we look into the distance when we're outside.

One-point perspective creates the illusion of depth and distance by having lines that are parallel to the viewer come from a single point. That point is called the vanishing point, and it imitates what we see when we look into the distance and believe that all lines are coming together at one place.

Two-point perspective creates the illusion of depth and distance by having two vanishing points from which lines emerge.

Picture plane:

the flat surface on which artists draw or paint. This surface is surrounded by the frame - the borders of the paper, board, or canvas - and it may or may not be given the illusion of depth through the use of perspective. Artists organize objects, people, and/or lines and shapes across the picture plane.

Pigment:

colour produced from fine powder that is either held in a liquid like oil or water or pressed into a substance like wax that will eventually harden. Plants, chemicals, and even insects can provide the material that first needs to be ground into a powder. For instance, an expensive kind of red pigment has traditionally been created from beetles.

Point of View:

the angle from which you are looking at a scene, a person, or an object. For instance, you could look at something from the front, from the side, from below, or from above. A point of view can also be an opinion. For instance, "My point of view is that blue is the prettiest colour of the spectrum."

Positive space:

the space in an artwork that is filled with lines, shapes, forms, and/or colours. See negative space.

Principles of Design:

guidelines used by artists to organize the different parts - called elements - of their artwork. The principles of design are balance, emphasis, rhythm, variety, unity, movement, harmony, and proportion.

Proportion:

A principle of design that indicates the size relationships of one part to another. In an artwork, these parts could be two people, two ears painted on a person's face, or simply two objects on a surface.

Rhythm:

A principle of design that enables artists to create the illusion of movement through repeated elements. An artwork might have a regular rhythm with elements repeated in a predictable way, or an irregular rhythm when elements are used with greater variety.

Sculpture:

a work of art that is meant to be seen from all sides because it has three dimensions. It can be measured according to width, depth, and length.

Shading:

a technique that darkens values and creates the illusion of depth. Artists add black or darken an area by placing several lines close together.

Shape:

a two-dimensional figure that can be measured in two ways: height and length.

Subject Matter:

what the artwork depicts, whether you recognize something from the real world or whether you see a collection of lines, shapes, forms, and colours on artwork's surface. If you can recognize the subject matter as an object or living thing in the world around you, the artwork is representational. If you don't see any recognizable subject matter, the artwork is nonrepresentational.

Tangent:

a line that runs away from a point on the picture plane and can extend off the picture's surface to create the illusion of depth and distance, particularly in landscape artworks.

Technique:

the method that the artist has used to produce the artwork (e.g. drawing with pencil, painting with oils, modelling with clay).

Texture:

an element of design that indicates how an object, living thing, or material feels to the touch or how it might feel if touched. For example, an artwork can feel or look rough or smooth.

Unity:

a principle of design that makes viewers feel that all parts of the artwork are combining to create a single, overall effect. Each part contributes something to the whole work much like the roots, trunk, and leaves of a tree work together to create the whole plant.

Value:

the lightness or darkness of a colour.

Variety:

A principle of design that involves using differences or contrasts in line, shape, colour, and other elements available to the artist.

Sources for Students' Glossary and Teachers' Glossary

Atkins, Robert. Artspoke: A Guide to Modern Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1848-1944. New York: Abbeville P, 1993.

-. Artspeak: A Guide to Modern Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1945. 2nd edition. New York: Abbeville P, 1997.

Finley, Gerald E. George Heriot 1759-1839. Ed. Dennis Reid. Ottawa: National Gallery: 1979.

Jackson, Christopher E. With Lens and Brush: Images of the Western Canadian Landscape 1845-1890. Calgary: Glenbow Museum, 1989.

Ragans, Rosalind et al. Art Connections Level 5. Columbus, Ohio: SRA McGraw- Hill, 1998.

Visual Arts. The Arts, Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1-8 . 1998. 52-56.

http://www.artlex.com/