Vocab Words Flashcards
Gestural Approach
A quick encompassing statement of forms. Hand duplicates the movement of the eyes gathering subjects general characteristics
Picture Plane
Two-Dimensional surface on which the artist works
Plane
A Two-Dimensional, continuous surface with only one direction
Collage
Any flat material, such as newspaper, cloth, or wallpaper, pasted on the picture plane
Shape
Two-Dimensional, closed, or implicitly closed configuration. The two categories of shape are organic and geometric shape
Contour Line
Line that is both the outside edge of an object and the edges of planes, as opposed to outline, which delineates only the outside edge of an object
Composition
The organization or arrangement of the elements of art in a given work
Positive Shape
The shape of an object that serves as the subject for a drawing. The relationship between positive shape and negative space is sometimes called figure/field, figure/ground, foreground/background, or solid/void relationship.
Negative Space
The space surrounding a positive shape; sometimes referred to as ground, empty space, interspace, field or void/
Value
The gradation of tone from light to dark, from white through gray to black
Volume
The quality of a form that had height, width, and depth; the representation of this quality.
Abstraction
An alteration of forms, dervied from observation or experience, in such a way as to present essential rather than particular qualities.
Ambiguous Space
Space that is neither clearly flat nor clearly volumetric, containing a combination of both two- and three-dimensional elements
Content
The subject matter of a work of art, including its emotional, intellectual, symbolic, thematic, and narrative connetions, which together give the work its total meaning.
Implied Line
A line that stops and starts again; the viewer’s eye completes the movement the line suggests
Simulated Texture
The imitation of the tactile quality of a surface; can range from a suggested imitation to a highly illusionistic duplication of the subjects texture.
Invented Texture
Invented, nonrepresentational patterning that may derive from actual texture by does not imitate it. May be highly stylized.
Objective
Free from personal feelings; the emphasis is on the descriptive and factual rather than the expressive or subjective.
Subjective
Emphasizing the artist’s emotions or personal viewpoint rather than informational content; compare objective
Theme
Development of a sustained series of works that are related by subject, that have an idea or image in common.
