Glossary of terms
This is a non-exhaustive list of terms that you may hear in your art lessons along with the projects key vocabulary. Each of your lesson slides will have key vocabulary for that lesson listed.
Aesthetic
Relating to or characterised by a concern with beauty or good taste (adjective); a particular taste or approach to the visual qualities of an object (noun). Appropriation As an artistic strategy, the intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of preexisting images, objects, and ideas. Ben-Day dots Coloured dots (generally in four colours: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) used to create shading and secondary colours in the mechanical reproduction of images. Ceramics Objects, such as pots and vases, made of clay hardened by heat. Composition The arrangement of the individual elements within a work of art so as to form a unified whole; also used to refer to a work of art, music, or literature, or its structure or organisation. Drypoint An intaglio printmaking technique that creates sharp lines with fuzzy, velvety edges. A diamond-pointed needle is used to incise lines directly into a bare metal printing plate, displacing ridges of metal that adhere to the edges of the incised lines. This displaced metal is called burr. Inking fills the incised lines and clings to the burr. Damp paper is placed on the plate and run through a press, picking up the ink from the incised lines and the burr, resulting in a characteristically fuzzy line. Figurative Representing a form or figure in art that retains clear ties to the real world. Font A specific size and style of a typeface design (for example, Arial 12pt bold, or Times New Roman 10pt italics). The term is often confused with typeface, which is a particular design of type. Hue A particular gradation of colour; a shade or tint. Impasto An Italian word for “mixture,” used to describe a painting technique wherein paint is thickly laid on a surface, so that brushstrokes or palette knife marks are visible. Intaglio A general term for metal-plate printmaking techniques, including etching, drypoint, engraving, aquatint, and mezzotint. The word comes from the Italian intagliare, meaning “to incise” or “to carve.” In intaglio printing, the lines or areas that hold the ink are incised below the surface of the plate, and printing relies on the pressure of a press to force damp paper into these incised lines or areas, to pick up ink. Juxtaposition An act of placing things close together or side by side for comparison or contrast. |
Medium
The materials used to create a work of art, and the categorisation of art based on the materials used (for example, painting [or more specifically, watercolour], drawing, sculpture). Mixed media 1. A technique involving the use of two or more artistic media, such as ink and pastel or painting and collage, that are combined in a single composition; 2. A designation for an artist who works with a number of different artistic media. Monochrome A work of art rendered in only one colour. Narrative A spoken, written, or visual account of an event or a series of connected events. Palette 1. The range of colours used by an artist in making a work of art; 2. A thin wooden or plastic board on which an artist holds and mixes paint. Render Artistic renderings take on many forms. Rendering is the artist’s approach to depicting a building or an item in conventional art forms. It comprises shading as well as the use of lighting effects to simulate shadow, reflection, and refraction. Scale The ratio between the size of an object and its model or representation, as in the scale of a map to the actual geography it represents. Still life A representation of inanimate objects, as a painting of a bowl of fruit. Stylised To represent in or make conform to a particular style, especially when highly conventionalised or artistic rather than naturalistic. Technique The method with which an artist, writer, performer, athlete, or other producer employs technical skills or materials to achieve a finished product or endeavour. Turnaround A turnaround is a 360-degree view of a character that gives us all the information we need to know. Typography The art and technique of designing and/or arranging type letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, and of printing from them. Vignette A brief, evocative description, account, or scene. Zoetrope A pre-cinematic device consisting of a cylindrical drum with evenly spaced vertical slits cut into its sides. Its interior held a paper strip printed with sequential drawn or photographic images, which would appear animated when the drum was spun. |