KS3 Art and Design key terms

128 terms with short definitions you can learn for the exam. Type to filter the list.

Key terms glossary 110

Abstract
Art that does not try to show recognisable things, using colour, shape, line and texture for their own sake.
Additive
Making a sculpture by building up or joining material, as in modelling clay or constructing with card.
Analogous colours
Colours next to each other on the colour wheel, such as yellow, yellow-orange and orange.
Annotation
Written notes that explain and evaluate artwork: what was done, how, why and what to do next.
Aperture
The opening in a camera lens that lets light in. A wide aperture gives a shallow depth of field.
Armature
An inner frame, often of wire, that supports a sculpture while it is built.
Assemblage
Art made by putting together found objects.
Asymmetrical
Not the same on both sides. An asymmetrical composition can still feel balanced.
Atmospheric perspective
Showing distance by making faraway things paler, bluer and less detailed.
Background
The part of a picture that seems furthest from the viewer.
Bisque
Clay that has been fired once in a kiln but not yet glazed. Also called biscuit ware.
Blending
Shading smoothly from one tone or colour to another with no visible lines.
Brief
A statement of what a design must do and who it is for.
Casting
Making a sculpture by pouring a liquid material, such as plaster or molten metal, into a mould.
Charcoal
A soft black drawing material made from burnt wood. Good for bold tone; it smudges easily.
Chiaroscuro
Strong contrast between light and shadow, used to make forms look solid. Italian for light-dark.
CMYK
Cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black): the inks used in colour printing.
Collage
Art made by sticking paper, photos, fabric or other materials on to a surface. From the French coller, to glue.
Colour wheel
A circle of colours showing how primary, secondary and tertiary colours relate.
Complementary colours
Colours opposite each other on the colour wheel: red and green, blue and orange, yellow and purple.
Composition
How the parts of an artwork are arranged.
Contour line
A line that follows the outside edge of a shape or form.
Contrapposto
A relaxed standing pose with the weight on one leg, developed by ancient Greek sculptors.
Contrast
A strong difference, for example between light and dark, rough and smooth, or complementary colours.
Cool colours
Blues, greens and purples. They can feel calm or cold and seem to move back in a picture.
Cross-hatching
Layers of crossing lines used to build up tone.
Cubism
A movement begun by Picasso and Braque around 1907 that showed objects from several viewpoints at once, using geometric shapes.
Depth of field
How much of a photograph, from near to far, is in sharp focus.
Edition
A set of prints made from the same block or plate. A print marked 3/20 is the third of twenty.
En plein air
French for 'in the open air': painting outdoors, as the Impressionists often did.
Evaluate
Judge how successful a piece of work is, with reasons, and suggest improvements.
Focal point
The part of an artwork the eye is drawn to first.
Foreground
The part of a picture that seems nearest to the viewer.
Foreshortening
When something pointing towards the viewer looks shorter than it really is.
Form
A three-dimensional shape with height, width and depth, such as a sphere or cube.
Formal elements
The basic parts of art: line, shape, form, tone, texture, pattern and colour.
Fresco
Painting on to wet plaster so the colour becomes part of the wall.
Frottage
Making a rubbing of a textured surface with paper and a pencil or crayon.
Genre painting
A painting of a scene from everyday life, popular in the Dutch Golden Age.
Geometric shapes
Regular, mathematical shapes such as circles, squares and triangles.
Gesture drawing
A quick drawing that captures the movement and pose of a figure rather than detail.
Glaze (ceramics)
A glassy coating that melts in the kiln to make clay shiny, colourful and often waterproof.
Glaze (painting)
A thin, transparent layer of paint over dry paint.
Gouache
An opaque water-based paint with a matt finish.
Hatching
Parallel lines used to create tone. Closer lines look darker.
Hierarchical scale
Drawing more important people larger, as in ancient Egyptian art.
Highlight
The brightest area on an object, where light hits it most directly.
Horizon line
In perspective drawing, a horizontal line at the viewer's eye level.
Hue
A pure colour, such as red, blue or yellow.
Impasto
Paint put on so thickly that brushstrokes or knife marks stand up from the surface.
Implied texture
Texture that is drawn or painted to look real but cannot be felt. Also called visual texture.
Installation
Art that fills a space so the viewer is surrounded by it or walks through it.
Intaglio
Printmaking in which lines are cut or etched into a plate and the ink in the grooves is printed, such as etching.
Juxtaposition
Placing contrasting or unrelated things side by side, often to surprise.
Kiln
A very hot oven used to fire clay and glazes.
Leather-hard
Clay that is firm but still slightly damp: good for joining and carving.
Line weight
How thick, thin, dark or light a line is.
Linear perspective
A system of drawing in which parallel lines going away from the viewer meet at vanishing points, creating depth.
Lost-wax casting
A casting method in which a wax model is covered in a mould, melted out, and replaced with molten metal.
Maquette
A small model made to plan a larger sculpture.
Mixed media
Using more than one material or technique in one artwork.
Monochromatic
Using tints and shades of a single hue.
Monoprint
A one-off print; each one is unique.
Mood board
A collection of images, colours and textures that sets a feeling or theme.
Motif
A shape or image that is repeated to make a pattern.
Negative space
The empty space around and between objects.
Observational drawing
Drawing from real objects, people or places in front of you.
Opaque
Not see-through. Opaque paint covers what is underneath.
Organic shapes
Irregular, natural-looking shapes, such as leaves or clouds.
Palette
A surface for mixing paint, or the range of colours an artist uses.
Patron
A person or organisation that pays an artist to make work.
Pattern
A design in which a line, shape or colour is repeated.
Photomontage
A collage made mainly from photographs.
Pigment
The coloured powder in paint, mixed with a binder.
Pixel
One tiny square of colour in a digital (raster) image.
Pointillism
Painting with small dots of pure colour that mix in the viewer's eye, developed by Georges Seurat.
Portrait
An artwork that shows a particular person. A self-portrait shows the artist.
Primary colours
In painting, red, yellow and blue: colours that cannot be mixed from other colours.
Primary source
Something you record first-hand, from real life.
Proportion
The size of one part compared with another or with the whole.
Relief print
A print made by inking the raised surface of a block after cutting away the rest, such as a lino print.
Relief sculpture
Sculpture that stands out from a flat background.
RGB
Red, green and blue: the colours of light that screens mix to make every colour.
Rule of thirds
Dividing a picture into a 3 by 3 grid and placing key features on the lines or where they cross.
Score and slip
Joining clay by scratching both surfaces and adding slip before pressing them together.
Screen printing
Printing by pushing ink through a fine mesh, with a stencil blocking some areas.
Secondary colours
Orange, green and purple, each made by mixing two primary colours.
Secondary source
An image made by someone else, such as a photograph from a book or website.
Sfumato
Very soft blending of tones with no harsh outlines, used by Leonardo da Vinci.
Shade
A colour made darker by adding black.
Shape
A flat, two-dimensional area with height and width.
Slip
Clay mixed with water to a creamy liquid, used to join clay or to decorate it.
Stippling
Building tone with many small dots.
Sublime
In Romantic art, nature shown as so vast or violent that it fills the viewer with awe and even fear.
Subtractive
Making a sculpture by removing material, as in carving.
Surrealism
A movement launched in Paris in 1924 that explored dreams and the unconscious mind.
Symmetry
When one half of a design mirrors the other.
Tenebrism
Very dramatic lighting, with figures lit strongly against dark backgrounds, as in Caravaggio's paintings.
Tertiary colours
Colours made by mixing a primary colour with the secondary colour next to it, such as red-orange.
Texture
How something feels, or looks as if it would feel.
Tint
A colour made lighter by adding white.
Tone
How light or dark something is.
Transparent
See-through. Watercolour is transparent, so the paper shows through.
Vanishing point
A point on the horizon line where receding parallel lines appear to meet.
Vector image
A digital image made of mathematical paths that can be resized without losing quality.
Viewfinder
A small frame used to choose and plan a composition.
Warm colours
Reds, oranges and yellows. They can feel energetic or hot and seem to come forward in a picture.
Wash
A thin, even layer of watered-down paint.
Wedging
Kneading clay to remove air bubbles before using it.
Wet-on-wet
Painting on to wet paper or wet paint so colours spread and blend softly.

