Terminology
Principles of Design (universal and sometimes unintentional design applications)
Elements of Design (intentional effects through process)
an example is a dotted line (element) to show movement (principle)
Shape (Principle)
Shape describes a two-dimensional area that is defined in some way. Shapes may be open or closed, positive or negative, and free form or geometric. Some examples of words to use to describe shape are solid, organic, repeated, symbolic, and proportional.
Form (Principle)
Form occurs when a three-dimensional quality has been achieved in a shape. Form may be implied by the use or tone and / or shadow, or form may be actually three-dimensional. Examples of words used to describe from are rounded, squared, angular, textural, volume, and mass.
Texture (Element)
Texture refers to surface quality. Texture can be real or simulated. Actual texture can be both seen and touched. Simulated texture cannot be interpreted by touching: it must be seen. Some examples of words to use to describe texture are shiny, smooth, rough, coarse, gritty, and granular.
Tone or Value (Element)
Tone or Value refers to the degree of light and dark in colour. An image, however, can exist without colour (i.e.. in tone only). Some examples of words to use to describe tone are dark, dull, gloomy, pure, stark, strong, and weak. Mute may signify lack of clarity and vibrant may convey ideas of purity.
Intensity (Principle)
Intensity describes the degree of brightness a colour has. Some examples of words to use to describe intensity are bright, vivid, strong, weak, radiant, and dull.
Balance (Principle)
Balance refers to the equilibrium of various elements and involves a sense of order. Order may be achieved in a variety of ways. Order may be symmetrical or asymmetrical, formal or informal, or rigid or random. Imbalance can create a feeling of awkwardness or discomfort. It can also be used to create an exciting visual response.
Contrast (Element)
Contrast involves opposition and results from the juxtaposition of qualities that are unlike one another. High contrast can be used to emphasize, dramatize, add variety, and surprise. Low contrast can be used to soothe, settle, harmonize, and comfort.
Emphasis (Element)
Emphasis refers to the focal point or centre of interest in an image. Emphasis implies both dominance and subordination and can be used to call attention to specific areas within a work.
Movement (Principle)
Movement is achieved by manipulating the elements to imply motion, to move the viewer's eye in a decided direction as he or she looks at an image. Movement may be implied through recognizable images in action and may also be implied through abstract, nonrepresentational marks such as diagonal lines, broken edges, and gradation of tones.
Pattern (Element)
Pattern involves the repetition of similar motifs on a surface, which creates rhythm. Pattern can be used to organize or unify an object and / or to create visual enrichment. Pattern can be created in an organized way or be created in random fashion.
Unity (Principle)
Unity describes a sense of oneness within an image where all qualities work together in a cohesive relationship. Unity can be used to produce feelings of harmony, completeness, and order. Depending on the purposed of the image, lack of unity can be used to imply disharmony, incompleteness, disorder, and dissonance.
Don't Forget About Typography (Element)
From the classical to the grotesque, type can convey meaning just by appearing delicate or bold and blocky. Type can circumscribe an historical period because it forever changes as language does. An old west typeface may suggest the wild, wild, west of the 1800’s a script typeface may conjure up images of 18th Century English nobility. Type is one of the most important elements to think about when designing any composition that requires it.
Artists on Drawing
"The reduction of a head in movement to a bare line seemed to me defensible" ~ Marcel Duchamp
"Imagine arabesques or various types of linear involutions unwinding themselves not on a flat surface but in space, with all that which the deep and indeterminate limits of the sky can offer the spirit; imagine the play of their lines projecting upon and combining with the most diverse elements imaginable, including that of the human face..." ~ Olidon Redon
"A work of art goes through many phases of development, but in each phase it is always a work of art. (Therein lies the importance of sketches.) A work of art is finished, from the point of view of the artist, when feeling and perception has resulted in a spiritual synthesis." ~ Hans Hofmann, Theories of Modern Art
'To draw does not simply mean to reproduce contours; the drawing does not simply consist in the idea: the drawing is even the expression, the interior form, the plan, and the model. Look what remains after that! The drawing is three fourths and a half of what constitutes painting. If I had to put a sign over my door [to the atelier], I would write: School of drawing, and I’m certain that I would create painters.' ~ Ingres
"Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He recopies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line. He's convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt. ~ Pablo Picasso
Drawing and colour are not separate at all; in so far as you paint, you draw. The more colour harmonizes, the more exact the drawing becomes. When the colour achieves richness, the form attains its fullness also." ~ Paul Cezanne
The essence of drawing is the line exploring space." ~ Andy Goldsworthy
"Drawing is the honesty of art. To draw does not mean simply to reproduce contours: drawing does not consist merely of line. Drawing is also expression, the inner form, the plane and modelling. See what remains after that. Drawing includes three and a half quarters of the content of painting." ~ Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres
"Paint as you see and be accurate in your drawing: the whole secret of your art is there." ~ William Bouguereau.
"Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worthwhile, and it will do you a world of good." ~ Cennini.
"It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character." ~ Camille Pissarro.
"I have learned that what I have not drawn I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle." ~ Frederick Franck, The Zen of Seeing.
"There are no rules, only tools. ~ Glenn Vilppu (renowned animator).
"Drawing is . . . not an exercise of particular dexterity, but above all a means of expressing intimate feelings and moods." ~ Henri Matisse.
"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty, you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvellous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.' " ~ Hokusai, The Drawings of Hokosai.
"Drawing is deception." ~ Maurits Cornelius Escher.
"If you can draw well, tracing won’t hurt; and if you can’t draw well, tracing won’t help." ~ Bradley Schmehl.
"Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting" ~ Leonardo da Vinci.
"I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful." ~ John Constable.
"Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit." ~ "Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdoes both intelligence and skill." ~ Cicero.
"It is in order to really see, to see ever deeper, ever more intensely, hence to be fully aware and alive, that I draw what the Chinese call 'The Ten Thousand Things' around me. Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world.
"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle."
~ Frederick Franck, The Zen of Seeing
Elements of Design (intentional effects through process)
an example is a dotted line (element) to show movement (principle)
Shape (Principle)
Shape describes a two-dimensional area that is defined in some way. Shapes may be open or closed, positive or negative, and free form or geometric. Some examples of words to use to describe shape are solid, organic, repeated, symbolic, and proportional.
Form (Principle)
Form occurs when a three-dimensional quality has been achieved in a shape. Form may be implied by the use or tone and / or shadow, or form may be actually three-dimensional. Examples of words used to describe from are rounded, squared, angular, textural, volume, and mass.
Texture (Element)
Texture refers to surface quality. Texture can be real or simulated. Actual texture can be both seen and touched. Simulated texture cannot be interpreted by touching: it must be seen. Some examples of words to use to describe texture are shiny, smooth, rough, coarse, gritty, and granular.
Tone or Value (Element)
Tone or Value refers to the degree of light and dark in colour. An image, however, can exist without colour (i.e.. in tone only). Some examples of words to use to describe tone are dark, dull, gloomy, pure, stark, strong, and weak. Mute may signify lack of clarity and vibrant may convey ideas of purity.
Intensity (Principle)
Intensity describes the degree of brightness a colour has. Some examples of words to use to describe intensity are bright, vivid, strong, weak, radiant, and dull.
Balance (Principle)
Balance refers to the equilibrium of various elements and involves a sense of order. Order may be achieved in a variety of ways. Order may be symmetrical or asymmetrical, formal or informal, or rigid or random. Imbalance can create a feeling of awkwardness or discomfort. It can also be used to create an exciting visual response.
Contrast (Element)
Contrast involves opposition and results from the juxtaposition of qualities that are unlike one another. High contrast can be used to emphasize, dramatize, add variety, and surprise. Low contrast can be used to soothe, settle, harmonize, and comfort.
Emphasis (Element)
Emphasis refers to the focal point or centre of interest in an image. Emphasis implies both dominance and subordination and can be used to call attention to specific areas within a work.
Movement (Principle)
Movement is achieved by manipulating the elements to imply motion, to move the viewer's eye in a decided direction as he or she looks at an image. Movement may be implied through recognizable images in action and may also be implied through abstract, nonrepresentational marks such as diagonal lines, broken edges, and gradation of tones.
Pattern (Element)
Pattern involves the repetition of similar motifs on a surface, which creates rhythm. Pattern can be used to organize or unify an object and / or to create visual enrichment. Pattern can be created in an organized way or be created in random fashion.
Unity (Principle)
Unity describes a sense of oneness within an image where all qualities work together in a cohesive relationship. Unity can be used to produce feelings of harmony, completeness, and order. Depending on the purposed of the image, lack of unity can be used to imply disharmony, incompleteness, disorder, and dissonance.
Don't Forget About Typography (Element)
From the classical to the grotesque, type can convey meaning just by appearing delicate or bold and blocky. Type can circumscribe an historical period because it forever changes as language does. An old west typeface may suggest the wild, wild, west of the 1800’s a script typeface may conjure up images of 18th Century English nobility. Type is one of the most important elements to think about when designing any composition that requires it.
Artists on Drawing
"The reduction of a head in movement to a bare line seemed to me defensible" ~ Marcel Duchamp
"Imagine arabesques or various types of linear involutions unwinding themselves not on a flat surface but in space, with all that which the deep and indeterminate limits of the sky can offer the spirit; imagine the play of their lines projecting upon and combining with the most diverse elements imaginable, including that of the human face..." ~ Olidon Redon
"A work of art goes through many phases of development, but in each phase it is always a work of art. (Therein lies the importance of sketches.) A work of art is finished, from the point of view of the artist, when feeling and perception has resulted in a spiritual synthesis." ~ Hans Hofmann, Theories of Modern Art
'To draw does not simply mean to reproduce contours; the drawing does not simply consist in the idea: the drawing is even the expression, the interior form, the plan, and the model. Look what remains after that! The drawing is three fourths and a half of what constitutes painting. If I had to put a sign over my door [to the atelier], I would write: School of drawing, and I’m certain that I would create painters.' ~ Ingres
"Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He recopies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line. He's convinced that the last, the most stripped down, is the best, the purest, the definitive one; and in fact, most of the time, it was the first. In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt. ~ Pablo Picasso
Drawing and colour are not separate at all; in so far as you paint, you draw. The more colour harmonizes, the more exact the drawing becomes. When the colour achieves richness, the form attains its fullness also." ~ Paul Cezanne
The essence of drawing is the line exploring space." ~ Andy Goldsworthy
"Drawing is the honesty of art. To draw does not mean simply to reproduce contours: drawing does not consist merely of line. Drawing is also expression, the inner form, the plane and modelling. See what remains after that. Drawing includes three and a half quarters of the content of painting." ~ Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres
"Paint as you see and be accurate in your drawing: the whole secret of your art is there." ~ William Bouguereau.
"Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worthwhile, and it will do you a world of good." ~ Cennini.
"It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover to your surprise that you have rendered something in its true character." ~ Camille Pissarro.
"I have learned that what I have not drawn I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle." ~ Frederick Franck, The Zen of Seeing.
"There are no rules, only tools. ~ Glenn Vilppu (renowned animator).
"Drawing is . . . not an exercise of particular dexterity, but above all a means of expressing intimate feelings and moods." ~ Henri Matisse.
"From the age of six I had a mania for drawing the shapes of things. When I was fifty I had published a universe of designs. But all I have done before the age of seventy is not worth bothering with. At seventy five I'll have learned something of the pattern of nature, of animals, of plants, of trees, birds, fish and insects. When I am eighty, you will see real progress. At ninety I shall have cut my way deeply into the mystery of life itself. At a hundred I shall be a marvellous artist. At a hundred and ten everything I create; a dot, a line, will jump to life as never before. To all of you who are going to live as long as I do, I promise to keep my word. I am writing this in my old age. I used to call myself Hokosai, but today I sign my self 'The Old Man Mad About Drawing.' " ~ Hokusai, The Drawings of Hokosai.
"Drawing is deception." ~ Maurits Cornelius Escher.
"If you can draw well, tracing won’t hurt; and if you can’t draw well, tracing won’t help." ~ Bradley Schmehl.
"Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting" ~ Leonardo da Vinci.
"I never saw an ugly thing in my life: for let the form of an object be what it may, - light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful." ~ John Constable.
"Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit." ~ "Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdoes both intelligence and skill." ~ Cicero.
"It is in order to really see, to see ever deeper, ever more intensely, hence to be fully aware and alive, that I draw what the Chinese call 'The Ten Thousand Things' around me. Drawing is the discipline by which I constantly rediscover the world.
"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle."
~ Frederick Franck, The Zen of Seeing
Visual Art Vocabulary
Abstract/Abstraction - Abstract means the modification of a (usually) natural form by simplification or distortion. Abstraction is the category of such modified images. (See also non- objective.)
Abstract
Synonyms...abstract concepts: Theoretical,conceptual, notional, intellectual, metaphysical, ideal, philosophical, academic; rare ideational. ANTONYMS actual, concrete.
Montage
the technique of producing a new composite whole from fragments of drawings, pictures, text, or music
In film Montage is literally translated from French means assembly, the process by which an editor takes two pieces of film of tape and combines them to emphasise their meaning. It is a method by which through two unrelated shots we may create a third and different meaning.
Assemblage
a work of art made by grouping found or unrelated objects. A type of modern sculpture consisting of combining multiple objects or forms, often 'found' objects. (A found object is one that the artist comes upon and uses, as is or modified, in an artwork.) The most well known assemblages are those made by Robert Rauschenberg in the 1950's and '60's; for example, one assemblage consisted of a stuffed goat with an automobile tire encircling its stomach, mounted on a painted base. The objects are combined for their visual (sculptural) properties, as well as for their expressive properties.
Collage
a form of art in which various materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric are arranged and stuck to a backing. French word for cut and pasted scraps of materials, such as paper, cardboard, chair caning, playing cards, etc., to a painting or drawing surface; sometimes also combined with painting or drawing.
Bricolage
(in art or literature) construction or creation from a diverse range of available things.
French, from bricoler ‘do odd jobs, repair.’
Photomontage
The technique of making a picture by assembling pieces of photographs, often in combination with other types of graphic material. A two-dimensional combining of photographs or parts of photographs into an image on paper or other material (a technique much used by the Surrealists in the 1920's, such as Max Ernst).
Alla Prima - (pronounced ah-la pree-ma) - Italian term, meaning to paint on canvas or other ground directly, in full, opaque colour, without any preliminary drawing or underpainting done first. (Underpainting is often done to establish the larger masses of the composition, or to establish tonal values (lights and darks)).
All-Over Space - A type of space in modern painting characterized by the distribution of forms equally "all over" the picture surface, as opposed to the traditional composing method of having a focal point, or centre of interest. In "all-over" space, the forms are seen as occupying the same spatial depth, usually on the picture plane; also, they are seen as possessing the same degree of importance in the painting. (In traditional painting, the focal point (or centre of interest) is meant to be the most significant part of the painting, both visually and subject-wise, for instance, a portrait; whereas with "all-over" space, there is no one centre of interest visually or subject-wise.) The Action painter, Jackson Pollock, was the first to use all-over (also called infinite) space, in his famous "drip" paintings of the 1940's and '50's, and this spatial concept has influenced most two-dimensional art since that time.
Atmospheric - A quality of two-dimensional images which has to do more with space than with volume; an 'airiness,.' seen more in contemporary than traditional images. Also refers to atmospheric perspective, which is a less technical type of perspective, using faded and lighter colours to denote far distance in landscapes.
Atmospheric Perspective - Atmospheric, or aerial, perspective, is a less technical type of perspective, which consists of a gradual decrease in intensity of local colour, and less contrast of light and dark, as space recedes into the far distance in a landscape painting or drawing. Often, this far distance will also be represented by a light, cool, bluish-gray. (See also perspective.)
Automatic writing was a technique first used by the Dada and Surrealist artists in the early 20th century, to tap into their subconscious to write poetry (Freud's ideas on the subconscious had been introduced in the early part of the 20th century). They would try to connect with their subconscious to access a 'stream of consciousness,' or more 'free' type of poetry. Visual artists in these movements also tried to draw or paint "automatically," by allowing their subconscious to play a large part in the creative process. The Abstract Expressionists of the 1940's and '50's also used this method, for example, Jackson Pollock's "drip" paintings.
Biomorphic - An attribute related to organic, since it describes images derived from biological or natural forms; it was a term frequently used in early- to mid-20th century art. The art of Miro, Arp and Calder contains examples of these simplified organic forms.
Broken Colour - Broken colour was first used by Manet and the Impressionists in 19th century French painting, where colour was applied in small "dabs," as opposed to the traditional method of smoothly blending colours and values (lights and darks) together. This method results in more of a "patchwork" effect, where the dabs render the facets of light on forms, and/or the planes of the forms' volume, by means of colour and value. Broken colour has continued to be used in much modern and contemporary painting.
Calligraphy/Calligraphic - Calligraphy is beautiful personal handwriting, which has also been practiced in the Orient and Near East for many centuries. The term calligraphic is also applied to drawing or painting which contains brushstrokes reminiscent of calligraphy.
Chiaroscuro - (pronounced kyar-oh-scoor-oh) - Italian term for light and dark, referring to the modeling of form by the use of light and shade.
Complementary Colours - Colours which are located opposite one another on the colour wheel (e.g., red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange); colours which when mixed together will (in colour theory) produce a neutral colour (a colour which is neither warm nor cool). In the case of the three primary colours (red, yellow and blue), the complementary of one primary will be the mixture of the other two primaries (complementary of red will be a mixture of yellow and blue, or green). When placed next to one another, complementary colours will make one another appear much more intense, sometimes in an "eye-popping" sense, which was utilized by Op artists of the 1960's to create optical effects. Also in colour theory, an object's primary colour has its complementary colour in its shadows (e.g., the shadows on and around a painted yellow apple will contain some purple).
Composition - The process of arranging the forms of two- and three-dimensional visual art into a unified whole, by means of elements and principles of design, such as line, shape, colour, balance, contrast, space, etc., for purposes of formal clarity and artistic expression.
Conception/Execution - Conception is the birth process of an artistic idea, from the initial creative impulse through aesthetic refinement, problem-solving, and visualization/realization. Execution is the second half of the creative process: the actual carrying out of the idea, in terms of method and materials, which often involves compromises and alterations of the initial conception. Artists often see the initial conception as the guiding force for their aesthetic decisions, in terms of formal elements of design, and in terms of the expressive content desired. Contemporary conceptual artists place more emphasis on the first part of the creative process; traditional artists are somewhat more concerned with the techniques and methods involved in producing the artwork. The painter Henri Matisse advised, in his essay On Painting, that artists should keep their initial impulse in the front of their minds when working on a painting, to make the best expressive and formal decisions.
Conceptual - Pertaining to the process involved in the initial stages of art-making (i.e., the initial conception, or idea). Also, the name of a contemporary art movement which is mainly concerned with this process of conceiving of and developing the initial idea, as opposed to the carrying-out of the idea into concrete form. I think that conceptual artists also often think of the idea as the real work of art, rather than its concrete manifestation. It is possible for a conceptual art "piece" to not even be a tangible object - it may be an event or a process, which can't be seen itself, but the results of the event or process may be displayed, in text or photographs, for instance. Conceptual art tends to be created across artistic categories - for instance, mixing the mediums of photography, text, sound, sculpture, etc. My feeling about a lot of the conceptual work I have seen is that it tends to be an experiential art, rather than the traditional 'passive' experience of viewing art on a wall or a pedestal. Perhaps because our age and time demand a more interactive experience; or because art had by the late 20th century become a 'commodity,' to be bought and sold like any other commodity, and artists felt a need to avoid this commodification. Two examples come to mind: 1) Maya Lin's memorial to Vietnam veterans in Washington, DC. The traditional bronze statue of soldiers would not have been nearly as effective as a memorial to Vietnam veterans; as it is, it has become a powerful catharsis for Vietnam vets, and also for the two war-era factions - the hawks and the doves - those who protested the war in the 1960's, and those who supported the Vietnam war. 2) In the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, there is a large collection of shoes, which belonged to Nazi concentration camp victims. Though this may not be officially a conceptual artwork, it has the characteristics of one, and perhaps was influenced by conceptual art. A photograph on the wall of such belongings would be an adequate representation of the horror of that time. But a huge pile of shoes in a room, to be walked through, to see the different types of shoes, which resemble their former owners in personality and age, is to really experience the powerful emotions associated with such horror.
