Gallon
A unit of liquid measurement (US) equal to four quarts, or to eight pints, or to 128 fluid ounces. To convert gallons into liter, multiply them by 3.7854. Abbreviated gal.

Genre and genres
Genre painting is the depiction of subjects and scenes from everyday life, ordinary folk and common activities. It achieved its greatest popularity in seventeenth century Holland (the Netherlands) with the works of Jan Steen (1626-1679) and Jan Vermeer (1632-1675). When used in the plural form, genres are the various categories of subject matter in the traditional academic hierarchy, in descending order of importance: history, megalography, mythology, religion, portraiture, genre (see the first sense above), landscape, still life, rhopography, and vernacular.

Gilding
Affixing thin metal leaf to a surface to give the effect of solid or inlaid metal. It is a very old technique that goes back to the Egyptians and the Chinese. It reached its highest point at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century with Victorian fashion and in the gilding of gold picture frames.

Glaze
Transluscent or near transparent coat of paint applied over another to change the value
and or hue of the undercoat. Most often used in oil painting.

Gold leaf
An extremely thin foil made of gold. It is available in various colors, each with a different proportion of copper or other metal in the alloy. Leaf made of less expensive material to resemble gold is sometimes referred to as gold leaf. Something to which gold leaf has been applied may be described as gilt or gilded.

Golden Mean or Golden Section, golden mean or golden section
A proportional relation (ratio) obtained by dividing a line so that the shorter part is to the longer part as the longer part is to the whole. Another way to describe this: a proportion between the two dimensions of a plane figure or the two divisions of a line, in which the ratio of the smaller to the larger is the same as the ratio of the larger to the whole: a ratio of approximately 0.618 to 1.0. The Golden Mean produces a harmonic effect called eurythmy found in nature as well as in a wide variety of works of art and design. Artists of various periods and cultures have found that dimensions determined by this formula are aesthetically appealing.

Glycerine
Wetting agent used in watercolor to slow the evaporation of water.

Gouache
Opaque watercolor paint. Most commonly used for commercial illustration. Can be mixed with transparent watercolors to make less opaque. These paints are made by adding chalk to the pigments to make them opaque. The use of gouache goes back to medieval manuscript illumination and was used in 16th - 18th century minature painting. Many painters combine gouache, pastel watercolors and India ink in the same painting. Also referred to as bodycolor and opaque watercolor, the term was first used during the eighteenth century in France to describe the use of a translucent water-based paint that had been rendered opaque by the addition of white pigment or chalk bound together with a binding agent such as gum arabic. Contrary to watercolor's key characteristic of transparent luminosity, gouache is defined by its matte and opaque quality.

Gradated wash
A wash that is light or thin in an area where little color has been applied, and gradually becomes darker or heavier into another area, where more color has been applied. A painting technique typically used with watercolors and inks, but possible with any thinned pigments.

Gradation
A gradual, smooth, step-by-step change from dark to light values or from large to small shapes, or rough to smooth textures, or one color to another.

Graffiti Art
An art form most popular during the 1970's and 1980's, but still alive today. The word Graffiti is the plural word for scratch in Italian. The actual practice of graffiti goes back to the Egyptians, but it was not thought of as an art form until the 1970's when the art world saw the work of street teens in the New York subways. There were some shows and artists acknowledged, but as soon as the raw street art came into the galleries of New York, the interest faded.

Grain
Structure or direction of the fibers in paper. A factor in determining the roughness or texture of paper.

Gram
A unit of weight measurement equal to 0.001 kilogram. To convert grams into ounces (US), multiply them by 0.03527.

Graphite
A crystalline form of carbon that was used at first as either a lump or sharpened point set into a metal holder. Although one of the finest lodes of graphite was discovered in 1560 at Borrowdale, England, extraction of the mineral was so highly regulated that its continued high price prevented any widespread usage until the late seventeenth century. In 1662, Friederich Staedtler began to manufacture pencils in Nuremberg. The strokes produced by graphite leave a line that has a relatively dark metallic luster, similar to lead point. The early misidentification of graphite with lead was not to be scientifically disproved until 1779, by which time the misconception that lead and graphite are one and the same had already entered modern-day usage--hence the confused nomenclature of lead pencil. Also called black lead and plumbago.

Gray scale
The range of neutral values, or shades of gray in an image. The gray scales of scanners and terminals are determined by the number of grays, or steps between black and white, that they can recognize and reproduce.

Grid
A framework or pattern of criss-crossed or parallel lines. A lattice. When criss-crossed, lines are conventionally horizontal and vertical; and when lines are diagonal, they are usually at right angles to each other. Typically graph paper is a grid of lines. Things which are often gridded: tiles, tesselations, wire screens, chess boards, maps, graphs, charts, calendars, and modern street plans.

