Glossary

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ACEO

This stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. All ACEOs are 2.5 x 3.5 inches and are miniature art works in any medium. They are collected all over the world and are a great way of owning affordable original art. Artists have made and traded miniature art for 100s of years, but in recent years artists traded these cards on the internet and began to offer them for sale. Quickly, more self representing artists started making and selling their own ACEOs and also built up a personal collection. These art cards can be originals, or they can be prints and should have details of the edition size on the back. Often they are signed and dated on the back too. Also they are a great way of testing an artist's work before buying a larger piece, or owning an art work by a favourite artist when larger pieces would be too expensive.

Acrylic

A paint containing acrylic resin as the binder. These paints are relatively modern, but amazingly versatile. They can be applied thickly like oils or thinly like water colours. Colours are permanent, so they do not discolour or yellow with age. They are water-soluble when wet, but insoluble when dry. Drying time is very short, which can create problems for the artist, but when dry they do not wrinkle or crack so a painting on canvas can be rolled, stored, and re-stretched many years later with no ill-effects.

Aquatint

Like etching, Aquatint uses the application of acid to make the marks in the metal plate. Where etching uses a needle to make lines that print in black (or whatever colour ink is used), aquatint uses acid resistant powdered resin to create a tonal effect. The tonal variation can be controlled by the level of acid exposure over large areas, and thus the image can be developed in large sections at a time. As with other intaglio techniques, the print is actually made using a press.

Artists' prints

Artists' prints are handmade and are not reproductions of paintings: the print is a unique work of art. This covers a range of printmaking techniques such as etching, woodcut, engraving, screenprint and linocut. Editions tend to be less than 200, partly because the materials used to make the prints wear out. This type of print is sometimes called an 'original print'.

ATC

Artist Trading Cards are the same size as ACEOs, 2.5 x 3.5 inches, but they differ in that they are made only to be exchanged with other artists, never sold.

Bas-relief

Usually a carving, sculpture, or moulding which is almost flat, but uses clever visual tricks to give an impression of full depth and perspective. For example, the Elgin Marbles would be classified as bas-relief, being only a few centimetres deep, but giving a sense of depth and drama normally found in a much deeper piece.

Charcoal

Probably the original drawing medium, charcoal has been used since pre-historic times. Made from beech, vine or willow twigs which are charred in airtight kilns, it is still a wonderfully expressive medium, producing much character and rich tonal effects. Charcoal drawings can be easily smudged unless they have been fixed.

Chiaroscuro

Used to describe the effect of light and shade, particularly in oil painting. From the Italian meaning clear-obscure, the term applies especially where strong tonal contrasts are used.

Collectors Edition

See Edition

Contre-jour

Used in painting or photography to describe a scene which is strongly back-lit, i.e. the subject is between the viewer and the light source. From the French meaning against the light.

Digigraph

The European term for Giclee prints.

Digital Art

Digital art is art created on a computer in digital form without the use of a camera. It can be purely computer-generated (fractals are an example), or created using another source such as traditional artwork or photography as a starting point, or it can be an image drawn using vector graphics software using a mouse or graphics tablet. Simple manipulation of an existing artwork such as re-touching or applying an effects filter is not normally considered to be a new digital artwork. The original would need to have been manipulated beyond recognition (or almost) for it to qualify as a piece of digital art in its own right.

Diptych

Originally an altar piece or religious painting consisting of two same sized panels hinged together so as to open or close like a book. It would usually show the owner or painter on one panel, kneeling and praying to the Madonna and Child on the other, and be small enough to carry around on one's person as a mobile place of worship. Still used in the Orthodox Christian church for Icons. In modern use, tends to refer to two individual paintings intended to be hung side by side to form the completed work, although it can refer to two images made side by side on the same support. A variant is the triptych.

Edition

Used to define a series of printed reproductions of an artwork such as a drawing, painting or photograph. An edition can be of a specified physical size or a limited print run or have a defining characteristic. It may or may not exclude the possibility of another reproduction of that image being produced in a different edition or in other ways. The permutations are almost endless, but the limitations of an edition should always be defined. The extremes are Open editions and Limited editions.

Open Editions can be produced in any quantity and the image may also be used in other ways. Open editions cost less than other editions and are much less likely to increase in value. Collectors Editions are high quality prints which may be produced in limited numbers (though not necessarily) or at various sizes, but the image may also be used in other ways. They are normally signed and numbered by the artist, and produced to the same high standard and with the same materials as a Limited Edition.

Limited Editions are high quality prints produced in limited numbers with a commitment that no other reproduction of the image will be made, except for catalogue or promotional purposes, or as part of a book. This makes the reproduction more exclusive than other Editions. The market price can rise over time, if demand outstrips supply, or as an Edition is nearing its final numbers. Edition sizes vary but are limited by market forces. Most Limited Editions are signed and numbered in pencil by the artist and sometimes a certificate of authenticity is also provided. A reputable artist will ensure that the print quality is as high as possible on any reproduction of his work.

Encaustic

An ancient painting technique. The medium consists of pigments held in a binder of hot beeswax. It is usually applied to a wooden surface, though canvas is sometimes used. It is known to have been used in mummy portraits in ancient Egypt, and is often used in the making of icons.

Engraving

Engraving is the technique of incising a design onto a hard, flat surface, by cutting grooves into it to make an intaglio printing plate of copper or other metal. The tool used for this, the burin, is made of hardened steel, and produces a characteristically strong, even line.

Etching

In etching, a reversed image is chemically engraved on a soft metal plate (sometimes called a matrix) using an acid. Fine lines are produced using a steel needle. A thick oil based ink is applied to the plate and the image is transferred to paper by using a press. The plate has a limited life, wearing down with each impression that is taken, resulting in earlier impressions being sharper than later ones, just as with intaglio.

