Art Glossary

Action painting is the gestural, physical application of paint pioneered by Pollock and de Kooning. Learn its history, key artists, and how to spot it.

Alla prima is wet-on-wet painting completed in a single session. From Frans Hals to Monet to Sargent, learn the history and technique of direct painting.

Anamorphosis is a projection technique where a distorted image resolves into a coherent picture from a specific viewpoint. From Holbein to Niceron, learn how it works.

Aquatint is an etching technique that produces tonal areas using powdered resin and acid. From Goya's Caprichos to modern printmakers, learn how it works.

An armature is the internal support structure for sculpture, made of wire, rods, or pipes. From Verrocchio to Degas, learn how sculptors use hidden skeletons.

Assemblage is sculpture made from found objects and everyday materials. Learn its history from Picasso to Rauschenberg, key artists, and how it changed art.

Atmospheric perspective creates depth by making distant objects paler, bluer, and less detailed. Learn how Leonardo da Vinci codified it and how painters use it today.

Blind contour drawing is an exercise where you draw without looking at the paper, training observation over production. From Nicolaides to Betty Edwards, learn its history.

Bookbinding is the art of constructing books by hand, from Coptic sewing to exposed-spine structures. Learn its history, key practitioners, and modern revival.

A bozzetto is a small, rapidly modeled terracotta sketch used by sculptors to develop ideas in three dimensions. Learn how Bernini, Algardi, and Baroque sculptors used clay bozzetti.

Broken color places pure, unmixed strokes side by side to blend in the eye. Learn how Monet, Van Gogh, and Seurat used this technique for brighter, vibrating color.

Calligraphy is the art of expressive writing across Chinese, Japanese, Islamic, and Western traditions. Learn its history, key practitioners, and modern revival.

Camaieu is painting in shades of a single color other than gray. From ancient Pompeii to Renaissance palaces to porcelain decoration, learn this monochrome technique.

The camera obscura is a dark chamber optical device that projected images for painters before photography. From Vermeer to Canaletto, learn how it shaped art.

A cartoon is a full-size preparatory drawing used to transfer a composition to fresco, tapestry, or panel. From Raphael's Vatican Cartoons to Leonardo's drawings, learn how they worked.

Carving is subtractive sculpting from solid materials like stone, wood, and ivory. Learn its history from prehistory to Michelangelo and how it works.

Chalk is a soft drawing material made from natural minerals: black shale, red iron oxide, and white calcite. Learn how Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Watteau used chalk and the trois crayons technique.

Charcoal is burnt organic matter used for drawing since prehistory. Learn vine vs compressed charcoal, techniques from blending to fixative, and artists from Da Vinci to Kathe Kollwitz.

Chiaroscuro is the use of strong light-dark contrast to model form and create drama. From Leonardo to Caravaggio to Rembrandt, learn how it shaped Western painting.

Chine-colle bonds thin paper to a heavier support during printing, adding color and texture. Learn its history, technique, and use by Matisse and Redon.

Collage is art made by assembling paper, photographs, and found materials. Learn its history from Picasso and Braque to Hannah Hoch and contemporary artists.

Color Field painting uses large expanses of flat color as the subject itself. Learn how Rothko, Newman, and Still pioneered this Abstract Expressionist style.

A contact print is a photographic print made with the negative directly touching the paper. Learn how it works, its history, and why large-format photographers still prize it.

A contact sheet is a print of all negatives from a roll of film, used for editing and selection. From LIFE magazine to Peter Hujar's archive, learn its history and purpose.

Conté crayons are compressed graphite or charcoal mixed with clay, invented in 1795 during the Napoleonic Wars. Learn how Seurat used them and why artists still choose them over soft pastels.

Contour drawing is the technique of rendering a subject entirely through its outlines, capturing form and volume without shading. From Picasso to Matisse, learn how it works.

Cross hatching is the drawing technique of overlapping sets of parallel lines to build darker values. From Durer to Rembrandt, learn how it creates tone and form.

Doodle art is spontaneous, often meditative drawing that ranges from notebook margins to structured Zentangle and mandala patterns. Learn its history and practice.

Dry brush is a painting technique using minimal paint on a dry brush to create broken, textured strokes. From Durer to Wyeth, learn how it works.

Drypoint is an intaglio print made by scratching a metal plate with a needle. The burr creates a rich, velvety line that wears out fast. Learn how Rembrandt used it.

Engraving is an intaglio print made by carving lines directly into a metal plate with a burin. From Schongauer to Durer to Goya, learn how it shaped printmaking.

Etching is an intaglio print made by drawing through wax on a metal plate and bathing it in acid. Learn how Rembrandt, Goya, and Whistler used it to transform printmaking.

Fat over lean is the oil painting rule that each layer should contain more oil than the one beneath. Learn the science behind why it prevents cracking and delamination.

Foreshortening compresses objects along the line of sight to create perspective depth. Learn how Mantegna, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio used this technique.

