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Term
Definition
a la poupée The French term used for a method of coloring an intaglio plate by hand. Contrary to usual methods of color printing, the different colors are all applied on one plate with the aid of a stump of rag, known as a poupée (or doll).
ABC art A 1960's art movement and style that attempts to use a minimal number of textures, colors, shapes and lines to create simple three-dimensional structures. Also known as minimalism.
abraded Having a worn or rubbed appearance as a result of mechanical or chemical action. An abrasion is a localized abraded area.
abstract Art that looks as if it contains little or no recognizable or realistic forms from the physical world. Focus is on formal elements such as colors, lines, or shapes. Artists often abstract objects by changing, simplifying, or exaggerating what they see.
abstract art Any art in which the depiction of real objects has been entirely discarded and its aesthetic content expressed in a formal pattern or structure of shapes, lines and colors. When the representation of real objects is completely absent, such art may be called non-objective.
abstract expressionism A school of painting that flourished after World War II until the early 1960s, characterized by the view that art is nonrepresentational and chiefly improvisational. It has few recognizable images with great emphasis on line, color, shape, texture, value; putting the expression of the feelings or emotions of the artist above all else.
accent To stress or single out as important. As applied to art, it is the emphasis given to certain elements in a painting that allows them to attract more attention.

Details that define an object or piece of art.
acid free paper A paper product having a pH level of 7 or above.
acrylic paint Acrylic paint is fast-drying paint containing pigment suspension in an acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted or modified with acrylic gels, media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media.
aerial perspective Refers to creating a sense of depth in painting by imitating the way the atmosphere makes distant objects appear less distinct and more bluish than they would be if nearby. Also known as atmospheric perspective.
aging The continuous action of atmospheric components- oxygen, moisture, light, and temperature - on materials and structures, leading to deterioration. Natural aging deterioration may also be caused by incompatible components reacting slowly within the structure.
air-brush A small air-gun capable of spraying paint, ink, varnish, or ground in a stream of fine droplets. It can be used in lithography and aquatint, for the application of a flat tint, and on drawings which are to be photographed with the half-tone technique
alabaster A fine-grained, slightly translucent stone with a smooth milk-white surface. Often used for sculpture.
alkaline buffer An additive used in paper-making processes and conservation treatments that will raise the pH level and make the paper less acidic.
alla prima The method of oil painting in which the desired effects of the final painting are achieved in the first application of paint as opposed to the technique of covering the canvas in layers with the final painting being achieved at the end.
all-over space A type of space in modern painting characterized by the distribution of forms equally over the entire the picture surface, as opposed to the traditional composing method of having a focal point or center of interest. In all-over space, the forms are seen as occupying the same spatial depth, usually on the picture plane; also, they are all seen as possessing the same degree of importance in the painting. The Action painter, Jackson Pollock, was the first to use all-over (also called infinite) space, in his famous drip paintings of the 1940's and 1950's. This spatial concept has influenced most two-dimensional art since that time.
aluminum This metal is used in printmaking either as a plate or as a support for an impression. In the former case, it can be (a) engraved with the burin, (b) etched with mercuric bichloride, or (c) prepared lithographically. Impressions can also be made directly onto the metal, in particular with the screen printing technique
American genre painting Usually paintings of the rural Midwest and west during the 1920s and 1930s.
analogous colors Any set of three or five colors that are closely related in hue. They are usually adjacent to each other on the color wheel.
applied art The use of the principles and elements of design and aesthetics to create functional works for everyday use.
approximate symmetry The use of forms which are similar on either side of a central axis. They may give a feeling of the exactness or equal relationship but are sufficiently varied to prevent visual monotony.
aquatint An intaglio method in which areas of color are made by dusting an acid-resistant powdered resin on a metal plate and then allowing acid to etch or scratch the plate surface away around it to create a tonal effect.
archival material Material having a neutral or slightly alkaline pH; it should also have good aging properties.
art The completed work of an artist which is the expression of creativity and imagination that portrays a mood, feeling, or tells a story; works of art collectively.
art brut The French term usually translated as outsider art. Typically, those labeled as outsider artists have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds.
art deco A style of design and decoration popular in the 1920's and 1930's characterized by designs that are geometric and use highly intense colors to reflect the rise of commerce, industry, and mass production.
art nouveau A style of decoration and architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized particularly by the depiction of leaves and flowers in flowing, sinuous lines. It is often symbolic and of an erotic nature.
artist A practitioner in the arts, generally recognized as a professional by critics and peers.
artist's proof A proof reserved for the artist outside the main edition. This may be noted in the margin.
ashcan school A group of US painters of the early 20th century who painted realistic scenes of everyday urban life. The work depicted such subjects as the streets and inhabitants of big cities with a vigorous sense of realism.
assemblage A type of modern sculpture consisting of combining multiple objects or forms, often found objects. (A found object is one that the artist comes upon and uses, as is or modified, in an artwork.) The objects are combined for their visual (sculptural) properties, as well as for their expressive properties.
asymmetrical balance Placement of non-identical forms to either side of a balancing point in such a way that the two sides seem to be of the same visual weight.
atmospheric perspective A technique used by painters for representing three-dimensional space on a flat two-dimensional surface by creating the illusion of depth, or recession within a painting or drawing. Atmospheric perspective suggests that objects closer to the viewer are sharper in detail, color intensity, and value contrast than those farther away. As objects move closer to the horizon they gradually fade to a bluish gray and details blur, imitating the way distant objects appear to the human eye.
avant garde A group active in the invention and application of new techniques in a given field, especially in the arts.
balance A feeling of equality in weight, attention, or attraction of the various elements within a composition as a means of accomplishing unity.
Barbizon school French landscape artists who worked near Barbizon, France between 1835 and 1870. The Barbizon painters were part of a movement towards realism in art. Natural scenes became the subjects of their paintings rather than mere backdrops to dramatic events.
bas-relief Sculptural relief in which the projection from the surrounding surface is slight and no part of the modeled form is undercut. Its main use is to convey a sense of distance, or to give depth to the composition, especially for scenes with many figures and a landscape or architectural background.
bauhaus Of, relating to, or characteristic of a 20th-century school of design, the aesthetic of which was influenced by and derived from techniques and materials employed especially in industrial fabrication and manufacture.
beaux-arts Fine Art; an art form developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Also, a school of fine arts located in Paris which stressed the necessity of academic painting.
bevelling The edges of intaglio plates are made at an angle or curve to ensure that they do not cut the paper in the press. A true bevel is only necessary if the plate is more than a millimeter thick, otherwise a light rounding off is sufficient.
biomorphic Related to the organic; derived from biological or natural forms; it was a term frequently used in early-to-mid-20th century art.
bird's-eye view Seeing from a point of view from an altitude or from a distance; a comprehensive view in a downward direction.
biting The process of (1) corroding a design on a metal plate in either intaglio (e.g., etching) or relief (e.g., line block); and (2) fixing the image on the stone or metal plate in lithography. It is done using mordant (i.e., a substance used to facilitate the fixing of a dye to a fibre).
bitmap image A pixel-based image (.bmp) with one bit of color information per pixel. Its quality decreases when the image is enlarged.
blanching A pale discoloration on a surface as a result of superficial water or solvent penetration.
block The wooden element which is printed in making woodcuts and wood engraving. The word also applies to typographical printing elements.
bon a tirer French for "good to print." It is generally assigned on a trial proof by the artist when he wishes to indicate to the professional printer that a satisfactory state of the print has been obtained. It gives the printer the standard to which he must adhere in taking successive impressions.
bristol board A high quality heavy weight drawing paper, sometimes made with cotton fiber prepared or glued together, usually with a caliper thickness of 0.006 inches and up, used for many types of two-dimensional artwork, including lettering.
broken color Color applied in small dabs, as opposed to the traditional method of smoothly blending colors and values (lights and darks) together. This method results in more of a patchwork effect, where the dabs render the facets of light on forms, or the planes of the forms' volume, by means of color and value. Broken color has continued to be used in much modern and contemporary painting.
brush A tool used to apply paints and inks to a surface, consisting of hairs, or bristles held in place by a ferrule attached to a handle. The quality of the hair determines the brush's quality and cost. Each type of brush has a specific purpose, and different fibers are used for different mediums.
brushstroke The mark left by a loaded (filled) brush on a surface. Brushstrokes can be distinguished by their direction, thickness, texture, and quality. Some artists purposefully obscure individual brushstrokes to achieve a smooth surface. Other artists make their brushstrokes obvious to reveal the process of painting or to express movement or emotion.
brushwork The distinctive technique an artist uses to apply paint with a brush onto a medium, such as canvas.
buckling A radical shrinkage or compression of a surface as a result of environmental action. This often results in generalized lifting or cleavage of the paint and decoration layers.
buon fresco Sometimes called true fresco. A painting technique in which pigment suspended in water is applied to wet plaster. This method is very durable.
burin A chisel of tempered steel with a sharp point used for engraving.
burnishing The operation of smoothing out the grain in the mezzotint process with the aid of the burnisher, a polished steel tool with a large round head. It is also used on metal plates where corrections are required.
burr The cutting action of a tool across a metal plate causes rough ridges known as burr to be thrown up on either side of the incision. The ridges left by a burin (a chisel with a sharp point, used for engraving) are quite small and are removed with the scraper; the drypoint creates a large burr, which retains the ink and prints an area of rich tone - the particular characteristic of this technique. Burr is very fragile and, unless the plate is steel-faced, will rapidly wear away in the press. Usually lasts for only 10-20 impressions after creation.
calligraphy A distinctive style of artistic handwriting created by using special pen nibs that allow a calligrapher to vary the thickness of a letter's line elements; an elegant, decorative writing, developed to an art form itself, used to enhance the artistic appeal and visual beauty of handwritten papers and manuscripts.
callipers A tool resembling a pair of dividers used in making corrections on an intaglio plate. They locate the corresponding position of the part to be corrected on the back of the plate. The indentation caused by erasing the mistake on the front is then knocked up from behind with a hammer.
camera obscura A system of lenses and mirrors developed from the 16th to the 17th centuries which functioned as a primitive camera for artists. With the camera obscura, painters could project the scene in front of them onto their painting surface, as a preliminary drawing. Vermeer, among others, is thought to have used the camera obscura.
canceled plate When the printing of a limited edition of prints has been completed, it is usual to deface the plates, stones, etc., to ensure that there is no possibility of their being reprinted A cancellation impression is one that is taken to prove the cancellation.
canvas A heavy, closely woven fabric; an oil painting on canvas fabric; the support used for an acrylic or oil painting that is typically made of linen or cotton, stretched very tightly and tacked onto a wooden frame. Linen is considered far superior to cotton for a canvas.
carborundum A very hard mixture consisting primarily of silicon carbide; it is used as an abrasive in powdered form in a method of engraving to obtain a dotted effect by sprinkling it over a metal plate (usually duralumin) which was then pulled through a press, thereby causing the grains to penetrate the metal.
cartoon A full-size preparatory drawing, sometimes colored, from which an original work such as a fresco or tapestry is copied.
