Elements of Design
The light that reflects off an object and is perceived by the human eye.
Color
The artistic principle of creating motion within an artwork by using elements of design like line, color, texture and shape.
Movement
An English sculptor, photographer and environmentalist who produces site specific sculptures and land art situated in natural settings. He does not use any tape or glue, but sometimes he uses his own saliva!
Andy Goldsworthy
A depiction of natural scenery, such as mountains, rivers and forests.
Landscape
The space in the back of an image.
Background
A color with black added to it.
Shade
An enclosed line that is two dimensional, such as square, circle, triangle or rectangle.
Shape
A principle of design that uses the repetition of elements to create a visual “beat”.
Rhythm
Art Nouveau artist and architect from Barcelona Spain who dedicated his life to building epic, unique, and intricately designed buildings, parks and cathedrals for the City of Barcelona, his signature style being done with the use of mosaic.
Antoni Gaudi
A 2-D art form that uses small pieces of material to create a picture or design on a surface.
Mosaic
Any 2-D shape that isn’t geometric.
Organic Shapes
Colors on the color wheel associated with heat, light, and energy
Warm Colors
A mark made on a surface that joins two different points.
Line
The building blocks of an artwork's aesthetics; “the recipe”.
Principles of Design
This artist makes tessellating installations out of actual insects, some of them are over 150 years old!
Jennifer Angus
A type of visual art that combines more than one medium, method or material
Mixed Media
Objects in front of a composition that usually contain the subject matter
Foreground
A color with white added to it.
Tint
The basic units of any visual design which form its structure and convey visual messages; “the ingredients”
Elements of Art
The consistent reuse or recurrence of visual elements such as lines, shapes, colors or motifs within a single artwork..
Repetition
A Dutch artist, who made drawings and prints inspired by mathematics. He is best known for his impossible staircases and hyperrealistic distorted reflections.
MC Escher
A work of art that depicts the artist that produced it
Self Portrait
The repetition of visual elements like lines, shapes, colors, or textures in a consistent or predictable sequence.
Pattern
Hues on the color wheel like that are often associated with feelings of tranquility and calmness, the "chill colors".
Cool Colors
An element of art that is three dimensional and encloses, the physical structure of a shape to include volume as well as height and width.
Form
Prolific Dutch painter from the impressionist era, known for his famous Starry Night painting, and his many differing self portraits. Vincent is revered today, due to his “before his time” talent and insight of the world around him, and his heartfelt story. He has gone onto being one of the most well known painters of the modern era.
Vincent Van Gogh
A form of printmaking where a unique one of a kind image is created from a single impression.
Monoprinting
Characterized by a reliance on mathematical shapes such as triangles, squares, circles and lines to organize space.
Geometric Shapes
Colors opposite each other on the color wheel.
Complimentary Colors
The perceived surface quality of a work of art
Texture
Artistic creations of ancient civilizations from the beginning of human history, until the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 CE)
Ancient Art
Identifiable subject matter with simplified, altered, distorted, changed or rearranged visual elements.
Abstract
A repeating pattern of geometric shapes that completely covers a flat surface without any gaps or overlaps, they “fit” together.
Tessellation
The area around, between, and within the elements of a composition
Space
A style or movement of painting originating in France in the 1860’s, characterized by a concern for depicting the visual impression of the moment, especially in terms of the shifting effect of light and color.
Impressionism
An art form that involves transferring an image from a template, or matrix, onto another surface..
Printmaking
The arrangement of elements within a work of art, and how they relate to each other to create a whole.
Composition
An international art style that emerged in the 1890s and was popular until World War 1. It is characterized by organic shapes and flowing lines
Art Nouveau
Artists’ paint made with a water soluble binder such as gum, arabic and thinned water rather than oil, giving it a transparent color. Uses water instead of white producing “paler colors”
Watercolor
The point on the horizon line where parallel lines appear to get smaller or vanish.
Vanishing Point
The dark shape and outline of someone or something visible against a lighter background, especially in dim light.
Silhouette
A line that divides the sky from the ground or the eye-level of the viewer; often parallel to the horizon.
Horizon Line
A versatile art medium that combines the characteristics of crayons and pastels. Invented in 1921, they are made from powdered pigment mixed with non-drying oil and wax, finishing with a “buttery” consistency. Otherwise known as “cray-pas”
Oil Pastels
A drawing method that shows how things appear to get smaller as they get further away, converging towards a single "vanishing point" on the horizon line.
One Point Perspective