DESIGN GLOSSARY abstract, abstraction Theoretical rather aesthetic, aesthetics The criticism of than applied or practical; something taste. The sense of the beautiful. Of or considered apart from physical existence. In pertaining to the sense of the beautiful and art: An "abstraction" is a type of painting that the accepted notions of what constitutes uses representational shapes or forms as a good taste artistically. Having a love of point of departure but freely adapts or beauty. (Plural, aesthetics) A branch of subjugates these to the aesthetical purposes philosophy that provides a theory of beauty of the artist. The process of selecting and and the fine arts. In common usage, this organizing the visual elements to make a refers to the large and general sense of a unified work of art. Also a twentieth-century personʼs taste. Preferences of color, form, style of art in which the particulars of subject content and scale add up to a personʼs matter are generalized in the interests of aesthetic. (From the Greek aisthetikos, of formal (compositional) invention. (See sensory perception.) nonobjective.) affect To influence or bring about a accommodation The ability of our eye's change in. To touch or to move the emotions. flexible lens to change shape in order to Also, a strong feeling that has active adjust focus between far and near figures. consequences. (See effect.) The muscle movements required are detected by the brain as an indicator of a afterimage A psychophysical spatial station. characteristic of vision in which an image persists after the original stimulus has been achromatic Denotes the absence of hue removed. The hues of the image are the and refers to the neutrals of black, white, and additive complements to those originally gray. Achromatic colors are often called observed. (See simultaneous contrast.) "neutral colors." (See chromatic; neutrals.) ambiguous space A visual phenomenon actual grays Uniform value achieved by occurring when the spatial relationships the continuous deposit of drawing media, between positive and negative shapes are such as blended charcoal or ink wash. (See perceptually unstable or uncertain. (See optical grays.) figure-ground shift; interspace; positive- negative reversal.) acuity, visual (See distinctness.) ambiguity Doubt or uncertainty in additive color The color mixing system of meaning. Ambiguous: capable of being light. When the primary hues, red, green, and understood in two or more possible senses; blue are added together, the result is white equivocal. light. Yellow is seen when red and green lights are mixed; cyan is a combination of analogous colors Colors that are green and blue light; magenta, of red and adjacent, or near one another, on any hue blue. circle (color wheel) and therefore have strong hue similarity. One set of analogous colors is aerial perspective Our understanding of yellow, yellow-green, green, and blue-green. the effects of the atmosphere on the (See analogous color scheme; color distinctness, contrast range, hue, and purity scheme.) of colors. analogous color scheme A color arrangement based on several hues that are 1 adjacent or near one another on the color wheel. (See analogous colors; color asymmetrical balance Visual equilibrium scheme.) achieved by adjusting such qualities as the scale and placement of elements in different analogy An actual or an implied parts of a composition. (See approximate correspondence between things that are symmetry; symmetrical balance.) different in all other respects. Relationships may be based on any sorts of conceptual, asymmetry The principle of the seesaw formal (shape and structure), or perceptual transposed into pictorial form. Parts of a characteristics. composition, unequal in area (size), are balanced in visual weight on either side of an anamorphosis Optical magnification imaginary fulcrum. The fulcrum is the center ordinarily in one direction or along only one of visual balance, not the center of the axis. Anamorphic drawings or paintings are picture. distorted images that may be viewed undistorted from a particular angle of view or atmospheric perspective A means for with the use of a special instrument. achieving the illusion of three-dimensional space in a pictorial work of art. Sometimes angling The process of transferring called aerial perspective, it is based on the perceived angles in the environment to a fact that as objects recede into the distance drawing surface. their clarity of definition and surface contrast diminish appreciably. anomaly Deviation from the common rule or form; in particular, an irregular, abnormal, autonomic Spontaneous or involuntary. contrary, or missing element (or motif) in an otherwise regular field or sequence of axial symmetry (See bilateral identical figures. symmetry.) approximate symmetry A form of visual background The most distant zone of balance which divides an image into similar space in a three-dimensional illusion. (See halves but which avoids the potentially static foreground; middleground.) quality