cartouche Ornamental design resembling the curves of a rolled-up parchment scroll. It is found at the base of old master engravings containing inscriptions (title, dedication, date, signature, etc.).
carving To make or form by cutting; to decorate by cutting and shaping carefully.
casting Reproducing in plaster, bronze, or plastic, an original piece of sculpture made of clay, wax, or similar material.
center of interest An emphasized area of the composition.
ceramics The art of making objects of clay and firing them in a kiln. Both sculpture and ordinary wares of earthenware and porcelain are made by ceramists. Ceramic materials may be decorated with slip, engobe, or glaze applied by a number of techniques. Pots made can be made by the coil, slab, some other manual technique, or on a potter's wheel.
charcoal Compressed burned wood used for drawing.
chiaroscuro The technique of using light and shade in pictorial representation; the arrangement of light and dark elements in a pictorial work of art; a woodcut technique in which several blocks are used to print different shades of a color.
chiaroscuro woodcut A particular woodcutting proces in which tone blocks (usually in lighter and darker tones of one color) are overprinted and juxtaposed to obtain a colored print. The same technique can be applied to lithography: different stones are used for the varying tones.
chine colle Areas of thin colored tissue mounted on or glued to the surface of a print.
chisel A flat tool used in woodcutting. It has a bevelled edge and is either pushed manually, or knocked with a mallet, over large areas to be cut away, i.e., those between the edges of the design and the sides of the block.
chromolithography Printing lithographs in color. The term was specifically applied to certain nineteenth-century color lithographs which were reproductive in intention and imitated the appearance of oil paintings.
cleaning As used in painting conservation, the application of solvents and other liquids to remove discolored surface coatings, as well as retouching and restoration not part of the original work.
cliché verre The artist draws a design with a needle on a glass plate coated with an opaque ground from which positive photographic prints are made on sensitized paper as from an ordinary negative.
collage The technique of creating a work of art by adhering flat articles such as paper, fabrics, string or other materials to a flat surface such as a canvas to create a three-dimensional result.
collagraph The print resulting from a collage of materials glued together on a base and printed as a combined relief and intaglio plate.
collotype This process consists in pouring a layer of gelatine mixed with potassium chromate over the surface of a zinc or glass plate which is then exposed to light to receive the image. The gelatine hardens in proportion to the amount of light received, the unexposed parts remaining soft and able to retain moisture allowing the printing to be done lithographically. The plate is dampened with water and the ink is applied with a roller. The ink adheres to the surface in inverse proportion to the amount of moisture retained, the hard areas of gelatine printing the darkest image.
color A visual attribute of things that results from the light they emit or transmit or reflect; the visual response to the wavelengths of light.
color block Color blocks (or tone blocks) print the various colors in a color or chiaroscuro woodcut.
color field painting A style of painting begun in the 1950's to 1970's, characterized by small or large abstracted areas of color.
color permanence Refers to a pigment's lasting power. Tubes and other containers of paint are sometimes labeled with a code indicating a color's degree of permanence.
color separation A traditional photographic process of separating artwork into component films of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black in preparation for printing to ultimately create a full-color printed product. Recent computer innovations have obviated the need for separated film negatives in certain applications.
color wheel An abstract illustrative organization of color hues around a circle, that shows relationships between primary colors, secondary colors, complementary colors, etc.
commercial art Refers to art that is made for the purposes of business and advertising.
complementary colors Two colors directly opposite one another on the color wheel. When placed next to one another, complementary colors are intensified and often appear to vibrate. When mixed, brown or gray is created. Red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and violet have the greatest degree of contrast. Red-violet and yellow-green, red-orange and blue-green, and yellow-orange and blue-violet are also complementary colors.
composition The arrangement of the design elements within the design area; the ordering of visual and emotional experience to give unity and consistency to a work of art and to allow the observer to comprehend its meaning.
computer graphics Refers to visual images made with the assistance of computers.
conceptual Pertaining to the process involved in the initial stages of art-making (i.e., the initial conception, or idea). Also, the name of a contemporary art movement which is mainly concerned with this process of conceiving of and developing the initial idea, as opposed to the carrying-out of the idea into concrete form. It is possible for a conceptual work to be intangible; it may be an event or a process, which can't be seen itself, but the results of the event or process may be displayed, possibly in text or photographs.
conservation The restoration of works of art to correct damage caused by handling, excessive exposure to light, smoke, dust, humidity or aridity, and contact with liquid or any other destructive substance.
conservator A person specially trained in the preventive care and maintenance, as well as restoration, of works of art and museum objects. The term restorer traditionally refers to a person trained in carrying out remedial or restorative treatments.
contemporary art The term contemporary describes the most recent art as distinguished from modern art, which is generally considered to have lost its dominance in the mid-1950's.
contour The outer edge of forms which implies three dimensions, in contrast to an outline, which is a boundary of two-dimensional, flat form. Also, a type of line drawing which captures this three-dimensional outer edge, with its fullness and recession of form.
contrapposto The position of a figure in painting or sculpture in which the hips and legs are turned in a different direction from that of the shoulders and head; the twisting of a figure on its own vertical axis.
contrast The difference between elements or the opposition to various elements.
cool color Colors whose relative visual temperatures make them seem cool. Cool colors generally include green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, and violet.
copper The most important metal used in engraving. It is supple to work, yet strong enough to endure the press, receptive to ink, and wipes clean without leaving traces. It polishes well and is also sensitive to mordants. It does, however, tarnish quickly if left unprotected.
copper-facing The application of a very thin layer of copper onto a metal plate by means of electrolysis. Zinc must initially be copper-faced if a steel-facing is to be applied.
copy A print is a copy if the designer has taken the image from another artist.
corrosive agents Products used for cleaning and biting the various fabrics, papers, stones and metals used in printmaking. There are three types: acids, alkalis and salts.
couterproof An impression taken from a freshly printed sheet onto another piece of paper It shows the design in the same direction as that on the plate, stone or block; the artist uses it for assessing corrections to be made.
coverage The ability of an ink to cover and absorb into a surface as regards the amount required for printing. It is relative to the receptivity of the support to the ink.
cracks In grounds, paint layers, or surface coatings (of paintings), the term designates a system of fissures that develop with the aging of the materials, or as a result of environmental action (expansion, contraction of the support), or a combination of both. There are various recognized systems of cracks, or craquelure, which result from both natural and environmental causes and are characteristic of the artist's technique and materials.
crayon Various types of crayon are used in printmaking. The greasy lithographic crayon is made with a natural grease or a chemical. A corrective crayon is used in lithography to remove lines or blemishes.
cropping The cutting out of extraneous parts of an image, usually a photograph; excluding part of a photo or illustration to show only the portion desired or to fit a given space requirement.
cross-hatching The practice of overlapping parallel sets of lines in drawing to indicate lights and darks, or shading. (Hatching is one set of parallel lines, cross-hatching is one set going in one direction, with another overlapped set going in a different, often perpendicular, direction.)
cubism A nonobjective school of painting and sculpture developed in Paris in the early 20th century, characterized by the reduction and fragmentation of natural forms into abstract, often geometric structures, usually rendered as a set of discrete planes.
dabber A cushioned pad used for applying ink. The inking dabber, a round tool, with a wide base, is covered in leather of fine skin; it is used for inking the incisions on an intaglio plate and the relief areas on a wood block. A different dabber is used for laying the ground: it is half-moon shaped, stuffed with cotton and covered in silk. In lithography, a type of wash is applied to the stone with a dabber made of a ball of cotton covered with fine skin.
dampening Moistening a surface with water. 1) Paper is often moistened before printing as this makes it more flexible when contact is made with the block, plate, etc, and also ensures better receptivity of the ink. 2) In lithography and offset lithography, the surface of the stone must be thoroughly dampened before the printing ink is applied. This prevents the ink from adhering to the nongreased parts.
deacidify To chemically stabilize acidic paper; can be either an aqueous or non-aqueous treatment.
deckle edge The rough uneven edge on handmade paper and on some good quality machine made paper which has been left untrimmed.
decorative arts Collective term for such art forms as ceramics, enamels, furniture, glass, ivory, metalwork and textiles, especially when they take forms used as interior decoration.
decoupage The Victorian craft of cutting out motifs from paper gluing them to a surface and covering with as many layers of varnish as is required to give a completely smooth finish.
depth of field In photography, the area in front of and behind the focused point that is sharp. A shallow depth of field is used in portraits to provide a soft backdrop, while a greater depth of field is useful for landscapes to ensure everything from the foreground to the background is in focus. Shorter (wide angle) lenses and smaller apertures increase depth of field.
design The arrangement of elements to create a single effect. The organization or composition of a work; the skilled arrangement of its parts. An effective design is one in which the elements of art and principles of design have been combined to achieve an overall sense of unity.
designing The process of relating the elements whether they are similar or contrasting and visually arranging an interesting unity with them using design principles.
diptych Two separate paintings which are attached by hinges or other means, displayed as one artwork.
directional movement A principle of visual movement in artworks, which can be carried by line, dots, marks, shapes, patterns, color, and other compositional elements. Directional movement in paintings or sculptures directs the viewer's eye around or through the artwork, in a way which the artist consciously or unconsciously determines. One important function is to keep the viewer's eye from leaving the work, and instead cause the viewer to follow an inventive (interesting) path within the work, or exit in one area, only to be brought back in another area.
disintegration of paper Printing error which occurs if paper that has been excessively dampened is put in the press. It becomes attached to the plate and disintegrates.
dominance The emphasis placed on a particular area or characteristic of a work, with other areas or aspects given subordinate or supporting roles.
dot work A loose description of the surface of any metal plate, either relief or intaglio, which has been dotted or grained in a manner such as to create an impression of tone when printed. The dots can be achieved either by working directly on the plate or by etching through a ground.
dotter manner A method of engraving dating from the fifteenth century. Small round holes were stamped with a punch and hammer into a metal plate which was then inked and printed as a relief block or metalcut. The stamped work appears as white dots surrounded by black and gives a crude effect of tone.
double exposure A technique used in film and photography to expose two images onto one negative or sheet of photographic paper.
double image A printing error which causes the image of the print to appear twice. It occurs if the paper falls out of alignment as a result of not being properly secured during one or, more likely, two passages through the press.
double loading Refers to loading a brush with two colors side by side. This is a technique typical of tole and other kinds of decorative painting.
drawing The act of representing an image on a surface by means of adding lines and shades, as with a pencil, crayon, pen, chalk, pastels. Also refers to an illustration that has been drawn by hand.
dry point An intaglio technique like engraving in which the image is drawn on a metal plate with a needle, raising a ridge which prints a soft line.
drying 1) The layer of ink on a freshly printed sheet can dry in one of three different ways: by evaporation of the solvent that maintains the ink in a liquid form; by penetration of the paper; or by oxidation on contact with the air. Inks used in relief, intaglio and lithographic printing dry by penetrating the paper and by oxidation; those used in photogravure dry by evaporation and by penetration. The greasy inks used in screenprinting dry by oxidizing and by penetrating the paper; cellulose and water-based inks also dry by evaporation and by penetration

