Study these terms carefully, then (a new browser window will open)
1. hues--another name for colors. They may be given names such as warm, cool, earth tones, somber and pastel
a. warm hues are red, yellow, and orange to show energy (think sun and fire) and to draw attention to a particular object as an accent (think a bedroom with curtains, bedspread of a similar color, but has a red stuffed animal sitting on top of the bed)
b. cool hues are green, blue and purple to show peacefulness and calmess (think sky, water and trees)
c. earth tones are various shades of brown and dark yellow (think earth and dead leaves)
d. somber hues are black and greys
e. pastel hues are cool and warm hues mixed with white (think pink from red-white and peach from orange-white)
2. lines--can be linear ( straight) or curvilinear (curved) or zigzag (short, straight lines placed at angles) or diagonal (longer, linear lines placed at angles); diagonal and zigzag lines usually show violence and conflict
3. shapes and forms--can be biomorphic (living such as animals, humans, fruit, vegestables) and geometric (non-living such as a desk, chair, building, box)
4. biomorphic forms have curvilinear lines and geometric forms have linear lines
5. focal point--the part of the painting that the artist wants the viewer to see first (think white in snow and pages of a book), can also be called the area of highest intensity
6. texturization--details to make the person or object look real (think hair, beard, wrinkles of the skin or clothing on a person)
7. light source--point where light is coming from (think upper-right corner of the frame or another area/corner of the frame of the painting)
8. chiaroscuro--another name for shadows (think with the light source coming from the upper-right frame or corner of the painting, the chiaroscuro will appear on the opposite side of the object), makes the object seem three-dimentional or real
9. value--may be either low value (think of a dark painting) or high value (think a painting with a lot of light in it)
10. intensity--the brightness of the paint.
11. landscape--has three sections: foreground, middle ground and background
12. landscape--usually an artist divides a landscape into two parts (the sky may be either one-third or two-thirds of the painting and the land is the other portion of the fraction to equal the total sum of one)
13. linear perspective--objects in the foreground appear larger than objects in the background
14. aerial perspective--objects in the background appear fuzzy or out-of-focus (unclear)
Click here to see paintings that illustrate the terms mentioned above.