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Art Vocabulary
Realistic Style of Drawing.....a style of art where the focus is placed on trying to make the drawing appear more lifelike. Proper proportions, accurate detail and shading help to make this possible.

Rhythm.....a pattern. In music the pattern could be clap, clap, rest, clap, clap, rest. In art the pattern might be apple, apple, orange, apple, apple, orange.

Scale.....a ratio or proportion. Student use proportional grids to reproduce items to scale.

Score.....to mark with lines. In metal tooling, students are asked to score the metal. You outline the drawing with the pen. With clay, your mark two surfaces with lines (or score them) before attaching them.

Secondary Colors .....the second group of colors on the color wheel. They are created by mixing Primary Colors. Red and Yellow make Orange. Yellow and Blue make Green. Blue and Red make Purple. However, a good Purple is not easy to create. I cheat. I have students use a Red-Violet with Blue to get a Barney Purple.

Shade.....a color that has been darkened with black

Simplicity.....the absence of too much clutter, detail, ornamentation or intricacy. It's just not complicated.

Slip.....a creamy water and clay solution used to help attach pieces of clay.

Stippling.....an inking technique using dots. The darker you want the area, the more dots are needed. The lighter you want the area, the fewer dots are used.

Surrealism.....a style of art that started in the 1920s. Paintings focused on things found in the imagination or fantasy. You might find every day objects in the works of Dali and Magritte, but they weren't doing every day things.

Symbolic Style of Drawing.....a style of art that focuses on an extremely simplified picture. This is for people who say they can't draw a stick figure! Keith Haring's cartoons work as an inspiration.

Symmetry.....Balance. Formal Balance is exact mirror images. If you have three apples on the right, you also have three apples on the left. Informal Balance has symmetry, but it may not be exact mirror images. If you have three apples on the left, you might have three oranges on the right.

Tertiary Colors.....The same as Intermediate Colors. Even though it means "Third" Colors, in my experience, Intermediate Colors are the much more commonly used term.

Texture.....the way something feels. If you add texture to your art, you make it look more realistic and add to the beauty of the piece.

Tint.....making a color lighter by adding white

Tone .....value of a color, the lightness or darkness of a color.

Transparent.....easily seen through. It's the opposite of opaque.

Unity.....The dictionary definition is, "When it all falls together because the Elements and Principles of Art are used." What does that mean? If you use the Elements and Principles of Art, you're going to create better art. It will have unity.

Value.....the lightness or darkness of a color. Your colors might be light, medium or dark values.

Vanishing Glob.....my personal coined term. It's not a point in a perspective drawing because students aren't careful enough to create a point.

Vanishing Point .....the point in a perspective drawing where parallel lines appear to merge

Variety.....objects change in size and shape or begin on different planes

Warm Colors.....Warm colors are the colors of fire. They are Red, Yellow and Orange.

Whirling.....an inking technique using swirling lines. The darker you want the area, the more swirls are needed. The lighter you want the area, the fewer swirling lines are used.

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Copyright 2000, revised 2012 by Phillip Martin All rights reserved.