Art chapter 1.1

Color

The optical affect caused when reflected white light of the spectrum is divided into a separate wavelength.

Outline

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

Background

The part of a work depicted furthest from the viewers space, often behind the main subject matter.

Conceptual art

A work in which the ideas are often as important as how it is made.

Volume

The space filled or enclosed by the three-dimensional figure or object.

shape

The two-dimensional area the boundaries of which are defined by lines or suggested by changes in color or value.

Highlight

An area lightest value in a work.

Pattern

An arrangement of predictable repeated elements.

Negative space

An empty space given shape by its surround, for example the right-pointing arrow between the E and X in FedEx.

Facade

Any side of a building, usually the front or entrance.

Abstract

Art imagery that departs from recognizable images from the natural world.

Collage

a work of art assembled by gluing materials, often paper, onto a surface. From the french coller,to glue.

Two-dimensional

having height and width

Principles

the "grammar" applied to the elements of art -- contrast, balance, unity, variety, rhythm, emphasis, pattern, scale, proportion, and focal point

Figure-ground reversal

the reversal of the relationship between one shape (the figure) and its background (the ground), so that the figure becomes background and the ground becomes the figure

Positive Shape

A shape defined by its surrounding empty space.

Line

A mark, or implied mark, between two endpoints.

woodcut

A print created from an incised piece of wood.

Etching

A print making process that relies on acid to bite (or etch) the engraved design into the printing surface

Style

A characteristic way in which an artist or group of artists uses visual language to give a work an identifiable form of visual expression.

Actual line

A continuous, uninterrupted line.

Contrast

A drastic difference between such elements as color or value (lightness or darkness)

Plane

A flat surface

Implied line

A line not actually drawn but suggested by elements in the work

Concentric

Identical shapes stacked inside each other sharing the same center, for example the circles of a target.

Automatic

Suppressing conscious control to access subconscious sources of creativity and truth.

Elements

The basic vocabulary of art-line, form, shape, volume, mass, color, texture, space, time and motion, and value (lightness/darkness)

Space

The distance between identifiable points or planes.