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Archive: Education Glossary

  • A la prima: The tradition of painting a picture in one sitting
  • Artistic anatomy (torso):
    • Pectoralis:Chest or “hugging” muscle
    • Rectus abdomininis: Stomach or “sit-up” muscle
    • Obliquus externus: Groin or “twist” muscle
    • Deltoideus: Shoulder or “flying” muscle
    • Trapezius: Neck-to-arms-to-back or “shrugging” muscle
    • Latissimus dorsi: Back-to-underarm or “chin-up” muscle
    • Gluteus medius and maximus: Bottom or “sitting, running, back-kick” muscle

  • Background/ foreground/ midrange: The part or view of a painting that is, or is represented as, farthest, nearest, or in between these two relative to the viewer
  • Blocking in: A mold or form on which something is shaped or displayed; a group acting or regarded as a unit; a solid piece of wood; [drawing averages of geometric shapes]

  • Cast shadow (1) and the illusion of volume (2):
  • Chiaroscuro: The technique of using light and shade in pictorial representation; the sharply contrasting arrangement of light and dark elements in a work of art
  • Cliché: A trite or overused expression or idea
  • Collage: An artistic composition of materials and objects pasted over a surface, often with unifying lines and color
  • Color and value contrast: That aspect of things that is caused by differing qualities of the light reflected or emitted from them and the relative lightness and darkness of a color
  • Complimentary colors: Red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple, etc.
  • Composition: A putting together of parts or elements to form a whole
  • Contour: The outline of a figure, body, mass, or a line that represents such an outline
  • Contraposto: The posture taken by the human figure usually standing on one leg, which causes the alignment of the shoulders to tip toward the higher hip above the leg carrying the body’s weight
  • Contrasting elements, approaches, and contexts: To set in opposition in order to show or emphasize different basic assumptions or principles of a subject, methods, and circumstances in which a particular image, passage, or event occurs
  • Cool (A), warm (B), and neutral (C) colors: (A)Blues and greens, (B)Reds and yellows, (C)Grays and browns
  • Cross hatch (1), switchbacks (2), stippling (3), smooth shade (4):
    1) 2) 3) 4)

  • Dark accents (3), highlights (1), halftones (2):
  • Deltoideus: Shoulder or “flying” muscle
  • Diagonal (1), horizontal (2), and vertical (3) lines:
    1) 2) 3)


  • Flipbooks: Bound pages with images or text which seem to move or come to life when turned rapidly in succession
  • Foreground/ background/ midrange: The part or view of a painting that is, or is represented, as nearest, farthest, or in between these two relative to the viewer
  • Foreshortening: The representation of some lines of (an object) as shorter than they actually are in order to give the illusion of proper relative size, in accordance with principles of perspective
  • Freehand vs. grid format: A framework of parallel or crisscrossed bars; a pattern of horizontal and vertical lines forming squares of uniform size vs. drawn by hand without the aid of tracing or drafting devices

  • Geometric (natural or irregular shapes) vs. organic (easy to measure shapes):
  • Gesture (drawing): The art of moving the limbs or body as an expression of thought or emphasis
  • Glazing: A thin, smooth, shiny coating; a transparent coating applied to the surface of a painting to modify the color tones
  • Glossy: Having a smooth, shiny, lustrous surface
  • Gluteus medius and maximus: Bottom or “sitting, running, back-kick” muscle
  • The Golden Mean/Section: The course between two extremes, A:B = B:(A+B)
  • Grid vs. freehand format: A framework of parallel or crisscrossed bars; a pattern of horizontal and vertical lines forming squares of uniform size vs. drawn by hand without the aid of tracing or drafting devices

  • Highlights (1), halftones (2), dark accents (3):
  • Horizontal (1), vertical (2), and diagonal (3) lines:
    1) 2) 3)


  • Impasto: The application of thick layers of pigment to a canvas or other surface

  • Juxtaposition: The act of placing side by side, especially for comparison or contrast

  • Latissimus dorsi: Back-to-underarm or “chin-up” muscle
  • Local color (A), reflected color (B): [INSERT IMAGE]

