Self-Taught: Art Vocabulary
Day 2:
Hello! If you haven’t seen my previous post, I’m on a journey of self-education in the art realm. Today’s focus in art basics? Vocabulary.
I was working through an art book my husband bought for me and I came across a section that jogged my memory. The heading of the page said, “Mass, Shape, Form and Detail” and my mind went into recitation mode: “Line, Shape, Form, Space, Color, Value, Texture”. That is how I memorized art vocab terms for a test in high school… and I remembered it! But, I realized this book didn’t go into those (specifically, the definitions of the elements of art), so I did some searching. Here’s the terminology and definitions I came up with (Links / references to sources at the end!).
Elements of Art
1) Line: An element of art defined by a point moving in space. Line may be two-or three-dimensional, descriptive, implied, or abstract.
Descriptive: handwriting, charts, graphs, decorative elements
Implied: lines that we see in our mind’s eye that fill in the spaces between objects, such as a line of lights in the ceiling and the rows of windows in a large office building.
Image Credit: (http://bit.ly/2jD1CyQ)
2) Shape: An element of art that is two-dimensional, flat, or limited to height and width.
(Image Credit: http://bit.ly/1RkFRBc)
3) Form: An element of art that is three-dimensional and encloses volume; includes height, width AND depth (as in a cube, a sphere, a pyramid, or a cylinder). Form may also be free flowing.
(Image Credit: http://bit.ly/2ji3i0M)
4) Space: An element of art by which positive and negative areas are defined or a sense of depth is achieved in a work of art.
Positive: “occupied”
Negative: “unoccupied”
(Image Credit: http://bit.ly/2ivgTom)
5) Color: An element of art made up of three properties: hue, value, and intensity.
Hue: Name of color
Value: Hue’s lightness and darkness (a color’s value changes when white or black is added)
Intensity: Quality of brightness and purity (high intensity= color is strong and bright; low intensity= color is faint and dull).
6) Value: The lightness or darkness of tones or colors. White is the lightest value; black is the darkest. The value halfway between these extremes is called middle gray.
Shades: Darker values
Tints: Lighter values
(Image Source: http://bit.ly/2jpLNhK)
7) Texture: An element of art that refers to the way things feel, or look as if they might feel if touched.
Tactile / Actual: What you feel that is textured.
Visual: What you see as having texture.
(Image Credit: http://bit.ly/2jpNhZg)
Information Sources:
I hope this is as helpful to you as it is to me! I’ve enjoyed having this review of terminology. :)
Share this post with others to help promote art education!
Onward in learning,
Chelle Elle
“Chelle Elle” has been drawing since she was really small. No restaurant napkin was ever safe when crayons were involved! Now, she writes and illustrates characters and other fun ideas to help her dreams and the dreams of others come to life! And yes, she takes commissions and would love to hear from you.
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