Guyla - A Glossary of Art Terminology

Lacquer: A material for a kind of sculpture in which layers are built up, often on a base of silk around a model of another material, typically plain or carved wood. When hard, those carefully cured layers can be carved. Also, used as a varnish, it gives any surface it covers a hard, highly polished finish. Oriental lacquer is produced from the resin or sap of certain trees in the Far East (in China and Japan this tree is a sumac, Rhus vernicifera or Rhus verniciflua), and can be used on many different materials. Lacquer can carry several pigments, but red, black, or a combination were used most frequently. Lacquer has extraordinary adhesive qualities; once cured, it is virtually impervious to moisture, alcohol, food acids, or decay. Also a term used for some commercially prepared clear or pigmented varnishes derived largely from cellulose in a vehicle of fast drying solvent.

Laid Papers: Papers with a grid pattern in the sheet. This pattern results from the pulp resting against wires on the mold screen as the paper is made. "Chain" lines are farther apart and run parallel with the grain direction of the sheet, while "laid" lines are closely spaced and perpendicular to the grain.

Lake: A dye that has been chemically or electrically attached to a particle and does not bleed or migrate.

Laminate: To build up a rigid surface over a framework by applying layers of material, adhering them to each other. Laminating is a technique used in sculpture with wood or resin.

Lapis: A bright blue stone containing golden specks, used in jewelry, intaglios, and decorative inlays and veneer. It is also the stone from which natural ultramarine pigment is ground, which was once widely used, but is now extremely expensive.

Latex: A dispersion in water of a solid polymeric material. A rubbery substance used as binder in latex paints, as a cold cure molding compound, and also as the basis of certain adhesives. Although still used, latex has largely been replaced in many applications by silicon compounds and polyurethane plastics.

Lay Figure: Mannequin. Used to study and draw from when a model is not possible. There are lay figures of people and of some animals, such as horses.

Layout: A light sketch which begins the portrait-rendering process is actually a map of locations for the individual features. It is roughed-in with construction lines which will later be shaded over or lifted out with a kneaded eraser. It is an important initial stage in the drawing process which avoids problems at later stages.

Leaching: The process of drawing out excess liquid through a porous substance.

Lead: A soft, malleable, ductile, easily fusible, dull medium-gray, dense metal. Lead was added to bronze alloys by the ancient Chinese, by the Etruscans, and by the Romans, forming an alloy known as leaded bronze. Lead was used also as the principal metal in some alloys used for cast sculpture generally combined with tin in making pewter, or with antimony. Such sculpture often requires an armature. Lead channel is used in the making of stained glass windows.

Lead Glaze: A vitreous coating applied for practical and ornamental purposes to earthenware, consisting of powder of lead oxide with silacious sand, salt and potash which fuses when fired. It is transparent but color can be added. Because of lead's toxicity, lead glazes should never be used on surface which might ever contact food, drink, or a mouth; and containers of lead glazes must be labeled with such warnings.

Leaf: Metal beaten into extremely thin sheets used especially for gilding. Leaf is traditionally made of gold or silver, but may be made of other metals, including aluminum, copper, and other less expensive ones which look like gold and silver.

Lean: Used as an adjective to describe paint thinned with a spirit, which therefore has a low oil content.

Leather-hard: In ceramics, a state in which clay has lost moisture to evaporation, but has not yet completely hardened; clay damp enough to be joined to other pieces with scoring and slip.

Levigating: A method of water-washing pulverized pigments to clear the particles of dissolved salts or organic matter.

Liberal Arts: The humanities - non-scientific branches of study, such as philosophy, literature, and art, that are concerned with human thought and culture.

Life Drawing: The drawing of an actual scene or model as it appears in reality.

Life Mask: A cast of the face of a living person. Usually such casts have been made from a mold produced by placing gesso or plaster on the face, with a passage provided for breathing through the mold. Such a mold is likely to be of one piece, since the face is generally sufficiently flexible to enable removal of the hardened mold, as long as a release agent has been applied.

Lightfast: The ability of a substance, usually paint, to withstand exposure to daylight with out fading. This is a term found on tubes of paint. Remember, the term "lightfast" on a tube of artist's paint is a guarantee of permanence under normal conditions. The same term on a can of industrial paint or when referring to inks, only means the product is lightfast for the purpose it was intended. Not for artwork.

Likeness: The actual "personal resemblance" which an artwork has captured of a specific subject. While it is present in a subtle way from early in the process, it strenghens in the final stages of detail which are added to a work. It relies on very accurate placement throughout all stages.

Limited Edition: This is when the artist promises to not make more than a specified amount of prints. In the old days of printing the artist would destroy the plate or stone that the print was made from so no more could be made. This is still true today of the traditional printing methods, but most prints are made by offset photolithography, called lithographs, and since they are produced by the means of photographing an original, the buyer only has the word of the artist. An edition can be of any length. For the most part, really fine art prints are limited to 200 to 300 prints. Most of the offset prints are more in the area of 1000 copies. Some are far larger than that. There is no limit to the number of prints that could be made on a modern press. In the old days, the number of prints was very limited and the higher the number the poorer the print. However, today, with photo offset the last one is just the same as the first.

Limners: May refer to any painter, but more often to itinerant American painters of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, who made literal and naive portraits. They were largely self-taught. Also, may refer to a painter of miniatures in medieval illuminated manuscripts.

Line: An uninterrupted actual mark or implied direction going from one point to another. A mark made by an instrument as it is drawn across a surface.

Linear: A painting technique in which importance is placed on contours or outlines.

