General
Aesthetic - The appreciation for beauty and design in our world. Having taste for a particular style.
Additive - Art like sculpture or collage where you add on 3-D elements.
Asymmetry - A composition where there are not the same things on both sides.
Atmospheric Light - When objects in the distance are faint, blurred, and bluish in color.
Background - The objects in the back of an image like a landscape.
Back stitch - sewing one stitch backward on the front side and two stitches forward on the reverse side to form a solid line
Balance and Rhythm - The way in which objects are harmoniously arranged in art, either symmetrical or asymmetrical.
Composition - Arrangement of lines, shapes, colors, etc. in a art piece.
Ephemeral - Something that lasts a short amount of time, like most street art.
Embroidery - Making decorative stitches with a needle.
Focal Point - The first spot people look at in a work of art.
Foreground - The objects in front of an image such as a landscape.
Foreshortenoing - An image where the parts of a single object appears large in the foreground and smaller in the distance. For example, a photograph or drawing of a person sitting with their feet up facing the front would appear to have large shoes and a small head.
Form and Function - Form is how well an object is designed and pleasant to the eye and how well it works for its intended purpose.
Grid / Graph - Equidistant horizontal and vertical lines.
Imagination - Creative ideas that come fromone’s brain.
Mandala - A circular design.
Media - The word artist traditionally used for art materials.
Middle ground - The objects in the middle of an image, often a landscape.
Narrative - Art that appears to involve a story.
Negative Space - The empty space around the main shape of an image.
Organic - Natural forms from nature.
Orientation - In art this often refers to vertical or horizontal compositions.
Ornament - Decoration often added to architecture and other physical designs.
Overlap - Something that is laid on top of another thing.
Pattern - A design that repeats itself.
Perspective - Objects in the distance seem small while closer ones are full sized.
Pictogram - A symbol that can be seen and understood quickly.
Process - A task done step by step - a series of actions that come to an eventual end.
Positive Space - The main shape of an image, like ther person in a portrait.
Proportion, Scale - The size of one thing in relation to another. For example, cups are designed to be held by human hands.
Rhythm - Shapes that suggest patterns and movements much like music in a work of art.
Scoring - Pressing straight and curved lines into paper to make them more easily bendable.
Silhouette - The outlined shape of an object.
Spiral - A swirl that starts at the center and keeps curving outward.
Stylized - The unique style in which a particular type of art is made.
Symmetry - A composition where there are the same things on both sides.
Subject - The main objects of an image.
Subtractive - Art where you take away 3-D elements.
Symbol - A graphic image that stands for an idea.
Technique - The way in which a particular kind of art is made.
Texture - The way something feels.
Three-Dimensional - Something with multiple sides and dimensions.
Thumbnail sketches - Small sized sketches to figure out the composition of a work of art, or a cartoon panel.
Two-Dimensional - Something that is flat.
Juxtoposition - The pairing of objects in an image.
Volume - Something with weight and mass.