PAU Graphic-Plastic Expression Techniques (Madrid) flashcards

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

Icon, index, symbol

Peirce's three sign types: an icon resembles its object (a portrait), an index is physically linked to it (smoke for fire), a symbol depends on learned convention (a word, a flag).

Anchorage and relay

Barthes' two image-text relations. Anchorage uses text to fix one meaning among several possible readings of an image; relay uses text to add new, complementary meaning.

Plastic vs iconic signs

Plastic signs are the expressive elements of an image (colour, texture, form, composition); iconic signs are the recognisable representations. The plastic level can reinforce or contradict the iconic message.

Graphite grade scale

Pencil grading from 9H to 9B. H grades are hard, pale and precise; B grades are soft, dark and smudgeable. HB and F sit at the midpoint between the two families.

Chiaroscuro

Italian for light-dark. A technique modelling volume with a strong single light source, a clear terminator line and gradual transitions between lit and shadowed areas.

Wet-on-wet watercolour

Applying wet pigment onto still-damp paper or paint. Edges diffuse and colours bleed into one another, producing soft atmospheric effects rather than controlled hard boundaries.

Compressed vs vine charcoal

Vine charcoal is a soft, easily erased natural stick giving light grey tone; compressed charcoal is denser, gives deep blacks and stains the paper, resisting erasure.

Subtractive primaries

Pigment primaries: cyan, magenta and yellow. Each pigment absorbs part of the spectrum and reflects the rest; mixing all three approaches black because more light is absorbed.

Munsell dimensions

Hue names the colour family, value measures lightness from 0 (black) to 10 (white), and chroma measures saturation from neutral grey outward. All three are needed to specify a colour.

Simultaneous contrast

A colour's appearance shifts toward the complement of its surrounding colour. A neutral grey placed on saturated red appears greenish; the same grey on green appears reddish.

Colour harmony schemes

Monochromatic uses one hue with varied value and chroma; analogous uses adjacent hues; complementary uses opposite hues; triadic uses three hues equally spaced on the colour wheel.

Rule of thirds

A composition grid dividing the frame into nine equal parts. Placing key elements on the grid lines or intersections creates more tension and interest than central placement.

Golden ratio

A proportion of roughly 1.618 to 1. A golden rectangle can be split into a square plus a smaller golden rectangle, and repeating this generates a logarithmic spiral.

Asymmetrical balance

Compositional equilibrium achieved with unequal elements: a large muted mass can be balanced by a small intensely coloured or isolated element placed farther from the visual centre.

Atmospheric perspective

A depth cue in which distant elements lose contrast and saturation and shift toward cool blue-grey, because intervening atmosphere scatters light and reduces visible detail.

Law of closure

A Gestalt principle: the visual system completes incomplete shapes, perceiving a whole circle from a broken arc or a triangle from three notched circles.

Figure-ground organisation

The perceptual separation of a scene into a focused figure and a background. Reversible figures such as the Rubin vase show the assignment can flip between interpretations.

Pictorial analysis grid

A structured reading of an image: first denotation (what is literally shown), then connotation, then plastic elements, then the context of production and reception.

Kanizsa triangle

An illusory-contour figure in which pac-man shapes and line gaps make viewers perceive a bright triangle that is not physically drawn, demonstrating closure.

Dihedral system views

Orthographic projection onto perpendicular planes, giving front elevation (alzado), top plan (planta) and side profile (perfil), aligned so corresponding dimensions match across views.

Isometric axonometry

A parallel projection with three axes at 120 degrees and equal scale on all three. Circles on the principal planes appear as ellipses; parallel lines never converge.

Cabinet perspective

An oblique projection where the front face is drawn true shape and receding depth lines are drawn at an angle, typically halved in scale to reduce apparent distortion.

Two-point perspective

A conic projection where vertical edges remain parallel while two sets of horizontal edges converge to two vanishing points on the horizon line, used for angled views of buildings.

Representative fraction

A scale written as a ratio, such as 1:50, meaning one unit on the drawing equals fifty real units. A smaller second number indicates a larger drawing.

Bauhaus principles

A German school (1919-1933) uniting art and craft, teaching geometric primary forms, sans-serif typography and functional design, with teachers including Klee, Kandinsky and Moholy-Nagy.

De Stijl

A Dutch movement from 1917 led by Mondrian and van Doesburg, using orthogonal grids, primary colours with black and white, and excluding curves and natural forms.

Russian Constructivism

An early Soviet movement using diagonal composition, photomontage, red-black-white palettes and typography treated as image, exemplified by Rodchenko and El Lissitzky.

International Typographic Style

A Swiss movement of the 1950s using strict grid systems, asymmetric layouts, sans-serif type such as Helvetica, and photography, aiming for objective, universal clarity.

Pop Art techniques

A 1950s-60s movement drawing on mass media: screen printing, repetition and seriality, Ben-Day dots and comic-book framing, associated with Warhol and Lichtenstein.

Print resolution rule

Print work needs about 300 ppi at final output size; screen work needs 72-96 ppi. Halving the printed size doubles the effective ppi for a fixed pixel count.

Bleed and safe margin

Bleed is extra artwork, typically 3 mm in Europe, extending past the trim edge so cutting errors leave no white border. Safe margins keep text away from the trim.

Vector vs raster formats

Vector files (SVG, AI, EPS) describe shapes mathematically and scale without loss; raster files (JPEG, PNG, TIFF) are pixel grids that lose quality when enlarged beyond native resolution.