Acrylic
A synthetic plastic resin used as a binder for paint.

Aesthetics
Having to do with beauty and its relation to human beings

Assemblage
A work of art made by constructing or linking found objects, rather than mounting them on a flat surface.

Background
The most distant part or back of a picture.

Balance
Equal arrangements of elements within a composition.

Bisque Ware
Clay that has been dried and fired once.

Canvas
A tightly stretched cloth surface on which to paint. Canvases are usually mounted on wooded frames called stretchers.

Carving
Cutting in wood, stone, etc.

Ceramics
The art of making objects out of clay

Chalk Pastel
Pigment added to chalk.

Clay Board
A Masonite board coated in layers of clay.

Collage
From the French word coller which means "to paste." A collage is made by gluing assorted materials to a flat surface.

Color
Color is light. When a beam of light is diffused by a means of a crystal prism, a spectrum of the entire range of pure colors is made visible. Every color we normally see is light, which has either been reflected from or transmitted by a colorant such as a pigment or dye.

Color Wheel
The spectrum of colors bent into a circle.

Composition
The structure or organization of a work.

Contour
A line that creates the illusion of mass and volume in space.

Contrast
The amount of brightness or darkness between colors.

Cool Colors
Any color that suggests something cold. Hues can be made cooler by adding white. On the color wheel the cool colors are from yellow-green to violet.

Drawing
The art of representing something on a surface by means of lines and shades with a pencil, crayon, pen, etc.

Foreground
Things in a picture that seen the closest.

Form
An object represented in three dimensions (sphere as opposed to circle).

Geometric Shapes
Shapes with regular contours or straight edges such as squares, triangles, circles, etc.

Gesso
A white mixture of chalky pigment combined with glue that is used to prepare a canvas for painting.

Glaze
A smooth, glossy, or lustrous finish that can be colored or clear used on ceramics.

Glazed Ware
A finished piece of ceramics.

Green Ware
Formed clay that has not been fired.

Horizon Line
Where the sky meets the land or ocean in a painting or drawing.

Hue
The property that gives colors names, such as red orange, yellow, etc.

Installation
An assemblage constructed in a gallery specifically for a particular exhibit.

Kiln
A special oven used to fire clay and glass.

Kneaded Eraser
An eraser used with pencil and chalk pastel drawings that can be molded and used for removing color or pencil from a drawing.

Landscape
A work of art that depicts a scene in nature.

Line
A mark made by a moving point.

Masters
Art done in the style of well known artists throughout history.

Media
Materials used by an artist.

Mixed Media
A painting or other work of art in which more than one material is used to create it.

Modeling
Building up a soft material such as clay or wax.

Monochrome
A color scheme that involves one hue (color) and the values (tints) of that one hue.

Motif
A theme, idea, or pattern in a work of art. Motifs are often repeated.

Oil Paints/Pastels
Pigment ground with oil.

Palette
A thin board on which a painter mixes paints.

Perspective
A system for representing three-dimensional space on a flat surface.

Pigment
Any substance used as a coloring agent.

Polychrome
Art done in several colors.

Polymer Clay
A plastic based oven-baked clay.

Portrait
An image of a person.

Printmaking
Art made by transferring an image from an original source to another surface, usually paper. Printmaking allows an artist to make multiple copies form one original source.

Saturation
The purity, vividness, or intensity of a color.

Scale
The size of an object as compared to other objects.

Scratchboard Tools
Tools used to carve or draw designs on clay board.

Sculpture
A three-dimensional work of art made by carving or modeling.

Shade
When black is added to a color to make it darker, the new color is referred to as a shade.

Sketch
A rough drawing or painting usually used by an artist as means of recording preparation for a more finished piece of work.

Slip
Watered down clay used as a glue when doing ceramics.

Still Life
A painting representing objects such as fruit, flowers, or household items.

Style
The belief that artworks form a particular era share certain characteristics, such as color, size, material, subject, and content.

Sgraffito
Decoration by cutting away part of a surface area to expose a different colored layer (used in ceramics).

Stylus
A wooden stick used to embellish the surface of various artworks.

Symmetry
Balance that is achieved by placing forms on a real or imaginary axis so that each side of the work corresponds with the other.

Technique
The way in which an artist uses a material in the creation of an artwork.

Textiles
Woven materials or any type of cloth.

Texture
The actual or implied quality of a surface such as rough, smooth, hard, soft, etc.

Tint
When white is added to a color to make it lighter, the new color is referred to as a tint.

Underglaze
Pigment applied to ceramics before glazing.

Value
The technical name for shading, which gives color the quality of seeming light or dark.

Warm Colors
Any color that suggests something warm, darkening a hue tends to make it warmer. On the color wheel warm colors are from yellow to red-violet.

Watercolor
A painting technique using pigment mixed with water and applied to an absorbent surface.

Watercolor Pencils
Watercolors in pencil form.