Art Vocabulary To Stand Out: Use These Art Terms In Your Portfolio

Are you creating an art portfolio to supplement your college application?

Do you wonder how you should describe your art?

What are colleges looking for when you write about your art?

I advise teens how to create a portfolio to supplement their college applications and show their creative side to colleges.

Use these art terms in your portfolio descriptions to show your art knowledge and distinguish yourself academically as well as artistically.

The description of each piece should be about 2-4 sentences packed with information. The reader is reviewing many portfolios very fast so the descriptions need to be succinct and effective. Include the following:

Title

Medium(s)

Dimensions

Date created. All work should be recent and within the last 4 years of high school (secondary school).

Also, use the exact names of the colors that come out of the paint tubes to describe your art instead of typical colors like red, blue, yellow, green etc. try names from the tube to show your art expertise like:

Yellow Ochre

Raw Sienna

Burnt Sienna

Cadmium Yellow

Cadmium Red

Crimson

Scarlet

Cobalt Violet

Ultramarine Blue

Cerulean Blue

Manganese Blue Hue

Phthalo Green

Turquoise

Burnt Umber

Gold

Iridescent White

Charcoal Gray

Mars Black

Indigo

In the description of each piece you will explain how you created it and why? What do you think was successful? Were there any challenges? What do you want the viewer to take away from experiencing your art?

Pick whatever terms align with your piece to showcase your art knowledge and sound informed and educated on art techniques and art history references. This shows your academic side as well as your creative side to colleges.

Art Vocabulary:

Allegory: Allegory in art is when the subject of the artwork, or the various elements that form the composition, is used to symbolize a deeper moral or spiritual meaning such as life, death, love, virtue, justice etc.

Avant-garde: The term "avant-garde" is a French phrase that means "vanguard" or "advance guard". In art, it refers to art that is innovative and pushes boundaries, exploring new forms or subject matter. It can also refer to the artist or movement that created the art. Avant-garde art is often aesthetically innovative, but may initially be unacceptable to the artistic establishment of the time.

Brushwork: Brushwork in oil painting refers to the way an artist applies paint to a canvas using a brush. It can be thick or thin, smooth or rough, and can convey different textures and emotions depending on the artist's intention.

Chiaroscuro: Chiaroscuro is an Italian art term that means "light-dark" and refers to the use of contrasting light and shade in a painting or drawing to create the illusion of volume, mass, and three-dimensionality. It can also be used to emphasize and illuminate important figures, or to create drama or mystery.

Composition: Composition is the term given to a complete work of art and, more specifically, to the way in which all its elements work together to produce an overall effect.

Depth: In art, depth is the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface. It can also refer to the apparent distance between objects in a work of art, or how close or far away they appear.

Diptych: A diptych is an artwork consisting of two painted or carved panels that relate to each other in some way.

Figurative art: Figurative art is a term used to describe art that is representational and clearly derived from real-world sources, such as objects, figures, or scenes. The term is often used in contrast to abstract art, and can be applied to a wide range of media, including paintings, sculptures, installations, photography, and film.

Focal point: A focal point in art is a specific area, element, or spot that draws the viewer's eye and attention. It's usually the most important part of the piece and stands out from the rest of the composition. Focal points can be created using color, light, line, or movement, and they can also be outside of the artwork.

Foreground: In art, the foreground is the part of a composition that is closest to the viewer, or appears to be. It's usually located in the lower part of the picture, immediately behind the picture plane.

Genre: A genre can refer to a type or category of painting, such as Renaissance, Rococo, Impressionism, Abstract Expressionism, or Pop Art.

A genre can also refer to the content or topic of a particular picture, such as a scene of everyday life. Genre art can depict ordinary people and their activities, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, work, and street scenes. These representations can be realistic, imagined, or romanticized by the artist.

A genre can also encompass artworks that share the same criteria, principles, or methods. This can be applied to all art forms, including painting, sculpture, films, and literature.

Glazing: Glazing is a technique that has been used by artists for centuries to create luminous, glowing effects in their works. It involves applying thin, translucent layers of paint over a dried base layer of paint, building up layers of glaze to create depth and complexity.

Harmony: Harmony in art and design is the visually satisfying effect of combining similar, related elements. For instance: adjacent colors on the color wheel, similar shapes etc.

Landscape: Landscape art, also known as landscape painting, is a type of artwork that depicts natural scenery as its main subject. This can include mountains, forests, rivers, valleys, trees, and bodies of water. Landscape art can also include man-made structures and people, and often features a wide view with a coherent composition. The sky is almost always included, and weather is sometimes an element of the composition.

