Leonardo da Vinci: Light & Shadow

Vocabulary

1. Center: The middle point of anything. It is the same distance from the opposite.

2. Center of Interest (Focal Point): The most important part in a work of art. All the other parts should center around, provide background for, or draw attention to it.

3. Circle: A round, two-dimensional shape in which every point on the outside line is the same distance from the center.

4. Design: An organized and creative arrangement made of patterns, lines, textures, shapes, colors, and so on.

5. Detail: A distinctive feature of an object or scene which can be seen most clearly close up. Also, a small part of a work of art, enlarged to show a close-up of its features.

6. Gradation: A gradual, smooth change from light to dark, rough to smooth, or one color to another.

7. Highlight: To center attention on or emphasize through use of color.

8. Medium: In art, the material an artist uses – oil, watercolor, pen and ink, chalk, and so on.

9. Shade: A color to which black or another dark hue has been added to make it darker.

10. Shading: Showing gradual change from light to dark or dark to light in a picture by darkening areas that would be shadowed and leaving other areas light.

11. Shape: A 2-D figure outlined by lines or a change in color or shading. It is an element of art.

12. Value: The lightness or darkness of tones or colors.

13. Core Shadow: The area on a form particularly on a sphere that is between the highlight and the reflected light and is usually the darkest value.

14. Halftone: The area that is neither light nor shadow, but somewhere in between.

15. Cast Shadow: a type of shadow that is created on a form next to a surface that is turned away from the source of light.

16. Organic Shapes: Figures that have a natural look and a flowing, curving appearance