Guyla - A Glossary of Art Terminology

Fabricate: In general, to make; to create. Often more specifically, to construct or assemble something.

Faience or Faïence: glaze earthenware. Although the term originally referred only to the tin glazed earthenware made at Faenza, Italy, it is sometimes used to refer to a paste which produces a glaze-like surface when fired. Also, glazed earthenware used for architectural purposes. Although the term is sometimes used to mean pottery of all kinds, this breadth of meaning is widely considered incorrect.

Fake: Having a deliberately false or misleading appearance; forgery, counterfeit; not authentic, not genuine. Also; to intentionally forge, counterfeit.

Fantastic: Sometimes used to indicate an imaginative, subjective world of inner expression that transcends mere fantasy or science fiction. Fantastic is often used loosely to mean very good.

Fat: Describes an oil paint having a high proportion of oil.

Fat Over Lean or Fat Over Thin: The recommended means of layering oil color: the first layer of oil colors should be leanest (least oil, or more thinner with less oil) followed by layers with progressively more fat (more oil). Following this principle results in a work less likely to crack after aging. Conversely, in order to encourage cracking, the painter should do the reverse.

Felts: Absorbent pads used to dry the sheets in papermaking.

Femmage: A type of collage that includes textile art, traditionally made by women.

Ferrule: The metal or plastic device that that aligns and anchors paintbrush bristles or hairs in an adhesives. The ferrule is attached to the handle by crimping or by binding wires.

Fetish: An object believed to have magical powers, especially one capable of bringing to fruition its owner's plans; sometimes regarded as the abode of a supernatural power or spirit.

Fettling: The process of cleaning and finishing the surface of a piece of clay or metal work, especially the edges, and in the case of cast work, the seam lines or where there is flashing.

Fettling Knife: A knife designed for working with clay. To fettle is to trim unwanted clay from edges, etc. Also called a potter's knife.

Fiber: Thread, yarn, or fabric.

Fiberglass: A light and durable material consisting of a plastic resin which has been reinforced with glass fiber, also called spun glass.

Fibula: A pin or brooch used to fasten fabric at the shoulder of togas of ancient Greece and Rome often of decorative design.

Field: A background area or an entire physical plane, often of one color and/or texture. Also, a sphere of activity, or a content, or a discourse.

Fifth Dimension: Metaphysical or based on speculative or abstract reasoning, and interpreted variously as: highly abstract or theoretical, or immaterial, or as supernatural.

Figuration: An act of representation in figures. forming something into a particular shape.

Figurative: This term has two meanings. At first it was used to mean any painting that concerned itself with the representation of nature, human figures, landscapes, and still lifes. Art that represents the human form through the depiction of a figure, symbol, or likeness.

Figure-Ground: In two-dimensional works of art, the visual unity, yet separability, of a form and its background.

Filigree: A delicate, lacelike, and intricate ornament, usually made from thin wire.

Filler: A powdered or ground substance added to a paint or sculpture material to give extra bulk or body. Fillers for resin also make the material opaque.

Filling Compound: A paste which can be spread into a break or indentation in a surface. The compound can be filed down and smoothed when hard.

Findings: Accessories used for completing jewelry, such as clasps, hinges, pins, posts, etc.

Fine Art: Art created primarily as an aesthetic expression, to be contemplated or enjoyed for its own sake. Examples of fine art include painting, drawing, sculpture, print making, and architecture.

Fine Silver: Silver that is 99.9 per cent pure; has a higher melting point than sterling silver.

Finish: The surface appearance of a work of art, such as a painting or sculpture, or another such object. Something that concludes, completes, or perfects, especially the last coating or treatment of a surface, or the surface texture resulting from such a coating or treatment. Also, a material used in finishing or surfacing. And, the point at which an artist decides to stop working on an artwork.

Fire Gilding: A process for the gilding of metal - usually copper, copper alloy, or silver - also known as mercury gilding, and as ormolu. Powdered gold, also known as moulu, mixed with mercury is applied to the surface of the metal as a paste and then fired. The mercury evaporates as highly toxic fumes, and the gold is fixed. This surface must then be burnished.

Firing: A process of applying heat to make hard pottery in an ovenlike enclosure called a kiln. Also the means of fixing colors to ceramic surfaces.

