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BASIC ART TERMS
Medium
the physical means or stuff through which we come in contact with the work of art; the material out of which the artist creates his work. The artist’s choice of medium affects expressive content. (In general, medium for the visual arts is color, tone for music, words for Literature, and action and voice for the combined arts like theater and dance.)
Technique
the way the artist uses his materials and medium in expressing an idea, feeling or sensation Elements
properties or qualities of the medium: line, color, shape, texture, volume, etc. Subject Matter
the recognizable objects, persons or incidents represented in a work of art. A work of art having no subject is also called Non-Objective or Non-Representation Art. Visual Form (Aural Form in Music)
the particular manner in which the elements exist or appear; the specific manner in which they were used by the artist in terms of arts and the whole – whether or not in interaction, relationship, or fusion with subject matter – in order to express an idea, feeling, or sensation Expressive Content (or expressive significance)
the ideas, feelings, sensations (theme, message, meaning) presented in a work of art. Expressive content arises from the effect of visual or aural form or, if there is subject matter, from the combined effect or “unique fusion” of subject matter and particular visual form. In trying to determine the expressive content of a work of art with subject matter, we may ask ourselves: “What attitude, feeling, idea or statement about the subject matter is the artist trying to convey through the specific form that he used?”
THE ELEMENTS OF THE VISUAL ARTS
(Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture)
Color
“a visual attribute of bodies or substances distinct from their spatial characteristics and depending upon the spectral composition of the wavelengths of radiant energy…” (Funk and Wagnalls, 1966) It has three dimensions: hue, value, and saturation
Value
degree of lightness or darkness (related terms: tone, tonal value)
Light
(illusion or actual use of) luminosity
Texture
“the surface quality of an object, either real or made to appear real, which appeals to the tactile imagination or feeling (related term: tactile value)
Line
one or two dimensional mark which indicates direction, orientation, movement or energy
Shape (or Form)
outward form; configuration; contour Related terms: format – the shape of the frame and the general arrangement of shapes within it plane – a flat or uncurved surface
Volume
the amount of space a body occupies; that quality of an object which enables us to know that it has length, breadth and thickness; solidity as a quality opposed to relative flatness; bulk or roundness
Mass (or FORM)
the amount of matter a body contains; in painting “refers not to bulk but to the principal areas in which form is distributed and realized as distinct from detail”
Perspective
a. the art or theory of representing on a flat or curved surface solid objects, figures, architecture, other surfaces conceived of as not lying in that surface.
b. the art of conveying the impression of depth or distance
c. delineation of objects as they appear to the eye
Movement
illusion of or actual movement Size
relative magnitude of an object Number
amount, quantity COLOR
The three dimensions or attribute of color are: Hue the name of the color, such as red, green or blue; that quality that enables us to distinguish one color from another. Hue indicates the color’s position on the color wheel Value lightness and darkness of a color Saturation (or INTENSITY) any color’s degree of purity or strength. This is determined by the quantity of the dominant hue. Scarlet, a vivid red, is almost pure red. Rose beige is red neutralized with gray. Achromatic colors include black and white and the entire series of intermediate grays, varying only in value.
Chromatic colors contain hue, value and saturation |