2) The drying of paper: in intaglio and lithographic printing, the paper is dampened before an impression is taken. It is then flattened by laying it between sheets of cardboard and dried in a press for at least twelve hours.
earthwork A type of contemporary art begun in the 1960's and 1970's, which uses the landscape, or environment, as its medium, either by using natural forms as the actual work of art, or by enhancing natural forms with manmade materials. Some of these earthworks can be very large, measured in miles.
easel An upright support (generally a tripod) used for displaying something. It is most often used to hold up an artist's canvas while the painter is working or to hold a completed painting for exhibition.
economy The deletion of non-essential details to reveal the essence of a form.
egg tempera A medium created by mixing pure, ground pigments with egg yolk. This was a very common medium before the invention of oil paints.
elements of design Those qualities of a design that can be seen and worked with independently of its figurative content. They include line, form, value, texture, color, and shape.
embossing A printmaking method in which a design is impressed into paper without the use of any ink, creating a heavily raised surface area.
emphasis The stress placed on a single area of a work or a unifying visual theme.
en plein air French for "in open air," used to describe paintings that have been executed outdoors, rather than in the studio.
encaustic The process of using pigments dissolved in hot wax as a medium for painting.
engraver 1) One who practices engraving.

2) The specialist who engraved on the stone in lithographic engraving; a technique which was popular when lithography had a larger industry than it has today.

3) In photogravure, the line engraver specializes in the etching process.
engraving A general term used to describe traditional printing processes, such as etching, aquatint, or drypoint, where an image is made by the use of metal plates and engraving tools, and printed, usually through a printing press. The image can be incised into the plate or drawn with fluid and then dipped in acid to etch the uncovered areas. These processes are still used by artists, but have been supplanted by more modern processes for general printing purposes.
environmental factors In the context of conservation and deterioration studies, these terms refer to physical effects of the environment, such as humidity, temperature, light, pollutants of the atmosphere.
etcher An engraver who practices the etching process.
etching An impression made from an etched plate; an intaglio process in which an image is scratched through an acid-resistant coating on a metal plate. The plate is then dipped in acid which eats into the exposed surface.
etching a la plume A method of intaglio printing in which a pen and ink drawing is made on a clean metal plate. When this has dried, the entire surface is covered with a light aquatint ground and placed in an acid bath which has the effect of removing the ground where it is to be found over the ink. The plate can then be bitten as for a normal etching. The technique is difficult to do well and was much improved by the sugar-lift process.
exhibition A public showing of a piece or a collection of objects.
expansion The result of change in the dimension of a sheet of paper due to excess humidity; more pronounced across the grain than with it.
expressionism A movement in the arts during the early part of the 20th century that emphasized subjective expression of the artist's inner experiences.
facsimile 1) A print which is an exact copy of an original design, i.e., a reproductive print as opposed to an original print.

2) In a more specific sense, the exact reproduction of a line drawing in wood engraving (as opposed to its interpretation in a brush or wash technique). This was particularly popular in the nineteenth century.
fading The gradation of a tint in an imperceptible manner.
false margins A print may not have normal margins for a variety of reasons. In this case, it may be mounted on a larger sheet of paper which provides it with false margins.
fecit Sometimes found after the name of the engraver or maker at the base of a print, meaning the artist whose name it follows "made it."
felt Woollen or cotton material used for packing around the printing rollers.
ferrule Refers to the metal or plastic device that that aligns and anchors paintbrush bristles or hairs in an adhesive. The ferrule is attached to the handle by crimping or by binding wires.
fiber fill Utilizing paper pulp to complete losses in a sheet of paper.
figurative A term used to describe art which is based on the figure, usually in realistic or semi-realistic terms; also loosely used to describe an artist who paints or sculpts representationally, as opposed to painting or sculpting in an abstract or non-objective manner.
figurative art Art in which recognizable figures or objects are portrayed.
figure/ground The relationship of the picture surface (ground) to the images on the picture surface (figure). The figure is the space occupied by forms (e.g., a person in a portrait); the ground is the unoccupied space around the person in the portrait. In art since the early 20th century, this division of the picture plane has been seriously challenged, to the point where there is not a distinction of figure/ground but rather one continuous surface and space.
filbert Brushes used to create soft edges, blend colors, having the shape of a flower petal or leaf.
filigree A technique used to produce fine intricate patterns in metal. Often used for metal beads, clasps, and bead caps.
fillet 1) A spacer device placed between the glazing and the mount in a frame which prohibits the glazing material from coming in contact with the artwork.

2) An ornamental wood molding put outside the image and inside the matting of a framed work of art.
fine art Art created for purely aesthetic expression, communication, or contemplation. Painting and sculpture are the best known of the fine arts.
first edition The earliest edition of a book or a print to be taken.
fixative A liquid, similar to varnish, which is usually sprayed over a finished piece of artwork to better preserve it and prevent smudging. Artwork media requiring fixative include drawings done in pencil, charcoal, and pastel.
flaking Loss of small islands of paint, or other surface material, or even ground layers following cleavage, blistering, or buckling action in paintings or similar works of art.
flat brush A brush with a flat shaped end like a screwdriver.
flattening A restoration procedure involving controlled humidification and controlled drying under pressure.
foam core A strong, stiff, resilient, and lightweight board of polystyrene laminated with paper on both of its sides used as backing for art prints before framing.
focal point In two-dimensional images, the center of interest; tends to be used more in traditional, representational art than in modern and contemporary art, where the picture surface tends to have more of an overall importance, rather than one important area.
folk art Art of people who have had no formal, academic training, but whose works are part of an established tradition of style and craftsmanship.
font A complete set of characters in a particular size and style of type. This includes the letter set, the number set, and all of the special character and diacritical marks.
foreshortening A form of perspective where the nearest parts of an object or form are enlarged so that the rest of the form appears to go back in space; shortening an object to make it look as if it extends backwards into space.
form The volume and shape of a three-dimensional work, perhaps including unfilled areas that are integral to the work as a whole.
formal A term used by artists to describe the visual elements of a work of art, such as composition, space, color, i.e., formal elements.
foxing, fox marks The discoloration of paper or other surfaces by brownish or greyish spots, believed to be caused by micro-organisms (mold) developing rapidly at high humidities under stagnant conditions. This is frequently due to artworks being framed without using archival conservation framing standards. A good conservator can easily repair this type of damage.
fractal A mathematically generated pattern that is reproducible at any magnification or reduction. A geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller scales to produce irregular shapes and/or surfaces that cannot be represented by classical geometry.
frame Something made to enclose a picture or a mirror; to enclose in a frame.
fresco The technique of blending wet plaster with water based paint. As the plaster dries it becomes a lasting surface base. The term applies to the technique as well as the painting itself.
fresco secco In this technique, pigment is mixed with a binding agent and painted on dry plaster. This method is not as durable as true fresco painting.
frontispiece In the oldest sense of the word, the frontispiece refers to an ornate title page in a book; more recently, it has applied to an illustration placed before or opposite the title page.
frottage A method of making a design by placing a piece of paper on top of an object and then rubbing over it, as with a pencil, charcoal, or crayon; a design so made.
fugitive colors Short-lived pigments capable of fading or changing, especially with exposure to light, to atmospheric pollution, or when mixed with certain substances.
gallery A room or series of rooms where works of art are exhibited.
genre A category of artistic, musical, or literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content.

