I think that artists often forget that the ‘artist bubble’ exists with its own language that a lot of non-artists, or beginner artists, don’t understand.
Something that highlighted this for me is when my friends were constantly confused when I tag my work in progress sketches as ‘wip’ lol...
So I’ve writing this as a sort of ‘guide’ to some of the common terms and abbreviations that you may see art-y people talk about & feel too embarrassed to ask them what they mean!
This will probably be a post I’ll be coming back to and adding to as time goes on and I discover new terms btw!
(also feel free to send my suggestions to add to this in the replies or in an ask!)
Art Language 101
(these are in alphabetical order to make it easier for you to search btw!)
Abstract - This is artworks that don’t depict anything in particular. This is the opposite of Figurative, basically (scroll to see that definition).
Alpha Value - This refers to the opacity level of an image, so an image with an alpha value of 0 will be transparent, whereas 1 is opaque. This is often used more in editing, I believe.
Art Fight - A challenge essentially where you can sign up and draw other artists’ original characters & they’ll draw yours (and I believe there’s a sort of scoring system but most people I’ve talked to about it just use it as a way to share art with each other).
CMYK - Stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, and these set of primary colours are usually specifically used in printing. (not to be confused with RGB or RYB, which are two other colour systems).
Chiaroscuro - A term referring to paintings with extreme contrast of light and shadow (the Baroque artist Caravaggio is a well known example of this). (a note: Tenebrism refers to the extreme version of chiaroscuro, but is often less used).
Clipping Mask - This is a digital art term which refers to an area you’ve selected where you can only draw on that section. (It basically acts as digital masking tape, making sure you only draw in the areas you want.)
Composition - This is how an artwork is put together and where things go in the canvas in order to make it look ‘pleasing’. (Although not all artists go for a pleasing composition, and a composition can change the entire mood of a piece.)
Contour - This essentially refers to the outline of an image which can help give the image depth.
Contrapposto - Often used for sculptures, this refers to a person posing with their hip up and torso twisted slightly, since in Antiquity and the Renaissance it was seen as the most ‘natural’ looking pose to sculpt. (an example of this pose would be Michelangelo’s David).
Dtiys - Stands for Draw This In Your Style, a popular challenge where artists draw other artists’ work in their own style.
En plein air - A technique pioneered by the Impressionist painters in late 19th century, refers to painting things (particularly landscape) whilst outside.
Figurative - This means depictions of perceptible things, such as people, objects, places, etc.
Filters - These are often called ‘Blending Options’, where each option (such as multiply, subtract, burn, etc) will make the layer above effect the layer below in certain ways. These can be really fun to play around with if you’re just getting into digital!
Hue - This refers to the specific shade of colour.
Impasto - This is essentially thick layers of paint used in traditional paintings, often giving a piece texture and dimension.
Inktober - A popular challenge in October where people draw in ink for the entire month based on various prompt lists. Drawtober is another popular October challenge.
Line Economy - This is something that some artists adopt, the idea of using as few lines in a drawing as possible.
Mermay - A popular challenge in May where artists draw Mermaids.
Mesh - This is an overlay you can apply to an object in digital art, where you can use the mesh tool to easily manipulate the colour of it.
Motif - These are symbols that are commonly used in art as shorthand for meaning something. So for example, skulls in a lot of paintings in history are often used to reference death.
Naturalism - This refers to artwork that’s made to reflect nature, often seen as the opposite of Idealistic paintings (it basically embraces the wonkiness of nature and how things are often messy in nature). Not to be confused with Realism, which is similar but more interested in representation?
OC - Stands for Original Character.
Occlusion - This is a technique to create depth, where objects are hidden behind other surfaces.
Photorealism - A style of painting that aims to look like a photo. Similar to Hyper-realism, although that often goes for even more detail.
Relief - This is a sculptural term which refers to sculpture that sits on a flat base.
Render / Rendering - This is the act of drawing/interpreting a particular concept or image. It’s often used in art spaces as referring to detailed and complete images, but it’s honestly kind of just a fancy way of saying ‘drawing’ lol...
Radial Shading - This is basically the way a sphere, or other round 3D objects, should be shaded in order to make them look more realistic.
Realism - This is essentially an art style that wants to represent the natural world. It’s often seen as the opposite of ‘Stylised’.
RGB - Stands for Red, Green and Blue, and is usually used when you want to mix coloured lights together (and is also primarily the colour system that computers use). (not to be confused with RYB or CMYK)
RYB - Stands for Red, Yellow and Blue, typically what we know as primary colours and usually used when traditionally painting. (not to be confused with RGB or CMYK)
Saturation - This refers to the vibrancy/strength of the colour. Less saturated colours become greyscale.
Sfumato - Technique of shading specifically pioneered by Leonardo Da Vinci, it basically translates as ‘smoke’ and is about using shading to create no harsh lines but instead a smooth transition.
Specular - This is when an object is so smooth that you can see the reflection obviously, whereas less specular objects will have a diffused light reflection.
Stabiliser - Used in digital art, this is how you can control how ‘smooth’ your brush strokes are. It basically slows down the brush so you can take more time on a stroke.
Tangents - This is essentially a ‘rule’ in art that when drawing you shouldn’t have your lines intersect into the same point.
Stylised - Art that has a distinctive look to it, often specific to a particular artist, often associated with cartoons or animation. It’s usually seen as the opposite of realism, since it adjusts the real world to fit a unique style.
Uncanny Valley - Not specifically an art term, but one you often here associated with art. This is when art looks like a distorted version of reality. Hyper-realistic paintings can often have this affect, leading to some very creepy effects.
Value - This essentially refers to how light or dark a colour is. It’s often used in conjunction with Tone, but it’s a contentious subject which I’m not going to get into here... really all we need to know is that they both refer to the lightness and darkness scale of a colour.
Wip - Stands for Work In Progress.
Zine - Shortened version of Magazine, but often refers to smaller independent magazines or fanzines (including fanart, etc).
Ben Davis on the art words of the year, from "antimemetics" and "elite capture" to "red chip" and "slurry."
Sometimes the art world needs new words just to keep up with itself.
Academics and industry experts work hard to define trends, behaviours, and market shifts - and those definitions matter. But when read together, some of the terms start to feel like a language created to keep uncertainty in check.
Ездили на выходные в Москву и так случилось, что больше всего увидели современного, понимаешь, искусства. Оно чарует ,правда) Своей простотой, остроумием, насмешкой. Нужно было дожить до 34 годиков, чтобы понять и оценить это.
Конечно не всё современное, что творят творцы, стоит того, чтобы именоваться искусством- иногда это откровенный шлак. Но честное слово, я околдована))
И да, язык СоврИска многое значит и весит в этом направлении. И да, всё как по книге: это не перевёрнутый писсуар- это фонтан ☝
