Descriptionary

optical mixing painting small dots or strokes of dif­ferent colors close together so they create the illusion of a mixed color when viewed from a distance. (For example, blue and red dots painted close together will appear as violet from a distance.)

overpainting in oil and tempera painting, the final coat applied after the underpainting.

painterly highly artistic. Also, like a painting.

palmette a palm leaf ornament or design.

pastel a colored crayon made of pigment and chalk. Also known as a pastille. A work of art executed with pastels.

pastel shades soft, delicate hues.

pastiche an art work imitating the style of previous works, or executed in different styles; a hodgepodge.

pate-sur-pate low-relief decoration on ceramics.

perspective the technique of accurately rendering a three-dimensional object or scene on a two-dimen­sional surface.

petite nature a painting in which the figures are smaller than life-size but larger than half-size.

pochade a quick color sketch on which details are added at a later time.

pointillism a style of painting characterized by the creation of an image through the use of painted dots and short strokes, as developed by Georges Seurat in the late 19 th century.

polychrome executed in several colors, especially referring to a wood or stone carving.

pop art an art style made famous by Andy Warhol and characterized by larger-than-life replicas of com­mercial or widely recognized objects, such as food labels, packages, comic strip panels, etc.

portrait any work of art representing someone's face. It can also be used to describe a rendering of a full-body shot.

postiche a fake; an imitation.

pouncing a technique of transferring a drawing on one surface to another by perforating the lines of the original drawing and then passing pounce powder through the holes to the transfer surface.

pricking a test to determine a painting's relative age and possible authenticity, characterized by sticking a pin into a thick area of paint; if the pin can be pushed through easily, it means the paint is soft and relatively new and therefore a possible forgery.

primary colors the colors red, yellow, and blue, from which most other hues can be obtained by mix­ing with one another or with black or white.

primer a white base layer of paint on which a paint­ing is executed. A ground.

primitive an art style uninfluenced by historical or contemporary forms. Also known as naive art.

profil perdu a profile or sideview showing more of the back of the head (or object) than the front.

psychedelic art U.S. abstract art of the 1960s, char­acterized by wild, swirling curves inspired by the use of hallucinogenic drugs.

realism an art style characterized by the realis­tic depictions of people, places, or things without abstraction or distortion.

relief a projection from a flat surface; a raised area.

Renaissance French for "rebirth." A period of western European history (roughly 1300s to 1500s) known for its many advances and innovations in the arts.

repousse a method of forming a relief design by hammering a metal plate from the back.

retouching adding to or changing a finished painting.

rococo a French art style of the 1700s, character­ized by elaborate, florid, and delicate ornamentation, especially in architecture.

rubbing a method of making a rough copy of a relief work by placing paper over the design and rub­bing it with crayon, charcoal, pencil, or other writing instrument, as in a tombstone rubbing.

scale drawing a drawing whose dimensions are of the same ratio as those of the object drawn.

scrambled colors superficially blended colors that create swirls of different hues, a deliberate effect.

scrimshaw the art of carving on whalebone. Also, the art work itself.

scroll any spiral-like decoration.

scumble a thin layer of semitransparent paint applied over a painting to create a hazy effect.

secco a method of painting on dry lime plaster. Also, a mural painted in this manner.

secondary colors the colors green, orange, and pur­ple, formed by mixing primary colors.

serigraph a print made from the silk screen process.

sfumato the soft blending of outlines in a painting, especially in the works of Leonardo da Vinci.

sgraffito creating a design by cutting lines into pot­tery, plaster, or stucco to reveal a layer of different color beneath.

shading the subtle blending of one color into another.

silhouette a portrait profile executed in a single color.

silk screen a method of color stenciling in which a squeegee is used to force color through a fine screen on which the designless areas are blocked out.

sketch a quick, rough drawing.