A form of realistic painting of people that depicts ordinary events. These paintings are not religious, historical, abstract or mythological.
gesso A mixture of plaster, chalk, or gypsum bound together with a glue which is applied as a ground or coating to surfaces in order to give them the correct properties to receive paint. Gesso can also be built up or molded into relief designs, or carved.
gesture/gestural The concept of gesture in drawing is twofold: it describes the action of a figure and it embodies the intangible essence of a figure or object. The action line of a figure is often a graphic undulating line, which follows the movement of the entire body of the figure being drawn or painted.

The term gestural is an extension of this idea to describe a type of painting which is characterized by brushstrokes with a gestural quality, that is, flowing, curved, undulating lines or forms. Gestural composition means a type of composition based on gestural directional movements.
giclée The French word giclée means a spray or a spurt of liquid. Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclée printing process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction.
gif An acronym for graphic interchange format; an image format type generated specifically for computer use. Its resolution is usually very low, making it undesirable for printing purposes.
gilding The application of a gold finish. It can be achieved by applying gold leaf or by using metallic powders.
glaze A thin layer of translucent acrylic or oil paint applied to all or part of a painting to modify the tone or color underneath. Glazing is the process of using this technique.
gold leaf An extremely thin tissue of gold used for gilding.
golden section A mathematical ratio first used by the Greeks in their architecture and developed further in the Renaissance. The ratio was said to be in tune with divine proportion and the harmony of the universe. It has been used by artists to divide the picture surface.
gouache A type of watercolor paint, made heavier and more opaque by the addition of a white pigment in a gum arabic mixture. This results in a stronger color than ordinary watercolor.
gouge A tool used for cutting wood and linoleum, specifically to clear away larger spaces of the block. Curved gouges may be obtained as well as flat ones. V-shaped gouges are used for cutting deep, angular furrows. A gouge used in linocutting resembles a pen and is attached to a pearshaped handle.
gradation Gradual strengthening, or weakening, of a tone.
grain 1) A loose description of aquatint ground and of its resulting effect on an impression and of any other printing element or impression with dots or grain on its surface.

2) The irregular aspect of the surface of a stone, plate, or transfer paper in the lithographic method, necessary to the firm adhesion of the marks of the crayon. It is created on the stone or plate by an initial graining process.

3) The irregular aspect of the surface of paper or of transparent film used in screenprinting.
graphic Any work printed directly on paper from a plate or block.
graphic art Two-dimensional art forms such as drawing, engraving, etching and illustration in their various forms.
graphic design The applied art of arranging image and text to communicate a message. It may be applied in any media, such as print, digital media, motion pictures, animation, product decoration, packaging, and signs. Graphic design as a practice can be traced back to the origin of the written word, but only in the late 19th century did it become identified as a separate entity.
graphite A soft, black, lustrous mineral made of carbon used in lead pencils, paints, crucibles, and as a lubricant.
grayscale Refers to the range of gray tones between black and white.
grid A formal visual vehicle much in currency during 20th century art, the grid is a geometric construct of squares or rectangles that form the underlying or actual structure of some two-dimensional modern art. Though the meaning of the grid to artists is hard to describe in words, it is more than just a visual armature. In a way, it can be said to represent the modern and postmodern stance of the 20th century and often seems to inspire almost a reverence, as a symbol of aesthetic purity and integrity, particularly of modernism.
grid enlarging The process of using a grid to enlarge an image; for copying very precisely, another image, on the same or a different scale, usually larger; used in scaling an image by drawing.
grisaille Monochrome painting, generally employing shades of gray executed in a black pigment and an inert white pigment in oil, gouache, or tempera; a stained glass window incorporating muted tones as opposed to bright colors.
halftone The reproduction of a continuous tone original, such as a photograph, in which detail and tone value are represented by a series of evenly spaced dots of varying size and shape.
hand-coloring Hand-colored prints have an old tradition and are distinguished from those printed in color (color printing). Coloring is done in watercolor or gouache with either a brush or a stencil cut to allow ink through over the necessary areas directly onto the impression.
harmony The unity of all the visual elements of a composition achieved by the repetition of the same characteristics or those which are similar in nature.
hatching A technique used in drawing to indicate light and shade or form, consisting of parallel lines of varying width, darkness, and spacing. Cross-hatching is simply two or more overlapping sets of these parallel sets of lines at a perpendicular or other angle to the first set of lines.
highest horizon line In a painting, a level line where land or water ends and the sky begins. Vanishing points, where two parallel lines appear to converge, are typically located on this line. A horizon line is used to attain the perspective of depth.
horizontal balance The components that are balanced left and right of a central axis.
hors de commerce (hc) An impression pulled outside the edition for the personal use of the publisher or artist.
hue The name of the color, such as red, green or yellow. Hue can be measured as a location on a color wheel, and expressed in degrees; the main attribute of a color which distinguishes it from other colors.
humanism Humanism is the movement of the fourteenth to the sixteenth centuries when all branches of learning, literary, scientific and intellectual, were based on the culture and literature of classical Greco-Roman antiquity.
humidity The absolute humidity is the content of water vapor in the air measured as grams per cubic meter or in equivalent terms.
icon An artistic visual representation or symbol of anything considered holy and divine, such as God, saints or deities. An icon could be a painting (including relief painting), sculpture, or mosaic.

Also refers to a little picture on a computer screen that represents the various functions of the computer.
iconography Knowledge of the meanings to be attached to pictorial representations; perhaps the visual equivalent of symbols or metaphors in literature. An artist may be aware of his/her iconography and use it consciously; probably just as often, the iconography is used in a semi-conscious way.