Firing Cracks: Cracks appearing in a cooling material, caused by the tension from the different rates of its shrinking. For example, in clay after its firing, or in metal after it has been cast.

Firing Skin: The hard, smooth surface of various fired clays.

Fix: To place something, perhaps a pigment, in a secure or firm position.

Fixative: Any for various sprays that are applied to a picture or drawing to hold the particles of pigment to the surface. The spray may be either workable, allowing for some erasure, or nonworkable and are much harder to work over. They can be purchased in spray cans or used with an atomizer. Most commonly used with pastel and charcoal drawings.

Flaming: A process for finishing and hardening a wax model by passing a candle flame over the surface.

Flange: A protruding rim, edge, rib, or collar, used to strengthen an object, hold it in place, or attach it to another object. Often simply a metal ring which flares at its base so it can be screwed to a flat surface; and when a rod is inserted into the flange, it is held at right angles to the surface.

Flashing: The thin rough-edged projections on a casting made from a piece mold from which the cast metal has seeped or forced its way into seams, joins or cracks in the mold. On the exterior of a cast these are generally sawn off and filed down.

Flask: The container used for making a mold.

Flat: The quality of a smooth, even, broad surface; a surface without curvature; especially a horizontal one. Also, lacking variety in tint or shading; uniform. Not glossy; mat (also spelled matte). It may also refer to a flat-shaped brush.

Flat Chisel: A chisel with a straight cutting edge used for finishing and shaping in wood or stone carving.

Flux: A chemical used to clean oxides and other impurities from metal to assist fusion when metals are welded or brazed. In ceramics, flux causes or promotes melting.

Foam Core or Foam Board: A stiff sheet of Styrofoam laminated with paper on both of its sides. It may be of any of several thicknesses. Although more expensive than cardboards, it is preferred over them for its lighter weight, its stiffness, and for the ease with which it can be cut. It is often employed as a surface on which to mount two-dimensional work, and as a material with which to construct three-dimensional work (such as architectural models).

Focus: A point of convergence, such as the point at which rays of light converge in an optical system, or from which they diverge; also called focal point. The clarity of an image, such as when rendered by an optical system; or to make an image clear.

Foil: A thin, flexible leaf or sheet of metal. Also, a thin layer of polished metal placed under a mounted gem to increase its brilliance. Also; a person or thing that by contrast underscores or enhances the distinctive characteristics of another. In architecture, a curvilinear, often lobelike figure or space formed between the cusps of intersecting arcs, found especially in Gothic tracery and Moorish ornament.

Foliate: Of, relating to, or shaped like leaves. Also, to make (hammering, cutting, etc.) metal into leaf or foil, or to apply leaf or foil to a surface.

Folk Art: A broad term used to describe a range of artistic expression of the people of a country or region as well as the art of some individuals. Many folk artists are not academically trained. Folk painters are often concerned with recording the ordinary activities of life. Their direct and honest depiction of subjects usually reflects social and cultural characteristics. Simple flat figures and decorative design, bright colors, and unrealistic spatial relationships often characterize folk painting.

Foot: A supporting base on a vessel.

Foreground: The part of an image, the area of a picture or field of vision, often at the bottom that appears to be closest to the viewer.

Forge: A furnace or hearth, or workshop where metals are heated or wrought; a smithy. To heat and form metal this way.

Foreshortening: A way of drawing or painting an object or painting so that it seems to go back into space.

Forgery: Making counterfeits or fraudulent copies of something valuable. Or, a counterfeit. Because fraud is involved, forgery is not to be confused with appropriation.

Form: In its widest sense, total structure; a synthesis of all the visible aspects of that structure and of the manner in which they are united to create its distinctive character. The form of a work is what enables us to apprehend it. Form also refers to an element of art that is three-dimensional (height, width, and depth) and encloses volume. For example, a triangle, which is two-dimensional, is a shape, but a pyramid, which is three-dimensional, is a form. Cubes, spheres, pyramids, cone, and cylinders are examples of various forms. Also, all of the elements of a work of art independent of their meaning. Formal elements are primary features which are not a matter of semantic significance -- including color, dimensions, line, mass, medium, scale, shape, space, texture, value; and the principles of design under which they are placed-- including balance, contrast, dominance, harmony, movement, proportion, proximity, rhythm, similarity, unity, and variety.