Contemporary Art - The term contemporary describes the most recent art, in this case as distinguished from modern art, which is generally considered to have lost its dominance in the mid-1950's.
Content - As opposed to subject matter, content is the "meaning" of the artwork, e.g., in Moby Dick, the subject matter is a man versus a whale; the content is a complex system of symbols, metaphors, etc. describing man's existence and nature.
Contour - The outer edge of forms which implies three dimensions, in contrast to an outline, which is a boundary of two-dimensional, flat form. Also, a type of line drawing which captures this three-dimensional outer edge, with its fullness and recession of form.
Cool colours - In colour theory, colours are described as either warm, cool, or neutral. A cool colour generally is one which contains a large amount of blue, as opposed to a warm colour, which will contain more yellow. In theory, cool colours seem to recede in space, as the distant mountains or hills tend to appear light bluish-gray, and the closer ones will be more green or brown (warmer). In landscape paintings, artists often paint the distant hills in this pale blue colour; and it is generally thought that cool colours will recede into space in any painting. However, colour is a complex element, and colours often misbehave - it is usually best to go on a case-by-case basis, because colours are influenced greatly by what colours they are next to, appearing "warm" in one setting, and "cool" in another. (I recommend reading the abbreviated version of The Interaction of Colour, by Josef Albers, for his ideas and exercises.)
Cross-Hatching - The practice of overlapping parallel sets of lines in drawing to indicate lights and darks, or shading. (Hatching is one set of parallel lines, cross-hatching is one set going in one direction, with another overlapped set going in a different, often perpendicular, direction.) diptych - Two separate paintings which are attached by hinges or other means, displayed as one artwork.
Directional Movement - A principle of visual movement in artworks, which can be carried by line, dots, marks, shapes, patterns, colour, and other compositional elements. Directional movement in paintings or sculptures directs the viewer's eye around or through the artwork, in a way, which the artist consciously or unconsciously determines. One important function is to keep the viewer's eye from "leaving" the work, and instead cause the viewer to follow an inventive (interesting) path within the work, or exit in one area, only to be brought back in another area.
Drawing - Pencil, pen, ink, charcoal or other similar mediums on paper or other support, tending toward a linear quality rather than mass, and also with a tendency toward black-and-white, rather than colour (one exception being pastel).
Encaustic - The process of using pigments dissolved in hot wax as a medium for painting; mostly used long ago, but there are some contemporary artists who have used encaustic, such as Jasper Johns.
Engraving - A general term used to describe traditional printing processes, such as etching, aquatint, drypoint, etc., where an image is made by the use of metal plates and engraving tools, and printed, usually through a printing press. The image can be incised into the plate, or drawn with fluid and then dipped in acid to etch the uncovered areas. These processes are still used by artists, but of course have been supplanted by more modern processes for general printing purposes.
Expressionistic - A characteristic of some art, generally since the mid-19th century, leaning toward the expression of emotion over objective description. James Ensor, Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh were perhaps the first expressionists, though there was not really a movement per se, but individual artists. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, expressionism became widely espoused, particularly by German and Austrian artists, such as Emil Nolde, Kirchner, Gustav Klimt, and others. Though there is variation, certain characteristics predominate: bright, even garish, colour; harsh contrasts of black and white (as in woodcuts); exaggeration of form; and distortion or elongation of figures. There are still many artists whose work has expressionistic tendencies; in the 1980's there was a period of art called Neo- Expressionist. (The word 'neo' before an art label means that there is a reprise of work similar to the original movement.)
Figurative - A term used to describe art which is based on the figure, usually in realistic or semi- realistic terms; also loosely used to describe an artist who paints or sculpts representationally, as opposed to painting or sculpting in an abstract or non-objective manner.
Figure/Ground - The relationship of the picture surface (ground) to the images on the picture surface (figure). The figure is the space occupied by forms (e.g., a person in a portrait) (also known as the 'positive' space); the ground is the "empty" or unoccupied space around the person in the portrait (also known as the 'negative' space) (The ground is also commonly called the 'background.') In art since the early 20th century, this division of the picture plane has been seriously challenged, to the point where there is not a distinction of figure/ground, but rather one continuous surface and space, with no 'positive' or 'negative' space, just one interwoven space.
Focal Point - In two-dimensional images, the centre of interest visually and/or subject-wise; tends to be used more in traditional, representational art than in modern and contemporary art, where the picture surface tends to have more of an overall importance, rather than one important area.
Foreshortening - Perspective applied to a single object in an image, for a three-dimensional effect, which often results in distortion with possible emotional overtones. It is used particularly with the human figure, in Renaissance and Mannerist art.
Formal - A term used by artists to describe the visual elements of a work of art, such as composition, space, colour, etc., i.e., formal elements.
Found Object - First used in the early years of the 20th century (in the Dadaist movement), a found object is any object that an artist comes upon, and uses in an artwork, or as the artwork itself. Marcel Duchamp called these works 'readymades.' He exhibited a urinal in the Society of Independent Artists exhibition in New York in 1917, under the signature 'R Mutt'; Dada was the precursor to Surrealism, and was an 'anti-art' movement after World War I, which sought to avoid order and rationality in art. Dada also questioned the very meaning of art: what is art? who decides if an object is art? is it art because an artist places it in a museum and calls it art? etc. Later, Picasso made a bull's head from found objects: the seat and handle bars of a bicycle.
Frottage - (pronounced fro-taj) - French term, meaning to rub a crayon or other tool onto paper or other material, which is placed onto a textured surface, in order to create the texture of that surface on the paper. The Surrealist artist Max Ernst used this technique in some of his collages.
Genre - (pronounced jahn-re) - A type of painting representing scenes of everyday life for its own sake, popular from the 17th century to the 19th century.
Gesture/Gestural - The concept of gesture in drawing is twofold: it describes the action of a figure; and it embodies the intangible "essence" of a figure or object. The action line of a figure is often a graphic undulating line, which follows the movement of the entire body of the figure being drawn or painted. The term gestural is an extension of this idea to describe a type of painting which is characterized by brushstrokes with a gestural quality, that is, flowing, curved, undulating lines or forms. Gestural composition means a type of composition based on gestural directional movements. The work of Arshile Gorky, the Abstract Expressionist, is an example of gestural painting, which often connotes a spiritual or emotional content.
Glaze/Glazing - A glaze is a thin layer of translucent oil paint applied to all or part of a painting, to modify the tone or colour underneath. Glazing is the process of using this technique.
Golden Section - A mathematical ratio first used by the Greeks in their architecture, and developed further in the Renaissance, which was said to be in tune with divine proportion and the harmony of the universe. It has been used by artists to divide the picture surface (as a compositional device); among others, Seurat and Mondrian are thought to have used this ratio to create compositions.
Graphic/Graphic arts - The graphic arts (drawing and engraving) are said to depend for their effect on drawing, as opposed to colour. The term graphic describes drawings or prints which lean more toward drawing (line) than colour (mass). I think that this division is less pertinent in modern and contemporary art than in traditional art or art of the past.
Grid - A formal visual vehicle much in currency during 20th century art, the grid is a geometric construct of squares or rectangles that form the underlying or actual structure of some two- dimensional modern art. Though the meaning of the grid to artists is hard to describe in words, it is more than just a visual armature. In a way, it can be said to represent the modern and postmodern stance of the 20th century; and often seems to inspire almost a reverence, as a symbol of aesthetic purity and integrity, particularly of modernism. Many artists have used the grid; two who come to mind are Jasper Johns (paintings) and Louise Nevelson (sculpture).
Grisaille - (pronounced gri-zale) - Painting entirely in monochrome (tones of one colour), in a series of grays. Strictly speaking, monochrome is in any one colour, such as red, blue or black; grisaille means in neutral grays only (French term). Grisaille may be used for its own sake as decoration, or may be the first stage in building up an oil painting (to establish the tonal range of the image). Grisaille was also formerly used as a model for an engraver to work from.
Hatching - A technique used in drawing to indicate light and shade, or form, consisting of parallel lines of varying width, darkness and spacing. Cross-hatching is simply two or more overlapping sets of these parallel sets of lines, at a perpendicular or other angle to the first set of lines.
Hue - Referring to the actual colour of a form or object, e.g., a red car.
Iconography - Knowledge of the meanings to be attached to pictorial representations; perhaps the visual equivalent of symbols or metaphors in literature. An artist may be aware of his/her iconography and use it consciously; probably just as often, the iconography is used in a semi- conscious way. An artist will intuitively choose images because of meanings they have for him/her, and over the course of time a pattern can often be found, as a logical progression or repeating images. An artist can be said to have a personal iconography, which is often noted and analyzed by others, including art historians, critics, writers and the public. Often, the meanings seen in an artist's work by others differs, somewhat or considerably, from what the artist has intended.
Ideal Art - Art which aims to be the true, eternal reality. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this included some Neoclassical art, which emulated the forms and ideas found in classical art (Greece and Rome). In modern times, this could include artists such as Mondrian and Malevich, who considered pure abstraction to be the manifestation of this pure reality. Perhaps the theoretical opposite of ideal art is realism, which tries to depict things not as some ideal, but as they 'really' are.
Installation - A type of art, usually sculptural, which is often large enough to fill an entire space, such as a gallery, and consists of a number and variety of components. Installation art perhaps began in the 1960's with Ed Kienholz and George Segal, two American sculptors. Ed Kienholz' work contains such elements as cars and institutional furniture (suggesting a state hospital or prison), with the content being death and serious societal issues. Segal's work, in contrast, consists of lifesize plaster figures (cast from real people and usually white), engaged in contemporary and mundane activities, such as adding letters to a movie marquee or waiting for the subway, and often represent the poetry of the mundane. Installation art is often site-specific, meaning that it is created specifically for a certain site. There are many contemporary artists creating installations, such as Judy Pfaff.