An artist will intuitively choose images because of meanings they have for him/her, and over the course of time a pattern can often be found, as a logical progression or repeating images. An artist can be said to have a personal iconography, which is often noted and analyzed by others, including art historians, critics, writers and the public. Often, the meanings seen in an artist's work by others differs, somewhat or considerably, from what the artist has intended.
ideal art Art which aims to be the true, eternal reality. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this included some Neoclassical art, which emulated the forms and ideas found in classical art ( of Greece and Rome).
illusionism A style of painting which makes two-dimensional objects appear to be three-dimensional.
illustrate To create designs and pictures for books, magazines, or other print or electronic media to make clear or explain the text or show what happens in a story.
illustration A visualization such as drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that stresses subject more than form. The aim of an Illustration is to elucidate or decorate a story, poem or piece of textual information (such as a newspaper article) by providing a visual representation of something described in the text.
illustration board Heavy paper or card appropriate as a support for pencil, pen, watercolor, collage, etc.
illustrator A graphic artist who specializes in enhancing written text by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text.
imitation A reproduction of an original drawing or of a particular artist's style.
impasto The application of thick layers of pigment to a canvas or other surface in painting.
implied line A line in a work that is subtlety perceived by the viewer but has no physical form; the overall flow of one line into another in a work, with continuation from one area to the next suggested by their common direction and/or juxtaposition.
impression In printing terminology, an impression is any print taken from a particular block, plate, etc.
impressionism A loose spontaneous style of painting that originated in France about 1870. The impressionist style of painting is characterized chiefly by concentration on the general impression produced by a scene or object and the use of unmixed primary colors and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light.
impressit or imp Indicates the name of a printer. The artist has occasionally acted in this capacity as well as making the design.
imprint The imprint obtained by making a mold of a relief block or an intaglio plate.
industrial design The design of the mass-produced products of our everyday environment from sinks and furniture to computers.
ink Colored liquid used for writing, drawing, and printing. A large number of different types of ink are used in printmaking.
inking The process of putting the required amount of ink onto the necessary parts of the printing element (i.e., the relief areas of a block, the incised parts of an intaglio plate, the greased areas of a lithographic stone). The ink is applied with either a roller or a dabber; on an intaglio plate pieces of muslin or a brush are also used, or it can be applied a la poupee. In screenprinting, the ink is scraped over the screen with a squeegee.
inpainting Introduction of new paint into areas of loss in an original construction.
installation A type of art, usually sculptural, which is often large enough to fill an entire space, such as a gallery, and consists of a number and variety of components.
intaglio A printing process in which the image is incised or etched into a metal plate using a variety of techniques and tools.
invenit or inv Accompanies the name of the artist of the original design on a print.
japan paper A good quality paper which is lightly translucent and extremely resistant. It is used for fine impressions.
japanese woodcuts A Japanese technique of woodcutting.
jpeg An acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group. A commonly used standard method of compressing photographic images on the Web. JPEG graphics are capable of reproducing a full range of color while still remaining small enough for Web use.
juxtaposition The act of placing or positioning items in the image area side by side or next to one another to illustrate some comparison.
key stone The stone on which the original drawing is made in lithography. It can be copied for transfer impressions to avoid damage which may be caused by over-handling.
key transfer The transfer of each color from a transparency to a block for printing in several colors. The line which forms the outline of each color on the transfer can be called the key line.
kiln Refers to an oven in which pottery or ceramic ware is fired.
lacquer Refers to a clear or colored finish material that dries to a hard, glossy finish. Usually applied with a sprayer, lacquer dries too quickly for smooth application with a brush unless it is specially formulated.
laid paper A type of hand-made paper which shows the pattern of the vertical wire-marks and the horizontal connecting chain-lines of the wires in the papermaker's mold.
landscape A painting, drawing or photograph which depicts outdoor scenery. They typically include trees, streams, buildings, crops, mountains, wildlife, rivers, and forests.
lettering All printed inscriptions relating to the design represented in a print.
life drawing Drawings of a human figure, usually nude, so that the artist can understand how the muscles look and how light, tone and shadow reflect around the body.
light table Refers to a table made especially for working with negatives, viewing transparencies and slides, and pasting up artwork. The table has a translucent top with a light shining up through it.
light-staining The damage called light-staining results when a print has been exposed to the light, over a long period without any protection.
likeness Refers to the similarity in appearance or character or nature between persons or things. In art, it refers to a drawing or painting made of a person.
limited edition A limit placed on the number of prints produced in a particular edition, in order to create a scarcity of the print and, possibly, raise its value. Limited editions are signed and numbered by the artist. Once the prints in the edition have been sold out, the digital file is then destroyed to maintain the integrity of the limited edition. The image will not be published again in the same form.
line This refers to any line as it appears on an impression, whether taken from the inked or uninked parts of the printing element as well as to the incisions made in a plate or block and the marks on a lithographic stone.
line engraving A term sometimes used to specify an engraving made with the burin.
linear Describing a quality related to the use of line in painting or sculpture; can refer to directional movement in composition or the actual use of the element of line in the image or sculpture as contrasted with the use of mass or shape forms.
linear perspective A system for creating the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface. The system is based on a scientifically or mathematically derived series of actual or implied lines that intersect at a vanishing point on the horizon. Linear perspective determines the relative size of objects from the foreground of an image to the background.
lining or relining The process of adhering a reinforcing fabric to the back of a canvas painting, giving it added strength and durability. There are two types of adhesives used: in glue lining, an aqueous glue composition is used; in the wax-resin process, an adhesive composition based on beeswax is employed, In all cases, the infusion of the adhesive into voids in the paint layers serves to consolidate weakened paint layers. Relining refers strictly to a second or subsequent lining, in which the old lining is removed and replaced.
linocut An abbreviation of linoleum cut. The technique is similar to the woodcut but owing to the supple, relatively soft properties of the material, linocuts have different characteristics. The material takes all types of lines but is most suited to large designs with contrasting dark and light flat tints. The material is cut with small pen-like tools which have a mushroom-shaped handle. As on a woodcut, the relief parts of the block are inked. For printing a large number of important proofs, the lino is attached to a wooden block. Color printing is done with several lino blocks.
linseed oil The most popular drying oil used as paint medium. The medium hardens over several weeks as components of the oil polymerize to form an insoluble matrix. Driers can be added to accelerate this process.
lithograph An image produced by etching the image onto a flat surface, then copying the etched surface by applying ink (or the equivalent) to it and pressing another material against it. With woodcutting and intaglio engraving, this is one of the oldest methods of printmaking.
lithographic engraving Engravings can be produced on a lithographic stone by a variety of preparations. The lines achieved slightly resemble those of a steel engraving. The technique lies half way between planographic and intaglio printing.
lithographic etching A polished lithographic stone can also be used for etching. The surface is covered with liquid ground such as is used for intaglio printing. After drying, the drawing is done with a blunt needle. A dilute acid is used as a mordant.
lithographic mezzotint A method which is akin to mezzotint in metal engraving although it does not attain quite the same quality.
lithographic wash A process used in lithography for obtaining the effects of a wash drawing. It has also been known as a lithotint. Not to be confused with a lithographic aquatint in which the grain is more marked. The color is applied with a dabber.
lithography Lithographic printing is a delicate operation necessitating a careful preparation of the stone and a particular kind of inking. The prints are not marked by the effect of the press as in intaglio printing, although a slight mark indicating the edge of the stone is sometimes visible. Transfer methods can be used to avoid the difficulties involved in moving heavy stones round a studio. The drawings are made on transfer paper which is grained, or on autographic paper which is smooth, and then transferred to the stone. Lithographic color printing is done with several stones (or metal plates), one for each color.
local color The actual color of a form or object, uninfluenced by the effects of light or reflected color. For instance, a vase may be turquoise (the local color), but appear pale blue because of sunlight hitting it in certain places; dark blue because of areas in shadow; and many subtle color shades in certain areas because of reflected light from surrounding surfaces.
lost wax A process used in metal casting that consists of making a wax model, coating it with a refractory to form a mold, heating until the wax melts and runs out of the mold, and then pouring metal into the vacant mold.
lyrical A quality applied to various art forms (poetry, prose, visual art, dance and music), referring to a certain ethereal, musical, expressive, or poetic quality of artistic expression. Although difficult to define, when a visual work of art is described as having a lyrical quality, it means that it possesses a certain spiritual or emotional quality; perhaps the work expresses a particularly profound, passionate, or tender sentiment, perhaps related to romanticism or other lofty expression.
macramé An old craft form of textile-making using knotting rather than weaving or knitting. Its primary knots are the square knot and forms of hitching (full hitch and double half hitches). It has been used by sailors, especially in elaborate or ornamental knotting forms to decorate anything from knife handles to bottles to parts of ships.
mannerism A style of art that developed in the sixteenth century as a reaction to the classical rationality and balanced harmony of the High Renaissance; characterized by the dramatic use of space and light, exaggerated color, elongation of figures, and distortions of perspective, scale, and proportion.
marbling The art or process of producing certain patterns of a veined or mottled appearance in imitation of marble by means of colors so prepared as to float on a mucilaginous liquid which possesses antagonistic properties to the colors prepared for the purpose.
margin Unprinted parts surrounding the design. Generally the two lateral margins are of equal length; the upper and lower margins may be equal but the latter is sometimes larger in order to allow space for signature, numeration, title, etc; at one time it may also have contained a cartouche. A larger lower margin may be kept simply to balance the print within the sheet of paper. The size of the margins also depends on the format of the paper. Margins were usually clipped until the eighteenth century, and from the beginning of the nineteenth their existence came to be regarded as an important factor in assessing the commercial value of a print. If clipped, the impression would be worth less, particularly if printed on fine quality paper. Restored margins are known as false margins.
mark 1) Particular sign serving as the artist's signature on a print.

2) A stamp or collector's mark that identifies a prior owner of a work, usually placed on the back of the print or drawing.
mass Shapes or forms used in visual art, as contrasted with lines; also masses often form the large part(s) of the compositional structure, without the additional complexity of detail.
masterpiece A work done with extraordinary skill, especially a work of art, craft or intellect that is an exceptionally great achievement.
mat In the framing of works of art on paper, the mat is a cardboard with a cutout window placed over the work to keep it a distance away from the glass or other glazing material.
medium Material or technique an artist works in; also, the (usually liquid or semi-liquid) vehicle in which pigments are carried or mixed (e.g., oil, egg yolk, water, refined linseed oil).
mezzotint An intaglio process in which the plate surface is roughened and then an image is created by smoothing the areas to be printed.
mineral spirits An inexpensive paint thinner which cleans brushes, thins paint, cleans furniture, and removes wax; often used as a substitute for turpentine.
miniature A representational work of art made on a greatly reduced scale.
minimal design Omitting all non-essential or unimportant elements and details which don't really contribute to the essence of the overall composition in order to emphasize what is important.
minimalism A movement and style of art from the 20th century which attempts to reduce art to the basic geometric shapes with the fewest colors, lines, and textures. Minimal art does not seek to be representational of any object.
mixed media The art technique where an artist employs different types of physical materials such as ink and pastel or painting and collage and combines them in a single work.
mixography Casting a copper printing plate from a high-relief collage or maquette made up of various materials. The plate used is made up of a thick, resilent material that absorbs ink and creates a frescolike quality.
mobile A type of kinetic sculpture invented and first used by the artist Alexander Calder.
model A person who poses for an artist.
modeling Three-dimensional effect created by the use of changes in color, the use of lights and darks, cross-hatching, etc.
modern art Generally considered to be the period from about 1905-6 to the mid-1950's. Modern art is generally characterized by formal experimentation and exploration, and mostly seriousness of purpose.
mold 1) In manual papermaking, the mold is a kind of tray, consisting of crossed wires in a wooden frame, over which the paper pulp is spread.

