Home / Glossary
Glossary
58 art terms explained in plain English.
- Alla prima
- Painting wet-into-wet to finish a painting in one session.
- Analogous colours
- Colours next to each other on the colour wheel, such as yellow, yellow-orange and orange.
- Atmospheric perspective
- The way distant objects appear lighter, cooler, less saturated and less detailed. Also called aerial perspective.
- Block-in
- The first stage of a drawing or painting, where big shapes are laid in with simple, often straight, lines.
- Cast shadow
- The shadow an object throws onto another surface.
- Chiaroscuro
- Strong contrast between light and dark used to model form, from the Italian for 'light-dark'.
- Chroma
- The intensity or purity of a colour. Also called saturation.
- Complementary colours
- Colours opposite each other on the colour wheel, such as blue and orange.
- Composition
- The arrangement of elements within a picture.
- Contour
- A line that describes the edge of a form, including edges inside the silhouette.
- Contrapposto
- A standing pose with the weight on one leg, so the shoulders and hips tilt in opposite directions.
- Core shadow
- The darkest part of the form shadow, just past the terminator.
- Cross-hatching
- Shading with layers of crossing parallel lines.
- Fat over lean
- The oil painting rule that each layer should contain at least as much oil as the layer below to reduce cracking.
- Fresco
- Painting on fresh, wet lime plaster so the pigment becomes part of the wall.
- Gesture drawing
- A fast drawing that captures the movement and action of a pose.
- Glaze
- A thin, transparent layer of paint applied over a dry layer to modify its colour.
- Gouache
- Opaque, matte water-based paint.
- Grisaille
- A painting or underpainting done entirely in greys.
- Ground
- The prepared surface layer you paint on, such as gesso.
- Half-tone
- The middle values on the light side of a form, between highlight and shadow.
- Hatching
- Shading with parallel lines.
- Highlight
- The brightest spot on a form, a reflection of the light source.
- Horizon line
- In perspective, a horizontal line at the viewer's eye level where vanishing points sit.
- Hue
- The name of a colour family — red, blue, yellow-green and so on.
- Impasto
- Paint applied thickly so brush or knife marks stand out.
- Imprimatura
- A thin, transparent tone laid over the whole ground before painting.
- Lightfastness
- How well a pigment resists fading in light.
- Line of action
- An imaginary curve running through a figure that captures its main movement.
- Local colour
- The actual colour of an object, unaffected by light and shadow.
- Medium
- Either the material an artwork is made in (oil, watercolour) or a liquid added to paint to change how it handles.
- Negative space
- The space around and between objects.
- Occlusion shadow
- The very dark shadow where two surfaces meet, such as where an object touches the table.
- Opacity
- How much a paint hides what is underneath it.
- Palette
- The set of colours an artist uses, or the surface they mix on.
- Plein air
- Painting outdoors directly from the subject, from the French for 'open air'.
- Pointillism
- A technique of painting with small dots of colour that mix optically.
- Primary colours
- In traditional painting, red, yellow and blue — colours from which others are mixed.
- Reflected light
- Light bounced from nearby surfaces into the shadow side of a form.
- Rule of thirds
- A composition guide that divides the picture into a 3 × 3 grid and places points of interest near the lines or intersections.
- Scumble
- A thin, broken layer of lighter opaque paint dragged over a dry layer.
- Sfumato
- Very soft gradations of tone without hard edges, associated with Leonardo da Vinci.
- Sight-size
- A method of drawing in which the subject and the drawing appear the same size from a fixed viewing point.
- Simultaneous contrast
- The effect where a colour or value looks different depending on what surrounds it.
- Split-primary palette
- A palette with a warm and a cool version of each primary colour.
- Stippling
- Building tone with many small dots.
- Tenebrism
- An extreme form of chiaroscuro where most of the picture is in deep shadow.
- Terminator
- The line where a form turns from the light side to the shadow side.
- Thumbnail
- A small, quick sketch used to plan composition and values.
- Tint, tone and shade
- A tint is a colour plus white, a tone is a colour plus grey, and a shade is a colour plus black.
- Tooth
- The texture of paper or canvas that grips pigment.
- Underpainting
- The first layer of a painting, used to establish composition and values.
- Value
- How light or dark a colour or tone is.
- Vanishing point
- The point on the horizon where parallel lines appear to converge.
- Wash
- A thin, fluid layer of diluted paint, especially in watercolour.
- Wet-on-dry
- Applying wet paint onto a dry surface for crisp edges.
- Wet-on-wet
- Applying wet paint into wet paint or wet paper for soft edges.
- Zorn palette
- A limited palette of yellow ochre, cadmium red or vermilion, ivory black and white, associated with Anders Zorn.