Glossary
I thought I might throw out a quick glossary of art term as I pick them up in my thought patterns. I rarely use technically correct terms when I write about art as my head isn't in pro mode, it's in conversational mode. As I transition back into the Semester and back into critique territory I will be thinking about my work in technical terms much more frequently and probably leaking that here to an extent. To forestall the eventual puzzled looks or the rush to google that my version of information vomit causes I figured I might explain a bit.
This is the color edition so I will go over the basic terms for discussing color.
What everyone else calls color has two proper names, hue and chroma. Both are used to identify a specific specimen of the visual spectrum that is neither pure black nor pure white. For example you would identify the hue of your lamp as red. The hue of your car would be blue, and so on.
I use hue rather than chroma because chroma is incorporated into so many other technical terms that it can be confusing used by itself.
Saturation refers specifically to the intensity of hue. If you have a color that is as intense as it can get you have a fully saturated hue.
Tint referes to the addition of white to any hue.
Shade is the addition of black to any hue.
Practically speaking a red headed toward burgundy with black in it is a shade, a red headed for pink is a tint.
Monochrome refers to a single hue used in a spectrum of tints and shades to create an image. No other hues are used to create depth of field so the trick here is to finely tune the lights and darks to get the most out of your one color and create dimensionality in a composition.
Chromatic is the term used to denote a spectrum of hues. A chromatic black is one made up of several hues mixed to achieve a near black with highlights of all the hues. The purpose of doing this is to bring depth and reality to a work. Flat black out of the tube will frequently flatten an image to the picture plane when used next to a mixed or layered color.
That is a decent chunk to chew over for now. I will rustle around in my head and plot out another post in a few days.
This is the color edition so I will go over the basic terms for discussing color.
What everyone else calls color has two proper names, hue and chroma. Both are used to identify a specific specimen of the visual spectrum that is neither pure black nor pure white. For example you would identify the hue of your lamp as red. The hue of your car would be blue, and so on.
I use hue rather than chroma because chroma is incorporated into so many other technical terms that it can be confusing used by itself.
Saturation refers specifically to the intensity of hue. If you have a color that is as intense as it can get you have a fully saturated hue.
Tint referes to the addition of white to any hue.
Shade is the addition of black to any hue.
Practically speaking a red headed toward burgundy with black in it is a shade, a red headed for pink is a tint.
Monochrome refers to a single hue used in a spectrum of tints and shades to create an image. No other hues are used to create depth of field so the trick here is to finely tune the lights and darks to get the most out of your one color and create dimensionality in a composition.
Chromatic is the term used to denote a spectrum of hues. A chromatic black is one made up of several hues mixed to achieve a near black with highlights of all the hues. The purpose of doing this is to bring depth and reality to a work. Flat black out of the tube will frequently flatten an image to the picture plane when used next to a mixed or layered color.
That is a decent chunk to chew over for now. I will rustle around in my head and plot out another post in a few days.