2) A mold is made of a block or plate, in reverse to the original, when making a replica. The mold used for casting type is known as a matrix.
monochrome Painting done in a range of tones of a single color.
monogram A combination of letters, usually initials of a proper name, or an abbreviated signature. Many artists, and engravers in particular, have signed their work with a monogram; those whose names have remained unknown are called monogrammists.
monotype A unique image printed from a polished plate, glass, metal, or other material painted with ink.
montage The production of a composite image made from various elements as, for example, in the combination of photographic positives or negatives with drawn stencils in screenprinting.
mosaic An art medium in which small pieces of colored glass, stone, or ceramic tile called tessera are embedded in a background material such as plaster or mortar. Also, works made using this technique.
motif The subject matter or content of a work of art (e.g., a landscape motif); also refers to a visual element used in a work of art, as in a recurring motif.
mount A protective backing of cardboard or thick paper attached to a print or drawing.
movement As it applies to art, the path that our eyes follow when we look at a work of art.
mural A very large image, such as a painting or enlarged photograph, applied directly to a wall or ceiling.
naïve art Art created by untrained artists. It is characterized by simplicity and a lack of the elements or qualities found in the art of formally trained artists.
naturalism Naturalism in art refers to the depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting. The Realism movement of the 19th century advocated naturalism in reaction to the stylized and idealized depictions of subjects in Romanticism, but many painters have adopted a similar approach over the centuries.
needle Many different types of needles are used in printmaking. The drypoint is a small, fine needle, whose point can be sharpened at various angles, each producing a different type of line. Double-ended needles possess a differently sharpened point at either end. Etching needles vary in thickness and are more or less sharply pointed, according to need. Diamond, ruby or sapphire points are used for making light incisions in a metal plate or in a ground laid over it. Points made of ivory or bone (with more rounded ends than those of an ordinary needle) are used for tracing (to transfer a design) and for making marks on a ground without penetrating the metal plate beneath.
negative A negative impression produces white areas in place of the black, or vice versa, e.g., an impression taken from an intaglio plate which has been inked with a roller.
negative space In a painting or sculpture, negative space is the area where there are no forms. In a painting, this means the areas which have no forms or objects. In sculpture, this means the holes between forms or within a form.
neutral color A color which in color theory is neither warm nor cool. Neutral colors are said to result from the combination of two complementary colors (e.g., red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple). Neutral colors can also be mixed by other means.
niello A niello is the incrustation of an engraved silver or gold plate with a metallic black enamel. A niello print is an impression taken from such a plate before the enamel has been poured into the furrows, or an impression taken from a sulphur cast of such a plate.
non-objective A term used to describe visual art which is not based on existing, observable forms, but rather on abstract or idealized forms, such as geometric, mathematical, imaginary. Non-objective art came into existence in the early 20th century.
non-representational Non-representational art is art which is not based on external appearances; this covers several types of art - abstract, non-objective, and decorative.
numbering of prints Impressions taken from a particular edition are sometimes numbered. The numbers are written at the base: the number of the impression within the edition is followed by the total number printed. There usually is no correllation between print number and where in the edition the actual print falls (i.e., print 1/100 is probably not the first impression taken from a plate; it's the first numbered).
offset lithography or offset A major industrial printing techniques in which an image is picked up from the stone, or more usually a plate (either zinc or aluminium which has either been grained or covered with an absorbent oxide) by a rubber roller which then reprints it onto paper. Text and image can be transferred photographically and prepared in the usual lithographic technique based on the natural antipathy between grease and water. The advantage of offset is that it enables the damping, inking, and printing itself to be done by a series of rollers which enormously speeds the operation, thereby enhancing the commercial value of the technique.
oil paint A type of paint made from color particles (pigment) and linseed oil. Oil paint dries slowly, can be used thick or thin and with glazes. Because it dries slowly, oil paint is easier to blend from dark to light creating the illusion of three-dimensions. Used by most artists since the Renaissance.
one-point linear perspective Developed in 15th century Italy, a mathematical system for indicating spatial distance in two-dimensional images where lines converge in a single vanishing point located on the horizon line as seen by a stationary viewer.
organic A description of images which are partly or wholly derived from natural forms, such as curvilinear, irregular, indicative of growth, biologically-based.
original A work that is not a copy made by any method including offset-lithography, digital printing, or forgery. Not all paintings that are hand-painted can be considered original since the term also refers to the image being newly created and not copied from another painting or source.
outsider art Refers to works by those outside of mainstream society. Outsider art broadly includes folk art and ethnic art as well as art by prisoners, the mentally ill, and others neither trained in art nor making their works to sell them.
overpainting The final layer of paint that is applied over the underpainting or underlayer after it has dried.
overprinting Printing colors on top of each other taking into account the principal theory that all color is composed of red, yellow, and blue, and is used particularly in photomechanical processes. Photographic negatives are made of these colors by means of filters and, when transferred to plates, are overprinted to build up the image.
painterly A style of painting which is based not on linear or outline drawing but rather on patches or areas of color. In painterly two-dimensional images, the edges of forms tend to merge into one another or into the background rather than being separated by outlines or contours.
palette A thin piece of glass, wood, or other material which is used to hold the paint to be used in painting; the range of colors used by a particular painter.
palette knife A tool originally used by artists for scraping up and mixing the paint from the palette. More recently, this implement has been adopted for the application of heavily impacted paint which is spread thickly like butter.
paper A material made of cellulose pulp derived mainly from wood, rags or certain grasses.
paper conservator An individual professionally trained to preserve and restore paper.
papier-mâché A technique for creating forms by mixing wet paper pulp with glue or paste. The form hardens as it dries and becomes suitable for painting.
parchment An early paper material highly valued during the Middle Ages. Originally made from goat or sheep skin, parchment today is made from organic fibers and affords artists such as calligraphers a crisp, smooth, high quality surface on which to write.
pastel A drawing stick made of pigments ground with chalk and mixed with gum water; a drawing executed with these pastel sticks; a soft, subdued tint of a color.
patina A surface formation on an object (e.g., corrosion, oxidation, or discoloration) which may be either natural in origin, or artificially applied by the artist or craftsman.
pentimento The reappearance in a painting of an underlying image that had been painted over (usually when the later painting becomes transparent with age).
permanent pigment Refers to any pigment which is expected to last or remain without essential change and is not likely to deteriorate under certain atmospheric conditions, in normal light, or in proximity to other colors.
perspective The term perspective refers to the technique of representing the illusion of a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface (a flat piece of paper or canvas).
ph value A method of measuring acidity or alkalinity, numerically equivalent to 7 for neutral solutions, increasing with increased alkalinity and decreasing with increased acidity. The pH scale commonly in use ranges from 0 to 14.
photographic processes Photographic processes are used to create an image on sensitized paper, either by means of a negative, or by exposing the paper directly to the light, having previously blocked out parts of it with various objects.
photogravure Photogravure is an intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a light-sensitive gelatin tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a photograph.
photolithography A term referring to the use of photography in lithography and offset lithography.
photomontage A two-dimensional combining of photographs or parts of photographs into an image on paper or other material.
photorealism A style of painting in which an image is created in such exact detail that it looks like a photograph; uses everyday subject matter, and often is larger than life.
picture plane The flat surface on which an image is painted and that part of the image which is closest to the viewer. In modern and contemporary art, the picture plane is synonymous with pictorial surface, meaning that the entire image is located on the picture plane, as contrasted with art from the Renaissance until the mid-19th century, where the picture surface was considered as a window into which the viewer looked into the illusion of distance.
picture surface The flat plane of the canvas or other support which is the two-dimensional area of the image.
pigment Any coloring agent, made from natural or synthetic substances, used in paints or drawing materials; the substance in paint or anything that absorbs light, producing the same color as the pigment.
pitting A fault which occurs on metal plates (particularly aluminium). Pitting also sometimes occurs on the rubber roller used in offset lithography. An etching ground may also be pitted with small holes caused by an excess of heat on application of the ground.
plane A shape which is essentially two-dimensional in nature but whose relationship with other shapes may give an illusion of the third dimension.
planography Any process of printing from a surface level with the plate.
plaster cast A type of trial proof taken from an intaglio plate. Plaster is poured over the plate after it has been blackened with smoke, thereby producing an exact mold of the design.
plate The plate is any metal printing element, whether an intaglio, relief. Or planographic process is employed.
plate mark The mark imprinted by an intaglio plate onto the paper (especially visible at the edges) caused by the pressure of the rollers in the press.
plug A small piece of wood or linocut inserted into the block as a means of replacing a bad error or a damaged area in a woodcut or linoleum. It is cut in accordance with the correction or restoration to be made.
pochoir A method of hand-applied coloration using a custom template. The template, or stencil, is essentially the image's physical negative which has exposed space so that color may be applied onto the medium (or sheet) beneath.
point of view The position from which something is seen or considered.
pointillism A painting technique in which pure dots of color are dabbed onto the canvas surface. The viewer's eye, when at a distance, is then expected to see these dots merge as cohesive areas of different colors and color ranges.
polymath A person who excels in multiple fields, particularly in both arts and sciences. Another name for a Renaissance Man.
pop art A form of art that depicts objects or scenes from everyday life and employs techniques of commercial art and popular illustration. A style derived and characterized by larger than life replicas of items from mass culture.
portfolio A pliable case, made of thick cardboard, frequently covered with leather or cloth, in which prints are presented, stored, and conserved.
portrait A painting, photograph, or other artistic representation of a person.
positive space The areas of a painting or sculpture which are occupied by forms or images, as contrasted with negative space, which are the empty areas where no forms orimages are located.
postmodern A term used to describe the period of art which followed the modern period, i.e., from the 1950's until recently. The term implies a shift away from the formal rigors of the modernists, toward the less formally and emotionally stringent Pop artists and other art movements which followed.
potter A craftsman who shapes pottery on a potter's wheel and bakes them in a kiln.
potter's wheel A horizontal disk revolving on a spindle and carrying the clay being shaped by the potter.
pottery A form of ceramic technology, where wet clays are shaped and dried, then fired to harden them and make them waterproof.
predella A decorative frieze or border element, usually consisting of several pictures, running along the front of an altarpiece at the foot .
preparatory drawing Before making an engraving, woodcut, etc., a preparatory drawing is made on the surface of the printing element. It may be a tracing or transfer of the original design, or it may be an original itself, done with pencil, ink, chalk or other medium.
pressure The pressure of an intaglio plate on the paper when pulled through the press results in the formation of a plate mark.
pricking A method of transferring a drawing, which consists in pricking with a fine needle the outlines of the design, leaving a series of small holes which may then be pounced. Pouncing involves shaking powdered red chalk over the dots so that a trace of the design is obtained on the paper or plate placed underneath. The process was often used in lithography for transferring drawings.
primary colors Any of three colors, red, yellow, and blue, from which all other colors can be obtained by mixing. With these three colors (and black and white), all other colors can be made. The primary colors themselves cannot be made by mixing other colors.
primitive art Art that has imagery of folk art; it places emphasis on form and expression and often looks childlike.
principles of design The basic aesthetic considerations that guide organization of a work of art. They include balance, movement, emphasis, contrast, proportion, space, and unity.
print The image obtained from any printing element. Originally, this was either a metal plate, engraved in intaglio, or a wood block (or metal plate) cut in relie.f From the beginning of the nineteenth century, lithographic stones were included, and today screenprinting adds a further type of printing element.
printing The action of making a print on a support, whether it be of paper or of any other material, from a block, plate, or stone or through a screen, in any of the printmaking procedures.
printing element The part which is inked and produces the impression when printed, i.e., the block, plate, stone or screen.
printmaking The category of fine art printing processes, including etching, lithography, woodcut, and silkscreen, in which multiple images are made from the same metal plate, heavy stone, wood or linoleum block, or silkscreen with black-and-white or color printing inks.
proof In a general sense, this word has been used to indicate any impression of a print. Strictly speaking, it should be limited to those impressions pulled by the artist to prove or test his work, whether before or after completion of the block, plate, etc.
proof before lettering An impression taken before the lettering (dedication, title, names of artist, engraver, etc) has been engraved.
proof with lettering The lettering comprises all the writing underneath or above the design on the plate, block, etc. Impressions are sometimes taken on intaglio plates with scratched letters before the lettering is properly engraved or with it only partly inscribed.
proportion The relation of one part to the whole or to other parts. Proportion also refers to the relative sizes of the visual elements in a composition and their optimum relationships for good design.
provenance A history of ownership. The provenance of some works of art can be traced back to the time when they were made.
pulp The fibrous substance resulting from the pulping process in papermaking.
pure symmetry An equilibrium created by identical parts that are equally distributed on either side of a real or imaginary central axis in mirror-like repetition.
quill A pen made from a flight feather (preferably a primary) of a large bird, most often a goose. Quills were used as instruments for writing with ink before the metal dip pen, the fountain pen, and eventually the ball point pen came into use.
radial balance The balance as the result of components that are distributed around a center point or spring out from a central line.
raking light The technique of illuminating the surface of a work of art (painting) at one side and at a very low (grazing) angle. This accentuates the contours, texture, and other features through shadow effects. Damage such as cracks, losses, cleavages, show up clearly in this manner.
realism In the arts, the accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life. Realism rejects imaginative idealization in favor of a close observation of outward appearances.
receptivity In printing terminology, a surface is said to be receptive if it retains the ink well. The word is applied to the rollers, the paper, or the plates to be inked. Too much ink makes the impression heavy and thick; too little will render it pale and irregular.
recto The front of an object; the right hand page of an open book or manuscript.
registration A method used to ensure that each element of a print is located in the correct position. The method of registration varies according to the technique.
relief A technique in which the portions of a plate intended to print is raised above the surface of the medium, such as woodcut or linocut.
Renaissance Man A man who has broad intellectual interests and is accomplished in areas of both the arts and the sciences.
repetition A series of repeated elements having similarity.
representational art Art which is based on images which can be found in the objective world or at least in the artist's imagination.
reproduction A copy of an original print or fine art piece. A reproduction could be in the form of a print, like an offset-lithographic print, or even reproduced in the same medium as the original, as in an oil painting.
restoration Usually refers to corrective and restorative measures to compensate for damages, deterioration, and other defects. An attempt is made to return the work, if not to its original condition, to a satisfactory aesthetic state. Restoration is now considered an aspect of conservation.
rework When part of the printing element has been corrected or touched up.
rhythm A continuance, a flow, or a feeling of movement achieved by the repetition or regulated visual units.
roulette An engraver's tool, having a revolving circular head, with either a single serrated edge (the simple roulette) or a wider surface dotted or lined in a variety of forms. It is used in some of the dot processes with the aim of creating areas of tone on an impression.
rubbing A method of taking an impression from a relief block with a leather rubber or a burnisher used manually on the verso of the paper.
rule of thirds A composition rule that divides a scene into three rows and three columns. The rule states that the painting is much more interesting if the focal point is not in the center of the canvas but rather in one of the outlying regions, preferably at one of the intersection points.
sable brush An artist's brush made of sable hairs.
screen The printing element in screenprinting. It is made by stretching material (silk, nylon, metal mesh, etc.) over a frame
screenprinting An ancient method of oriental printmaking which, considerably modified and ameliorated, has become one of the four most important methods of modern printing. The principle of screenprinting consists in applying stencils to a screen (constructed of silk or of some synthetic or metallic material) in such a way that, when ink is applied, it is prevented from passing through some parts while penetrating the rest of the screen, thereby printing an image on paper placed underneath. The screen is stretched across a frame and attached to a base in such a manner that it can readily move up and down, so that paper can be easily placed and removed as required. For each impression, the paper is placed against registration tabs to ensure that the printing is done in the correct position. The ink is poured over the masking at one end of the screen and when this has been lowered into position, the ink is scraped across the screen with the aid of a squeegee. The most important part of the process is the preparation of the screen. Stencils may be applied in a variety of ways, including the use of filling-in liquid, varnish. or plastic film. A drawing can be made directly on the surface with a special ink which is removed in readiness for printing after the rest of the screen has been blocked out.
sculptor An artist who creates sculptures.
sculpture Any three-dimensional form created as an artistic expression. Sculpture is primarily concerned with space occupying it, relating to it, and influencing the perception of it.
scumbling A painting technique consisting of putting a layer of opaque oil paint over another layer of a different color or tone, so that the lower layer is not completely obliterated, giving an uneven, broken effect.
seascape A painting or work of pictorial art that depicts the sea or a scene that includes the sea; a painting representing an expansive view of the ocean or sea; picture or painting depicting life around the sea.
secondary colors The three colors, green, purple, and orange, derived from mixing equal amounts of two of the three primary colors.
self-portrait A portrait an artist makes using himself or herself as its subject, typically drawn or painted from a reflection in a mirror. Also a portrait taken by the photographer of himself, either in a mirror, by means of a remote release, or with a self timer.
sepia A golden brown tint sometimes applied to black-and-white pictures, usually to give the finished print an antique appearance.
serigraphy A stenciling method in which the image is transferred to paper by forcing ink through a fine mesh in which the background has been blocked.
sfumato A fine art painting technique of blurring or softening of sharp outlines by subtle and gradual blending of one tone into another through the use of thin glazes to give the illusion of depth or three-dimensionality.
sgraffito In painting, one color is laid over another and scratched in (with the other end of the brush, for example) so that the color underneath shows through.
shade A dark value of a color, i.e., a dark blue; as opposed to a tint, which is a lighter shade of a color, i.e., light blue.