Linear - Describing a quality related to the use of line in painting or sculpture; can refer to directional movement in composition, or the actual use of the element of line in the image or sculpture, as contrasted with the use of mass or shape forms.
Local Colour - The actual colour of a form or object, uninfluenced by the effects of light or reflected colour. For instance, a vase may be turquoise (the local colour), but appear pale blue because of sunlight hitting it in certain places; dark blue because of areas in shadow; and many subtle colour shades in certain areas because of reflected light from surrounding surfaces.
Lyrical - A quality applied to various art forms (poetry, prose, visual art, dance and music), referring to a certain ethereal, musical, expressive, or poetic quality of artistic expression. Although difficult to define, when a visual work of art is described as having a lyrical quality, it means that it possesses a certain spiritual or emotional quality; perhaps the colour relationships may be said to "sing"; or the linear quality of directional movement may be of a sensitive and expressive nature; or the work expresses a particularly profound, passionate or tender sentiment, perhaps related to romanticism or other lofty expression.
Mannerism/Mannered - Mannerism was a style of art in 16th century Italy, characterized by somewhat distorted (usually human) forms and a high emotional key. Practitioners included the artist Pontormo. In modern and contemporary art, the term mannered when applied to a style or work of art is somewhat critical, implying that the style or work of art is done not from the inner convictions and perceptions of the artist, but rather out of the artist's historical artistic habits or preconceptions. In other words, the work appears contrived or forced, as opposed to arrived at by genuine and self-aware creative impulses.
Mass/Masses - Shapes or forms used in visual art, as contrasted with lines; also masses often form the large part(s) of the compositional structure, without the additional complexity of detail.
Medium - Material or technique an artist works in; also, the (usually liquid or semi-liquid) vehicle in which pigments are carried or mixed (e.g., oil, egg yolk, water, refined linseed oil).
Mobile - (pronounced mo-beel) - A type of kinetic sculpture (that which moves), invented and first used by the artist Alexander Calder. Trained as an engineer, Calder built many hanging mobiles with various attached forms, which moved and changed with air currents, etc. Many of them were very large, and hang in museum lobbies or auditoriums, from the ceiling. The forms which rotate and change their configurations are often of a biomorphic nature, similar to those used by Hans Arp and Juan Miro.
Modeling - Three-dimensional effect created by the use of changes in colour, the use of lights and darks, cross-hatching, etc.
Modern Art - Generally considered to be the period from about 1905-6 to the mid-1950's, when Pop art ushered in what is referred to as the postmodern period in art. Modern art is generally characterized by formal experimentation and exploration, and mostly seriousness of purpose. (Dada and Surrealism may be the exceptions to this rule.)
Motif - (pronounced mo-teef) - A French term which refers to: the subject matter or content of a work of art (e.g., a landscape motif); also refers to a visual element used in a work of art, as in a recurring motif (i.e., Warhol used the motif of soup cans in his early works; or Mondrian used rectangles as a visual motif.
Naturalism - A style of painting which uses an analysis of tone (value) and colour of its subject, resulting in a representation of the appearance of forms or landscapes. Impressionism has naturalistic tendencies, because it analyzes tone and colour in the play of light on surfaces. Naturalism can also have a sensual character (as against composition and drawing). The Impressionists were influenced by 19th century researches into the physics of colour by Chevreul (a scientist) and others, which showed that an object casts a shadow, which contains its complementary colour (see complementary colour). This theory eventually hardened into Neo- Impressionism, where Seurat and others sought the maximum optical truth about nature and the ideal composition and colour relationships. This line of inquiry also led eventually to Post- Impressionism, where Gauguin and Van Gogh, among others, used colour in a purely artistic and anti-naturalistic manner, which was non-intellectual. (Colour used by Gauguin and Van Gogh is often deliberately independent of the local or light-influenced colour of objects; and beyond that in the early 20th century, the Fauve painters used bright colour and forms even more distant from their perceptual origins.)
Negative Space - In a painting or sculpture, the areas where there are no forms (the "empty" areas). In a painting, this means the areas which have no forms or objects (sometimes also called the 'background' ). In sculpture, this means the "holes" between forms or within a form (e.g., Henry Moore sculptures). Negative space is the other side of the coin of positive space, which is space actually occupied by forms in a painting or sculpture (the figure in a portrait). The notions of positive and negative space were advanced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, replacing the more traditional notion of a 'background' which was subordinate to and separate from the subject image - portrait, still life, etc. Since about 1950, the notions of positive and negative space have also been replaced by much contemporary art, which sees the picture surface not as positive and negative areas, but rather one continuous surface where every area is equally important, and at the same spatial depth. (See also positive space.)
Neutral Colour - A colour which in colour theory is neither warm nor cool. Neutral colours are said to result from the combination of two complementary colours (e.g., red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple). Neutral colours can also be mixed by other means. (See also complementary colours, and warm and cool colours.)
Non-Objective - A term used to describe visual art which is not based on existing, observable forms, but rather on abstract or idealized forms, such as geometric, mathematical, imaginary, etc. Non-objective art came into existence in the early 20th century, often with much theoretical accompaniment. Mondrian is an example of an artist whose work is non-objective. (See also abstract.)
Non-Representational - Non-representational art is art which is not based on external appearances; this covers several types of art - abstract, non-objective, and decorative; as contrasted with representational art, which is art based on "real" imagery, whether actually existant or existant only in the artist's imagination.
One-Point Linear Perspective - Developed in 15th century Italy, a mathematical system for indicating spatial distance in two-dimensional images, where lines converge in a single vanishing point located on the horizon line, as seen by a stationary viewer. (See also two-point linear perspective.)
Organic - A description of images which are partly or wholly derived from natural forms, such as curvilinear, irregular, indicative of growth, biologically-based, etc.
Painterly - An adjective used to describe a style of painting which is based not on linear or outline drawing, but rather patches or areas of colour. In painterly two-dimensional images, the edges of forms tend to merge into one another, or into the background, rather than be separated by outlines or contours. Titian and Rembrandt are two artists with painterly approaches; Botticelli's work is not painterly, but more linear/drawing oriented.
Palette - A thin piece of glass, wood or other material, or pad of paper, which is used to hold the paint to be used in painting; also, the range of colours used by a particular painter.
Pastel - A drawing stick made of pigments ground with chalk and mixed with gum water; also, a drawing executed with these pastel sticks; also, a soft, subdued tint (light shade) of a colour.
Pentimenti - Italian term, from the word meaning 'repent'; refers to the lines or marks which remain after an artist corrects his/her drawing (or painting). Traditionally, this meant that these lines or marks remained unintentionally, in the quest for the perfectly drawn figure, for instance. However, at the end of the 19th century (with Cezanne), these marks became part of the visual expression; his figure drawings, for example, often show several contours in the search for the "correct" one contour. With Cezanne's drawings, these multiple contours in fact aid in the expression of three dimensions, more than one contour alone would do, giving a sense of roundness and volume. In addition, these pentimenti contribute in an expressive sense. In drawings and paintings since, some artists have taken advantage of this expressive function of pentimenti, particularly in painting, and have left the marks/lines deliberately, or even created them on purpose. They can add richness to a work.
Pictorial/Picture surface - The flat plane of the canvas or other support, which is the two- dimensional arena of the image.
Picture Plane - The flat surface on which an image is painted, and that part of the image which is closest to the viewer. (In modern and contemporary art, the picture plane is synonymous with pictorial surface, meaning that the entire image is located on the picture plane, as contrasted with art from the Renaissance until the mid-19th century, where the picture surface was considered as a window into which the viewer looked into the illusion of distance.)
Positive Space - The areas of a painting or sculpture which are occupied by forms or images, as contrasted with negative space, which are the "empty" areas where no forms/images are located. For example, in a portrait, the figure would be the positive space, the "background" would be the negative space. In painting since around 1950, the differentiation between positive and negative space has given way to a sense of a continuous surface/space/plane, where all the forms are located on the picture surface, rather than on different planes in space. (See also negative space.)
Postmodern - A term used to describe the period of art which followed the modern period, i.e., from the 1950's until recently. The term implies a shift away from the formal rigors of the modernists, toward the less formally and emotionally stringent Pop artists, and other art movements which followed.
Proportion - The relation of one part to the whole, or to other parts (for example, of the human body). For example, the human body is approximately 7 to 7-1/2 times the height of the head; the vertical halfway point of the body is the groin; the legs are halved at the knees, etc. Proportion also refers to the relative sizes of the visual elements in a composition, and their optimum relationships for good design.
Realism - Representational painting which, unlike ideal art, desires to depict forms and images as they really are, without idealizing them. Courbet was one of the first realists, in opposition to the previous reigning Neoclassical art in France; 19th century realist artists wanted to depict life "as it is," warts and all.
Representational Art - Art which is based on images which can be found in the objective world, or at least in the artist's imagination; i.e., images which can perhaps be named or recognized. For instance, an objectively faithful depiction of a person is representational art; also, a depiction of an alien from outer space can also be considered a representational image. (See also non- representational.)
Rubbing - A product of rubbing a crayon or other tool onto paper or other material over a textured surface, in order to reproduce that texture into a two-dimensional image. For example, a rubbing of a gravestone, a penny, etc. (See also frottage.)
Scumbling - A painting technique (the opposite of glazing), consisting of putting a layer of opaque oil paint over another layer of a different colour or tone, so that the lower layer is not completely obliterated, giving an uneven, broken effect.
Shade - A dark value of a colour, i.e., a dark blue; as opposed to a tint, which is a lighter shade of a colour, i.e., light blue. Also, to shade a drawing means to add the lights and darks, usually to add a three-dimensional effect.
Sfumato - (pronounced sfu-ma-to) - Italian term meaning smoke, describing a very delicate gradation of light and shade in the modeling of figures; often ascribed to da Vinci's work (also called blending). Da Vinci wrote that 'light and shade should blend without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke', in his Notes on Painting.
Sgraffito - (pronounced sgraf-ee-to) - Italian term meaning scratched; in painting, one colour is laid over another, and scratched in (with the other end of the brush, for example) so that the colour underneath shows through.