Grisaille
A style of monochromatic painting in shades of gray, used especially for the representation of relief sculpture, or to simulate one. Achromatic painting. May refer to a gray underpainting, laid for subsequent color glazing.

Gum arabic
Sap drawn from the acadia tree. A water soluble medium used to suspend pigments in
watercolor based paints such as watercolors and guache.

H A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Halftone art
Printed imagery in which shades of gray are represented by a minute pattern of dots of variable size.

Hard-Edge Painting
A term first used in 1958 by the critic Jules Langsner to describe the work of West Coast painters rejecting the brushy look of Abstract Expressionism. It later became used for all American work that treated the picture surface as a single flat surface. These paintings took on a geometrical look and usually had a limited palette. The style was popular through the 1950's and was practiced by such painters as Kenneth Noland, Ellsworth Kelly, and Karl Benjamin.

Hardboard
Panels of shredded wood that is glued together with its own natural adhesive called lignin. It is excellent as a painting surface. It resists warping and swelling. It is made in two types, tempered and untempered. The tempered is impregnated with oil to aid in resisting moisture. It is harder and has a smoother surface. The surface of the tempered should be sanded to roughen it before priming. Both surfaces are good for painting.

Harmony
A principle of design, it refers to a way of combining elements of art to accent their similarities and bind the picture parts into a whole. It is often achieved through the use of repetition and simplicity.

Hatching
One of the most common ways for an artist to suggest volume and depth or to depict shadow, by which closely drawn parallel lines are grouped together. In the case of cross-hatching, the parallel lines are crossed by other sets of lines, creating a dense gridlike pattern.

Heightening/Highlights
A common technique for emphasizing mass and volume, highlights are produced by applying a light-toned pigment, usually white gouache or white chalk, to the desired area of the drawing. Can also be produced by erasure, such as black charcoal.

Helix
A three-dimensional spiral; a curve that lies on a cylinder or cone. Spirals -- helixes and volutes -- are among the ten classes of patterns. The chirality of a helix is the direction of its turning, or handedness. A right-handed helix turns as a screw does; a left-handed one turns in the opposite direction.

Hide Glue
Most commonly known as rabbitskin glue. A glue made from skins and bones of animals. Can be bought in sheets, powdered granules, or in powder. When mixed with hot water in various proportions it makes a very strong binder and good sealer. It is used in preparing grounds.

High art
Fine art, also known as beaux-arts, art that is of universal transcendence, having withstood the test of time and representing the epitome of artistic achievement, as opposed to low art, which is also known as mass culture. Until recently, a distinction was typically made between high and low art. Traditionally, high art consists of the meticulous expression in fine materials of refined or noble sentiment, appreciation of the former depending on such things as intelligence, social standing, educated taste, and a willingness to be challenged. Low art is the shoddy manufacturing in inferior materials of superficial kitsch, simply catering to popular taste, unreflective acceptance of realism, and a certain "couch potato" mentality. Although many earlier artists took inspiration from popular and folk art, the most systematic approaches towards blurring the differences between high and low art were taken by Cubism, Dada and Surrealism. Pop Art further weakened the distinction, and artists as various as Jean-Michel Basquiat (American, 1960-1988), Jeff Koons (American, 1955-) and the Guerrilla Girls (American), influenced strongly by the different branches of postmodern thought, have dealt it the further blows. It is not surprising, given for example that the song O Superman by performance artist Laurie Anderson (American, 1947-) reached the top ten of the pop charts in the U.S. and England, that video and camera artist William Wegman (American, contemporary) has appeared on television's The Tonight Show to promote a book of photographs, and that both have done segments on Saturday Night Live. In spite of this, one still wonders if the distinction still exists, albeit in a slightly different form. Few would seriously argue that the droves who follow televised wrestling matches and afternoon soap operas have any genuine interest in contemporary art. It is even less likely that the millions who read supermarket tabloids or romance novels would ever choose to read advanced art criticism.

Highlight
The area on any surface which reflects the most light. Also, to direct attention or to emphasize through use of color.

Homage
Special acknowledgment or respect shown or expressed publicly to persons whose influence an artist wishes to honor.

Homogeneity, homogeneous
Homogeneity is the quality of uniformity of structure throughout or composed of parts that are all of the same nature or kind.

Horizon line
A level line where water or land seems to end and the sky begins. Vanishing points are usually located on this line.

Horizontal
Straight and flat across, parallel to the horizon.

Horror vacui
The compulsion to make marks in every space. Horror vacui is indicated by a crowded design. In Latin, it is literally, "fear of empty space" or "fear of emptiness." Some consider horror vacui one of the principles of design. Those who exclude it from their list of principles apparently interpret it as posessing an undesirable, perhaps obsessive quality, in contrast to the desirable, controled principle of limitation, or perhaps to that of emphasis or dominance.