Linear Perspective: A method of depicting three-dimensional depth on a flat or two-dimensional surface. Linear perspective has two main precepts:
  1. forms that are meant to be perceived as far away from the viewer are made smaller than those meant to be seen as close:
  2. parallel lines receding into the distance converge at a point on the horizon line known as the vanishing point.

Linen: A cloth woven from thread made from fibers of the flax plant. Although it has been used in many ways, linen has been an especially desireable support for painting. As such it is one of several textiles that may be called canvas.

Linocut: A form of relief printmaking, similar to a woodcut, in which a block of linoleum is carved so as to leave the image to be printed raised above the surface of the block. The resulting print is also known as a linocut. It is usually backed with burlap or canvas, and may be purchased adhered to a wooden block. The linoleum can be cut in much the same way woodcuts are produced, however its surface is softer and without grain.

Linseed Oil: An extraction from the seed of the flax plant, the same plant that is used to make linen for canvas.
  1. Cold-Pressed: Made by crushing the seeds under great pressure. Excellent for use as grinding medium in oil paints. Due to its expense, it has been replaced by steam-pressed linseed oil in commercial manufacture of paints.
  2. Steam-Pressed: Developed in the nineteenth century by heating the seed before pressing. The resulting oil is then "cleaned" by various methods. Commonly used as a binder in tube oil paint, it is very transparant and will yellow to some extent.
  3. Sun-Thickened: A process dating to the Renaissance. Equal parts of oil and water are mixed and exposed to the sun for a matter of weeks. The resulting oil is viscous, somewhat bleached and will dry in a reasonable amount of time. It also, has better brushing or flow qualities than the other forms of this oil.

Liquin: A painting medium manufactured by Winsor & Newton. It is excellent when used with oils or alkyds. It speeds up the drying of oils, makes them more brushable, and gives gloss. Also adds transparency. Very good for glazing. It also resists yellowing.

Literal Qualities: The realistic presentation of subject matter in a work of art; avoiding distortions, exaggerations, or embellishments.

Lithograph: Any print resulting from the process of lithography.

Lithography: This is a printing process based on the fact that oil and water don't mix. It originated in Solnhofen, Germany where in 1798, Alois Senefelder discovered that when a greasy crayon was used to draw on a smooth limestone surface and then the surface was covered with water and then with ink, the ink would only stick to the stone where the greasy crayon had drawn marks. Paper could then be pressed on this surface and a print made of the drawing. The process was soon refined and rapidly became a favorite printing method of and for artists. A printing process in which a surface, as stone or sheet aluminium, is treated so that the ink adheres only to the portions that are to be printed. The resulting image is a lithograph or a lithographic print.
Lithography is sometimes confused with the photomechanical printing method of Offset Lithography. This is a grave mistake. The process of traditional lithography is a very time consuming and delicate work. The photomechanical process is the one used for almost all printing today from magazines to newspapers to the fine art prints sold in most galleries. The only difference between the fine art printing and the newspaper is the quality of the paper and the care given to the printing process.

Loaded: In painting, a loaded brush is one that is charged or filled with paint to its capacity.

Local Color: As opposed to optical or perceptual color, the actual hue of a thing, independent of the ways in which different conditions of light and atmosphere might affect it. The actual color of an object or surface, unaffected by shadow coloring, light quality or other factors.

Loom: An apparatus for producing textiles, rugs, blankets, or wall hangings by weaving thread or yarn into cloth.

Loom State: Canvas that has not been primed, sized or otherwise prepared beforehand for painting.

Loop Tool: A tool consisting of a loop of nonferrous metal attached to a handle, and used in carving plastic and leather-hard clay.

Lost-wax Casting: A casting process for which a sculptor must first produce his sculpture in wax. He creates a mold around this made of refractory materials. When the mold is heated, the wax melts away, so that molten metal can replace it, reproducing exactly the original wax sculpture.

Low Art: Refers to the lesser or minor arts, including the decorative or applied arts, with the inference that these are low partly because of shoddy manufacturing in inferior materials of superficial kitsch, simply catering to popular taste, unreflective acceptance of realism, and a certain "uncultured" mentality.

Low Contrast: A minimum of contrast between light and dark, so that the image is either predominantly dark or predominantly light.

Low (Bas-) Relief: In sculpture, where the figures and objects remain attached to a background plane and project off of it by less than one-half their normal depth.

Lucite: A trademark for a plastic material available in many form, includung liquid for casting. It can be made highly transparent, translucent, or opaque.

Luminism: The depiction of light in a painting.

Luminosity: A quality seen in some paintings of a glow coming from within, the illusion that there is actually a light coming out of the picture. Glossy colors are more likely to provide this luminous effect than matte colors.

Luminous Paint: A paint which actually glows in the dark. It contains a phosphor, which is usually a form of zinc or calcium sulfide. It stores light when exposed to it for a length of time, emitting it as a greenish or bluish glow for a relatively short length of time when the light source is removed. Versions of luminous paints with radioactive ingredients are used in situations in which the duration of glow must be prolonged, as on watch faces, but these paints are considerably more hazardous, and less commonly available.

Lump Hammer: A hammer with a heavy, rectangular head, usually made of iron, used to strike stone cutting tools.

Luster: A high-gloss finish with iridescence. It may refer to a thin glaze (usually metalic) sometimes used on pottery to produce a rich iridescent color.

Luting: In pottery, the attachment of any smaller molded, modeled, or turned ceramic component to a larger molded, modeled or turned form using slip as a cement.

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