DESCRIPTIVE WORDS

Words to describe colour, composition, tone, texture, mark making, mood and atmosphere, form and shape, lighting, viewpoint and pose, still life, interactive art, social practice, relational art and  participatory art  :

Colour:

Natural, clear, compatible, distinctive, interesting, lively, stimulating, subtle, sympathetic. Artificial, clashing, depressing, discordant, garish, gaudy, jarring, unfriendly, violent.  Bright, brilliant, deep, earthy, harmonious, intense, rich, saturated, strong, vibrant, vivid.  Dull, flat, insipid, pale, mellow, muted, subdued, quiet, weak. Cool, cold. Warm, hot. Light, dark.  Blended, broken, mixed, muddled, muddied, pure. Complementary, contrasting, harmonious.

Composition words:
— Arrangement, layout, structure, position.
— Landscape format, portrait format, square format, circular, triangular.
— Horizontal, vertical, diagonal, angled.
— Foreground, background, middle ground.
— Centered, asymmetrical, symmetrical. Balanced, unbalanced, lopsided.
— Overlapping, cluttered, chaotic. Separate, spacious, empty.
— Free, flowing, fragmented. Formal, rigid, upright, confined.
— Negative space, positive space.

Tone Words:

Dark, light, mid (middle). Flat, uniform, unvarying, smooth, plain.
Varied, broken. Constant. Changes.  Graduated. Contrasting.

Texture words:

Flat, polished, smooth.
Raised, rough, coarse. Cut, incised, pitted, scratched, uneven,
Hairy, sticky.Soft, hard.Shiny, glossy, reflective. Semi-gloss, satin, silk, frosted, matte.Marks made with a knife, brush.

Mark making words:

Visible, impasto. blended, smooth.Thick, thin. Bold, timid. Heavy, light. Edgy, smooth.Glazes, washes, scumbling, dry brush, stippling, hatching, splattered.
Layered, flat.  Precise, refined, regular, straight, systematic. Quick, sketchy, uneven, irregular, vigorous.  Regularity, patterned

Mood and Atmosphere words:

Calm, content, peaceful, relaxed, tranquil.
Cheerful, happy, joyful, romantic.  Depressed, gloomy, miserable, sad, sombre, tearful, unhappy.  Aggressive, angry, chilling, dark, distressing, frightening, violent.  Energetic, exciting, stimulating, thought-provoking. Boring, dull, lifeless, insipid.

Form and shape words:
2D, flat, abstracted, simplified, stylized.  3D, realistic, natural, sense of depth and space. Sharp, detailed.  Blurred, obscured, overlapping, indistinct.
Distorted, exaggerated, geometric. Linear, long, narrow. Hard-edged, soft-edged.

Lighting words:

Back lit, front lit, side lit, top lit.  Indirect light. Reflected light. No directional light source.  Natural. Artificial.  Cool, blue, grey. Warm, yellow, red.
Dim, faint, gentle, gloomy, low, minimal, muted, soft.  Clear, brilliant, bright, glowing, fiery, harsh, intense, sharp.

Viewpoint and pose words:

Front, side, three-quarters, profile, rear (from behind).  Close up, far away, life size, bird's eye view.  Upwards, downwards, sideways.  Standing, sitting, lying down, bending.  Gesturing, moving. Resting, static.

Still life words:

 Antique, battered, damaged, dusty, old, worn.  New, clean, shiny.
Functional, decorative, fancy.  Domestic, humble. Commercial, industrial.

Sculpture words:

Interactive art words:

engage, temperature, motion, proximity, involves the spectator, viewer becomes part of the artwork.  An audience can influence the course of a performance or can even participate in it.  providing an input.  interactivity allows for various types of navigation, assembly, and/or contribution to an artwork, which goes far beyond purely psychological activity.^[3] Interactivity as a medium produces meaning.^{[4]  .}  The maker has programmed in order to elicit responses based on participant action.  work together in dialogue in order to produce a completely unique artwork.  Responsive environment.  Artwork may change or evolve in the presence of the viewer. 

Social Practice words:

activity and inquiry, human development, involves knowledge production, theorization and analysis of both institutional and intervention practices.  geographical position, race, gender, and social class.  societal conditions of different institutional settings with human social and mental functioning and development.  engagement with communities of interest,  relationship wherein there remains a focus on the skills, knowledge,  activity is used for social change, integrate the individual with his or her surrounding environment,  assessing how context and culture relate to common actions and practices of the individual, social activity occurs,  work collaboratively through social and participatory formats,  interventionist projects, engagement through art, valuing of difference,  activist art, social work, protest performance, performance, ethnography, community art, relational aesthetics, conversation pieces, action research, invest space with meaning,   working together collaboratively to confirm a sense of place, to create a sense of shared common place.

Relational art words:

he artist can be more accurately viewed as the "catalyst" in relational art, rather than being at the centre.  open-ended works,  user-friendliness, interactivity and DIY (do-it-yourself), human relations and their social context.  The artwork creates a social environment in which people come together to participate in a shared activity.  relational art produces intersubjective encounters.  a "laboratory", the "curatorial modus operandi" of art (Clare Bishop).  stage-managing the overall laboratory experi- ence.  Bishop, also asks "if relational art produces human relations, then the next logical question to ask is what types of relations are being produced, for whom, and why?

  

Participatory art words:

Audience is engaged directly in the creative process, allowing them to become co-authors, editors, and observers of the work.  incomplete without the viewers physical interaction, challenge the dominant form of making art in the West.  relational art, social practice, community art, and new genre public art.

Dialogue words:
Ringing, cheeping, gasping, smashing, piercing, peeping, whooping, tinkling, raucous, chattering, crooning, bellowing, sobbing, bumping, snarling, growling, pitch, crying, thumping, burping, croaking, clattering, yapping, keening, splashing, yelping, rustling, volume, squeling, howling, barking, sniveling, moaning, pealing, whining, gagging, fizzing, wheezing, honking, hissing, bawling, trumpeting, swishing, sneezing, rumbling, bubbling, ripping, cooing, chirping, shouting, shuffling, tearing, popping, roaring, thunderous, scratching, snorting, crashing, crunching, cackling, tolling, clucking, silent, tapping, soothing, crowing, tranquil, melodious, cacophonous, singing, quiet, tune,, loud, tinkling, noisy, rhythmic, mumbling, twittering, din, beat, blaring, cawing, racket, chattering, murmuring, whistling, clapping, booming, whispering, mewing, snapping, snoring, yelling, mooing, crackling, sighing.  Asked, answered, announced, acclaimed, beseeched, bellowed, begged, cried, crowed, clarified, claimed, declared, denied, denounced, derived, decided, explained, exclaimed, hollered, interjected, inquired, inspected, justfied, jollied, joked, muttered, screeched, sighed, showed, sided, yelled.
Argued, added, accused, babbled, belched, boasted, bragged, boomed, breathed, cackled, complained, chocked, called, compared, confessed, coached, cried, described, demanded, flirted, fretted, figured, grizzled, growled, giggled, gasped, gurgled, groaned, grumbled, hassled, howled, hinted, hissed, indicated, interfered, intervened, illustrated, interrupted, laughed, lied, moaned, mumbled, murmured, nagged, objected, offered, pestered, pressured, protested, proclaimed, preached, pronounced, preceded, persisted, prescribed, quoted, queried, quarreled, questioned, resisted, responded, roared, requested, rambled, replied, rejected, rewarded, shouted, screamed, suggested, squabbled, supported, spoke, snarled, smirked, snickered, smiled, sung, told, trembled, thought, tempted, uttered, voted, whinged, whined, worried, wished, yodeled, yawned, yelped.