Reading Assignment #3: Yet another quiz next week!

Art 105: Two-Dimensional Design

Professor: Kyle Stevenson

Project 3 vocabulary: SPACE (3D)

*Reading: Pipes- Intro to Design, Chapter 4, pages 79-109*

The Vocabulary of Space (in regards to creating the illusion of depth):

Hieratic scaling:  In early art and some non-Western cultures, size used to denote status or importance, making the subject of the painting- a saint or a king- larger relative to the minor characters

Background:  In a landscape, the space we see in the distance- the sky, mountains, or distant hills.  In a still life or an interior portrait, it is the area behind the subject

Mid-ground:  In a landscape, the space between the foreground and background: trees, bushes, and buildings, for example

Foreground:  The space that the subject of an artwork, or the space before the subject, inhabits

Overlapping:  A depth cue, in which some shapes are in front of and partially hide or obscure others

Transparency:  A visual quality in which an object or distant view can be seen clearly through a  nearer object.  Two forms overlap, but both are seen in their entirety

Vertical location:  A depth cue in which the higher a figure or object is on the picture plane the farther back we assume it to be

Aerial perspective:  The illusion of deep space.  Distant objects such as mountain ranges, seen through the haze of atmosphere, appear to have less detail and contrast than nearer objects, lighter values, and a shift in color toward the blue end of the spectrum- also called atmospheric perspective

Linear perspective:  A formal method for drawing the way distant objects appear to be smaller than similar objects nearer to us by making parallel lines converge at a vanishing point or points on the horizon

Vanishing point:  In linear perspective, the point at which converging parallel lines appear to meet on the line of the horizon.  There may be one or more vanishing points.

Foreshortening:  The perspective effect means that something seen lying away from us appears to be shorter than if it were viewed full on: a circle, for example, becomes an ellipse. Or when you shorten the lines of (an object) in a drawing or other representation so as to produce an illusion of projection or extension in space

Projections:  Non-perspective methods for creating the illusion of three-dimensional forms

Space:  The three-dimensional void that elements occupy: the empty area between elements

Decorative space:  Ornamental areas, emphasizing the two-dimensional nature of an artwork or any of its elements

Plastic space:  Real three-dimensional space or the illusion of space

Deep space:  Majestic, awe-inspiring landscapes or distant mountains or rolling hills, also called infinite space

Shallow space:  The illusion of limited depth: the imagery is only a slight distance back from the picture plane

Interpenetration:  Where planes, objects, or shapes seem to slice through each other, locking them together within a specific location in space

Ground plane:  The ground we stand on, rather than the (back) ground or canvas of the painting- or a more abstracted plane.

Size:  The physical or relative dimensions of an object

Scale:  Size relative to actual size, as in a ______ model; size relative to human dimensions, as in small-_____ or large-_____; to make larger or smaller

Orthographic projections:  Two-dimensional views or an object, showing a plan, elevations (side views), and (cut away) sections, used by architects, engineers, and product designers; known as the “blueprint.”

One-point perspective:  A system of spatial illusion based on the convergence of parallel lines at a single vanishing point, usually on the horizon; only appropriate to interiors or vistas

orthogonal:  Imaginary receding parallel lines at right angles to the field of vision which join horizontal lines of, say, a building, to the vanishing point; also called sight lines or guide lines

Viewer’s location point (station point):  In one-point perspective, a vertical axis through the vanishing point.  One-point perspective assumes that the viewer is at a fixed point looking with one eye through the picture plane to the 3D world behind

Two-point perspective:  Linear perspective with two vanishing points, placed on the horizon at the left and right of the object, usually off the picture plane or canvas.  Vertical lines remain parallel to the picture plane

Three-point perspective:  Linear perspective in which vertical lines converge toward a third vanishing point directly above or below the object

Repoussoir:  In aerial perspective, a prominent dark or contrasting form in the foreground, such as a tree or a lonely figure silhouetted against the landscape

Multiple perspectives:  Where paintings and drawings allowing us to see planes we couldn’t possibly see in reality, unless we could get inside the picture and walk around

Fractional representation:  A device used by various cultures (notably the Egyptians) in which several spatial aspects of the same subject are combined in the same image, such as the front view of an eye on a side view of the head

Open composition:  Placing elements in a composition so that they are cut off by the frame implying that the picture is a partial view of a larger scene

Closed composition:  Composition in which the elements are contained by the edges of the canvas or the boundaries of the picture frame

Forced perspective:  In a stage set, the illusion of distance created by using properties that are physically smaller than their real equivalents, so that they give the impression of being located some distance away

Intuitive space:  The illusion of space that the artist creates by overlapping, transparency, interpenetration, and other spatial properties of elements.  Where the conventions of perspective are manipulated for pictorial effect, with little attempt to mimic reality

Diminution: The act or process of diminishing; a lessening or reduction