Art & Design Glossary

Abstract  Artwork where objects have been changed or modified so that they no longer look realistic. An abstract work of art does, however, use a recognisable object as its reference, origin or inspiration. E.g. Picasso is known for his abstract work. 
Armature  A basic structure on which a sculpture is built. 
Colour  In art and design, colour allows us to create our own individuality and flare. Colour can be used to evoke certain moods or to create a message or sharp response in the viewer. 

Useful information on colour: 

Colour wheel: a tool for organising colour that shows the visible light spectrum organised in a circular format; a tool that helps to chart relationships between colours (hues). On a colour wheel, the primary colours of magenta red, yellow, and cyan (turquoise) blue are the fundamental hues from which a great number of other colours can be mixed. 

Primary colours: Red, yellow and blue-the 3 pigment colours that cannot be mixed or formed by any combination of other colours. All colours are derived from these three. 

Secondary colours: Green, orange and purple-the colours formed by mixing the primary colours. Magenta red and cyan (turquoise) blue make violet. Yellow and cyan blue make green. Magenta red and yellow make orange. 

Tertiary Colours: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue purple, blue-purple and yellow-green. These are the colours formed by mixing a primary and a secondary colour. That’s why the hue is a two word name. 

Complimentary Colours: pairs of colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel, e.g. yellow/purple. These colours create a strong contrast when placed beside each other. When mixing these colours they will generally form a shade of brown/black. 

Harmonious colours: 4 or 5 colours that are close together on the colour wheel are harmonious. E.g. blue, blue-green, green, green-yellow, they all have green as a common primary colour. 

Neutral Colours: black, white, grey and brown are considered to be neutral colours because (theoretically) neither warm nor cold colours. 

Tints: colours obtained by adding white to a hue to lighten it. 

Tones: degree of lightness and darkness of any colour and is used to create various effects e.g. light and shadow, depth, form, mood and atmosphere. 
Composition  In the visual arts, composition is the placement of arrangements of the visual elements or ‘ingredients’ in a work of art. The term composition means ‘putting together’ and can apply to any work of art. 
Contrast  Design principles that emphasise differences between the art elements. E.g. a painting that has bright and dull colours which contrast or angular shapes that contrast with rounded shapes. Sharp contrast draws attention and can direct the viewer to a focal point within a work of art. 
Depth  The actual dimension of depth within an artwork or the illusion of making objects appear closer or further away and making a two-dimensional image seem 3- dimensional. 
Dimensional  Measurement in one direction 

2D Two dimensional- an art work with the two dimensions of length and width. 

3D Three dimensional- an art work which has the three dimensions of length, width and depth. 
Design  A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object, or is the result of that plan or specification in the form of a product. The verb to design expresses the process of developing a design. A design usually has to satisfy certain goals. 
Elements (of art)  The basic components or tools of visual communication: line, space, shape/form, value, colour and texture. 
Form  The element of art which refers to the 3-dimensional quality or qualities of an artwork. 
Line  The element of art which refers to the mark(s) made on a surface by a moving implement, e.g. a pencil, felt tips, crayons, pen and brush each of which possesses individual line-making characteristics. The element of line has a huge range of qualities and expressive possibilities: curved, diagonal, dotted, straight, wavy, zigzag, thick, thin etc. 
Media  Materials used to produce an artwork, e.g. paint, clay, fibres, ink etc. 
Modelling  The process of producing sculptured forms. It is an additive process, as opposed to carving. Materials used for modelling include, clay and air drying clay, plasticine, play doh (bought or home made), wires, Modroc, tinfoil etc. 
Monochromatic  A colour scheme that uses one colour and all of the tones, tints and hues that derive from that colour. 
Papier-mâché  A medium that can be used to create sculptures. It uses paper or rags dipped in wallpaper paste which are placed over an armature to create a sculpture. 
Oil pastels  Media with similar colour pigments to chalk pastels but have an oil and wax composition. 
Pastels  Sometimes referred to as chalk pastels, these are created when pigments are pressed into sticks and are used as a dry medium on paper. Pastels are available as flat or round chalk like sticks or as pastel pencils. 
Pattern  Repetition of an element of art, e.g. shapes, lines or colours, to achieve decoration or ornamentation. Patterns also occur naturally in the environment e.g. snowflakes, honeycomb, spiral patterns in shells, wave patterns. 
Perspective  The art of representing 3 dimensional objects on a 2-dimensional surface so as to give the impression of their height, depth and position in relation to each other. 

Linear perspective deals with drawing and atmospheric perspective attempts to use colour and value changes to get the effect of distance. 
Portrait  A painting, drawing, photograph or engraving of a person. The main purpose of a portrait is to communicate a likeness of an individual or group of individuals. 
Printmaking  The process of reproducing images on flat surface. Prints are created by transferring ink or paint from an object to a sheet of paper or other material, by a variety of techniques. 

Different printing techniques include: 

Relief printing – where a printing block, plate or matrix has ink/paint applied to its surface and brought into contact with paper or another surface. (e.g. rubber stamps, potato printing, foam printing, printing with shapes/blocks etc.  Intaglio printing – which is the opposite of relief, where the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken areas hold the ink.  Stencil-silkscreen – where ink/paint is transferred onto a surface, except to the areas which are made impermeable by a blocking stencil
Process  The creative journey leading to the creation of a piece of artwork. The ‘process’ of the formation of art; the gathering, sorting, collating, associating and the actions (the actual doing). Process art is an artistic movement and a creative sentiment where the end product of art is not the principle focus. 
Product  The completed artwork made as a result of the process of creating. 

Product-focussed art is when a child begins a project knowing what the end product should look like and follows a set of instructions to get to their goal. 
Proportion  The relationship in size of one component of an artwork to another. 
Shape  Element of art which refers to an enclosed area of a 2D or 3D space that is defined by its external edge. Shapes can be regular like a square or cube, or irregular, that is an undefined shape. A shape can be created in art by enclosing an area with a line or by changing values in colours, forms or other elements of art. 
Space  Element of art that refers to the perceived distance or areas around, between and within components of a piece. Artworks can deal with actual physical space or the illusion of space (depth). Space can be positive or negative, open or closed, shallow or deep and two-dimensional or three-dimensional. 
Surface  In the context of art, the surface is the uppermost layer of a thing. The surface determines how a colour is reflected, absorbed or scattered, depending upon its texture. Artwork can be created on a huge variety of surfaces, e.g. paper, fabric, canvas, plaster, concrete, glass, wood, tarmac (playground area) etc. 
Textiles  Artworks that are created from natural or manmade fibres. Weaving, basketry, sewing and knitting are a few examples of the processes involved in textile design. 
Texture  Element of art that refers to the perceived surface quality, or ‘feel’ of an object. Textures can be described as rough, smooth, soft, jaggy etc. Artworks can deal with the actual physical texture of a surface or the illusion of a texture, depending on the aim of the artist. 
Value  The lightness or darkness of tones or colours. White is the lightest value and black is the darkest. 
Watercolour  Transparent, water-based paint. 
Weaving  The process of crossing one group threads, the weft, with a second groups of threads, the warp, to make cloth or decorative artwork. Examples of different materials that can be used to create artwork using weaving techniques are fibres, threads, raffia, wool, ribbon, paper etc.