Vocabulary List

 

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR KNOWING THESE DEFINITIONS. They will form the basis of your vocabulary in discussing objects and ideas. You will be quizzed on these definitions at some point during the quarter. Believe it.

 

Analogous Colors: Hues that lie next to each other on the color wheel.

 

Analogous color scheme: Use of three or more hues that are close to each other on a color wheel.

 

Asymmetrical Balance: The use of figures of different visual weights to create an overall impression of balance; sometimes-called informal balance.

 

Background: In a two dimensional work that creates an illusion of the three-dimensionality, the area farthest from the observer; also called the ground or field.

 

Balance: Distribution of the visual weight of design elements in a composition.

 

Color Wheel: Any various attempts to illustrate color relationships as positions on a circle.

 

Complementary Hues: Colors that are opposite each other on a color wheel. Mixed, they 'gray' or neutralize each other; juxtaposed, they may produce strong optical effects. A primary color is complementary to a secondary color that is a mixture of the two remaining primaries.

 

Content: The essential idea or meaning being conveyed in a work of art.

 

Contour: The outline of a three-dimensional form.

 

Elements of Design: The basic visual signs as they are combined to communicate or express ideas in art and design. Line, shape, value, texture and color represent the visual language of the designer.

 

Figure: In two-dimensional work, an image that appears to be somewhat closer to the viewer than the background against which it is presented. The relationship between figure and background is variously referred to as 'figure/ground,' 'figure/field," and 'positive shape/negative space."

 

Figure/ground relationship: Relationship of a shape to the material it is imposed upon.

 

Focal Point: The area toward which the viewer's eye is most compellingly drawn in a composition.

 

Foreground: In a two-dimensional work that creates an illusion of three-dimensionality, the area that seems closest to the observer.

 

Form: 1) In a two-dimensional work, a figure that appears to be three-dimensional; sometimes called 'mass' or 'volume.' 2) The overall organization of a work.

 

Gestalt: The dynamic unity of a successful work of art - a configuration so integrated that its properties cannot be determined by analyzing the parts in isolation; derived from Gestalt psychology, the doctrine holding that psychological phenomena are configurational wholes.

 

Ground: 1) The initial surface of a two-dimensional design. 2) The area of a two-dimensional work that appears to be farthest from the viewer; also called the 'background' or the 'field.'

 

Hue : The name of a color (as in 'red,' or 'red-yellow').

 

Line: A mark whose length is considerably greater than its width. The path of a moving point.

 

Media, mediums: The materials and tools used to create visual elements. Includes pen, pencil, inks, papers, etc.

 

Monochromatic color scheme: Use of a single hue, in varying values.

 

Negative Space: The unoccupied space left after the positive shapes have been laid down.

 

Neutrals: Hues that do not reflect any single light wave length but rather all of them at once. White, gray or black.

 

Pattern: The repetition of elements or combinations of elements readily perceived as systematic organization.

 

Primary Colors: The irreducible hues in a color system from which all other hues can be mixed. Red, yellow, blue.

 

Secondary Color: Hues obtained by mixing two primary colors.

 

Shade: A dark value of a hue, created by adding black.

 

Shape: An area that stands out from the shape next to it because of a boundary or because of a different value, color, or texture.

 

3-D a solid or illusion of a solid.

 

2-D confined to length and width set apart by value or color.

 

Tertiary Colors: Hues obtained by mixing a primary color with a secondary color.

 

Texture: The surface feel of an object or representation of surface character. Texture is the feel or 'visual feel' of objects or their surfaces.

 

Tint: adding white can create A light value of a hue.

 

Value: The degree of lightness or darkness of a surface sometimes called 'tone.' Value has nothing to do with color except that a color may have a particular value.