To shade a drawing means to add the lights and darks, usually to create a three-dimensional effect.
shading Showing change from light to dark or dark to light in a picture by darkening areas that would be shadowed and leaving other areas light. Shading is often used to produce illusions of dimension and depth.
shape An area which stands out from the space next to it or around it because of a defined boundary or because of a difference of value, color, or texture.
shaped canvas A type of painting/stretched canvas first begun in the 1960's, where the canvas takes other forms than the traditional rectangle. Canvas is stretched over multiple three-dimensional shapes, which are combined to form a three-dimensional, irregularly shaped canvas on which to paint (often abstract or non-objective) images.
sienna A form of limonite clay most famous in the production of oil paint pigments. Its yellow-brown color comes from ferric oxides contained within. As a natural pigment, it (along with its chemical cousins ochre and umber) was one of the first pigments to be used by humans, and is found in many cave paintings.
sight edge This refers to the work of art visible to the viewer. The actual edge of a painting or drawing may be concealed by the frame or mat.
silhouette A dark image outlined against a lighter background.
silkscreen The term usually used in America for screenprinting.
simple line A single line, i.e., one that has not been strengthened by successive stages of cutting.
simplicity The understanding of what is and is not important in a design. Details that do not have a major impact to the design are omitted to keep it uncluttered.
sizing A substance added to paper to create a degree of water resistance.
sketch A rough drawing used to capture the basic elements and structure of a situation; often used as the basis for a more detailed work.
soft-ground etching One of the etching processes which aims to simulate the effects of a chalk or crayon drawing. The plate is initially covered with a soft ground. The drawing is made with a hard crayon on paper which has been pressed to the surface of the grounded plate; the ground adheres to the back of the paper where the crayon has left indentations in it, thereby creating an impression on the plate of the marks of the crayon. The paper with the attached ground is carefully removed and the plate is bitten. It is possible to reproduce any kind of texture with this method: textiles, rough papers, netting or leather can be pressed into a soft ground in a similar fashion.
space The interval or measurable distance between pre-established points.
spatial cues Methods of indicating three-dimensional space in two-dimensional images. Examples are: the modeling of forms with light and shade to indicate volume; overlapping of forms to indicate relative spatial position; decrease in the size of images as they recede in space; vertical position in the image (the further away an object is, the higher it is normally located in the image); the use of increased contrast of light and dark in the foreground; the decreasing intensity of colors as they recede in space; the use of a perspective system, of lines converging toward the horizon line. Spatial cues are used also in abstract or non-objective art to indicate relative position in relation to the picture plane, by means of overlapping forms, color and size relationships, and other spatial cues, but generally without perspective and other indications of illusional space.
splatter A method of applying the ink in lithography. It is sprayed through a metal mesh onto the stone with the aid of a stiff brush. Areas which are to remain white or be very lightly splattered are protected with gum Arabic.
stabile A type of 20th century sculpture which consists of a stationary object, usually on a base of some kind.
stained canvas A method of painting first begun in the 1960's, consisting of the application of paint directly to the canvas by pouring or rolling, rather than with the traditional brush and without the prerequisite layer of priming normally done to stretched canvas. This way of applying paint gives a totally different image than one brushed on - obviously a more fluid image with translucent fields of color, an effect impossible with traditional brushes.
stained glass Glass that has been colored or stained through different processes. This term is also used to refer to the art of cutting colored glass into different shapes and joining them together with lead strips to create a pictorial window design.
state The proofs taken while the artist is working on the plate, stone, etc. to check different stages of his progress are known as states; each one showing additional working constitutes a different state. The last one is said to be the definitive state (or proof).
statue A sculpture representing a human or animal.
steel-facing A process consisting of depositing, by electrolysis, a very thin layer of iron onto a copper plate in order to reinforce it. Copper, the most commonly engraved metal, can become scratched and worn down through use. Furthermore, the wheels of the press tend to flatten out the indentations, removing the finest ones altogether, and rub away the idiosyncratic burr on plates engraved with the drypoint. In this respect steel-facing is an added protective and allows a greater number of impressions to be made while maintaining a constant quality. The steel-facing can be removed if reworking on the plate is required.
stencil Stiff paper (or other sheet material) with a design cut into it as a template for shapes meant to be copied; a method of applying a design by brushing ink or paint through a cut-out surface.
still life A painting or other two-dimensional work of art representing inanimate objects such as bottles, fruit, and flowers; the arrangement of these objects from which a drawing, painting, or other art work is made.
stippling A drawing technique consisting of many small dots or flecks to construct the image; technique of using small dots to simulate varying degrees of solidity or shading; to paint, engrave, or draw by means of dots or small touches of the brush, pen, or other tool.
stomp A kind of pencil consisting of a tight roll of paper or soft leather or of a cylindrical piece of rubber or other soft material used for rubbing down hard lines in pencil or crayon drawing for blending the lines of shading to produce a uniform tint.
stretcher A wooden frame over which the canvas of a painting is stretched.
study A preliminary drawing for a painting; a work done just to study nature in general.
subject matter As opposed to content, the subject matter is the subject of the artwork, e.g., still life.
substrate The primary layer of material; can relate to a mount substance or the base material upon which a work of art is executed.
sugar-lift process A method of defining drawn areas on an intaglio plate. The necessary area is painted directly onto the metal surface with India ink in which sugar has been dissolved. This is covered with a stopping-out varnish and, when the latter has dried, submerged in water. This causes the sugar mixture to swell, removing the varnish and exposing the metal at the parts where the drawing has been made.
suite A set of prints dealing with the same subject, or by the same artist, which are published as a whole.
sulphur print 1) A mixture of flowers of sulphur and olive oil can be applied directly to the surface of a metal plate to produce a tone similar to that of an aquatint. Some engravers spread the oil on first and then apply the powdered sulphur.

