Visual Arts - High School

Show your true colors by learning these words related to visual art. This list covers different media and artistic techniques, artists' tools, and other essential vocabulary. It's truly a work of art.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. abstract
    not representing or imitating external reality
  2. acrylic
    used especially by artists
  3. aesthetics
    the branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and taste
  4. asymmetry
    a lack of balance or proportion among the parts of something
  5. background
    the part of a scene behind objects in the front
  6. balance
    harmonious arrangement or relation of parts within a whole
  7. bas relief
    sculpture that projects only slightly from the background
  8. bust
    a sculpture of the head and shoulders of a person
  9. calligraphy
    beautiful handwriting
  10. canvas
    an oil painting on a heavy, closely woven fabric
  11. caricature
    a representation of a person exaggerated for comic effect
  12. cast
    form by pouring (e.g., wax or hot metal) into a mold
  13. ceramics
    the art of making and decorating pottery
  14. charcoal
    a stick of black carbon material used for drawing
  15. chiaroscuro
    the arrangement or interplay of light and dark in an artwork
  16. cityscape
    painting depicting a city or urban area
  17. collage
    a paste-up of pieces to form an artistic image
  18. color wheel
    a chart in which complementary colors (or their names) are arranged on opposite sides of a circle
  19. complementary color
    either one of two chromatic colors that when mixed together give white (in the case of lights) or grey (in the case of pigments)
  20. composition
    the spatial property resulting from the arrangement of parts
  21. contrast
    perceptual effect of the juxtaposition of different colors
  22. cool
    (of colors) inducing the impression of lower temperature
  23. crosshatch
    shade with multiple crossing lines
  24. depth
    the extent downward or backward or inward
  25. embellish
    make more attractive, as by adding ornament or color
  26. emphasis
    special importance or significance
  27. figurative
    consisting of or forming human or animal images
  28. focal point
    the concentration of attention or energy on something
  29. foreground
    the part of a scene that is near the viewer
  30. foreshorten
    shorten lines in a drawing so as to create an illusion of depth
  31. form
    the spatial arrangement of something
  32. fresco
    a mural done with watercolors on wet plaster
  33. genre
    a class of art having a characteristic form or technique
  34. geometric
    characterized by shapes and lines in design and decoration
  35. gesso
    a substance used to prepare a surface for painting
  36. glaze
    a coating, as for ceramics or metal
  37. gouache
    an opaque watercolor prepared with gum
  38. gradation
    relative position in a ranked series
  39. guideline
    a light line used to help align written letters or a drawing
  40. halftone
    an engraving used to reproduce an illustration
  41. harmony
    congruity of parts with one another and with the whole
  42. highlight
    an area of brightness in a picture
  43. horizontal
    parallel to or in the plane of the horizon or a base line
  44. hue
    the quality of a color determined by its dominant wavelength
  45. impasto
    painting that applies the pigment thickly so that brush or palette knife marks are visible
  46. intensity
    chromatic purity
  47. kiln
    a furnace for firing, burning, or drying porcelain or bricks
  48. landscape
    painting depicting an expanse of natural scenery
  49. lathe
    a machine tool for shaping a piece of rotating wood or metal
  50. lithograph
    a print made with a stone or metal plate
  51. medium
    a liquid with which pigment is mixed by a painter
  52. monochromatic
    having or appearing to have only one color
  53. mosaic
    design made of small pieces of colored stone or glass
  54. motif
    a design that consists of recurring shapes or colors
  55. multimedia
    the use of many types of communication simultaneously
  56. mural
    a painting that is applied to a wall surface
  57. neutral
    having no hue
  58. nonrepresentational
    of or relating to a style of art in which objects do not resemble those known in physical nature
  59. oil paint
    paint in which a drying oil is the vehicle
  60. opaque
    not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy
  61. optical illusion
    an optical phenomenon that results in a false or deceptive visual impression
  62. origami
    the Japanese art of folding paper
  63. palette
    a board on which an artist mixes paints
  64. palette knife
    a spatula used by artists for mixing or applying or scraping off oil paints
  65. pastel
    any of various pale or light colors
  66. perspective
    appearance as determined by distance from the viewer
  67. pointillism
    a painting technique characterized by applying paint in dots
  68. polygon
    a closed plane figure bounded by straight sides
  69. portfolio
    a set of pieces of creative work shown as a sample
  70. portrait
    any likeness of a person, in any medium
  71. potter's wheel
    a horizontal rotating wheel holding the clay being shaped by a potter
  72. primary color
    any of three colors from which all others can be obtained by mixing
  73. printmaking
    artistic design and manufacture of prints as woodcuts or silkscreens
  74. proportion
    relation with respect to comparative quantity or magnitude
  75. realism
    artistic movement that represents the world accurately
  76. representational
    depicting objects, figures, or scenes realistically
  77. rubbing
    representation consisting of a copy (as of an engraving) made by laying paper over something and rubbing it with charcoal
  78. scale
    the ratio between the size of a thing and its representation
  79. score
    make small marks into the surface of
  80. sculpture
    a three-dimensional work of art
  81. seascape
    a painting of the sea (as distinguished from a landscape)
  82. shade
    the quality of a given color, as distinct from other colors
  83. shape
    a perceptual structure
  84. silhouette
    a filled-in drawing of the outline of an object
  85. slab
    block consisting of a thick piece of something
  86. slip
    potter's clay that is thinned and used for coating or decorating ceramics
  87. spectrum
    an ordered array of the components of an emission or wave
  88. stained glass
    glass that has been colored in some way
  89. stencil
    a sheet of material that has been perforated with a pattern
  90. still life
    a painting of inanimate objects such as fruit or flowers
  91. study
    preliminary drawing for later elaboration
  92. style
    a mode of expression typical of a person, group, or period
  93. symbol
    something visible that represents something invisible
  94. symmetry
    balance among the parts of something
  95. technique
    a practical method or art applied to some particular task
  96. tempera
    paint made of pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder like egg yolk
  97. terra cotta
    clay fired for pottery and building material, or the finished object
  98. tessellation
    the careful juxtaposition of shapes in a pattern
  99. texture
    the feel of a surface or a fabric
  100. three-dimensional
    involving or relating to three dimensions or aspects
  101. tint
    a variation or slightly different shade of a color
  102. translucent
    allowing light to pass through diffusely
  103. transparent
    able to be seen through with clarity
  104. trompe l'oeil
    a painting with so much detail that it looks real
  105. two-dimensional
    involving measurements of magnitude in two directions
  106. unity
    the quality of being fused into one
  107. value
    relative darkness or lightness of a color
  108. vanishing point
    the appearance of a point on the horizon at which parallel lines converge
  109. vertical
    at right angles to the plane of the horizon or a base line
  110. warm
    (of colors) inducing the impression of heat
  111. watercolor
    a water-base paint ; used by artists
  112. woodcut
    engraving consisting of a block of wood with a design cut into it; used to make prints
Created on Thu Feb 02 10:33:09 EST 2017 (updated Wed Mar 29 16:04:14 EDT 2017)

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