2D Art Terms

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Abstraction

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A visual representation that may have little resemblance to the real world.

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Aesthetics

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A brach of philosophy concerned with the beautiful in are and how the viewer experiences it.

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Ambiguity

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Obscurity of motif or meaning.

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Biomorphic

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Describes shapes derived from organic or natural forms.

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Chiaroscuro

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The use of light and dark values to imply depth and volume in a two-dimentional work of art.

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Classical

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Suggestive of Greek and Roman ideals of beauty and purity of form, style, or technique.

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Closed Form

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The placement of objects by which a composition keeps the viewers attention within the picture.

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Conceptual

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Art work based on an idea. An art movement in which the idea is more important then the two-or-three dimensional artwork.

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Continuation

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A line or edge that continues from one form to another, allowing the eye to move smoothly through a composition.

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Contour

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A line used to follow the edges of forms and thus describe their outlines.

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Cross-hatching

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A drawing technique in which a series of lines are layered over each other to build up value and to suggest form and volume.

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Curvilinear

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Rounded and curving forms that tend to imply flowing shapes and compositions

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Design

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A planeed arrangement of visual elements to construct an organized visual pattern.

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Distortion

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A departure from an accepted perception of a form or object.

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Enigmatic

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Puzzling or cryptic in appearance or meaning.

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Expressionism

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An artistic style in which an emotion is more important than adherence to any perceptual realism.

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Fauve

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A french term meaning "wild beast" and descriptive of an artistic style characterized by the use of light and intense expressionistic color schemes.

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Figure

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Any positive shape or form noticeably separated form the background or the negative space.

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Focal Point

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A compositional device emphasizing a certain area or object to draw attention to the piece and to encourage closer scrutiny of the work.

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Form

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When referring to objects it is the shape and structure of a thing

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Gestalt

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A unified configuration or pattern of visual elements whose properties cannot be derived from a simple summation of its parts

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Gesture

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A line that does not stay at the edges but moved freely within forms

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Ground

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The surface of a two-dimensional design that acts as the background of surrounding space fro the figures in the composition

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Idealism

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An artistic theory in which the world is not reproduced as is but as it should be all flaws accidents and incongruities of the visual world are corrects

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Impressionism

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An artistic style that sough to re-creat the artist's perception of the changing quality of light and color in nature

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Impasto

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A painting technique in which pigments are applied in thick layer or stroked to create a rough three-dimesional paint sureface on the two-dimentsional paint sure.

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Implied Line

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An invisible line created by positioning a series of points o that the eye will connect them and thus create movement across the picture plane.