Critiquing tools

Art Vocabulary List

Demographic: The target audience includes gender, race, age, income, disabilities, mobility, educational attainment, ect.

Symmetry: refers to balance, geometric transformations such as scaling, reflection and rotation.

Stroke: it is the boder of the objects, can be thin, thick, heavy and such.

Positive Space: The space that the artwork fits in, the size of the artwork compared to the size of the presentation.

Blur: Unclear, can be used to describe that the design/artwork is visually unclear, vague.

Adjective List

Primary: Primary colours are sets of colors that can be combined to make a useful range of colors. For additive combination of colours, primaries are Red, Green and Blue. For subtractive combination of colours, the primaries are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black.

Contrast: The difference in color found between the light and dark parts of an image.

Tint: A color is made lighter by adding white, this is called a tint.

Blurred: to be made unclear or an effect to perform in photography.

Linear: refers to type of gradient.

Principles and Elements of Design List

Stability: Stability is the concept of visual equilibrium, and relates to our physical sense of balance. It is a reconciliation of opposing forces in a composition that results in visual stability. Most successful compositions achieve balance in one of two ways: symmetrically or asymmetrically. Balance in a three dimensional object is easy to understand; if balance isn't achieved, the object tips over.

Dynamics: Dynamics is the arrangement of visual elements in a composition to suggest the illusion of movement or direction. The effective use of dynamics in a design can add an emotive characteristic to your design making it appear restful and calming or active and energetic.

Rhythm: rhythm is about the rate the eye moves throughout the work of art.  This is usually because the eye moves, jumps or slides from one similar element to another in a way similar to music.

Scale: Proportion refers to the relative size and scale of the various elements in a design. The issue is the relationship between objects, or parts, of a whole. This means that it is necessary to discuss proportion in terms of the context or standard used to determine proportions.

Line: Line is the basic element that refers to the continuous movement of a point along a surface, such as by a pencil or brush. The edges of shapes and forms also create lines. It is the basic component of a shape drawn on paper. Lines and curves are the basic building blocks of two dimensional shapes like a house's plan. Every line has length, thickness, and direction. There are curve, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, zigzag, wavy, parallel, dash, and dotted lines.

Colour: Color is seen either by the way light reflects off a surface, or in colored light sources. Color and particularly contrasting color is also used to draw the attention to a particular part of the image. There are primary colours, secondary colours and tertiary colors. Complementary colours are colors that are opposite to each other on the colour wheel. Complementary colors are used to create contrast. Analogous colors are colors that are found side by side on the color wheel. These can be used to create color harmony. Monochromatic colors are tints and shades of one color. Warm colors are a group of colors that consist of reds, yellows, and oranges. Cool colors are group of colors that consist of purples, greens, and blues.

Texture: Texture is perceived surface quality. In art, there are two types of texture: tactile and implied. Tactile texture (real texture) is the way the surface of an object actually feels. Examples of this include sandpaper, cotton balls, tree bark, puppy fur, etc. Implied texture is the way the surface of an object looks like it feels. The texture may look rough, fizzy, gritty, but cannot actually be felt. This type of texture is used by artists when drawing or painting.

Form: Form is any 3 dimensional object. Form can be measured, from top to bottom (height), side to side (width), and from back to front (depth). Form is also defined by light and dark. There are two types of form, geometric (man-made) and natural (organic form). Form may be created by the combining of two or more shapes. It may be enhanced by tone, texture and color. It can be illustrated or constructed.