NBPTS AYA Art flashcards

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

Elements of art

The basic visual components used to make and analyze art: line, shape, form, color, value, texture, and space. They are the building blocks combined through principles of design.

Principles of design

Organizational strategies for arranging elements: balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, pattern, rhythm, unity, variety, proportion, and scale. They describe how an artwork is composed and how the eye is guided.

Symmetrical balance

A composition in which elements are arranged equally on either side of a central axis, producing formal stability. Also called formal balance; radial balance arranges elements around a center point.

Asymmetrical balance

Balance achieved with unequal visual weights on either side of an axis, often using size, color, or placement to offset a large form with a small, intense one. Also called informal balance.

Hue, value, intensity

Three properties of color: hue is the color name; value is its lightness or darkness; intensity (saturation) is its purity or dullness. Tints add white, shades add black, and tones add gray.

Complementary colors

Colors opposite each other on the color wheel, such as red and green or blue and orange. They create maximum contrast when adjacent and neutralize toward gray when mixed.

Analogous colors

Colors adjacent on the color wheel, such as blue, blue-green, and green. They produce harmonious, low-contrast schemes and often suggest atmospheric unity.

Linear perspective

A depth system in which parallel lines converge at vanishing points on a horizon line. One-point uses a single vanishing point; two-point uses two; three-point adds a vertical vanishing point.

Atmospheric perspective

A depth cue in which distant forms appear lighter, cooler, less detailed, and lower in contrast due to particles in the air. Also called aerial perspective; common in landscape painting.

Foreshortening

The visual compression of a form that projects toward the viewer, making it appear shorter along the line of sight. Used to create dramatic depth in figures and objects.

Chiaroscuro

The use of strong contrasts of light and dark to model form and create volume. Tenebrism is an extreme form with dramatic darkness, associated with Caravaggio and Baroque painting.

Contrapposto

A pose in which the figure's weight rests on one leg, producing a shift in the hips and shoulders. Developed in Classical Greek sculpture to convey naturalistic balance and movement.

Graphite hardness scale

Pencil grading from 9H (hardest, lightest) through HB (mid-range) to 9B (softest, darkest). Hard pencils hold a sharp point for detail; soft pencils deposit dark, blendable marks.

Watercolor characteristics

A transparent medium applied in washes; the white of the paper serves as highlight. Techniques include wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, dry brush, and masking; gouache is its opaque counterpart.

Oil vs. acrylic paint

Oil paint dries slowly, allowing extended blending and glazing, and requires solvents and mediums. Acrylic dries quickly, is water-soluble while wet, and dries to a flexible, water-resistant film.

Gesso

A primer applied to a support such as canvas or panel to create a tooth for paint and prevent absorption. Traditional gesso is chalk and glue; modern acrylic gesso is common.

Relief printmaking

A process in which the raised surface of a block is inked and printed, as in woodcut and linocut. Cut-away areas remain unprinted, producing a reverse image on paper.

Intaglio printmaking

A process in which incised lines hold ink below the plate surface and a press forces damp paper into them. Includes etching, engraving, drypoint, and mezzotint.

Lithography

A planographic print process based on the repulsion of oil and water. The artist draws on a stone or plate with greasy material; ink adheres only to the drawn areas.

Screenprinting

A stencil process in which ink is forced through a mesh screen onto the surface. Areas blocked by emulsion or stencil remain unprinted; multiple screens build layers of color.

Edition numbering

A convention identifying prints from a limited run, written as a fraction such as 3/25 (third impression of twenty-five). Artist's proofs (A/P) are outside the numbered edition.

Additive vs. subtractive sculpture

Additive processes build up material, as in modeling, assemblage, and casting. Subtractive processes remove material, as in carving wood or stone. The choice affects approach and permanence.

Lost-wax casting

A bronze-casting method in which a wax model is coated with a refractory mold, wax is melted out, and molten metal fills the void. Allows detailed, hollow, or multiple casts.

Bas-relief

A sculpture in which figures project only slightly from a flat background, as on coins or architectural friezes. High relief projects more than half their depth; in-the-round is freestanding.

Contrapposto in Renaissance art

The revival of the Classical weight-shift pose by Renaissance sculptors such as Donatello and Michelangelo. It signals naturalistic anatomy and psychological presence.

Baroque characteristics

Dramatic movement, strong diagonals, emotional intensity, rich color, and theatrical light associated with seventeenth-century art. Artists include Caravaggio, Bernini, Rubens, and Rembrandt.

Impressionism

A late nineteenth-century movement emphasizing broken color, visible brushwork, plein-air light, and everyday subjects. Key artists include Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Pissarro.

Cubism

A movement developed by Picasso and Braque that fractures forms into multiple viewpoints and shallow space. Analytic Cubism is muted and faceted; Synthetic Cubism introduces collage and bolder color.

Readymade

An ordinary manufactured object presented as art, a strategy associated with Marcel Duchamp and Dada. It challenges authorship, craft, and the definition of art.

Surrealism

A movement exploring dream imagery and the unconscious. It includes veristic illusionism (Dalí, Magritte) and automatism or biomorphic abstraction (Miró, Masson).

Abstract Expressionism

A post-World War II American movement combining large scale, gesture, and abstraction. Action painting (Pollock, de Kooning) and color field painting (Rothko, Newman) are major strands.

Pop Art

A movement drawing on mass media, advertising, and consumer culture. Artists such as Warhol and Lichtenstein used repetition, commercial techniques, and appropriated imagery.

Formal analysis

An examination of how elements and principles operate within an artwork to produce effects and meaning. It precedes interpretation and evaluation in a structured critique.