Artist's Resources∼Artist's Dictionary L
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Lacquer, modern
Coating made of cellulose materials, made for ease in spraying to create a fast
drying, shiny tough, hard film, used mostly in industrial work.
Lacquer inks
Used for commercial silkscreen work, available in many colors; can be thinned to
transparency with a special base; one type of lacquer ink can be used on aluminum
foil; toxic and flammable.
Lacquer, Oriental
Name given to a coating used in Asia to create ArtWork, usually platters, bowls,
boxes, etc., coated with multiple applications and built up to a hard, tough, permanent
surface, sometimes thick enough to be carved; the ArtWork is also called "Lacquer".
Lake colors
Colors made by precipitating a dye upon a pigment; transparent and usually not
permanent.
Lapis lazuli
Pigment; a true ultramarine blue made from the semiprecious stone; practically
obsolete.
Lay figure
A wooden mannekin with movable parts; can assume almost any desired position, to
substitute for a life model.
Lay out
To apply a rough or general planning of a page, advertisement, brochure, etc.;
showing positioning of type and illustrations.
Layout paper
A bond or offset text, vellum finished, able to accept paint, chalk, pencil, etc.;
and usually
translucent.
Layout pencils
Soft, smooth, usually black pencils, used for layouts and sketchings
(ebony, negro and flat carpenters' pencils).
Lazuline blue
Pigment; native ultramarine, practically obsolete.
Lead/Leading
Originally a strip of lead seperating lines of type, still used to designate the
space between lines; example: ten to twelve (10/12) means a ten-point
typeface cast on a twelve-point body; allowing two extra points between lines,
referred to as "leaded two points".
Lead adhesive
A pressure-sensitive adhesive brushed on lead tape so that it can be applied to
glass, metal, etc.
Lead casting
A form of sculpture using lead.
Leaf
Metal that has been rolled or beaten to a very thin sheet, used in gilding;
available in gold, silver, copper, palladium, tri-color gold and aluminum.
Lean
Said of Oil colors that are thin or l;ow in oil content, giving a matte finish. A
lean quality can be acheived by squeezing the oil paint onto a blotter to absorb
some of the medium.
Leather brayer
In lithography, a roller covered with soft leather.
L'Ecole de Paris
(French, "The School of Paris") A term that implies
"Contemporary Art". It started about 1900 when Paris was the World
Art Center.
Leonardo Da Vinci
(1452-1519) Italian, a Florentine painter, sculptor and architect, and designer.
Among his best known paintings are "The last Supper" and
"The mona Lisa". His notebooks and sketches show the scope of his
remarkably agile mind.
Leroy lettering pen
Trade name for a tool for mechanical hand lettering often used by architects and
other draftsmen.
Letraline tape
Trade name of an opaque tape (glossy or matte) used in commercial Art;
available in 10 widths and different colors.
Levigator
In lithography, a circular tool used to grind the stone; also referred to as a
"Jigger".
Life drawing
Drawing of the human figure; usually refers to drawing from a nude model.
Life mask
An impression of the face of a living person, usually made of plaster.
Lift
In Watercolor, a term for taking out unwanted pigment, using dry brush, a sponge,
tissue, paper towel, finger or cloth.
Lift-ground etching
Using aquatint as a base, positive images of lines or brush strokes are etched
into the plate, which is then inked with a lift-ground solution
(e.g. 50% saturated sugar dissolved in 50% India ink) also called
"Sugar bite".
Lifting
In gouache and some other mediums, the mixing of an undercoat with a second coat;
prevented by using a fixative on the first coat.
Light box
A translucent glass-topped box with a light under it, used for tracing.
Lightfast
Resistant to fading on long exposure to sunlight.
Light sensitive plate
Plate that is treated with a light-sensitive coating, used in photogravure and
photolithography printing procedures.
Limited Edition
In graphic Arts, a limited number of prints, determined by the Artist, that are
pulled from a plate and numbered, after which the plate is destroyed.
Limner
An Artist who paints miniatures.
Line and wash
A line drawing combined with a wash of ink or watercolor.
Linear perspective
Mechanical; geometric perspective, a means of giving the illusion of distance in
3-D surface on a 2-D surface by the location of lines.
Linen canvas
Linen cloth used as a support for painting; may be primed or unprimed, in different
textures and qualities.
