Guyla - A Glossary of Art Terminology

Wabi-sabi: Wabi-sabi is the quintessential Japanese aesthetic. It is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete, modest and humble, and of "things unconventional." Peripherally associated with Zen Buddhism, wabi-sabi values characteristics which are rustic, earthy, and unpretentious, involving natural materials which are used neither representationally nor symbolically.

Walnut Oil: A natural drying oil. Used in the mixing and grinding of oil colors. Yellows less than linseed oil, but more than safflower oil. This makes it good for making light colors. It dries relatively fast, but is very expensive.

Ware: A collective term for pottery and ceramic objects.

Warm Colors: Colors often associated with fire and sun, which suggest warmth: red , yellow and orange, or colors with tints or shades of yellow or orange.

Warp: In weaving, the vertical threads attached to the top and bottom of a loom, through which the weft is woven.

Wash: A technique using ink, usually diluted with water, applied with a brush. Although drawings can be made with wash alone, it is more often used in conjunction with line or contour drawings in pen and ink to depict areas of light and shade. Also used in watercolor painting and occasionally in oil painting to describe a broad thin layer of diluted pigment. Also refers to a drawing made in this technique.

Waste Mold: A piece mold made from a model (usually of clay or wax) when the model must be broken apart (wasted) in removing it from the mold. A mold from which only one cast can be taken, because the mold must be broken apart and discarded in order to release the cast. This is how lost-wax casting casting is accomplished.

Water Gilding: The application of gold leaf to a surface of gesso, or whiting which may have been coated with bole, and this covered with a water and glue. The gold is then burnished. This is a better technique than oil gilding, also known as mordant gilding, when the surface is a gessoed one, although it is more difficult.

Water Tension Breaker: Substance added to water or to water-based paints in order to reduce surface tension.

Watercolor: While an ink is in effect no more than a solution of dye, watercolor is a dispersion of solid, albeit very finely ground, particles of colored pigments that remain in suspension through the effect of Brownian motion - the random movement of microscopic particles when suspended in liquids or gases, caused by the impact of the collision with each other and the molecules of fluid with which they are mixed. The most important characteristic of watercolor is its brilliancy, a result of its translucent nature, which allows the white surface of the paper to shine through. To extend its range of possible effects, artists often incorporated opaque pigments and gouaches in their watercolors.

Watermark: A mark visible within the paper when held up to the light. The watermark is made by sewing into the screen of the paper mold a wire impression of the desired mark. When the pulp is placed onto the surface of the screen, these raised wires leave an impression in the pulp such that the area above the wire design is thinner and more translucent, capturing the design of the watermark in the final sheet. Study of a sheet's watermark can provide useful information about the paper's date and place of manufacture.

Waterproof: Typically refers to colors or other materials which will not decay or distort with exposure to water. The most common waterproof materials are various rubbers, plastics, and sealing agents.

Water-soluble: Soluble in water; capable of being dissolved in water, especially if a wetting agent is added, like detergents and soaps.

Wax: Any of various natural, oily or greasy heat-sensitive substances, the most common being beeswax. These consist of hydrocarbons or esters of fatty acids that are insoluble in water but soluble in most organic solvents. May also refer to a solid, plastic or liquid substance, such as ozocerite or paraffin, a petroleum byproduct, used in coating paper, in crayons, and other products. Both natural and synthetic waxes are used in painting as a binder, and as an important ingredient in candles and polishes. They are also important materials used for casting and modeling, generally over an armature.

Wax Painting: A painting technique in which pigment is mixed with a binder - melted wax and resin - and then applied to a surface while hot.

Wax Resist: The use of a waxy medium to make a design over which a colored wash is spread.

Waxwork: Modeling in wax. Or a figure made of wax, especially a life-size wax effigy of a famous person. Also, the plural form, used with either a singular or plural verb, refers to an exhibition of wax figures in a museum.

Weaving: The main way of making fabric. When weaving, one set of threads (weft) are wound through another set of threads (warp). A loom is what holds these threads.

Webbed: In sculpture, the retention of a supporting membrane of material between fingers or other thin extremities, especially in stone sculpture.

Wedge: A piece of material, such as wood or metal, tapered at one edge and thick at the opposite end, used for tightening, securing, levering, or splitting, as when driven into wood along its grain, or when driven into the interlocking corners of wooden stretchers to produce tension on canvas support. These last are also called keys.

Wedging: A way of pushing and folding clay to remove air pockets and to make sure the texture is even.

Weft: The horizontal threads interlaced through the warp in a wooven fabric.

Welding: The process of joining metals by fusing them together under direct, intense heat. A commonly used source of heat for welding is an oxyacetylene torch. A metal rod may be applied to the joint which melts into any gaps and strengthens the bond.

Wet On Wet: The application of fresh paint over an area on which the paint is still wet.

Wetting Agent: A substance that reduces the surface tension of a liquid, causing the liquid to spread across or penetrate more easily the surface of a solid, making anything that is water-soluble more quickly solved. Detergents and soaps generally accomplish this in order to penetrate surfaces to clean them. A wetting agent traditionally used in watercolor painting is oxgall. Modern wetting agents most recommended for art applications are synthetic.

Whakairo: Maori carving in any material.

White Chalk: Primarily used to heighten drawings in other media. There are two types of natural white chalk: calcite or calcium carbonate, a soft and fairly brilliant white, and soapstone or stealite, a slightly harder, bluish white.

White Spirits: A thinner used with oil paints replacing Turpentine.

Whiting: Chalk. Made from calcium carbonate, derived from limestone or dolomite. Whiting can come in various grades of coarseness. For painting, it is used in the making of gesso.

Win-Gel: Commercially prepared tube medium used for glazing and detail work. Increases transparancy and gloss.

Wire: A usualy pliable metallic strand made in many lengths and diameters, called gauges.

Wood Engraving: A relief printing technique where a block of wood is incised with a special tool to create the printing surface. The wood is cut transversely to create an end grain. Only very hard wood is used, such as box wood or red maple. The drawing is transferred to the surface and then the cutting is done. The design is made by the nonprinting area of the block. This process was developed in England in the 18th century. In the mid-nineteenth century, it was the standard method of illustrating books and magazines. The use of the process for these purposes came to an end with the introduction of photoengraving. Scratchboard imitates the wood engraving technique.

Woodcut: A relief printing technique in which the printing surface is carved with special tools in a solid block of wood. The wood is cut longitudinally from the tree so the grain runs the length of the block. The block is cut and then inked with a brayer or dabber. The paper is then placed in the block and the whole thing is run through a press or rubbed over by a baren or the bowl of a large spoon. The oldest prints from wood blocks are playing cards.

Woof: The threads or strands of yarn that are woven over and under the warp threads to make a weaving. The more common contemporary term is weft.

Wove Paper: Papers which show no fine "laid" lines running through the sheet when held to the light.

Wrought Iron: A comparitively pure form of iron which is easily forged and does not harden quickly, so that it can be shaped or hammered by hand in contrast to molded cast iron.

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