Spatial Cues - Methods of indicating three-dimensional space in two-dimensional images. Examples are: the modelling of forms with light and shade to indicate volume; overlapping of forms to indicate relative spatial position; decrease in the size of images as they recede in space; vertical position in the image (the further away an object is, the higher it is normally located in the image); the use of increased contrast of light and dark (value) in the foreground; the decreasing intensity of colours as they recede in space; the use of a perspective system, of lines converging toward the horizon line. Spatial cues are used also in abstract or non-objective art to indicate relative position in relation to the picture plane, by means of overlapping forms, colour and size relationships, and other spatial cues, but generally without perspective and other indications of Renaissance (illusional) space.
Stabile - (pronounced stah-beel) - A type of 20th century sculpture which consists of a stationary object, usually on a base of some kind. Described in contrast to a mobile, the free-hanging sculptural invention of sculptor Alexander Calder, stabiles were also created by Calder.
Stippling - A drawing technique consisting of many small dots or flecks to construct the image; obviously, this technique can be very laborious, so generally small images are stippled. The spacing and darkness of the dots are varied, to indicate three dimensions of an object, and light and shadow; can be a very effective and interesting technique, which can also be used in painting.
study - A preliminary drawing for a painting; also, a work done just to "study" nature in general.
Subject Matter - As opposed to content, the subject matter is the subject of the artwork, e.g., still life. The theme of Vanitas (popular a few centuries ago) of vanity, death, universal fate, etc., used in the still life, can be considered the content. The still life objects used in the image are the subject matter. (See also content.)
Tint - A light value of a colour, i.e., a light red; as opposed to a shade, which is a dark value, i.e., dark red.
Tone - The lightness or darkness of an area in terms of black to white; also called value, i.e., a light or dark red, or light or dark gray.
Two-Point Linear Perspective - A more recent version of perspective than one-point perspective; using two (or more) points instead of one on the horizon line gave artists a more naturalistic representation of space in two-dimensional images.
Triptych - A painting which consists of one centre panel, with two paintings attached on either side by means of hinges or other means, as "wings."
Underpainting - A layer of colour or tone applied to the painting surface before the painting itself is begun, to establish the general compositional masses, the lights and darks (values) in the composition, or as a colour to affect/mix with subsequent layers of colour. Underpainting is generally a thin, semi-opaque layer of paint.
Value - The lightness or darkness of a line, shape or area in terms of black to white; also called tone; e.g., a light red will have a light value; a dark red will have a dark value.
Volumetric - A quality of two-dimensional images characterized by a sense of three dimensions, solidity, volume, as contrasted with atmospheric, which is characterized more by a sense of space, or airiness, than with volume. Volumetric is generally more characteristic of representational or traditional art, than with modern or contemporary art, which is generally less concerned with the depiction of three dimensions in objects and space.
Warm Colours - In colour theory, colours which contain a large amount of yellow, as opposed to cool colours, which contain more blue. For example, a yellow-orange colour would be warm; a greenish-blue would be cool. Warm colours are thought to appear to be closer to the viewer, while cool colours are thought to recede into the distance. (See also cool colours.)
Wash - A thin layer of translucent (or transparent) paint or ink, particularly in watercolour; also used occasionally in oil painting.
Abstract
Synonyms...abstract concepts: Theoretical,conceptual, notional, intellectual, metaphysical, ideal, philosophical, academic; rare ideational. ANTONYMS actual, concrete.
Montage
the technique of producing a new composite whole from fragments of drawings, pictures, text, or music
In film Montage is literally translated from French means assembly, the process by which an editor takes two pieces of film of tape and combines them to emphasise their meaning. It is a method by which through two unrelated shots we may create a third and different meaning.
Assemblage
a work of art made by grouping found or unrelated objects. A type of modern sculpture consisting of combining multiple objects or forms, often 'found' objects. (A found object is one that the artist comes upon and uses, as is or modified, in an artwork.) The most well known assemblages are those made by Robert Rauschenberg in the 1950's and '60's; for example, one assemblage consisted of a stuffed goat with an automobile tire encircling its stomach, mounted on a painted base. The objects are combined for their visual (sculptural) properties, as well as for their expressive properties.
Collage
a form of art in which various materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric are arranged and stuck to a backing. French word for cut and pasted scraps of materials, such as paper, cardboard, chair caning, playing cards, etc., to a painting or drawing surface; sometimes also combined with painting or drawing.
Bricolage
(in art or literature) construction or creation from a diverse range of available things.
French, from bricoler ‘do odd jobs, repair.’
Photomontage
The technique of making a picture by assembling pieces of photographs, often in combination with other types of graphic material. A two-dimensional combining of photographs or parts of photographs into an image on paper or other material (a technique much used by the Surrealists in the 1920's, such as Max Ernst).
Alla Prima - (pronounced ah-la pree-ma) - Italian term, meaning to paint on canvas or other ground directly, in full, opaque colour, without any preliminary drawing or underpainting done first. (Underpainting is often done to establish the larger masses of the composition, or to establish tonal values (lights and darks)).
All-Over Space - A type of space in modern painting characterized by the distribution of forms equally "all over" the picture surface, as opposed to the traditional composing method of having a focal point, or centre of interest. In "all-over" space, the forms are seen as occupying the same spatial depth, usually on the picture plane; also, they are seen as possessing the same degree of importance in the painting. (In traditional painting, the focal point (or centre of interest) is meant to be the most significant part of the painting, both visually and subject-wise, for instance, a portrait; whereas with "all-over" space, there is no one centre of interest visually or subject-wise.) The Action painter, Jackson Pollock, was the first to use all-over (also called infinite) space, in his famous "drip" paintings of the 1940's and '50's, and this spatial concept has influenced most two-dimensional art since that time.
Atmospheric - A quality of two-dimensional images which has to do more with space than with volume; an 'airiness,.' seen more in contemporary than traditional images. Also refers to atmospheric perspective, which is a less technical type of perspective, using faded and lighter colours to denote far distance in landscapes.
Atmospheric Perspective - Atmospheric, or aerial, perspective, is a less technical type of perspective, which consists of a gradual decrease in intensity of local colour, and less contrast of light and dark, as space recedes into the far distance in a landscape painting or drawing. Often, this far distance will also be represented by a light, cool, bluish-gray. (See also perspective.)
Automatic writing was a technique first used by the Dada and Surrealist artists in the early 20th century, to tap into their subconscious to write poetry (Freud's ideas on the subconscious had been introduced in the early part of the 20th century). They would try to connect with their subconscious to access a 'stream of consciousness,' or more 'free' type of poetry. Visual artists in these movements also tried to draw or paint "automatically," by allowing their subconscious to play a large part in the creative process. The Abstract Expressionists of the 1940's and '50's also used this method, for example, Jackson Pollock's "drip" paintings.
Biomorphic - An attribute related to organic, since it describes images derived from biological or natural forms; it was a term frequently used in early- to mid-20th century art. The art of Miro, Arp and Calder contains examples of these simplified organic forms.
Broken Colour - Broken colour was first used by Manet and the Impressionists in 19th century French painting, where colour was applied in small "dabs," as opposed to the traditional method of smoothly blending colours and values (lights and darks) together. This method results in more of a "patchwork" effect, where the dabs render the facets of light on forms, and/or the planes of the forms' volume, by means of colour and value. Broken colour has continued to be used in much modern and contemporary painting.
Calligraphy/Calligraphic - Calligraphy is beautiful personal handwriting, which has also been practiced in the Orient and Near East for many centuries. The term calligraphic is also applied to drawing or painting which contains brushstrokes reminiscent of calligraphy.
Chiaroscuro - (pronounced kyar-oh-scoor-oh) - Italian term for light and dark, referring to the modeling of form by the use of light and shade.
Complementary Colours - Colours which are located opposite one another on the colour wheel (e.g., red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange); colours which when mixed together will (in colour theory) produce a neutral colour (a colour which is neither warm nor cool). In the case of the three primary colours (red, yellow and blue), the complementary of one primary will be the mixture of the other two primaries (complementary of red will be a mixture of yellow and blue, or green). When placed next to one another, complementary colours will make one another appear much more intense, sometimes in an "eye-popping" sense, which was utilized by Op artists of the 1960's to create optical effects. Also in colour theory, an object's primary colour has its complementary colour in its shadows (e.g., the shadows on and around a painted yellow apple will contain some purple).
Composition - The process of arranging the forms of two- and three-dimensional visual art into a unified whole, by means of elements and principles of design, such as line, shape, colour, balance, contrast, space, etc., for purposes of formal clarity and artistic expression.
Conception/Execution - Conception is the birth process of an artistic idea, from the initial creative impulse through aesthetic refinement, problem-solving, and visualization/realization. Execution is the second half of the creative process: the actual carrying out of the idea, in terms of method and materials, which often involves compromises and alterations of the initial conception. Artists often see the initial conception as the guiding force for their aesthetic decisions, in terms of formal elements of design, and in terms of the expressive content desired. Contemporary conceptual artists place more emphasis on the first part of the creative process; traditional artists are somewhat more concerned with the techniques and methods involved in producing the artwork. The painter Henri Matisse advised, in his essay On Painting, that artists should keep their initial impulse in the front of their minds when working on a painting, to make the best expressive and formal decisions.
Conceptual - Pertaining to the process involved in the initial stages of art-making (i.e., the initial conception, or idea). Also, the name of a contemporary art movement which is mainly concerned with this process of conceiving of and developing the initial idea, as opposed to the carrying-out of the idea into concrete form. I think that conceptual artists also often think of the idea as the real work of art, rather than its concrete manifestation. It is possible for a conceptual art "piece" to not even be a tangible object - it may be an event or a process, which can't be seen itself, but the results of the event or process may be displayed, in text or photographs, for instance. Conceptual art tends to be created across artistic categories - for instance, mixing the mediums of photography, text, sound, sculpture, etc. My feeling about a lot of the conceptual work I have seen is that it tends to be an experiential art, rather than the traditional 'passive' experience of viewing art on a wall or a pedestal. Perhaps because our age and time demand a more interactive experience; or because art had by the late 20th century become a 'commodity,' to be bought and sold like any other commodity, and artists felt a need to avoid this commodification. Two examples come to mind: 1) Maya Lin's memorial to Vietnam veterans in Washington, DC. The traditional bronze statue of soldiers would not have been nearly as effective as a memorial to Vietnam veterans; as it is, it has become a powerful catharsis for Vietnam vets, and also for the two war-era factions - the hawks and the doves - those who protested the war in the 1960's, and those who supported the Vietnam war. 2) In the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, there is a large collection of shoes, which belonged to Nazi concentration camp victims. Though this may not be officially a conceptual artwork, it has the characteristics of one, and perhaps was influenced by conceptual art. A photograph on the wall of such belongings would be an adequate representation of the horror of that time. But a huge pile of shoes in a room, to be walked through, to see the different types of shoes, which resemble their former owners in personality and age, is to really experience the powerful emotions associated with such horror.