Linenfold
A decorative Gothic fold in cloth, straight in line with soft and hard ends.
Linen tester
A small, powerful magnifying glass originally designed to count threads in linen,
now also used to examine the dot structure in plates, printed materials and negatives.
Line of Beauty
Called Hogarths' line of beauty after the English painter William Hogarth
(1697-1764), it takes the form of a graceful "S" curve in a composition.
Line of sight
In linear perspective, the line extending from the viewer's eyes to the pictures' plane,
in the exact center of the cone of vision, also called the "Line of Vision".
Line of Vision
See Line of sight.
Liner
1. A brush used by sign painters to create straight lines and sharp edges ; available
in different shapes and in pointed quill sizes. See also
Dagger.
2. A strip of wood, linen, hemp, velvet, etc. that lines the inside of a
frame immediately next to the picture.
Linocut
A linoleum cut.
Linoleum
A durbale floor covering used for linoleum cuts, originally made from dried
linseed oil.
Linoleum block
A piece of wood with battleship linoleum mounted to the surface, cut and inked to
make a block print called a linoleum cut or linocut.
Linoxyn
The dried linseed oil skin of an oil painting.
Linseed Oil
An oil made from flax seed, used as a medium with oil paints and as a drying oil
in pigments.
Boiled linseed oil Processed with heat or driers; not used by Artists.
Cold pressed linseed oil No heat involved; oil from the
crushed seed is left to stand until the impurities have settled out, and is then
filtered.
Raw linseed oilSeeds are heated before being pressed, used only in lower
quality paints.
Refined linseed oilSteam pressed, refined and bleached;
less expensive than cold pressed oil, most often used in grinding paints.
Stand oilThe molecular structure has been changed by polymerization;
a heavy oil, dries slowly but creates a tough, flexible film.
Sun-thickened oil Of honey-like consistency, is
thicker and quicker drying than cold-pressed oil or refined oil; has been partly
oxidized, thickened and bleached by exposure to the sun.
Liquid eraser
Used on drafting film to completely erase an area.
Liquid Mask
A liquid frisket used to block out areas on paintings in watercolor, gouache,
commercial Art, etc.; can be removed by rubbing with the fingers; a few trade names
are " Maskoid, MoonMask, Miskit, and Luma Liquid Mask".
liquid resin ground
In aquatint, a saturated solution of resin mixed in denatured alcohol.
Liquin
A medium used to thin oils and alkyd; speeds drying time.
Lithographic ink
A printing ink available in colors, used in reproducing lithographs, not to be
confused with the tusche in lithography used for drawing and painting on the stone.
Lithographic points
Needles or points used for scratching in the crayon areas on a lithograph stone
to create white-line effects.
Lithograph stone
A flat slab of limestone, prepared with a grain to be used for lithography.
Lithography
A process that involves drawing with a grease crayon on limestone or a metal or
plastic plate, which is wet with water and then inked with a roller; the oily
printing ink adheres to the oily drawing and resists the blank areas, making
it possible to pull prints with a litho press; since its invention in 1798 it
has been a popular process with such Artists as Daumier, Degas,
Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso and Miro.
Lithography press
The printing press used to pull prints in lithography.
Livering
The turning of oil paint to a rubbery mass in the tube, caused by impurities in
the pigment.
Loaded
Fully charged, said of a brush filled with paint.
Local color
The actual color of a subject.
Logo/Logotype
An identifying symbol; signature, or trade name for commercial use, also called a
"Bug".
Lost wax process
A procedure for casting metal sculpture and jewelry, used from the 5th century A.D.
to the present time; also called
"Cire perdue" and "Investment casting".
Lukasbruder
Order of St. Luke. See
Nazarenes.
Luminism
A style of painting characterized by concern with the effects of light; applied to
the 19th century impressionists, but also used to refer to the late
Hudson River
School of painters and their fascination with light and atmospheric effects in
landscape.
Lunette
A half-moon shaped panel decorated with ArtWork.
Lutschism
See Rayonnism.
Lyrical abstraction
In the early 1970's, an outgrowth of abstract expressionism, featuring large picture
sizes and muted color harmonies; the term is sometimes applied to the Work of Mark Rothko
(1903-1970) who is also classified as an abstract expressionist.