A found object is an everyday item an artist selects and presents as art. Learn the history of objet trouvé from Duchamp's Fountain to Tracey Emin's My Bed.

Fresco is painting on wet plaster so the pigments bond with the wall. Learn how Michelangelo, Raphael, and Giotto used this ancient technique.

Gesture drawing is rapid drawing that captures the movement and essence of a figure. Learn its history, key practitioners, and how to practice it from Kimon Nicolaides to today.

Glass art is sculpture made from glass, using glassblowing, casting, and cold working. From Murano to Dale Chihuly, learn its history and methods.

Glazing is the application of thin transparent oil paint layers over dry paint to create luminosity and depth. From Van Eyck to Rembrandt, learn how it works.

Gold leaf is the application of thin gold sheets as surface or background in painting. Learn gilding techniques from medieval icons to Renaissance altarpieces.

Graphite is a crystalline carbon used for drawing since the 1500s. Learn graphite grades from 9H to 9B, its Borrowdale origins, and how artists use it today.

The grid is a tool for transferring and scaling images accurately. From Alberti's veil to Durer's perspective machines to Chuck Close, learn its history and use.

Grisaille is painting entirely in shades of gray, often to simulate stone sculpture. From Van Eyck to Goya, learn how this monochrome technique shaped Western art.

Halation is the optical glow that appears where light meets dark in a painting. Learn how Baroque painters used dark halos and warm edges to make light appear to radiate.

Hard-edge painting features abrupt transitions between flat color areas. Learn how Frank Stella, Ellsworth Kelly, and California painters defined this style.

Hatching is the drawing technique of using closely spaced parallel lines to create tonal value. From Durer to Rembrandt, learn how this fundamental technique works.

Hyperrealism is painting and sculpture so detailed it seems more real than reality. Learn its origins from photorealism, key artists, and how to spot it.

Illustration is the art of creating images that communicate, accompany, or respond to text. Learn its history from medieval manuscripts to digital media.

Impasto mediums are additives that thicken oil and acrylic paint for visible texture. Learn what they contain, how they work, and how Rembrandt and Van Gogh used them.

Imprimatura is a thin toned layer applied to a painting support before painting begins. Learn its history from the Renaissance to Rubens and why it matters.

Intaglio is the printmaking family where ink sits in recessed lines below the plate surface. From engraving to etching to mezzotint, learn how it works.

Kirigami is the Japanese art of cutting and folding paper to create three-dimensional forms. Learn its history, key practitioners, and engineering applications.

Leather tooling is the art of carving and stamping designs into damp vegetable-tanned leather. Learn its history from Islamic bookbinding to Western saddlery.

Letterpress is relief printing from movable type, invented by Gutenberg in 1440. Learn its history, technique, and contemporary revival in fine art printing.

Linocut is relief printmaking from carved linoleum, cheaper and easier than woodcut. Learn its history from 1905 to Picasso's reduction technique and today.

Lithography prints from a flat stone using the resistance between oil and water. From Senefelder to Daumier to Toulouse-Lautrec, learn how it transformed printmaking.

Long exposure photography uses extended shutter speeds to blur moving elements while keeping stationary elements sharp. Learn its history from Daguerre to contemporary practice.

Lost-wax casting, or cire perdue, is the ancient bronze casting method used from 4000 BCE to the Renaissance. Learn its history, technique, and key sculptors.

A maquette is a scale model for a sculpture or architectural project. From Rodin's Burghers of Calais to contemporary public art commissions, learn how maquettes shape the final work.

Marouflage is the technique of adhering a painted canvas to a wall or ceiling using adhesive. From Renaissance murals to modern conservation, learn how it works.

Medium format photography uses 120/220 roll film for negatives larger than 35mm but smaller than large format. From Rolleiflex to Hasselblad to 2026's new cameras, learn the format.

Mezzotint is an intaglio technique that works from dark to light, roughening a copper plate and smoothing areas for tone. Learn its history from von Siegen to today.

Modeling is additive sculpting with soft materials like clay and wax. Learn its history, technique, and use from ancient Egypt to Rodin and beyond.

Monotype is a printmaking technique that produces a single unique impression from a painted plate. From Castiglione to Degas to Chagall, learn how it works.

Mosaic is art made from small pieces of stone, glass, or ceramic set in mortar. From Roman floors to Byzantine domes, learn how mosaic works and who made it.

A photographic negative is an image with reversed tones on film or glass, from which positive prints are made. Learn its history from Talbot to 2026, and why it still matters.

Negative space drawing shifts focus from the subject to the shapes around it. Learn its history from Japanese ma to Betty Edwards and how it transforms composition.

Optical mixing is the eye's blending of adjacent colors placed side by side. From Seurat's pointillism to Monet's brushwork, learn how it works.

Origami is the art of folding paper into representational and abstract forms without cutting. Learn its history from Japanese ceremony to computational design.

Papercutting is the art of creating decorative images by cutting from a single sheet of paper. Learn its history from Chinese jianzhi to Dutch knipkunst.