of mirror-like opposites associated with symmetrical balance. (See balance A weighing device consisting of a asymmetrical balance; symmetrical horizontal beam with pans of equal weight on balance.) each end. A stable state characterized by cancellation of all forces by equal opposing artistic block The interruption of an artist's forces. A stable mental or psychological natural creative output. Often accompanied state. Equality of totals in the credit and debit by feelings of severe frustration and loss of sides of an account. Equilibrium of opposing confidence. visual weights, hues, or psychological and physical forces or a combination of these. assimilation A process by which a Our response to balance is intimately linked meaningful percept (a figure or an impression to our earliest childhood discoveries of our obtained by one or more of the senses) is bodies. We instinctively value balance compared to the vast body of personal because it is necessary to stand, run, knowledge and experience; placing things escape. From this primal physical reality we physically or psychologically in a familiar derive our general preference for balance in context. composition. 2 contrast to adjacent elements. A gray frame basetone The darkest tone on a form, on a gray wall will not separate a print from located on that part of the surface that is its environment as much as a gold frame, for turned away from the rays of light. (See instance. chiaroscuro.) brightness An ambiguous term behavioral conditioning A term that sometimes used to mean "purity," sometimes encompasses anything learned by "luminance"; more often used to refer to a experience and practice: observation, combination of these two dimensions of color. imitation, formal education, and any behavior modification due to reward and punishment. brilliance The vividness of a color. This concept is often generalized as "nurture" as opposed to "nature," which consists of cast shadow The shadow thrown by a innate or genetic characteristics. form onto an adjacent or nearby surface in a direction away from the light source. (See bilateral symmetry A form of design in chiaroscuro.) which elements repeat themselves as perfect mirror images along a vertical (or horizontal) center A point equidistant or at an average axis or bisector. distance from all points on the outer boundaries. The middle. A point around blind contour Line drawings produced which something revolves; axis. The part of without looking at the paper. Such drawings an object that is surrounded by the rest; core. are done to heighten the feeling for space A place of concentrated activity or influence. and form and to improve eye-hand A person or object that is the chief object of coordination. attention, interest or emotion. The ring circling a bull's eye of a target; a spot within blind spot The point where the optic nerve this ring. A familiar danger in drawing is to leaves the retina of the eye. As this area locate early marks dead center on the page, possesses no rods or cones, it does not creating a visual and emotional gravity that is respond to light or images. hard to escape. There's not much happening at the center of a seesaw. body color The "colored" appearance of any matter or substance (like a paint film), change A transition from one state to caused by differences in the molecular another, altered state: a movement from one structure of such substances. Molecular place to another place; a passage from one differences determine which wavelengths of moment in time to another; any sort of light are absorbed and which are reflected. transformation such as metamorphosis, Such colors are affected by the spectral growth, decay, and erosion. composition of the incident light. chiaroscuro The arrangement of light and boundary The outer limit, the edge of a dark shading as defined by light rays flowing shape, particularly as it stands in relation to over a three-dimensional form. Chiaroscuro an adjacent form or space. Boundaries defines volumes in two-dimensional pictorial separate a "this" from a "that," and a "here" works. Also, a style of pictorial art employing from a "there." A frame around a picture only light and shade without the use of separates the image from the space around contour lines. Refers to the gradual transition it. The frame is a boundary. The visual of values used to create the illusion of light strength of a boundary depends on its and shadow on a three-dimensional form. 3 The gradations of light may be separated into collaboration A joint intellectual effort. To six separate zones: highlight, quarter-tone, elaborate is to extend an idea; to collaborate halftone, basetone, reflected light, and cast is to do so with partners. shadow. collage An artistic composition or chroma (See purity and intensity.) materials and objects pasted over a surface, often with unifying lines and color. Originating chromatic Exhibiting a definite color or with the French word coller, to glue, a hue. Refers to color or the property of hue.