Medium
Any material used to create a work of art.
Cartoon
As distinct from common usage, where it refers to a drawing with humorous content, any full-sized drawing, subsequently transferred to the working surface, from which a painting or fresco is made.
Delineation
The descriptive representation of an object by means of outline or contour drawing.
Dry Media
Pigments are mixed together with a binder that will hold them together (Metalpoint,chalk, graphite, charcoal, and pastel).
Liquid Media
Pigments are suspended into liquid binders (Ink, wash).
Edition
In printmaking, the number of impressions authorized by the artist made from a single master image.
Proofs
A trial impression of a print, made before the final edition is run, so that it may be examined and, if necessary, corrected.
Relief
In printmaking, any process in which any area of the plate not printed is carved away, leaving only the original surface to be printed. Image raised up off the background in reverse; reverse image transfer.
Woodcut
A relief printmaking process, in which a wooden block is carved so that those parts not intended to print are cut away, leaving the design raised.
Intaglio
Any form or printmaking in which the line is incised into the surface of the printing plate, including acquaint, drypoint, etching, engraving, and mezzotint. Refers to any printmaking process in which cut or incised lines are filled with ink.
Engraving
An intaglio printmaking process in which a sharp tool called a burin is used to incise the plate. Make micro thin lines or broader lines.
Etching
An intaglio printmaking process in which a metal plate coated with wax is drawn upon with a sharp tool down to the plate and then placed in an acid bath. The acid eats into the plate where the lines have been drawn, the wax is removed, and then the plate
Lithography
A printmaking process in which a polished stone, often limestone, is drawn upon with a greasy material; the surface is moistened and then inked; the ink adheres only to the greasy lines of the drawing; and the design is transferred to dampened paper, usua
Silkscreen
Also known as serigraph, a print made by the process of serigraphy. Image is transferred to support by forcing ink through a mesh screen (silk).
Daguerrotype
One of the earliest forms of photography, invented by Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre in 1839, made on a copper plate polished with silver. (Positive image).
Calotype
The first photographic process to use a negative image. Discovered by William Henry Fox Talbot in 1841. Using paper instead of a metal plate, multiple prints were possible, and he could reverse the negative image of the photogenic drawings by placing shee
Aperture
The opening that determines the quantity of light admitted by a camera lens.
Dodging
A photographic technique that decreases the exposure of selected areas of the print that the photographer wishes to be lighter.
Medium
Any material used to create a work of art. In painting, a liquid added to paint that makes it easier to manipulate.
Encaustic
A method of painting with molten beeswax fused to the support after application by means of heat.
Fresco
Painting on plaster, either dry (fresco secco) or wet (buon, or true fresco).
Buon fresco
The paint is chemically bound to the plaster, and is integral to the wall or support.
Fresco secco
The paint is an independent layer, separate from the plaster proper.
Tempera
A painting medium made by combining water, pigment, and, usually, egg yolk.
Connotation
The meaning associated with or implied by an image, as distinguished from its denotation.
Denotation
The direct or literal meaning of an image, as distinguished from its connotative.
Didacticism
An approach to m akin art emphasizing its ability to teach and, particularly, elevate the mind.
Oil Paint
A medium using linseed oil as a binder that became particularly popular beginning in the fifteenth century.
Watercolor
A painting medium consisting of of pigments suspended in a solution of water and gum arabic.
Acrylic
A plastic resin that, when mixed with water and pigment, forms an inorganic and quick-drying pain medium.
Camera Obscurra
16th century, a small hole in the wall of a perfectly dark room admits a ray of light that projects, upside down onto a semi-transparent scrim.
Photography
Writing with light.
Burning
A photographic technique that increases the exposure to areas of the print that should be darker.