Art Glossary for Teachers

acrylic: a special type of plastic. When an acrylic painting “dries”, a chemical reaction takes place. The paint cannot be dissolved. This is not true of watercolor or tempera.

complementary colors: colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel. These colors can set each other off for drama, or can be used for mixing. Adding a little green to a bright red, for example, dulls it down.

composition: the way a painting is designed. Some paintings are based on triangles, others on diagonals. Many follow the Rule of Thirds, which is based on the Golden Ratio.

easel: a special rack with three legs and a crossbar. Acrylic and oil painters like to put their work on an easel so they can stand back and see it from a distance. Many painters stand at an arm’s length from their work. Watercolor painters usually use a drawing board or table instead of an easel because runs and drips are important in their work. It is easier for them to tilt the drawing board to control these effects.

expressionist: an expressionist artist expresses feelings through his or her work.

medium: the material an artist uses to create a work of art. It is an old Latin word, so the plural is “media.” Examples of media include pastel (a special chalk), watercolor, oil, acrylic, pencil, crayon, and tempera. The word “medium” is also used to describe a special solution used to thin paint. Each type of paint requires a different medium.

negative space: the shape of the space between objects.

opaque: something is opaque if you can’t see through it. Cardboard and wood, for example, are opaque. Glass is transparent, and tissue paper is translucent. Most acrylic artists apply the paint thickly, and it is opaque. Some artists, however, use it like watercolor, thinning it with water or a special medium until it becomes transparent.

palette: a plate or other surface that an artist uses to mix custom colors.

palette knife: a special flat plastic or flexible metal knife used for mixing paint and applying it to the canvas.

pigment: a powdered color, mixed with a binder (a kind of glue) and medium to create paint. Pigments are made from minerals and compounds created by inventive chemists. The old masters used pigments ground from gem stones such as lapis lazuli.

primary color: three basic colors used to mix all of the colors on the color wheel. Red, yellow, and blue are primary colors.

reference: a sketch, photograph, an object, or a scene that an artist refers to, or looks at, as he draws or paints. Just as you use many references when you write a report, an artist looks at several sources when he or she paints. Some paintings, such as abstract works, require no references.

secondary color: three colors created by mixing primaries. Orange, green, and purple are secondary colors.

stretcher bars: wooden bars designed to fit together to create a rigid rectangle. Canvas, linen, or other material is stretched tight and tacked or stapled to these bars. This makes a lightweight, flexible, and strong support for an oil or acrylic painting.

style: an individual artist’s way of painting. The American artist Hopper, for example, has a very distinctive style. Nobody else paints quite the way he did.

support: a support is the surface on which a work of art is created. It can be a piece of wood, a cloth banner, a sheet of paper, or stretched canvas. I use canvas.

synthetic brush: artists’ brushes can be made out of animal hair or out of synthetic fibers. Bristle brushes, made from stiff animal hair are good for oils. Sable brushes, made from soft, flexible animal hair are best for watercolor. Synthetic, or manmade fibers, are best for acrylic. These brushes are stiff enough to pull thick acrylic paint across the canvas, but they are also flexible enough to handle fine detail.

texture: roughness or smoothness

tint: any hue plus white. Pink is a tint. So is lavender.

tone: any hue plus black.

tube: a container for paint. This form of paint delivery became popular in the 1800s. Tube paints made it possible for Impressionists to take their work out of their studios and into to the countryside.