page contents

Review Sheet 

Art Instructor: Ms. Amal

Composition: Arrangement of elements in a work of art.

Foreground: Part of the picture plane that appears closest to the viewer. The foreground is usually at the bottom of the picture.

Unity: Principle of design that allows the viewer to see a combination of elements, principles, and media as a whole.

Variety: Principle of design concerned with difference or contrast…a change in form, shape, detail…making one object different from another. The use of various elements---lines, shapes, textures---to create interest in an artwork.

Symmetry: A special type of formal balance in which two halves of balanced compositions are identical, mirror images of each other.

Medium: Any materials used to create art.

 Background: Part of the picture plane that appears farthest from the viewer.

Two-dimensional: Flat artwork. Like drawing, painting, prints, and photography.

Three-dimensional: Artwork that exists in real space. Like sculptures and architecture.

Negative spaces: Empty spaces surrounding shapes and forms. The shape and size of negative spaces affect the interpretation of positive spaces. Negative spaces are also called ground.

Positive spaces: Shapes or forms in two- and three-dimensional art. Empty spaces surrounding them are called negative spaces or ground.

Details: Small parts in the artwork.

Shape: an element of art that is two-dimensional and encloses space. Shape has length and width. Shapes are either geometric or free forms.

Forms: Objects having three dimensions. Like a shape, a form has height and width, but it also has depth. Forms are either geometric or free forms.

Emphasis “Focal point”: Area of a work of art that attracts the viewer’s attention first; focal points are created by: 1. Contrast 2. Location 3. Isolation 4. Use of the unusual.

Motif: A unit (object, shape, etc.) repeated in visual rhythm. Sometimes motives are exact duplicates and sometimes they are not.

Module: A three dimensional motif.

Texture: the element of art that refers to how things feel, or look as if they might feel, if touched. Tactile texture / Visual texture

Color: is an element of art that is derived from reflected light. Three properties of color work together to make the color we see.

Components of Color:

  • Intensity: is the brightness or dullness of a hue.
  • Value: is the art element that describes the lightness or the darkness of a color.     Value depends on how much light a surface reflects.
  • Hue: is the name of the color in the color spectrum.

Primary Colors: Blue, red, and yellow; they are called primary because they cannot be made by mixing other hues together.

Secondary Colors: Made by mixing two primary colors together. Secondary colors are green, purple, and orange.

Analogous Colors: Colors that sit side by side on the color wheel and have a common hue.

Monochromatic Colors: A color scheme that uses only one hue and the tints and shades of that hue for unifying effect.

Complementary Colors: The colors opposite each other on the color wheel. Mixing any color with its complementary dulls it. For example, red /green, blue/ orange, yellow/ purple.