Hi, my name is Penelope Forest. I am nineteen years old and I study in Visual Arts at the College Lionel Groulx. I've been studying in this field for two years already and I would like to introduce new students to the vocabulary often used in my classes. In this glossary, I will be introducing words related to Visual Arts. I feel like this could help new students begin their journey with Visual Arts easier.
acrylic
noun
Acrylic paint is a fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion and plasticizers, silicon oils, defoamers, stabilizers, metal soaps.
Example: ACRYLIC paints with gloss or matte finishes are common, although a satin (semi-matte) sheen is most common.
fr: acrylique
aesthetic
adjective
Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty.
Example: The area is rich in biodiversity and the landscape has an AESTHETIC value and has been designated as an Area Of Natural Beauty (EHDC, 1995, 2005).
fr: esthétique
apron
noun
A protective or decorative garment worn over the front of one's clothes and tied at the back.
Example: Mrs Joe, with black hair and eyes...was tall and bony, and almost always wore a coarse APRON...having a square impregnable bib in front that was stuck full of pins and needles.
fr: tablier
brush
noun
An implement with a handle, consisting of bristles, hair, or wire set into a block, used for cleaning or scrubbing, applying a liquid or powder to a surface, arranging the hair, or other purposes.
Example: The essence of modernity is captured by Simmel for the very reason that he never attempts define it, he never tries to paint it accurately, but chooses to give us an impression, paradoxically these blurry BRUSH-strokes seem to show us a heightened sense of reality.
fr: pinceau
canvas
noun
A strong, coarse unbleached cloth made from hemp, flax, cotton, or a similar yarn, used to make items such as sails and tents and as a surface for oil painting.
Example: When I first started doing the stain paintings, I left large areas of CANVAS unpainted, I think, because the CANVAS itself acted as forcefully and as positively as paint or line or color.
fr: toile
clay
noun
A stiff, sticky fine-grained earth, typically yellow, red, or bluish-gray in color and often forming an impermeable layer in the soil. It can be molded when wet, and is dried and baked to make bricks, pottery, and ceramics.
Example: They left prayer sticks, CLAY figures and vessels of water in underground holes as votive offerings to the supernatural forces and the rain-cloud spirits (Hodder 2001: 45).
fr: argile
creativity
noun
The use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.
Example: Although other factors such as the storylines, action, wisdom and creativity have something to do with the number of viewers.
fr: créativité
drawing
noun
A picture or diagram made with a pencil, pen, or crayon rather than paint.
Example: One of them is called 'the Big Draw' and it allows kids to develop their creative ideas for DRAWING (Field Notebook, 2004) .
fr: dessin
eraser
noun
An object, typically a piece of soft rubber or plastic, used to rub out something written.
Example: Before rubber ERASERS, tablets of wax were used to erase lead or charcoal marks from paper.
fr: efface
imagination
noun
The faculty or action of forming new ideas, or images or concepts of external objects not present to the senses.
Example: Whether you are 6 or 60, the sight of seven sword-wielding skeletons battling with three horror struck Argonauts is guaranteed to have your eyes popping out of your head while transporting your IMAGINATION to a world where the impossible does happen.
fr: imagination
medium
noun
A liquid (e.g., oil or water) with which pigments are mixed to make paint.
Example: Acrylics have the ability to bond to many different surfaces, and MEDIUMS can be used to modify their binding characteristics
fr: médium
painting
noun
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface.
Example: In 'The Portrait of Dorian Gray', Wilde uses Lombroso's concept of degeneration and physicality to establish both character description and the demise of Dorian Gray through his PAINTING.
fr: peinture
pencil
noun
An instrument for writing or drawing, consisting of a thin stick of graphite or a similar substance enclosed in a long thin piece of wood or fixed in a metal or plastic case.
Example: A child must perfect their fine motor skills in order to manipulate a PENCIL to produce letters.
fr: crayon
photography
noun
The art or practice of taking and processing photographs.
Example: Logos & Images The main FilmReel.com logo was produced from original PHOTOGRAPHY and art in Adobe Photoshop and features at the top of each page to maintain a strong iconographic presence.
fr: photographie
photoshop
verb
Alter (a photographic image) digitally using Photoshop image-editing software.
Example: Appropriate artwork was created from original designs using Adobe PHOTOSHOP.
fr: photoshop
plaster
noun
A soft mixture of lime with sand or cement and water for spreading on walls, ceilings, or other structures to form a smooth hard surface when dried.
Example: Sometimes a blank block of PLASTER itself was carved to produce mock-ups or first drafts of sculptures (usually relief sculptures) that would ultimately be sculpted in stone, by measuring exactly from the cast, for example by using a pointing machine.
fr: platre
sculpture
noun
The art of making two- or three-dimensional representative or abstract forms, especially by carving stone or wood or by casting metal or plaster.
Example: Florentines also led the way in the revival of classical SCULPTURE.
fr: sculpture
sketch
noun
A rough or unfinished drawing or painting, often made to assist in making a more finished picture.
Example: A 2D SKETCH can be created within modelling software, for example, SolidWorks; which can then be used to generate a 3D model of the rear wing.
fr: esquisse
spatula
noun
An implement with a broad, flat, blunt blade, used for mixing and spreading things, especially in cooking and painting.
Example: A common type would be stainless steel SPATULAS, which are widely used because they are sturdy and affordable.
fr: spatule
video
noun
The recording, reproducing, or broadcasting of moving visual images.
Example: Details of hand pad morphology will be recorded with the aid of a VIDEO recording camera.