Contemporary Art - The term contemporary describes the most recent art, in this case as distinguished from modern art, which is generally considered to have lost its dominance in the mid-1950's.
Content - As opposed to subject matter, content is the "meaning" of the artwork, e.g., in Moby Dick, the subject matter is a man versus a whale; the content is a complex system of symbols, metaphors, etc. describing man's existence and nature.
Contour - The outer edge of forms which implies three dimensions, in contrast to an outline, which is a boundary of two-dimensional, flat form. Also, a type of line drawing which captures this three-dimensional outer edge, with its fullness and recession of form.
Cool colours - In colour theory, colours are described as either warm, cool, or neutral. A cool colour generally is one which contains a large amount of blue, as opposed to a warm colour, which will contain more yellow. In theory, cool colours seem to recede in space, as the distant mountains or hills tend to appear light bluish-gray, and the closer ones will be more green or brown (warmer). In landscape paintings, artists often paint the distant hills in this pale blue colour; and it is generally thought that cool colours will recede into space in any painting. However, colour is a complex element, and colours often misbehave - it is usually best to go on a case-by-case basis, because colours are influenced greatly by what colours they are next to, appearing "warm" in one setting, and "cool" in another. (I recommend reading the abbreviated version of The Interaction of Colour, by Josef Albers, for his ideas and exercises.)
Cross-Hatching - The practice of overlapping parallel sets of lines in drawing to indicate lights and darks, or shading. (Hatching is one set of parallel lines, cross-hatching is one set going in one direction, with another overlapped set going in a different, often perpendicular, direction.) diptych - Two separate paintings which are attached by hinges or other means, displayed as one artwork.
Directional Movement - A principle of visual movement in artworks, which can be carried by line, dots, marks, shapes, patterns, colour, and other compositional elements. Directional movement in paintings or sculptures directs the viewer's eye around or through the artwork, in a way, which the artist consciously or unconsciously determines. One important function is to keep the viewer's eye from "leaving" the work, and instead cause the viewer to follow an inventive (interesting) path within the work, or exit in one area, only to be brought back in another area.
Drawing - Pencil, pen, ink, charcoal or other similar mediums on paper or other support, tending toward a linear quality rather than mass, and also with a tendency toward black-and-white, rather than colour (one exception being pastel).
Encaustic - The process of using pigments dissolved in hot wax as a medium for painting; mostly used long ago, but there are some contemporary artists who have used encaustic, such as Jasper Johns.
Engraving - A general term used to describe traditional printing processes, such as etching, aquatint, drypoint, etc., where an image is made by the use of metal plates and engraving tools, and printed, usually through a printing press. The image can be incised into the plate, or drawn with fluid and then dipped in acid to etch the uncovered areas. These processes are still used by artists, but of course have been supplanted by more modern processes for general printing purposes.
Expressionistic - A characteristic of some art, generally since the mid-19th century, leaning toward the expression of emotion over objective description. James Ensor, Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh were perhaps the first expressionists, though there was not really a movement per se, but individual artists. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, expressionism became widely espoused, particularly by German and Austrian artists, such as Emil Nolde, Kirchner, Gustav Klimt, and others. Though there is variation, certain characteristics predominate: bright, even garish, colour; harsh contrasts of black and white (as in woodcuts); exaggeration of form; and distortion or elongation of figures. There are still many artists whose work has expressionistic tendencies; in the 1980's there was a period of art called Neo- Expressionist. (The word 'neo' before an art label means that there is a reprise of work similar to the original movement.)
Figurative - A term used to describe art which is based on the figure, usually in realistic or semi- realistic terms; also loosely used to describe an artist who paints or sculpts representationally, as opposed to painting or sculpting in an abstract or non-objective manner.
Figure/Ground - The relationship of the picture surface (ground) to the images on the picture surface (figure). The figure is the space occupied by forms (e.g., a person in a portrait) (also known as the 'positive' space); the ground is the "empty" or unoccupied space around the person in the portrait (also known as the 'negative' space) (The ground is also commonly called the 'background.') In art since the early 20th century, this division of the picture plane has been seriously challenged, to the point where there is not a distinction of figure/ground, but rather one continuous surface and space, with no 'positive' or 'negative' space, just one interwoven space.
Focal Point - In two-dimensional images, the centre of interest visually and/or subject-wise; tends to be used more in traditional, representational art than in modern and contemporary art, where the picture surface tends to have more of an overall importance, rather than one important area.
Foreshortening - Perspective applied to a single object in an image, for a three-dimensional effect, which often results in distortion with possible emotional overtones. It is used particularly with the human figure, in Renaissance and Mannerist art.
Formal - A term used by artists to describe the visual elements of a work of art, such as composition, space, colour, etc., i.e., formal elements.
Found Object - First used in the early years of the 20th century (in the Dadaist movement), a found object is any object that an artist comes upon, and uses in an artwork, or as the artwork itself. Marcel Duchamp called these works 'readymades.' He exhibited a urinal in the Society of Independent Artists exhibition in New York in 1917, under the signature 'R Mutt'; Dada was the precursor to Surrealism, and was an 'anti-art' movement after World War I, which sought to avoid order and rationality in art. Dada also questioned the very meaning of art: what is art? who decides if an object is art? is it art because an artist places it in a museum and calls it art? etc. Later, Picasso made a bull's head from found objects: the seat and handle bars of a bicycle.
Frottage - (pronounced fro-taj) - French term, meaning to rub a crayon or other tool onto paper or other material, which is placed onto a textured surface, in order to create the texture of that surface on the paper. The Surrealist artist Max Ernst used this technique in some of his collages.
Genre - (pronounced jahn-re) - A type of painting representing scenes of everyday life for its own sake, popular from the 17th century to the 19th century.
Gesture/Gestural - The concept of gesture in drawing is twofold: it describes the action of a figure; and it embodies the intangible "essence" of a figure or object. The action line of a figure is often a graphic undulating line, which follows the movement of the entire body of the figure being drawn or painted. The term gestural is an extension of this idea to describe a type of painting which is characterized by brushstrokes with a gestural quality, that is, flowing, curved, undulating lines or forms. Gestural composition means a type of composition based on gestural directional movements. The work of Arshile Gorky, the Abstract Expressionist, is an example of gestural painting, which often connotes a spiritual or emotional content.
Glaze/Glazing - A glaze is a thin layer of translucent oil paint applied to all or part of a painting, to modify the tone or colour underneath. Glazing is the process of using this technique.
Golden Section - A mathematical ratio first used by the Greeks in their architecture, and developed further in the Renaissance, which was said to be in tune with divine proportion and the harmony of the universe. It has been used by artists to divide the picture surface (as a compositional device); among others, Seurat and Mondrian are thought to have used this ratio to create compositions.
Graphic/Graphic arts - The graphic arts (drawing and engraving) are said to depend for their effect on drawing, as opposed to colour. The term graphic describes drawings or prints which lean more toward drawing (line) than colour (mass). I think that this division is less pertinent in modern and contemporary art than in traditional art or art of the past.
Grid - A formal visual vehicle much in currency during 20th century art, the grid is a geometric construct of squares or rectangles that form the underlying or actual structure of some two- dimensional modern art. Though the meaning of the grid to artists is hard to describe in words, it is more than just a visual armature. In a way, it can be said to represent the modern and postmodern stance of the 20th century; and often seems to inspire almost a reverence, as a symbol of aesthetic purity and integrity, particularly of modernism. Many artists have used the grid; two who come to mind are Jasper Johns (paintings) and Louise Nevelson (sculpture).
Grisaille - (pronounced gri-zale) - Painting entirely in monochrome (tones of one colour), in a series of grays. Strictly speaking, monochrome is in any one colour, such as red, blue or black; grisaille means in neutral grays only (French term). Grisaille may be used for its own sake as decoration, or may be the first stage in building up an oil painting (to establish the tonal range of the image). Grisaille was also formerly used as a model for an engraver to work from.
Hatching - A technique used in drawing to indicate light and shade, or form, consisting of parallel lines of varying width, darkness and spacing. Cross-hatching is simply two or more overlapping sets of these parallel sets of lines, at a perpendicular or other angle to the first set of lines.
Hue - Referring to the actual colour of a form or object, e.g., a red car.
Iconography - Knowledge of the meanings to be attached to pictorial representations; perhaps the visual equivalent of symbols or metaphors in literature. An artist may be aware of his/her iconography and use it consciously; probably just as often, the iconography is used in a semi- conscious way. An artist will intuitively choose images because of meanings they have for him/her, and over the course of time a pattern can often be found, as a logical progression or repeating images. An artist can be said to have a personal iconography, which is often noted and analyzed by others, including art historians, critics, writers and the public. Often, the meanings seen in an artist's work by others differs, somewhat or considerably, from what the artist has intended.
Ideal Art - Art which aims to be the true, eternal reality. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this included some Neoclassical art, which emulated the forms and ideas found in classical art (Greece and Rome). In modern times, this could include artists such as Mondrian and Malevich, who considered pure abstraction to be the manifestation of this pure reality. Perhaps the theoretical opposite of ideal art is realism, which tries to depict things not as some ideal, but as they 'really' are.