2) A sulphur proof may be taken onto a sheet covered with sulphur from an intaglio plate in which the incisions have been previously filled with lampblack.
support In a painting, the physical structure that holds or carries the ground and paint film. Any material, such as fabric, wood, metal, or paper, on which a work of art is executed, serving as a structural base.
surface tone If a plate is not completely wiped before printing, surface tone is created by the films of ink left on its surface. Selective wiping creates surface tone.
surrealism A 20th-century literary and artistic movement that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter.
symmetrical balance The placing of identical forms to either side of the central axis of a work to stabilize it visually.
tempera A painting medium in which pigment is mixed with water-soluble glutinous materials such as size or egg yolk. Also called poster color or poster paint.
tension A balance between and interplay of opposing elements or tendencies.
tertiary colors Blends of primary and secondary colors. Colors such as red-orange and blue-green are tertiary colors.
texture The tactile surface characteristics of a work of art that are either felt or perceived visually.
three-dimensional space A sensation of space which seems to have thickness or depth as well as height and width.
three-quarter view A view of a face or any other subject which is half-way between a full and a profile view.
thumbnail sketch Crude, small pencil drawings used to develop the initial concept for a design.
tiff Acronym for Tagged Image File Format, a standard graphic image file format usually generated by scanners.
tint Generally speaking, a tint can be any color; more specifically it is a variant shade obtained by mixing one color with another, particularly with white.
titanium An oxide used as a white pigment of great permanence and covering power. Usually extended with other whites to improve its brushing and drying properties.
tole Decorative painting on tin objects.
tone A particular shade of a color; in printing terminology, tone is opposed to line. It refers to non-linear techniques, such as wash or paint, and its interpretation into prints is effected by the tonal processes, e.g., aquatint, brush etching, dotted manner, stipple.
transfer The removal of the support of a painting and its replacement by a more stable support. Partial transfer refers to retention of the original ground layer with possibly a thin layer of wood before reinforcing with the new support material.
transition The change or passing from one condition, place, thing, or activity to another; the passage linking one subject, section, or other part of a composition with another.
transmitted light The illumination of an object by placing the light source behind and viewing from the front. Useful in revealing crack systems and other forms of separation.
triptych A painting which consists of one center panel with two paintings attached on either side by means of hinges or other means.
trompe l'oeil French for "fool the eye." A two-dimensional representation that is so naturalistic that it looks actual or real (three-dimensional). This form of painting was first used by the Romans thousands of years ago in frescoes and murals.
turpentine A high quality oil paint thinner and solvent.
two-dimensional space A measurable distance on a surface which shows height and width but lacks any illusion of thickness or depth.
two-point linear perspective A more recent version of perspective than one-point perspective; using two (or more) points instead of one on the horizon line gave artists a more naturalistic representation of space in two-dimensional images.
ultraviolet light Primarily invisible light, ranging from the x-ray region, about 4 nanometers wavelength to just beyond the violet in the visible spectrum, about 380 nanometers.
underdrawing Preliminary drawing that lies under the final painted or inked image.
unity An organization of parts so that all contribute to a coherent whole. It is the combined result of all principles of design.
value The lightness or darkness of a line, shape, or area in terms of black to white; also called tone.
vanishing point In perspective, the point on the horizon in the distance where two lines seem to converge and visibility ends.
varnish Usually refers to the thin protective and aesthetic coating on a work of art or museum object. There are natural and synthetic resin varnishes.
vector graphic A graphic made up of mathematically defined curves and line segments called vectors. Vector graphics can be edited by moving and resizing either the entire graphic or the lines and segments that compose the graphic. Vector graphics can be reduced and enlarged (zoomed in and out) with no loss of resolution.
verso 1) The reverse or back of an object.

2) The left hand page of an open book or manuscript.
vertical balance The distribution of visual weights in a piece in such a way that top and bottom seem to be in equilibrium.
viewfinder A tool used to look through to compose an image. This tool is helpful in selecting the most interesting composition to be found in a larger image by cropping out unwanted perimeters. In photography a viewfinder is what the photographer looks through to compose, and in many cases to focus, the picture.
vignette An image or painting in which the borders are undefined and seem to fade away gradually until they blends into the background.
visual communication The communication of ideas through the visual display of information. Primarily associated with two dimensional images, it includes alphanumeric, art, signs, and electronic resources. Recent research in the field has focused on web design and graphically-oriented usability.
visual economy As used in art, a paring down to the essential elements required to achieve a desired effect.
volume The mass of three-dimensional shapes in space.
volumetric A quality of two-dimensional images characterized by a sense of three dimensions, solidity, volume, as contrasted with atmospheric which is characterized more by a sense of space or airiness than with volume. Volumetric is generally more characteristic of representational or traditional art, than of modern or contemporary art which is generally less concerned with the depiction of three dimensions in objects and space.
warm color Colors whose relative visual temperature makes them seem warm. Warm colors or hues include red-violet, red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, and yellow.
wash A thin layer of translucent (or transparent) paint or ink, particularly in watercolor; also used occasionally in oil painting.
watercolor A water-based paint that is a translucent wash of pigment; a painting produced with watercolors.
watermark A watermark is a design embossed into a piece of paper during its production and used for identification of the paper and paper maker. The watermark can be seen when the paper is held up to light.
waterscape A painting of or including a body of water. It might otherwise be called a marine picture, a seascape, or a riverscape.
wet-on-wet A painting technique that relies on painting from light colors up since lighter colors will usually mix with darker colors if laid over top of them while wet. This gives the painting a soft look and allows the colors to be blended.
woodcut Illustrations produced when the original printing plate was engraved on a block of wood.
worm's-eye view As if seen from the surface of the earth or the floor. Looking up from below.
wove paper A type of handmade paper produced from a mold with a mesh so tightly woven as to leave no visible pattern.
xerography Photographic process which uses an electrically charged metal plate. On exposure to light the electrical charge is destroyed, leaving a latent image in which shadows are represented by charged areas. A powdered pigment dusted over the plate is attracted to the charged areas, producing a visible image.
xylography An early form of wood engraving, first seen in China in the 1st century. It is the oldest known engraving technique.
yellowing A discoloration that can occur over time in oil paintings due to excessive use of linseed oil medium, applying any of the varnishes that are prone to yellow with age, or most often an accumulation of dirt embedded in the varnish.
zinc white A common white pigment, zinc white is a brilliant white synthetically derived from the metal zinc.
zincography The use of lithography on a zinc plate.
zinnober green Another name for chrome green.

 

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