Movements and dates to know 18

1400s to 1500s: the Renaissance
Italy, then Europe: linear perspective, anatomy, oil paint. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael.
1600s: Dutch Golden Age
Portraits, landscapes, still lifes and everyday scenes for Dutch homes. Rembrandt's The Night Watch (1642), Vermeer.
1603 to 1868: Edo period, Japan
Ukiyo-e woodblock prints. Hokusai's The Great Wave off Kanagawa (around 1831).
1839
Louis Daguerre announces the daguerreotype, an early form of photography.
1860s to 1880s: Impressionism
France: light, outdoor painting, quick brushstrokes. First exhibition 1874. Monet, Morisot, Degas, Pissarro.
1880s to 1890s: Post-Impressionism
Van Gogh, Cézanne, Seurat (pointillism), Gauguin. Named by Roger Fry in 1910.
1919 to 1933: the Bauhaus
German school of art and design joining art, craft and industry. Founded by Walter Gropius.
1920s: Mexican muralism
Huge public murals telling Mexico's history. Diego Rivera.
1924 onwards: Surrealism
Paris: dreams and the unconscious. Dalí, Magritte, Miró, Oppenheim.
1940s to 1950s: Abstract Expressionism
New York: action painting (Pollock) and colour field painting (Rothko).
1970s to today: contemporary art
Installation, land art, video and new media. Kusama, El Anatsui, Ai Weiwei, Himid, Gormley.
About 1600 to 1750: the Baroque
Drama and strong light and dark. Caravaggio (tenebrism), Artemisia Gentileschi, Velázquez's Las Meninas (1656).
About 17,000 years ago
The Lascaux cave paintings in France, made with ochre and charcoal.
About 1907 to 1914: Cubism
Paris: several viewpoints at once, geometric shapes, collage. Picasso and Braque.
About 530 BC
Red-figure pottery is developed in Athens, ancient Greece.
Late 1700s to mid-1800s: Romanticism
Emotion, nature and the sublime. Turner, Constable's The Hay Wain (1821), Friedrich, Goya.
Late 1800s: Arts and Crafts
Britain: handmade craft and nature-inspired design. William Morris.
Mid-1950s to 1960s: Pop Art
Britain then the USA: adverts, comics and celebrities. Hamilton, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Blake.
Practise Art and Design freeRevision checklist