Castilla y León PAU Graphic-Plastic Expression Techniques Exam flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Tooth of paper

The microscopic surface grain that gives drawing media mechanical grip. Rough tooth holds charcoal and pastel; smooth hot-pressed surfaces suit pen and fine detail.

Acid-free support

Paper or board with pH around neutral and buffering agents, preventing yellowing and embrittlement. Required for archival, long-lasting artwork.

Gesso

A primer of chalk or titanium white with binder, applied to canvas or board. It seals the surface and gives paint the correct absorbency.

Pencil grade scale

Graphite grading from 9H (hardest, palest line) through HB to 9B (softest, darkest, most graphite deposit). Grade controls value and line character.

Compressed versus vine charcoal

Vine charcoal is soft, dusty and easily erased for tonal masses; compressed charcoal is denser, darker and harder to lift, giving strong darks.

Burnishing

Fusing coloured pencil layers into a smooth, saturated surface using heavy pressure, a colourless blender or a light pencil. It blocks further layering.

Cross-hatching

Overlapping sets of parallel lines in different directions. The density of the line network controls the perceived value and shading.

Kneaded eraser

A pliable putty eraser that lifts graphite or charcoal without abrading the paper tooth. It can be shaped to a point for highlights.

Reserving whites

In watercolour, leaving bare paper for the lightest values, because white paint would destroy transparency. Light is planned before painting begins.

Wet-on-wet

Applying wet paint onto a still-wet surface, producing soft bleeding edges and blended transitions. Contrasts with wet-on-dry for crisp edges.

Gouache

An opaque water-based paint, essentially watercolour with added white or chalk. It dries matte and allows light over dark corrections.

Tempera

Paint bound in an emulsion, traditionally egg yolk, now often polymer. It dries quickly to a matte, water-resistant film.

Fat over lean

The oil-painting rule that each successive layer contains more oil or less solvent than the one below, preventing cracking as layers dry at different rates.

Impasto

Paint applied thickly so it stands in relief from the surface, catching light physically. Opposite of thin, transparent glazing.

Alla prima

Completing a painting wet-in-wet in a single session rather than in successive dried layers, giving unified edges and fresh colour.

Scumbling

Dragging a thin, opaque, scrubbed layer of paint over a darker passage, optically cooling or lightening it while letting the underlayer show through.

Relief printing

A process where ink sits on raised, uncut areas of the block and prints; cut-away areas stay white. Linocut and woodcut are relief methods.

Intaglio

A printing family where ink is forced into incised lines and wiped from the plate surface, then pulled out under press pressure onto damp paper.

Reduction linocut

A method using one block, progressively cut and reprinted in successive colours. Registration is exact, but the block is destroyed and the edition limited.

Bleed in print design

Artwork extended beyond the trim line, typically about 3 mm, so cutting tolerances never leave a white edge on the finished piece.

Raster versus vector

Raster images are pixel grids with fixed resolution; vector images are mathematical paths that scale without loss. CMYK suits print, RGB suits screen.

Complementary colours

Hues opposite each other on the colour wheel. Placed side by side they intensify; mixed as pigments they neutralise toward grey-brown.

Simultaneous contrast

The shift in a colour's appearance caused by its neighbour: the same grey looks warmer against blue and cooler against orange.

Analogous harmony

A colour scheme using hues adjacent on the wheel, such as blue, blue-green and green. It reads as unified and calm.

Colour temperature

The warm-cool axis of hue. Warm colours advance toward the viewer; cool colours recede, which makes temperature a tool for spatial depth.

Rule of thirds

A composition grid dividing the frame into three rows and columns. Placing key elements near the intersections yields dynamic balance.

Chiaroscuro

Strong modelling of volume through contrast between light and deep shadow. Tenebrism pushes this to mostly dark fields with dramatic lit passages.

Aerial perspective

Depth cue in which distant forms lose contrast, cool in hue and lighten toward the horizon because of atmosphere between viewer and object.

Gestalt proximity

The perceptual law that elements close together are read as a group. Designers use spacing to build or break visual units.

Denotation and connotation

Denotation is the literal content of an image; connotation is the implied, cultural or emotional meaning it carries.

Anchorage

A concept from Barthes: text placed with an image pins down one of its possible meanings, reducing ambiguity of interpretation.

Icon, index, symbol

Peirce's sign types: icon resembles its object, index has a causal link to it, symbol relies on arbitrary convention such as words.

Moodboard

A collection of reference images, colour chips and textures fixing the palette and tone of a project before production begins.