  • Mahl stick: A long wooden stick used by painters to support the hand that holds the brush
  • Matte: Having a dull, flat, non-reflective surface.
  • Metaphor: A figure of speech in which a term is transferred from the object it ordinarily designated to an object it may designate only by implicit comparison or analogy
  • Midrange/ background/ foreground: The part or view of a painting that is, or is represented, as farthest, nearest, or in between these two relative to the viewer

  • Negative and positive space/rhyming shapes:
  • Neutral (A), Warm (B), and cool (C) colors: (A)Grays and browns, (B)Reds and yellows, (C)Blues and greens

  • Obliquus externus: Groin or “twist” muscle
  • Onomatopoeia: The formation or use of words, such as buzz or cuckoo, that imitate what they denote
  • Opaque: Impervious to the passage of light
  • Organic (natural or irregular shapes) vs. geometric (easy to measure shapes):
  • Overlap: To lay or extend over and cover part of something, opaquely interrupting its view

  • Paradigm: A pattern, example, or model; an overall concept accepted by most people in an intellectual community because of its effectiveness in explaining a complex process, idea, etc.
  • Pectoralis:Chest or “hugging” muscle
  • Pentimento: An effect over time, especially in oil paint, where the underpainting or drawing becomes visible because top opaque films of paint become transparent
  • Perspective: The technique of representing three-dimensional objects and depth relationships on a two-dimensional surface
  • Phenakistoscope: An animation device consisting of images on a slotted spinning disk, which appear to move when their reflection is viewed in a mirror
  • Positive and negative space/rhyming shapes:
  • Primary (A) and secondary (B) colors: (A)Red, yellow, and blue, (B)Orange, green and purple
  • Push/pull: Areas of a painting or drawing that recede or come toward the viewer

  • Rectus abdomininis: Stomach or “sit-up” muscle
  • Local color (A), reflected color (B): [INSERT IMAGE]
  • Reflected light (A), glare (B), and back lighting (C): [INSERT IMAGE]
  • Rhyming shapes/ negative and positive space:

  • Scale: The proportion used in determining the relationship of a representation to that which it represents; a progressive classification as to size, amount, etc.
  • Scumbling: The softening of colors or outlines of a painting by covering with a film of dry opaque- or semi-opaque color by rubbing
  • Secondary (A) and primary (B) colors: (A)Orange, green and purple, (B)Red, yellow, and blue
  • Sfumato: The gradual bending of light into shadow
  • Silhouette: A drawing consisting of the outline of something, especially a human profile filled in with solid color and appearing dark against A light background, or vice versa
  • Smooth shade (1), switchbacks (2), stippling (3), cross hatch (4):
    1) 2) 3) 4)

  • Storyboard: A series of sketches often with captions or words describing dialogue or narration
  • Subtlety: The quality or state of being so slight as to be difficult to detect or analyze; elusive; not immediately obvious; abstruse; able to make fine distinctions
  • Superimposition: To lay or place upon or over something, often transparently; a visual integration
  • Symmetry: Correspondence of form and arrangement of parts on opposite sides of a boundary, such as a plane or line, or around a point or axis

  • Tessellation: Covering a surface or plane (infinitely) without gaps or overlaps by a pattern of one or more congruent shapes
  • Thaumatropes: An animation device consisting of cards with different designs on either side, which, when turned, appear to blend into one image
  • Transparent and translucent: Capable of transmitting light so that objects or images can be seen as if there were no intervening material, or causing sufficient diffusion to eliminate perception of distinct images
  • Trapezius: Nect-to-arms-to-back or “shrugging” muscle
  • Two and three dimensional: Measures of spatial extent, especially width, height, or length

  • Underpainting: The first draft or compositional structure of a painting, usually with value contrast or color arrangements set down as a base for added work

  • Vertical (1), horizontal (2), and diagonal (3) lines:
    1) 2) 3)

  • Warm (A), cool (B), and neutral (C) colors: (A)Reds and yellows, (B)Blues and greens, (C)Grays and browns
  • Washes: Layers of colors thinned with water

  • Zoetrope: An animation device consisting of strips of paper with drawings of an object in various states of transformation installed inside a spinning drum
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