Methods and Materials of Art Study Guide

Acrylic A plastic substance commonly used as a binder for paints and as a casting material for sculpture.

Binder A substance in paints that caused particles of pigment to adhere to one another and to a support.

Casting The process of making a sculpture of the object by pouring liquid material—clay, metal, plastic—into a mold and allowing it to harden.

Ceramic Made from fired clay

Collage A work of art made by pasting buts of paper, cloth, or other material onto a flat surface.

Daguerreotype The earliest form of photography, invented by Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, in which the photographic image is made permanent on a copper plate.

Drypoint An intaglio printmaking technique, similar to engraving, in which a sharp needle is used to draw on a metal plate, raising a thin ridge of metal that creates a soft line when the plate is printed. Also, the resultant print.

Edition In printmaking, the number of images made from a single plate and authorized by the artist.

Encaustic. A painting medium, in which the binder is hot beeswax.

Engraving An intaglio printmaking method in which a sharp tool called a burin is used to scratch lines into a metal plate. Also, the resultant print.

Etching An intaglio printmaking method in which lines and image areas are created by first coating a plate with an acid-resistant substance, then scratching through the substance with a sharp needle and finally immersing the plate with acid, which “bites” depressions into the exposed sections. Also the resultant print.

Forging Shaping metal with hammers while it is hot; the method for making wrought iron.

Fresco A painting medium in which colors are applied to a plaster ground, usually a wall or ceiling.

True or Buon fresco: colors are applied before the plaster dries and thus bond with the surface.

Fresco secco (dry fresco) colors are applied to dry plaster.

Glaze In oil painting, a thin, translucent layer of color, generally applied over another color. In ceramics, a liquid that upon firing, fuses into a vitreous (glasslike) coating. Colored glazes are used to decorate ceramics.

Impasto A thick application of paint to canvas or other support.

Intaglio Any printmaking technique in which the lines or image areas to be printed are recessed below the surface and the printing plate.

Intarsia A technique in which an image is created from pieces of variously colored woods inlaid into a wooden surface.

Lithography A planographic (or flat-surface) printmaking technique, based on the premise that oil and water do not mix. Image areas are drawn in a greasy crayon on a stone or plate, and the greasy ink used in this method adheres to those areas.

Lost-wax casting A method of casting metal sculptures and other objects. Positive and negative molds are built around a layer of wax that exactly duplicates the shape and size of the desired sculpture. When this mold is heated, the wax melts out and then molten metal is poured into the mold to replace it.

Medium 1. The material used to create a work of art. 2. The binder for a paint, such as oil. 3. An expressive art form, such as painting, drawing or sculpture.

Metalpoint A drawing technique in which the drawing material is a thin wire of metal.

Mezzotint An intaglio printmaking method in which the printing plate is first roughened all over with a sharp tool called a rocker to create a pattern of burrs. Values from light to dark can be created by smoothing away the burrs in relative degree. Also, the resultant print.

Modeling Shaping a form in some plastic material, such as clay, wax , or plaster.

Mold A hollow or negative shape used for casting liquid clay, metal or plastic.

Mural Any large-scale wall decoration in painting, fresco, mosaic or other medium.

Pastel A soft, chalky crayon used for drawing; also the resultant drawing.

Relief Anything that projects from a background.

Tapestry An elaborate textile meant to be hung from a wall and featuring images and motifs produced by various weaving techniques.

Tempera Paint in which the pigment is compounded with an aqueous, emulsified vehicle such as egg yolk.