Glossary of Terms

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BALANCE is

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COLOUR is an element of art.  Another word for colour is hue.  There are primary colours, secondary colours, warm colours, and cool colours.

CONTRAST is

CREATIVITY is the human ability to use imagination to come up with an original idea.

CULTURAL PATTERNS are the common ways that groups of people organize themselves around politics, economics, religion, art, kinship, and education.

CULTURE is the total way of life for a group of people.

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ELEMENTS OF ART are the building blocks of visual art.  They are line, shape, colour, texture, space, and value.

EMPHASIS is

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IMAGINATION is the power and ability of the human mind to picture things that are not real and create images without the use of the senses.

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LINE is an element of art.  It is the path of a moving point.  Lines may be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved, or zig-zag.

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PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN are the ways that artists use the ELEMENTS OF ART to compose a visual artwork.  They are BALANCE, PROPORTION, CONTRAST, RHYTHM, SCALE, EMPHASIS, REPETITION, UNITY, and VARIETY.

PROPORTION is

-Q-

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REPETITION is

RHYTHM is

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SHAPE is an element of art.  It is an area enclosed by a line.  Shapes can be geometric or organic.

SPACE is an element of art.  It is the empty area around, between, above, or below objects within an artwork.  SPACE can be POSITIVE or NEGATIVE.

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TEXTURE is an element of art.  It is surface quality or appearance of the surface quality.  Texture may be implied or real.

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UNITY is

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VALUE is an element of art.  It is the lightness or darkness of a hue or colour within a work of art.

VARIETY is

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