Installation - A type of art, usually sculptural, which is often large enough to fill an entire space, such as a gallery, and consists of a number and variety of components. Installation art perhaps began in the 1960's with Ed Kienholz and George Segal, two American sculptors. Ed Kienholz' work contains such elements as cars and institutional furniture (suggesting a state hospital or prison), with the content being death and serious societal issues. Segal's work, in contrast, consists of lifesize plaster figures (cast from real people and usually white), engaged in contemporary and mundane activities, such as adding letters to a movie marquee or waiting for the subway, and often represent the poetry of the mundane. Installation art is often site-specific, meaning that it is created specifically for a certain site. There are many contemporary artists creating installations, such as Judy Pfaff.
Linear - Describing a quality related to the use of line in painting or sculpture; can refer to directional movement in composition, or the actual use of the element of line in the image or sculpture, as contrasted with the use of mass or shape forms.
Local Colour - The actual colour of a form or object, uninfluenced by the effects of light or reflected colour. For instance, a vase may be turquoise (the local colour), but appear pale blue because of sunlight hitting it in certain places; dark blue because of areas in shadow; and many subtle colour shades in certain areas because of reflected light from surrounding surfaces.
Lyrical - A quality applied to various art forms (poetry, prose, visual art, dance and music), referring to a certain ethereal, musical, expressive, or poetic quality of artistic expression. Although difficult to define, when a visual work of art is described as having a lyrical quality, it means that it possesses a certain spiritual or emotional quality; perhaps the colour relationships may be said to "sing"; or the linear quality of directional movement may be of a sensitive and expressive nature; or the work expresses a particularly profound, passionate or tender sentiment, perhaps related to romanticism or other lofty expression.
Mannerism/Mannered - Mannerism was a style of art in 16th century Italy, characterized by somewhat distorted (usually human) forms and a high emotional key. Practitioners included the artist Pontormo. In modern and contemporary art, the term mannered when applied to a style or work of art is somewhat critical, implying that the style or work of art is done not from the inner convictions and perceptions of the artist, but rather out of the artist's historical artistic habits or preconceptions. In other words, the work appears contrived or forced, as opposed to arrived at by genuine and self-aware creative impulses.
Mass/Masses - Shapes or forms used in visual art, as contrasted with lines; also masses often form the large part(s) of the compositional structure, without the additional complexity of detail.
Medium - Material or technique an artist works in; also, the (usually liquid or semi-liquid) vehicle in which pigments are carried or mixed (e.g., oil, egg yolk, water, refined linseed oil).
Mobile - (pronounced mo-beel) - A type of kinetic sculpture (that which moves), invented and first used by the artist Alexander Calder. Trained as an engineer, Calder built many hanging mobiles with various attached forms, which moved and changed with air currents, etc. Many of them were very large, and hang in museum lobbies or auditoriums, from the ceiling. The forms which rotate and change their configurations are often of a biomorphic nature, similar to those used by Hans Arp and Juan Miro.
Modeling - Three-dimensional effect created by the use of changes in colour, the use of lights and darks, cross-hatching, etc.
Modern Art - Generally considered to be the period from about 1905-6 to the mid-1950's, when Pop art ushered in what is referred to as the postmodern period in art. Modern art is generally characterized by formal experimentation and exploration, and mostly seriousness of purpose. (Dada and Surrealism may be the exceptions to this rule.)
Motif - (pronounced mo-teef) - A French term which refers to: the subject matter or content of a work of art (e.g., a landscape motif); also refers to a visual element used in a work of art, as in a recurring motif (i.e., Warhol used the motif of soup cans in his early works; or Mondrian used rectangles as a visual motif.
Naturalism - A style of painting which uses an analysis of tone (value) and colour of its subject, resulting in a representation of the appearance of forms or landscapes. Impressionism has naturalistic tendencies, because it analyzes tone and colour in the play of light on surfaces. Naturalism can also have a sensual character (as against composition and drawing). The Impressionists were influenced by 19th century researches into the physics of colour by Chevreul (a scientist) and others, which showed that an object casts a shadow, which contains its complementary colour (see complementary colour). This theory eventually hardened into Neo- Impressionism, where Seurat and others sought the maximum optical truth about nature and the ideal composition and colour relationships. This line of inquiry also led eventually to Post- Impressionism, where Gauguin and Van Gogh, among others, used colour in a purely artistic and anti-naturalistic manner, which was non-intellectual. (Colour used by Gauguin and Van Gogh is often deliberately independent of the local or light-influenced colour of objects; and beyond that in the early 20th century, the Fauve painters used bright colour and forms even more distant from their perceptual origins.)
Negative Space - In a painting or sculpture, the areas where there are no forms (the "empty" areas). In a painting, this means the areas which have no forms or objects (sometimes also called the 'background' ). In sculpture, this means the "holes" between forms or within a form (e.g., Henry Moore sculptures). Negative space is the other side of the coin of positive space, which is space actually occupied by forms in a painting or sculpture (the figure in a portrait). The notions of positive and negative space were advanced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, replacing the more traditional notion of a 'background' which was subordinate to and separate from the subject image - portrait, still life, etc. Since about 1950, the notions of positive and negative space have also been replaced by much contemporary art, which sees the picture surface not as positive and negative areas, but rather one continuous surface where every area is equally important, and at the same spatial depth. (See also positive space.)
Neutral Colour - A colour which in colour theory is neither warm nor cool. Neutral colours are said to result from the combination of two complementary colours (e.g., red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple). Neutral colours can also be mixed by other means. (See also complementary colours, and warm and cool colours.)
Non-Objective - A term used to describe visual art which is not based on existing, observable forms, but rather on abstract or idealized forms, such as geometric, mathematical, imaginary, etc. Non-objective art came into existence in the early 20th century, often with much theoretical accompaniment. Mondrian is an example of an artist whose work is non-objective. (See also abstract.)
Non-Representational - Non-representational art is art which is not based on external appearances; this covers several types of art - abstract, non-objective, and decorative; as contrasted with representational art, which is art based on "real" imagery, whether actually existant or existant only in the artist's imagination.
One-Point Linear Perspective - Developed in 15th century Italy, a mathematical system for indicating spatial distance in two-dimensional images, where lines converge in a single vanishing point located on the horizon line, as seen by a stationary viewer. (See also two-point linear perspective.)
Organic - A description of images which are partly or wholly derived from natural forms, such as curvilinear, irregular, indicative of growth, biologically-based, etc.
Painterly - An adjective used to describe a style of painting which is based not on linear or outline drawing, but rather patches or areas of colour. In painterly two-dimensional images, the edges of forms tend to merge into one another, or into the background, rather than be separated by outlines or contours. Titian and Rembrandt are two artists with painterly approaches; Botticelli's work is not painterly, but more linear/drawing oriented.
Palette - A thin piece of glass, wood or other material, or pad of paper, which is used to hold the paint to be used in painting; also, the range of colours used by a particular painter.
Pastel - A drawing stick made of pigments ground with chalk and mixed with gum water; also, a drawing executed with these pastel sticks; also, a soft, subdued tint (light shade) of a colour.
Pentimenti - Italian term, from the word meaning 'repent'; refers to the lines or marks which remain after an artist corrects his/her drawing (or painting). Traditionally, this meant that these lines or marks remained unintentionally, in the quest for the perfectly drawn figure, for instance. However, at the end of the 19th century (with Cezanne), these marks became part of the visual expression; his figure drawings, for example, often show several contours in the search for the "correct" one contour. With Cezanne's drawings, these multiple contours in fact aid in the expression of three dimensions, more than one contour alone would do, giving a sense of roundness and volume. In addition, these pentimenti contribute in an expressive sense. In drawings and paintings since, some artists have taken advantage of this expressive function of pentimenti, particularly in painting, and have left the marks/lines deliberately, or even created them on purpose. They can add richness to a work.
Pictorial/Picture surface - The flat plane of the canvas or other support, which is the two- dimensional arena of the image.
Picture Plane - The flat surface on which an image is painted, and that part of the image which is closest to the viewer. (In modern and contemporary art, the picture plane is synonymous with pictorial surface, meaning that the entire image is located on the picture plane, as contrasted with art from the Renaissance until the mid-19th century, where the picture surface was considered as a window into which the viewer looked into the illusion of distance.)
Positive Space - The areas of a painting or sculpture which are occupied by forms or images, as contrasted with negative space, which are the "empty" areas where no forms/images are located. For example, in a portrait, the figure would be the positive space, the "background" would be the negative space. In painting since around 1950, the differentiation between positive and negative space has given way to a sense of a continuous surface/space/plane, where all the forms are located on the picture surface, rather than on different planes in space. (See also negative space.)
Postmodern - A term used to describe the period of art which followed the modern period, i.e., from the 1950's until recently. The term implies a shift away from the formal rigors of the modernists, toward the less formally and emotionally stringent Pop artists, and other art movements which followed.
Proportion - The relation of one part to the whole, or to other parts (for example, of the human body). For example, the human body is approximately 7 to 7-1/2 times the height of the head; the vertical halfway point of the body is the groin; the legs are halved at the knees, etc. Proportion also refers to the relative sizes of the visual elements in a composition, and their optimum relationships for good design.
Realism - Representational painting which, unlike ideal art, desires to depict forms and images as they really are, without idealizing them. Courbet was one of the first realists, in opposition to the previous reigning Neoclassical art in France; 19th century realist artists wanted to depict life "as it is," warts and all.
Representational Art - Art which is based on images which can be found in the objective world, or at least in the artist's imagination; i.e., images which can perhaps be named or recognized. For instance, an objectively faithful depiction of a person is representational art; also, a depiction of an alien from outer space can also be considered a representational image. (See also non- representational.)
Rubbing - A product of rubbing a crayon or other tool onto paper or other material over a textured surface, in order to reproduce that texture into a two-dimensional image. For example, a rubbing of a gravestone, a penny, etc. (See also frottage.)
Scumbling - A painting technique (the opposite of glazing), consisting of putting a layer of opaque oil paint over another layer of a different colour or tone, so that the lower layer is not completely obliterated, giving an uneven, broken effect.
Shade - A dark value of a colour, i.e., a dark blue; as opposed to a tint, which is a lighter shade of a colour, i.e., light blue. Also, to shade a drawing means to add the lights and darks, usually to add a three-dimensional effect.
