Basic Art Vocabulary

For those who don't know me, I'm considered an exceptional artist. Those who do know me, you're about to learn something new. I have placed highly in a good number of art competitions and I've also been accepted into a college that has one of the top art programs in the nation (US) that I believe was mainly because of my portfolio (since my grades could have used some work). But enough about me, let's get to the point.

Hopefully, I will do a continuation of art tutorials starting from basic knowledge to more advanced art knowledge. Don't take my full word on this because depending on my feelings about Mibba, I may or may not do this. I will also do requests and accept them if and only if I think they're sensible.

Now, let the games begin!

Dictionary.com defines Art as "the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance._[1]"

Values and Shapes

Line: a stroke that indicates separation between two areas of space. Lines can vary in thickness, color and value (see value)

Proportion: is the comparison of different sizes in a drawing that make visual since. Sometimes proportion is exaggerated in art to create a certain affect. i.e. drawing a large head can represent someone being cocky.

Shade: a shade is created by adding black to a color.

Shape: is an closed line that represents the size, depth, and weight of an object. i.e. and circle representing a ball.

Tint: a tint is created my adding white to a color.

Tone: a tone is created by adding gray to a color.

Value: is the scale from light to dark. It's used to create depth and perception in an artwork.

Colors

Primary colors: primary colors consist of red, blue, and yellow. They are called primary colors because no two colors can be mixed to create these colors.

Secondary colors: secondary colors consist of purple, green, and orange. They are secondary because mixing two primary colors together can create these colors. (In case you don't know: red+blue=purple; red+yellow=orange; yellow+blue=green)

Tertiary colors: tertiary colors consist of yellow orange, red orange, red violet, blue violet, blue green, and yellow green. These colors are created by mixing primary colors with secondary colors. i.e. (blue +yellow) + blue = blue green.

Complimentary colors: are two colors that are opposite on the colorwheel. They are called complimentary because they are considered the best visually matched colors. The complements are: red and green; yellow and purple; blue and orange; red orange and blue green; yellow green and red violet; yellow orange and blue violet. Examples: LA Lakers (yellow and purple); Florida Dolphins (red orange and blue green); Christmas (red and green).

Analogous colors: are a pair of colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. i.e. yellow orange, orange, red orange, red.

Warm colors: are colors that are visually warm. They consist of yellow, yellow orange, orange, red orange, red, and red violet.

Cool colors: are the visually cool colors. They consist of yellow green, green, blue green, blue, blue violet, and purple. side note: purple is a tricky color since it is a mix of red and blue which is a mix of a cool and warm color where the colors are equally dominate (unlike green where blue is a lot more dominate than the yellow) so sometimes a different hue of purple or purple itself can get away with being warm.

Neutrals: are a mix of complementary colors that create a hue of brown, generally ranging around the same hue of brown.

Warm neutrals: is where more of a warm color is mixed with it's compliment pair. (wish I could give an example picture, but I can't find one)

Cool neutrals: is where more of a cool color is mixed with it's compliment pair.

Textures

Hatching: is the repetition of sparce lines going in one direction.

Cross hatching: is the repetition of criss-crossing of lines.

Scumble: is the use of random line patterns. They can range from scribble to random hatches.

These different line textures could be used to represent different surfaces. For example, you should probably use the scumble technique if you're drawing a lint ball. Hatching could be used to draw an apple.

There are all the basics for now. These can be used to start your basic drawings and easy artword.