Hot-pressed
Hot-pressed (HP) paper is smoother than cold-pressed paper with less texture, therefore less sparkle and brilliance.

Hue
Color. The name of any color as found in its pure state in the spectrum or rainbow, or that aspect of any color. May refer to a particular wavelength. pigment colors combine differently than colors of light. The primary colors (in pigment: red, yellow, and blue; in light: red, green, and blue) together with the secondary colors (in pigment: orange, green, and violet; in light: cyan, magenta, and yellow) form the chief colors of the spectrum.

Humanities
The liberal arts -- the non-scientific branches of study, such as philosophy, literature, and art, that are concerned with human thought and culture.

I A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Icon
Loosely, a picture; a sculpture, or even a building, when regarded as an object of veneration.

Illustrator
A person who creates design and pictures for books, magazines, or other print or electronic media.

Image
A pictures, idea, or impression of a person, thing, or idea; or a mental picture of a person, thing, or idea. The word imagery refers to a group or body of related images.

Implied
Something that is suggested or inferred, rather than directly apparent.

Implied Line
A line that is suggested or inferred, rather than drawn.

Inch
A measure of length equal to 1/12 foot. 1 inch equals 2.54 centimeters.

Incident light
The light hitting an object's surface, not that reflected or scattered from it. The wavelength of incident light is usually more varied than that reflected from a surface, determining the colors perceived in the object. It undergoes selective absorption of some wavelengths as it is reflected. The law of reflection is a principle that when light is reflected from a smooth surface, the angle of incidence -- the angle at which the light hits a surface -- is equal to the angle of reflection, and the incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface all lie in the same plane.

Incongruity
A state of two or more things lacking harmony, being incompatible, inconsistent, absurdly combined. Such things would be described as incongruous. What makes something humorous or tragic is essentially an instance of incongruity. Incongruity is an idea explored often by artists influenced by Dada and Surrealism.

India ink
The name in the United States for black ink, the pigment made from carbon-- traditionally lampblack (derived from non-electric lamps). This ink is also used in solid forms, mixed with a binding agent and molded into cakes or sticks. Such solid forms are often called Chinese ink, Japanese ink, or sumi ink.

India or Chinese Ink
A form of black carbon ink that has been mixed with gum and resin and then hardened and molded into dry ink sticks ready to be watered down. It was imported into Europe from China as early as the sixteenth century, when it was mistakenly believed to come from the Indies, which has resulted in the present-day confusion in nomenclature. Today we think of India ink as the bottled black ink used for both drawing and writing.

Inert
Stable, unable to move or act at all, or sluggish in motion. In chemistry, not readily reactive with other elements; thus forming few compounds. Inert substances and materials are not easily decomposed or otherwise modified chemically, which is a particularly desirable characteristic for materials used in art conservation. Acid free papers and cardboards, for example, are more inert than acidic ones, so they degrade much more slowly; they are less likely to become discolored and brittle over time or upon exposure to various conditions during use or storage.

Ink
Liquid or paste media containing pigment(s) and used for writing, pen and brush drawing, and printing. Writing inks, even blacks, are rarely sufficiently permanent to be used for art purposes. Black drawing ink, known as India ink in the United States, is especially made for use in permanent works. When it dries it is water resistant, enabling it to be gone over with a wash or watercolor. Also available is a water-soluble drawing ink; though otherwise permanent, it is capable of being washed away with water, and may be preferred to water-resistant ink for certain work. Chinese ink is similar to India ink, although various minor ingredients are added to enhance its brilliancy, range of tone, and working qualities. Most colored drawing inks are not permanent; those made with permanent pigments are usually labeled with names of pigment ingredients rather than the names of hues. Printing ink is actually more closely related to paints than to the pen and brush inks.

Inspiration
Somebody or something that stimulates a person to a high level of feeling, to creative thought, or to make art. Inspiration may be the condition or quality of being stimulated to creative thought or activity. A sudden brilliant idea. To those who are religious, inspiration may be divine guidance and influence on human beings. To inspire someone is to fill that person with confidence and motivation; an inspired person feels that he or she can achieve something difficult or special.

Installation
This term is used in art to mean any work that is designed to be set up for viewing by the public. It is often designed for a specific site. They were first used in art in the 1970's and are still being done today. They are not as common today perhaps because of their unsalability. Most are only installed for a short time and then either moved or dismantaled. They can include any number or type of objects and activities imaginable. Some of the artists involved are Joseph Beuys, Daniel Buren, and Donald Lipski.

Intaglio
Any print or printing process that uses the idea of the ink being in recessed grooves in the plate. The plates are inked and then wiped. The print is made by pressing a damp print paper in the plate and the ink is drawn up out of the grooves and onto the paper. Some of the processes included in this category are etching, engraving, drypoint, and photogravure.