The term "landscape" comes from the Dutch word landschap, which originally meant "region" or "tract of land". In the early 1500s, it took on an artistic connotation to mean "a picture depicting scenery on land". The history of landscape painting can be traced back to ancient times, when the Greeks and Romans created wall paintings of landscapes and gardenscapes. However, until the 17th century, landscapes were often relegated to the background of paintings and portraits that focused on religious, mythological, or historical subjects.

Landscape art can take many forms, including drawings, paintings, sculptures, or etchings. It can be realistic, abstract, or surreal, and artists can take creative liberties to rearrange elements in a scene to create a compelling composition. Landscape art can also convey the artist's emotions and appreciation for nature, and can have religious significance or evolve into a means of self-expression.

Line: Line art or line drawing is any image that consists of distinct straight lines or curves placed against a background (usually plain), without gradations in shade (darkness) or hue (color) to represent two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects.

Mixed media: In visual art, mixed media describes artwork in which more than one medium or material has been employed. Assemblages, collages, and sculpture are three common examples of art using different media. Materials used to create mixed media art include, but are not limited to, paint, cloth, paper, wood and found objects.

Motif: A motif is a recurring fragment, theme or pattern that appears in a work of art.

Narrative: A narrative is simply a story. Narrative art is art that tells a story. Much of Western art until the twentieth century has been narrative, depicting stories from religion, myth and legend, history and literature.

Perspective: In art, perspective is a technique that uses mathematical principles to create the illusion of depth and distance on a two-dimensional surface, such as a canvas, by representing three-dimensional objects. Artists can use perspective to create realistic images, or to create dramatic or disorienting effects.

Proportion: Proportion refers to the dimensions of a composition and relationships between height, width and depth. How proportion is used will affect how realistic or stylised. something seems. Proportion also describes how the sizes of different parts of a piece of art or design relate to each other.

Scale: Scale refers to the overall physical size of an artwork or objects in the artwork. We always relate scale to the size of the human body - how big or small the piece is in relation to us. An artist may decide to use a scale which is different from life-sized and this will have an impact on how it feels.

Symbolism: Symbolism in art is an aesthetic movement that uses symbols and motifs to represent ideas and subjects, and to create underlying meaning. Symbolist artists reject the realistic depiction of the natural world in favor of imaginary dream worlds, and believe that art should reflect emotions and ideas rather than represent the natural world. Their work often includes mysterious figures from literature, mythology, and the Bible, and common themes include love, fear, death, and personal awakening. Symbolist art can also be dreamlike, surreal, and fantastical, and may explore the human psyche, dreams, fantasies, and the unconscious mind.

The term "symbolism" was coined in 1886 by French critic Jean Moréas to describe the poetry of Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Verlaine, and soon spread to visual art throughout Europe. Some notable Symbolist painters include: Odilon Redon, Edvard Munch, Paul Gauguin, Gustave Moreau, and Gustav Klimt.

Texture: In the visual arts, texture is the perceived surface quality of a work of art. It may be perceived physically, through the sense of touch, or visually, or both. Our experience of texture in visual art relies on our experience with the physical world.

Theme: In the visual arts, a theme is a broad idea or a message conveyed by a work, such as a performance, a painting, a motion picture, or a video game. This message is usually about life, society or human nature.

Triptych: A triptych is an artwork, usually a painting or photograph, formed as a trio. Originating in the Middle Ages, the art form was intended to be displayed together and consisted of a substantial centre with two adjoining smaller wings, which could be folded to protect the panels.

Value: Rather than indicating the monetary worth of fine art on the art market, the value of art refers to the lightness or darkness of a color. Every color has a value between white and black, and every shade can be arranged on a gradient value scale.

Incorporate a few of these art terms into the descriptions in your portfolio to show your art knowledge and expertise. The descriptions should be short and succinct because admissions readers are reading many applications very fast. Sometimes small, liberal arts colleges will send the portfolio to the visual art faculty to review. So, you want to showcase your artistic and academic knowledge. Try a few of these terms and see which ones relate to your art. I hope this is helpful in your creative process and share this list with your friends or students too!

Remember to include in the description: what you created and how (colleges like to know about your thinking and making process and how a work of art developed) and most importantly reflect on why you created it and how this fits into your overall artistic theme. Include art vocabulary and terms in the descriptions. Refer to famous artist influences or art movements throughout history to show your art knowledge and college admission readers will be impressed! Good luck and keep creating!