Sfumato - (pronounced sfu-ma-to) - Italian term meaning smoke, describing a very delicate gradation of light and shade in the modeling of figures; often ascribed to da Vinci's work (also called blending). Da Vinci wrote that 'light and shade should blend without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke', in his Notes on Painting.
Sgraffito - (pronounced sgraf-ee-to) - Italian term meaning scratched; in painting, one colour is laid over another, and scratched in (with the other end of the brush, for example) so that the colour underneath shows through.
Spatial Cues - Methods of indicating three-dimensional space in two-dimensional images. Examples are: the modelling of forms with light and shade to indicate volume; overlapping of forms to indicate relative spatial position; decrease in the size of images as they recede in space; vertical position in the image (the further away an object is, the higher it is normally located in the image); the use of increased contrast of light and dark (value) in the foreground; the decreasing intensity of colours as they recede in space; the use of a perspective system, of lines converging toward the horizon line. Spatial cues are used also in abstract or non-objective art to indicate relative position in relation to the picture plane, by means of overlapping forms, colour and size relationships, and other spatial cues, but generally without perspective and other indications of Renaissance (illusional) space.
Stabile - (pronounced stah-beel) - A type of 20th century sculpture which consists of a stationary object, usually on a base of some kind. Described in contrast to a mobile, the free-hanging sculptural invention of sculptor Alexander Calder, stabiles were also created by Calder.
Stippling - A drawing technique consisting of many small dots or flecks to construct the image; obviously, this technique can be very laborious, so generally small images are stippled. The spacing and darkness of the dots are varied, to indicate three dimensions of an object, and light and shadow; can be a very effective and interesting technique, which can also be used in painting.
study - A preliminary drawing for a painting; also, a work done just to "study" nature in general.
Subject Matter - As opposed to content, the subject matter is the subject of the artwork, e.g., still life. The theme of Vanitas (popular a few centuries ago) of vanity, death, universal fate, etc., used in the still life, can be considered the content. The still life objects used in the image are the subject matter. (See also content.)
Tint - A light value of a colour, i.e., a light red; as opposed to a shade, which is a dark value, i.e., dark red.
Tone - The lightness or darkness of an area in terms of black to white; also called value, i.e., a light or dark red, or light or dark gray.
Two-Point Linear Perspective - A more recent version of perspective than one-point perspective; using two (or more) points instead of one on the horizon line gave artists a more naturalistic representation of space in two-dimensional images.
Triptych - A painting which consists of one centre panel, with two paintings attached on either side by means of hinges or other means, as "wings."
Underpainting - A layer of colour or tone applied to the painting surface before the painting itself is begun, to establish the general compositional masses, the lights and darks (values) in the composition, or as a colour to affect/mix with subsequent layers of colour. Underpainting is generally a thin, semi-opaque layer of paint.
Value - The lightness or darkness of a line, shape or area in terms of black to white; also called tone; e.g., a light red will have a light value; a dark red will have a dark value.
Volumetric - A quality of two-dimensional images characterized by a sense of three dimensions, solidity, volume, as contrasted with atmospheric, which is characterized more by a sense of space, or airiness, than with volume. Volumetric is generally more characteristic of representational or traditional art, than with modern or contemporary art, which is generally less concerned with the depiction of three dimensions in objects and space.
Warm Colours - In colour theory, colours which contain a large amount of yellow, as opposed to cool colours, which contain more blue. For example, a yellow-orange colour would be warm; a greenish-blue would be cool. Warm colours are thought to appear to be closer to the viewer, while cool colours are thought to recede into the distance. (See also cool colours.)
Wash - A thin layer of translucent (or transparent) paint or ink, particularly in watercolour; also used occasionally in oil painting.
Other Books on Drawing
Wayne Enstice, Melody Peters. Drawing: Space, Form, and Expression, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 3rd edition, 2003
Betti, Claudia, Drawing, A Contemporary Approach, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 3rd ed, 1992
Dexter, Emma. Vitamin D New Perspectives in Drawing, Phaidon Press, 2005
Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Right side of the Brain, J.P. Tarcher Inc, Los Angeles, 1979
Drawing on the Artist: Within, Innovation, Invention, Imagination, Simon & Schuster, 1986
Hoptman, Laura. Drawing Now: Eight Propositions, The Museum of Modern Art, 2002
Mendelowitz, Daniel, A Guide to Drawing, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1988, 4th Ed.
Paterson, Robert. Abstract Concepts of Drawing Thomson * Seyffer Graphics, 1981
Simmons, Seymour III, Winer, Marc. Drawing, The Creative Process, Prentice Hall, 1977
Wood, D., The Craft of Drawing, Materials and Techniques, Harcourt Brace Jaovanovich, 1988
Sadie Benning: Suspended Animation, Wexner Centre for the Arts, Ohio State University, 2007
Butler, Cornelia, Afterimage: Drawing Through Process, The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusettes and London England, 1999.
Dantzic, Cynthia Maris, Drawing Dimensions, A Comprehensive Introduction, Prentice Hall, NJ, 1999
Downs, Marchall, Sawdon, Selby, Tormey, ed. , drawing now, Between the Lines of Contemporary Art, I.B. Tauris, London and New York, 2009
Grosenick, U. & Riemschneider, B. Ed. Art Now Volume 1. Taschen, 2002
Grosenick, Uta. Ed. Art Now Volume 2. Taschen 2005
Garner, Steve, editor, Writing on Drawing; Essays on Drawing Practice and Research, Intellect Books, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IIlinois, 2008
Hoptman, Laura, drawing now: eight propositions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2003
Kantor, Jordan, Drawings from the Modern 1975-2005, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2005
Kovats, Tania, ed, The Drawing Book, a survey of drawing: the primary means of expression, black dog publishing, London, UK, 2007
Betti, Claudia, Drawing, A Contemporary Approach, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 3rd ed, 1992
Dexter, Emma. Vitamin D New Perspectives in Drawing, Phaidon Press, 2005
Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Right side of the Brain, J.P. Tarcher Inc, Los Angeles, 1979
Drawing on the Artist: Within, Innovation, Invention, Imagination, Simon & Schuster, 1986
Hoptman, Laura. Drawing Now: Eight Propositions, The Museum of Modern Art, 2002
Mendelowitz, Daniel, A Guide to Drawing, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1988, 4th Ed.
Paterson, Robert. Abstract Concepts of Drawing Thomson * Seyffer Graphics, 1981
Simmons, Seymour III, Winer, Marc. Drawing, The Creative Process, Prentice Hall, 1977
Wood, D., The Craft of Drawing, Materials and Techniques, Harcourt Brace Jaovanovich, 1988
Sadie Benning: Suspended Animation, Wexner Centre for the Arts, Ohio State University, 2007
Butler, Cornelia, Afterimage: Drawing Through Process, The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusettes and London England, 1999.
Dantzic, Cynthia Maris, Drawing Dimensions, A Comprehensive Introduction, Prentice Hall, NJ, 1999
Downs, Marchall, Sawdon, Selby, Tormey, ed. , drawing now, Between the Lines of Contemporary Art, I.B. Tauris, London and New York, 2009
Grosenick, U. & Riemschneider, B. Ed. Art Now Volume 1. Taschen, 2002
Grosenick, Uta. Ed. Art Now Volume 2. Taschen 2005
Garner, Steve, editor, Writing on Drawing; Essays on Drawing Practice and Research, Intellect Books, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IIlinois, 2008
Hoptman, Laura, drawing now: eight propositions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2003
Kantor, Jordan, Drawings from the Modern 1975-2005, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2005
Kovats, Tania, ed, The Drawing Book, a survey of drawing: the primary means of expression, black dog publishing, London, UK, 2007
Thinking Like a Genius From: “Study Guides and Strategies”
http://www.studygs.net/genius.htm
1. Look at problems in many different ways, and find new perspectives that no one else has taken (or no one else has publicized!) Leonardo da Vinci believed that, to gain knowledge about the form of a problem, you begin by learning how to restructure it in many different ways. He felt that the first way he looked at a problem was too biased. Often, the problem itself is reconstructed and becomes a new one.
2. Visualize! When Einstein thought through a problem, he always found it necessary to formulate his subject in as many different ways as possible, including using diagrams. He visualized solutions, and believed that words and numbers as such did not play a significant role in his thinking process.
3. Produce! A distinguishing characteristic of genius is productivity. Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents. He guaranteed productivity by giving himself and his assistants idea quotas. In a study of 2,036 scientists throughout history, Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis found that the most respected scientists produced not only great works, but also many "bad" ones. They weren't afraid to fail, or to produce mediocre in order to arrive at excellence.
4. Make novel combinations. Combine, and recombine, ideas, images, and thoughts into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual. The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based came from the Austrian monk Grego Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create a new science.
5. Form relationships; make connections between dissimilar subjects. Da Vinci forced a relationship between the sound of a bell and a stone hitting water. This enabled him to make the connection that sound travels in waves. Samuel Morse invented relay stations for telegraphic signals when observing relay stations for horses.
6. Think in opposites. Physicist Niels Bohr believed, that if you held opposites together, then you suspend your thought, and your mind moves to a new level. His ability to imagine light as both a particle and a wave led to his conception of the principle of complementarity. Suspending thought (logic) may allow your mind to create a new form.
7. Think metaphorically. Aristotle considered metaphor a sign of genius, and believed that the individual who had the capacity to perceive resemblances between two separate areas of existence and link them together was a person of special gifts.
8. Prepare yourself for chance. Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else. That is the first principle of creative accident. Failure can be productive only if we do not focus on it as an unproductive result. Instead: analyze the process, its components, and how you can change them, to arrive at other results. Do not ask the question "Why have I failed?", but rather "What have I done?"
Adapted with permission from: Michalko, Michael, Thinking Like a Genius: Eight strategies used by the super creative, from Aristotle and Leonardo to Einstein and Edison (New Horizons for Learning) as seen at http://www.newhorizons.org/wwart_michalko1.html, (June 15, 1999) This article first appeared in THE FUTURIST, May 1998
Michael Michalko is the author of Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity), ThinkPak (A Brainstorming Card Set), and Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Geniuses (Ten Speed Press, 1998).
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