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Terms for Describing the Art Elements

This is only a partial list to help you get started.  Add your own words, but even more importantly, start with the artwork itself.  Discuss the colors, texture, space, shape, and lines that you actually see in the piece.

Colors

COLORS-advancing, receding, light, dark, chairoscuro (literally means light and dark), intense, opaque, transparent, primary (red, yellow, blue), secondary (orange, blue, violet), intermediates (red-yellow, blue-green and so forth), warm colors (those colors which are hot in nature, the YELLOW sun, RED fire, ORANGE sunset, cool colors (GREEN grass, BLUE sky, VIOLET ice), warm colors tend to advance toward the viewer, cool colors tend to recede, expressive colors, symbolic colors (there are colors that provide cultural associations, or change our moods). . .

Shape or Form

SHAPE or FORM-circular, angular, concave, convex, distorted, geometric, biomorphic (those shapes that are found in nature), organic, hard, soft, highly modeled, open, closed, highly delineated, elongated, truncated. . .

Line

LINE-implied, continuous, broken, controlled, curved, straight, hard edge, soft edge, painterly, linear, jagged, smooth, passive, active, energetic, distorted, thick, thin, fragile, monumental. . .

Space

SPACE-balanced, expansive, flat, deep, three-dimensional, two-dimensional, empty, full, crowded, ordered, random, overlaping, shallow, architectonic, faceted. . .

Texture

TEXTURE-artificial, natural, coarse, fine, matte, dull, shiny, raised, bumpy, slippery, soft, hard, slithery, fluffy, brilliant, crusty, sparkling. . .

Look at the world around you, examine works of art, you will find many adjectives to add to this list.

 
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