Formal: Relating to the outward form or structure of a work; not to be confused with "ceremonial" or "stately," since formal elements can be quite informal in character.

Formal Analysis: The study of a work of art with reference to its form, rather than to its content or context.

Formalism: Any of several types of art-making or art criticism which places emphasis on form, the structural instead of either content (sometimes called allegorical qualities) or contextual qualities. According to this point of view, the most important thing about a work of art is the effective organization of the elements of art through the use of the principles of design.

Format: The shape and size of an image.

Found Image or Found Material or Found Object: An image, material, or object, not originally intended as a work of art, that is obtained, selected, and exhibited by an artist, often without being altered in any way. Although it can be either a natural or manufactured image, material, object, the term readymade refers only to those which were manufactured.

Foundry: A workplace where metal is melted and poured into mold.

Fourth Dimension: The fourth dimension is time, so a thing which is four-dimensional has height, width, depth, and moves, or otherwise changes over a period of time.

Foxing: A spotty discoloration of paper caused by the action of mold on iron salts, which are present in most paper. Foxing usually results from high relative humidity -- typically when a work is hung on a damp exterior wall.

Frame: A frame is an outer border, usually made of wood, wood composite, resin or metal, which encloses and binds together a picture in its mat, often under glass. A particular style of frame is called a frame moulding. Wire for hanging the picture on the wall is attached to the stable material of the frame. Thus, the frame serves several important functions. It enhances the appearance of the artwork, provides a support for attaching it to the wall or other display surface, and also helps protect it, should it be dropped or should dust or other pollutants accumulate on the surface. Framing a picture is fairly expensive, when compared to the price of acquiring the piece either matted or unmatted, but most people do not consider a picture "finished" and ready for display without a frame.

Free Carving: Carving without the use of a pointing machine. Free carving generally follows a drawing on one or more faces of a block. With more and more carved sculptures having been executed by pointing machines after clay models, purists among Western sculptors of the early twentieth century used this term in an effort to recognize the fundamental difference between the processes of modeling and carving.

Freestanding: Referring to a type of sculpture that is surrounded on all sides by space. Also called scupture in-the-round. To be viewed from all sides; freestanding. The opposite of relief.

Fresco: True fresco is a wall painting technique on moist plaster with pigments ground in water so that the paint is absorbed by the plaster and becomes part of the wall itself. The technique of buon fresco, or true fresco, involved covering the area with a medium-fine plaster, the intonaco, just rough enough to provide a bond (sometimes enhanced by scoring) for the final layer of fine plaster. Either a freehand sketch of the whole composition (sinopia) was drawn on the wall, or a full-scale cartoon was prepared and its outlines transferred to the intonaco by pressing them through with a knife or by pouncing - blowing charcoal dust through prickholes in the paper. Then over the intonaco enough of the final thin layer was applied to contain a day's work. That portion of the design was repeated on it either by the same methods or freehand, and the artist set to work with water-based pigments while the plaster was still damp; this allowed them to sink in before becoming dry and fixed. The pigments bind with the drying plaster to form a very durable image. Only a small area can be painted in a day, and these areas, drying to a slightly different tint, can in time be seen. Small amounts of retouching and detail work could be carried out on the dry plaster, a technique known as a secco fresco.

Friable: An adjective used to describe the extent to which a dry drawing medium crumbles and flakes.

Frieze: A narrow border around the walls of a room; usually it is in relief.

Frottage: Textural rubbing on paper done with crayon, oil, pencil or graphite on a piece of paper which has been placed over an object, or an image achieved in this way. Also simply referred to as rubbing. Such impressions are usually made from such highly textured subjects as leaves, wood, wire screen, gravestones, and manhole covers.

Fugitive: In refernce to ink it means the pigment is not stable or willfade at a fast rate. Fugitive pigments are synthetic based and made of cheap components. Short-lived pigments and dye - capable of fading or changing, especially with exposure to light, to atmospheric pollution, or when mixed with certain substances; in each case the result of a chemical change.

Fumage: A method of making an image with smoke fumes.

Fuse or Fusion: To melt; two or more materials joining at a molecular level.

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