Giclee prints

Pronounced "zhee-clay", this term is used to describe any high resolution, large format inkjet printer output using fade resistant dye or pigment-based inks. These printers often use between six and twelve colour inks. As a fine art reproduction technology, giclee is mostly associated with archival pigmented inks rather than with dye-based inks which are more suitable for commercial use. Giclee prints are usually made on very high quality heavyweight museum or archival grade paper or canvas. The term originated in America, though it's from the French, meaning 'squirted'. However, in French slang, it's rather a rude word, so in mainland Europe the word digigraph tends to be used instead.

Gouache

Like their cousins the water colours, gouache paints consist of finely ground pigments in a water soluble medium. Whereas water colours are transparent, all gouache colours are opaque because of the very high density of pigment. Normally this gives an intense result, but the artist can apply various techniques to give a soft and dreamy feel to the work.

Impasto

Paint applied thickly by brush or knife or even by hand to create a deeply textured surface.

Intaglio

In the intaglio process, a reversed image is manually engraved on a soft metal plate (sometimes called a matrix) using gouges or routers. A thick oil based ink is applied to the plate and the image is transferred to paper by using a press. The plate has a limited life, wearing down with each impression that is taken, resulting in earlier impressions being sharper than later ones, just as with etchings.

Limited Editions

See Edition.

Line and Wash

A variant on Pen and Ink drawings, these often mix line drawings in waterproof ink with a wash of water soluble ink or water colour, although the line can also be water soluble. The variety of techniques possible results in a delightful variety of expressive yet subtle works. Brushes can also be used to extend the range even further.

Linocut

A printmaking technique in which a reversed image is carved into the surface of a sheet of lino, often mounted on a block of wood. The printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed with a scalpel or other sharp knife. The areas to show 'white' are cut away, leaving the required image to show in 'black' at the original surface level. The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller, leaving ink on the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas, and the image is transferred to paper using a press. Similar to woodcuts, but with a smoother texture and finer detail possible. However, far fewer impressions can be pulled from a linocut, so editions are much reduced.

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonality by roughening the plate with thousands of little dots made by a metal tool with small teeth. The tiny pits in the plate hold the ink when the face of the plate is wiped clean, forming an image in the same way as in a modern newspaper. A high level of quality and richness can be achieved in the print, which is again made using a press.

Mixed media

For once, exactly what you'd expect! An artwork using more than one medium in combination. For example, acrylics, watercolour and fabrics on a canvas with strips of leather glued to it.

Oils

Oil paints were first developed in the early Renaissance, and still tend to be the preferred medium of many artists. The dry pigments are carried in a natural drying oil such as linseed. Drying times vary according to the colour, and can vary between overnight to ten days to be touch dry.

Pastels

Pastels are made from finely ground pigments mixed with a chalk or clay base which is bound with gum. Soft pastels contain more pigment and less binder, producing velvety results with subtle colours, but are fragile and can be smudged easily unless they are fixed. Oil pastels use animal fat and wax as binder, giving a totally different character. Colours are more intense, strokes can be stronger and broader, and they tend not to smudge or dust.

Pen and Ink

Popular since ancient Egyptian times, there are now many types of pen in use, each with its own distinctive character. Bamboo, reed, quill, mapping, technical, fountain and sketching. Inks can be waterproof or non-waterproof, black, white or coloured. Only the black and the white are permanent, as coloured inks are dye based rather than pigment based. They are not light fast, and should be kept behind glass to minimize fading.

Silkscreening

See Serigraphy.

Serigraphy

Serigraphy, also known as Silkscreening, is a printmaking technique that traditionally creates a sharp-edged image using a stencil and a porous fabric. The stencil is made by projecting an image onto a photographic emulsion carried on a fine silk or nylon mesh screen. The areas to be printed are removed chemically to form a negative image. An oil based ink is forced through the screen onto an underlying fabric or paper to form the positive image. The technique can create very strong memorable images and can be used to print on many surfaces.

Tempera

Egg tempera was the universal paint until the fifteenth century. It is traditionally a water based paint made by mixing pigments with egg yolk and distilled water, although some manufacturers produce a linseed oil based version, and some no longer include the egg. Because the colours are transparent, they have a luminous clarity unlike any other medium. They dry within seconds, demanding a meticulous working technique, and are extremely durable.

Triptych

The same principle as a diptych, the difference being that a triptych is made up of three elements instead of two. Frequently used in the Orthodox Christian church for Icons, and a popular current form of presentation.

Trompe l'oeil

From the French, meaning to trick the eye. The use of visual tricks like perspective manipulation, clever use of tones and shapes, together with impeccable technique and detailing to fool the eye into believing it can see something that isn't there. Such as a violin apparently hanging on a door, which turns out on close inspection to be a flat painting. Escher's famous drawings of never ending staircases, for example, would also come under this category.

Water Colours

The paints consist of very finely ground pigments which are bound with gum-arabic. This gives them the elasticity needed to adhere to a surface even when heavily diluted. Normally associated with delicate, transparent effects, water colours can be used to produce amazingly strong dramatic effects. Because of their inherent fluidity, water colours are less predictable to work with than other media, which can result in uniquely exciting effects.

Woodcut

Woodcut is a relief printmaking technique in which a reversed image is carved into the surface of a block of wood (usually beech). The printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed using chisels or gouges. The areas to show 'white' are cut away, leaving the required image to show in 'black' at the original surface level. The surface is covered with ink by rolling over the surface with an ink-covered roller, leaving ink on the flat surface but not in the non-printing areas, and the image is transferred to paper using a press. Although similar to linocuts, woodcuts take on the character of the wood used for the block.