Visual Arts - Middle School

Show your true colors by learning these words related to visual art. This list covers different media and artistic techniques, artists' tools, and other essential vocabulary. It's truly a work of art.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. abstract
    not representing or imitating external reality
  2. acrylic
    used especially by artists
  3. aesthetics
    the branch of philosophy dealing with beauty and taste
  4. asymmetry
    a lack of balance or proportion among the parts of something
  5. background
    the part of a scene behind objects in the front
  6. balance
    harmonious arrangement or relation of parts within a whole
  7. bust
    a sculpture of the head and shoulders of a person
  8. calligraphy
    beautiful handwriting
  9. canvas
    an oil painting on a heavy, closely woven fabric
  10. caricature
    a representation of a person exaggerated for comic effect
  11. cast
    form by pouring (e.g., wax or hot metal) into a mold
  12. ceramics
    the art of making and decorating pottery
  13. charcoal
    a stick of black carbon material used for drawing
  14. cityscape
    painting depicting a city or urban area
  15. collage
    a paste-up of pieces to form an artistic image
  16. color wheel
    a chart in which complementary colors (or their names) are arranged on opposite sides of a circle
  17. complementary color
    either one of two chromatic colors that when mixed together give white (in the case of lights) or grey (in the case of pigments)
  18. composition
    the spatial property resulting from the arrangement of parts
  19. contrast
    perceptual effect of the juxtaposition of different colors
  20. cool
    (of colors) inducing the impression of lower temperature
  21. crosshatch
    shade with multiple crossing lines
  22. depth
    the extent downward or backward or inward
  23. easel
    an upright tripod for displaying something
  24. embellish
    make more attractive, as by adding ornament or color
  25. emphasis
    special importance or significance
  26. figurative
    consisting of or forming human or animal images
  27. figure
    a model of a bodily form
  28. focal point
    the concentration of attention or energy on something
  29. foreground
    the part of a scene that is near the viewer
  30. foreshorten
    shorten lines in a drawing so as to create an illusion of depth
  31. form
    the spatial arrangement of something
  32. fresco
    a mural done with watercolors on wet plaster
  33. genre
    a class of art having a characteristic form or technique
  34. geometric
    characterized by shapes and lines in design and decoration
  35. gesso
    a substance used to prepare a surface for painting
  36. glaze
    a coating, as for ceramics or metal
  37. gouache
    an opaque watercolor prepared with gum
  38. gradation
    relative position in a ranked series
  39. guideline
    a light line used to help align written letters or a drawing
  40. harmony
    congruity of parts with one another and with the whole
  41. highlight
    an area of brightness in a picture
  42. horizontal
    parallel to or in the plane of the horizon or a base line
  43. hue
    the quality of a color determined by its dominant wavelength
  44. intensity
    chromatic purity
  45. kiln
    a furnace for firing, burning, or drying porcelain or bricks
  46. landscape
    painting depicting an expanse of natural scenery
  47. lathe
    a machine tool for shaping a piece of rotating wood or metal
  48. lithograph
    a print made with a stone or metal plate
  49. medium
    a liquid with which pigment is mixed by a painter
  50. model
    a representation of something, often on a smaller scale
  51. monochromatic
    having or appearing to have only one color
  52. mosaic
    design made of small pieces of colored stone or glass
  53. motif
    a design that consists of recurring shapes or colors
  54. multimedia
    the use of many types of communication simultaneously
  55. mural
    a painting that is applied to a wall surface
  56. neutral
    having no hue
  57. nonrepresentational
    of or relating to a style of art in which objects do not resemble those known in physical nature
  58. oil paint
    paint in which a drying oil is the vehicle
  59. opaque
    not transmitting or reflecting light or radiant energy
  60. optical illusion
    an optical phenomenon that results in a false or deceptive visual impression
  61. origami
    the art of folding paper
  62. palette
    a board on which an artist mixes paints
  63. palette knife
    a spatula used by artists for mixing or applying or scraping off oil paints
  64. pastel
    any of various pale or light colors
  65. perspective
    appearance as determined by distance from the viewer
  66. pointillism
    a painting technique characterized by applying paint in dots
  67. polygon
    a closed plane figure bounded by straight sides
  68. portfolio
    a set of pieces of creative work shown as a sample
  69. portrait
    any likeness of a person, in any medium
  70. potter's wheel
    a horizontal rotating wheel holding the clay being shaped by a potter
  71. primary color
    any of three colors from which all others can be obtained by mixing
  72. printmaking
    artistic design and manufacture of prints as woodcuts or silkscreens
  73. proportion
    relation with respect to comparative quantity or magnitude
  74. realism
    artistic movement that represents the world accurately
  75. representational
    depicting objects, figures, or scenes realistically
  76. rubbing
    representation consisting of a copy (as of an engraving) made by laying paper over something and rubbing it with charcoal
  77. scale
    the ratio between the size of a thing and its representation
  78. score
    make small marks into the surface of
  79. sculpture
    a three-dimensional work of art
  80. seascape
    a painting of the sea (as distinguished from a landscape)
  81. shade
    the quality of a given color, as distinct from other colors
  82. shape
    a perceptual structure
  83. silhouette
    a filled-in drawing of the outline of an object
  84. slab
    block consisting of a thick piece of something
  85. slip
    potter's clay that is thinned and used for coating or decorating ceramics
  86. spectrum
    an ordered array of the components of an emission or wave
  87. stained glass
    glass that has been colored in some way
  88. stencil
    a sheet of material that has been perforated with a pattern
  89. still life
    a painting of inanimate objects such as fruit or flowers
  90. study
    preliminary drawing for later elaboration
  91. style
    a mode of expression typical of a person, group, or period
  92. symbol
    something visible that represents something invisible
  93. symmetry
    balance among the parts of something
  94. technique
    a practical method or art applied to some particular task
  95. tempera
    paint made of pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder like egg yolk
  96. terra cotta
    clay fired for pottery and building material, or the finished object
  97. texture
    the feel of a surface or a fabric
  98. three-dimensional
    involving or relating to three dimensions or aspects
  99. tint
    a variation or slightly different shade of a color
  100. translucent
    allowing light to pass through diffusely
  101. transparent
    able to be seen through with clarity
  102. two-dimensional
    involving measurements of magnitude in two directions
  103. unity
    the quality of being fused into one
  104. value
    relative darkness or lightness of a color
  105. vanishing point
    the appearance of a point on the horizon at which parallel lines converge
  106. vertical
    at right angles to the plane of the horizon or a base line
  107. warm
    (of colors) inducing the impression of heat
  108. watercolor
    a water-base paint ; used by artists
  109. woodcut
    engraving consisting of a block of wood with a design cut into it; used to make prints
Created on Thu Feb 02 14:14:53 EST 2017 (updated Wed Mar 29 16:04:01 EDT 2017)

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