Intensity
The brightness or dullness of a hue or color. For instance, the intensity of the pure color blue is very bright. When a lighter or darker color is added to blue, the intensity is less bright, or more subdued.

Intermediate colors
Also known as tertiary color, they are produced by mixing unequal amounts of two primary colors. For example, adding more red to the combination of red and yellow will produce the intermediate color of red-orange. Intermediate colors are located between the primary and secondary colors on a color wheel. Other intermediate colors are orange-yellow, yellow-green, green-blue, blue-violet, and violet-red (also known as purple)-- all colors in the spectrum except violet-red-- a mixture of the two colors at the extremes of the visible spectrum.

Iron-Gall Ink
A black ink produced by crushing and soaking gall nuts in water so as to extract the tannic and gallic acids within the nuts. Ferrous sulfate and gum arabic are then added. Iron-gall is the ink most commonly used in European drawings from the fifteenth through the eighteenth centuries. When exposed to light, the ink can change in color from black to brown. Consequently, although today many old master drawings appear to have been drawn with brown ink, originally they would have been black. The natural acidity of the ink can also have a corrosive effect on the fibers of the paper, actually eating the paper away. There is at present no known preventative action that can be taken to halt the ultimately destructive effect of the ink.

J A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Japanese brush
Manufactured in Japan using stag hair and bamboo handle. Usually, flat and wider in size it is perfect for dampening wide areas or making large washes.

Japanese mending tissue
A very thin, strong, transparent tissue paper, used by art conservators to strengthen old or worn paper or to repair tears in paper.

judge and judgment
In art criticism, judgment is carefully thought out decision making in which one makes a personal decision about an artwork's success or lack of success (not like or dislike), preparing reasons to support this judgment. In art history, after describing, analyzing and interpreting a work, coming to thoughtful conclusions about the work's historical significance. Such conclusions might concern such things as a work's influence on other artists' works, or on the lives of its viewers.

Junk Sculpture
Mostly known in the 1950's. Really started by Kurt Schwitters, the German Dada artist, who made assemblages from things found in the streets after World War I. As an art form it seemed to gain speed during the period after World War II with the manufacture of so much throwaway merchandise by the United States. These products were glued and welded together to make artwork which made varying statements on our culture. Artists include Cesar, Lee Bontecou, Robert Raushenberg, and Jean Tinguely.

juvenilia
Works produced in an artist's youth.

juxtaposition, juxtapose
The state or position of being placed close together or side by side, so as to permit comparison or contrast.

K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ka
In ancient Egypt, immortal human substance; the concept approximates the Western idea of the spirit or soul. One of Egypt's hieroglyphs is a ka, a figure with two bent arms.

kachina
Any supernatural being important in the religion of the Hopi and Zuni Indians of Arizona, USA, represented in painted figurines (kachina dolls) and in costumes of ritual impersonators wearing masks and costumes. Also spelled katsina.

kakemono
In Japanese art tradition, a painting mounted for hanging vertically.

karma
In Buddhist and Hindu belief, the ethical consequences of a person's life, which determine his or her fate.

keeper
A student's artwork, which can be kept by the student because it has been made with enough of the qualities required by the teacher. If the keeper is ceramic, this assessment permits a piece to be fired as well as taken home by the student. Such a procedure can be useful in limiting waste, and in attaining various design standards.

Kelvin
A unit of absolute temperature often used in photography to measure the color temperature of a source of light. Abbreviated K, kelvins can be converted to degrees Celsius by subtracting 273. Certain tungsten lamps are designed to burn at specific absolute temperatures (usually 3200 or 3400 K), guaranteeing that compatible photographic films will render the color they illuminate quite accurately.

Kitsch
This term refers to the "low-art" artifacts of everyday life. Paintings of Elvis on velvet, lamps from the statue of David, and clocks in statues of Budda. The term comes from the German verkitschen meaning "to make cheap." It has been made popular in the years since the beginning of pop art. These objects are now revered by collectors as "camp" making low art into high art.

Knowledge
The remembering of things previously learned. This may involve the recall of a wide range of material, from specific facts to complete theories; involving all that is required in the bringing to mind of appropriate information. Knowledge represents the lowest level of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain. Objectives of lessons which will increase a student's knowledge can be stated with such behavioral terms as: arrange, cite, choose, check, define, describe, find, group, hold, identify, indicate, label, list, locate, match, memorize, name, narrate, observe, offer, omit, outline (stating a format), pick, point to, quote, recall, recite, recognize, record, relate, repeat, report, reproduce, say, select, show, sort, spell, state, tally, tell, touch, transfer, underline, and write. The next higher thinking skill is comprehension.

Kolinsky
Fur of the Siberian mink, hairs from which are used for the finest "sable" brushes.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z