Gateways to Art - 1.1
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
Contrast
a drastic difference between such elements as color or value
Plane
a flat surface
Implied Line
a line not actually drawn but suggested by elements in the work
Line
a mark, or implied mark, between two endpoints
Etching
a printmaking process that relies on acid to bite (or etch) the engraved design into the printing surface
Positive shape
a shape defined by its surrounding empty space
Conceptual Art
a work in which the ideas are often important as how it is made
Collage
a work of art assembled by gluing materials, often paper, onto a surface. From the french coller, to glue
Highlight
an area of lightest value in a work
Pattern
an arrangement of predictably 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
Two-dimensional
having height and width
Concentric
identical shapes stacked inside each other sharing the same center, for example the circles on a target
Automatic
suppressing conscious control to access subconscious sources of creativity and truth
Principles
the "grammar" applied to the elements of art - contrast, balance, unity, variety, rhythm, emphasis, pattern, scale, proportion and focal point
Elements
the basic vocabulary of art - line, form, shape, volume, mass, color, texture, space, time and motion, value
Space
the distance between identifiable points or planes
Color
the optical effect caused when reflected white lights 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 viewer's space, often behind the main subject matter
Rhythm
the regular or ordered repetition of elements in the work
Figure-ground reversal
the reversal of the relationship between one shape (the figure) and its background (the ground), so that the figure becomes the background and the ground becomes the figure
Volume
the space filled or enclosed by a 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
Actual Line
A continuous, uninterrupted line