ART 120- 2D Design Vocabulary Terms

1. Actual texture - A surface that can be experienced through the sense of touch (as opposed to a surface visually stimulated by the artist).

2. Aesthetic – Used to describe something as visually-based, beautiful, or pleasing in appearance and to the senses. Aesthetics is a term developed by philosophers during the 18th and 19th centuries and is also the academic study of beauty and taste in art.

3. Atmospheric perspective - The illusion of depth produced in graphic works by lightening values, softening details and textures, reducing value contrasts, and neutralizing colors in objects as they recede.

4. Balance - A sense of equilibrium achieved through implied weight, attention, or attraction, by manipulating the visual elements within an artwork.

5. Chromatic value - The relative degree of lightness or darkness demonstrated by a given color.

6. Collage - A technique of picture making in which real materials possessing actual textures are attached on the picture plane surface, often combining them with painted or drawn passages.

7. Concept -A comprehensive idea or generalization. An idea that brings diverse elements into a basic relationship.

8. Context - The location, information, or time frame that informs how a work of art is viewed and what it means. Works of art often respond to a particular space or cultural climate. If the context for a work of art is changed or re-contextualized, the way in which the work is understood may change as well.

9. Craftsmanship – Aptitude, skill, or quality workmanship in the use of tools and materials.

10. Dominance - The principle of visual organization that certain elements are more important than others in a particular composition or design. Some features are emphasized, and others are subordinated.

11. Economy - The distillation of the image to the basic essentials for clarity of presentation.

12. Elements of art - Line, shape, value, texture, color – the basic ingredients the artist uses to produce imagery. Their use produces the visual language of art.

13. Expression - The manifestation through artistic form of a thought, emotion, or quality of meaning; synonymous with the term content.

14. Form - The arrangement of elements in an artwork according to the principles that foster unity. The total appearance or organization.

15. Graphic - A description applied to flat, two-dimensional images or primarily graphic media such as fonts, comic books, and cartoons.

16. Harmony - The pleasing quality achieved by different elements of a composition interacting to form a whole. Harmony is often accomplished through repetition of the same or similar characteristics.

17. Hue - Designates the common name of a color and indicates its position in the spectrum or on the color wheel. This name is determined by the specific wavelength of the color in a ray of light.

18. Implied lines - Lines that dim, fade, stop, and/or disappear. The missing portion of the line is completed in the viewers mind.

19. Juxtaposition - The state or position of being placed close together or side by side, so as to permit comparison or contrast.

20. Local color- The color as seen in the objective world (green grass, blue sky, red barn, and the like).

21. Modernism – A historical period and attitude from the early to mid-20th century, characterized by experimentation, abstraction, a desire to provoke, and a belief in progress. Modern art is oriented towards developing new visual languages (rather than preserving and continuing those of the past) and takes the form of a series of periods, schools, and styles.

22. Monochromatic color - A color that has only one hue but has the complete range of value of that color from white to black.

23. Motif - A recurrent or dominant theme in a work of visual or literary art.

24. Movement - Eye travel directed by visual design in a work of art.

25. Nonrepresentational Art - Artwork encompassing non-recognizable imagery, ranging from pure abstraction (non-recognizable but derived from a recognizable object) to nonobjective art (not a product of abstraction, but derived from the artist’s mind).

26. Objective - That which is based, as nearly as possible, on physical actuality or optical perception. Such art tends to look natural or real.

27. Palette - A particular range of colors or a tray for mixing colors.

28. Perspective - A visual formula that creates the illusion of depth and volume on a two-dimensional surface. Perspective also infers a particular vantage point or view.

29. Picture plane -The actual flat surface on which the artist executes a pictorial image. In some cases, this acts merely as a transparent plane of reference to establish the illusion of forms existing in a three-dimensional space.

30. Plastic value - Value (lights and darks) used to create the illusion of volume and space.

31. Principles of organization - Seven principles that guide the use of the elements of art in achieving unity: harmony, variety, balance, proportion, dominance, movement, and economy.

32. Proportion - The comparative size relationship between the parts of a whole. For example, the size of the Statue of Liberty’s hand relates to the size of her head. (See scale.)

33. Repetition - The use of the same visual effect a number of times in the same composition. Repetition may produce the dominance, harmony, pattern, or rhythm.

34. Scale – Size relative to human dimensions or another standard unit of measure. For example, the size of the Statue of Liberty’s hand relates to the size of her head. (see proportion.)

35. Subjective - That which is derived from the mind reflecting a personal viewpoint, bias, or emotion. This type of color tends to be inventive or creative.

36. Symmetry - The mirror-like repetition of appearances on both sides of an imaginary central axis.

37. Tactile - A quality that refers to the sense of touch.

38. Technique - The manner and skill with which artists use their tools and materials to achieve an expressive effect.

39. Two-dimensional - Possessing the dimensions of height and width, especially when considering the flat surface or picture plane.

40. Value pattern - The arrangement or organization of values that control compositional movement and create a unifying effect throughout a work of art.

41. Variety - Differences achieved by opposing, contrasting, changing, elaborating, or diversifying elements in a composition to add individualism and interest; the counterweight of harmony in art.