Visual Arts vocabulary list!

Visual Elements of Design
Visual Elements of Design are the component parts of art. The elements help define what principles are. There cannot be a principle without an element. The elements do not occur in isolation but one can be dominant. The elements give the artist a vocabulary to use in order to help explain their art.
Line
A visual path of action, our eyes tend to follow lines.
Line is the connection between two points, it may be actual or implied. Line defines the edge and shape two dimensionally. Line has different qualities: thick, thin, light, dark, long, short, and broken. Line can create directional effects. Lines grouped together make patterns and textures. Lines define the contour of shape by moving in and out, back and forth.

Shape
A defined area. Two-dimensional shapes are areas that stand apart or out from the space around them because of a definite boundary or difference of value, color, or texture. Shapes may be geometric, organic, or composite. There are positive and negative shapes which is also referred to as a figure-ground relationship. A figure-ground reversal occurs when the eye switches from seeing a shape as foreground and sees it instead as background.
Texture
The surface feel of an object (actual) or the representation of surface character (implied). Texture can be experienced through both touch and vision.
Space
The area around an object. Mass and forms occupy space. It can be actual (3-dimensional) or implied on 2-dimensional surfaces.
Value
The range of light and dark on a shape or form or in an entire space. Value is the amount of lightness or darkness in a color. Red when lightened by white is called pink but is actually a light red. When gray or green is added to red it is darkened and we may call it maroon. Pink and maroon are thus light and dark values of red.
Chiaroscuro is the process of taking light into dark to model an organic form to appear three dimensional on a two dimensional surface. This process was developed in the Renaissance.
Mass/Form
Three-dimensional shape that occupies space and has volume. Forms may be open or closed.

• Symmetrical (bilateral) balance is a form of balance achieved by the use of identical compositional units on either side of a vertical axis.
• Asymmetrical balance is a form of balance attained when unequal units create a sense of equilibrium in the pictorial field.
• A focal point is a radial type of balance. It occurs when two or more identical elements are distributed around a center point to create a repetitive equilibrium.

Color
The character of a surface that is the result of the response of vision to the wavelength of light reflected from that surface. Color can have emotional, psychological and physiological effects.

Hue: a color
Primary	red, blue, yellow
Secondary	orange, green, violet
Intermediate	red-orange, blue-green, etc.
Complementary colors	two hues directly across one another on the color wheel. The complement of each primary is the secondary created by mixing the other two primaries (red-green; blue-orange; yellow-violet). When placed near each other, complementary colors tend to vibrate.
Value	lightness or darkness of a color
Intensity	brightness or dullness of a color due to its relative purity.
Shade	a color modified by addition of  black resulting in a darker  hue
Tint	a color modified by addition of  white, resulting in a lighter hue

Principles of Visual Design
The Principles of Design can help explain the qualities of an artwork. They describe the organization and relationships of the elements of design.
Balance
Balance is a feeling of equality in weight, attention, or attraction of various elements within an artwork as a means of unifying a composition. It may be symmetrical, asymmetrical or radial
Proportion
In any composition, the comparison of and relationship between the parts to each other and to the whole. Proportion can be expressed in terms of a definite ratio, such as "twice as big" or be expressed by "darker than", "more neutral than", or "more important than."
Rhythm
A continuance, a flow, or a feeling of movement achieved by repetition of regulated visual units, the use of measure accents, directs the eye through a composition.
Emphasis
(Dominance) The principle of visual organization that suggests that certain elements should assume more importance than others in the same composition. Dominance contributes to unity because one main idea or feature is emphasized and other elements are subordinate to it.
Harmony
The related qualities of the visual elements of a composition. Harmony is achieved by repetition of characteristics that are the same or similar.
Variety
The use of opposing, contrasting, changing, elaborating or diversifying elements in a composition to add interest and individualism. The counterweight to harmony in a work of art.
Unity
The appearance of oneness, all parts working together.

'The Arts' in discussion for the 25th of October

1. Do you think that the tax payer should have to support the Arts?
For example, why should a football fan have to pay for opera?

2. Does your country have any well-known artists who are famous for
cinema, theatre, literature, ballet, opera, classical music or painting?


3. What are your "top three" art forms from the above list?
Explain the reasons for your order of preference.

4. In what ways were you encouraged to appreciate the Arts at home and
at school? What jobs in the Arts world would be suitable for you?

5. Give the names of your favorite novel, author, play, dramatist, film,
film director, musical composition, composer, painting and painter.
Why do you like them?

6. Which country would you visit to appreciate the Arts?
What would you plan to see?

7. Do you think there should be greater or less censorship of the Arts
in your country?