Pastel is a stick of pure pigment held together with minimal binder. Learn how Degas layered pastels with fixative, how La Tour built portraits in the 18th century, and why pastel blurs drawing and painting.

Patina is the surface color and texture that forms on metal through age, oxidation, or chemical treatment. Learn how sculptors from Cellini to Moore used it intentionally.

Pen and ink is drawing with liquid ink applied through a nib. Learn about iron gall ink, quill and reed pens, steel dip pens, and how Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and Picasso used ink for permanent, expressive line.

The pencil is graphite mixed with clay, encased in wood. Learn pencil grades from 9H to 9B, the history from 1564 Borrowdale graphite to Conté's clay process, and how artists use them.

A pentimento is a visible trace of a changed composition beneath a painting's surface. Learn how X-ray and infrared imaging reveal artists' revisions from Rubens to Ensor.

Photogravure etches photographic images into copper plates and prints them in ink. Learn its history from Talbot to Stieglitz and why it still matters today.

Planographic printing prints from a flat surface using chemical separation, not carved depth. From lithography to offset, learn how it works and why it matters.

Plein air is painting outdoors directly from nature. Learn how the paint tube, Valenciennes, Constable, and Monet turned outdoor observation into a revolution in painting.

Pointillism is Seurat's technique of applying small dots of pure color that blend in the viewer's eye. Learn its history, key artists, and how to spot it.

Red chalk, or sanguine, is an iron oxide drawing material used since the Renaissance. Learn how Leonardo invented red-on-red, how Watteau mastered trois crayons, and why this warm medium dominated 18th-century drawing.

Relief printing is the oldest printmaking family, printing from a raised surface. From woodcuts to linocuts to Japanese mokuhanga, learn how it works.

Repousse is hammering malleable metal from the reverse side to create relief designs. Learn its ancient history, technique, and famous examples.

Screen printing pushes ink through a mesh screen onto paper or fabric. From Warhol's Marilyn to protest posters, learn how serigraphy became a fine art medium.

Scumbling is dragging thin broken layers of opaque paint over a darker dry layer for texture, haze, and soft light. From Titian to Turner, learn how it works.

Secco is painting on dry plaster using organic binders. Less durable than buon fresco but more flexible. Learn its history, techniques, and key examples.

Sfumato is Leonardo da Vinci's technique of gradual tonal blending with no visible lines. Learn how he used it in the Mona Lisa and Virgin of the Rocks.

Sgraffito is scratching through a surface layer to reveal a contrasting color beneath. Learn its history from Renaissance facades to pottery to contemporary painting.

Silverpoint is drawing with a silver stylus on a specially prepared surface, leaving delicate gray lines that oxidize to warm brown. Learn its history from Leonardo to today.

Stained glass is colored glass assembled in lead frames to create images in windows. From Chartres to Tiffany, learn how this 1,000-year-old art form works.

Stippling is the art of building value and texture with dots. Learn its history from Renaissance engraving to scientific illustration and how it differs from pointillism.

A stump, or tortillon, is a rolled paper tool used to blend charcoal, graphite, and pastel. Learn the difference between stumps and tortillons, how to use them, and why they give artists precise control over tonal transitions.

Tattooing is the art of inserting ink into skin to create permanent images. Learn its history from Indigenous traditions to contemporary fine art crossover.

Tenebrism is Caravaggio's extreme chiaroscuro, where darkness dominates and light cuts through like a spotlight. Learn its history, artists, and how to spot it.

Thumbnail sketches are small, rapid compositional studies that save time and prevent structural failures. Learn their history from Renaissance esquisses to concept art.

Tonal drawing builds form from patches of light and shadow rather than lines. Learn its history from Leonardo to Velazquez and how it differs from linear drawing.

Trompe l'oeil is the art of visual deception, painting objects so realistically they appear to exist in real space. From Pompeii to Pere Borrell del Caso, learn how it works.

Underpainting is the foundational layer beneath a painting's surface. Learn about grisaille, verdaccio, dead coloring, and how Vermeer and Rembrandt used it.

A viewfinder is a frame artists use to isolate and compose a scene. From Klimt's cardboard cutout to modern adjustable tools, learn how viewfinders shape composition.

Wet-on-dry is applying fresh paint over a dried layer for sharp edges and controlled building. Learn how oil and acrylic painters use it for glazing and detail work.

Wet-on-wet is painting into still-wet paint so colors blend on the surface. Learn how oil paint's slow drying made this technique central to alla prima and plein air.

Wood engraving is fine relief printing from end-grain boxwood, developed by Thomas Bewick in the 18th century. Learn its history, technique, and key artists.

Woodcut is the oldest printmaking technique, carving images into wood blocks for relief printing. Learn its history from China to Durer to Hokusai's ukiyo-e.

The Zone System is Ansel Adams and Fred Archer's method for controlling exposure and development to translate light into specific print tones. Learn how it works and why it still matters.