Display, site selection, mounting, and environmental considerations for exhibition.
XML-based vector graphics format with support for interactivity and scalability.
Drying, Flattening and Surface Protection
Allow full dry time, flatten if needed, and apply optional fixatives or varnish protocols.
Patience here prevents surface damage and preserves the clarity earned in earlier steps.
Heavy sheets may need minimal flattening; consider no-varnish if presenting under glazing.
A vellum finish multi-media drawing and painting surface.
Building mid-tones and transitions with transparent glazes, managing edges, carving lights negatively.
Form emerges here. Reserve darks for the end and let edges do more of the modeling than outlines.
Alternate wet-on-dry for control with wet-into-wet for atmosphere; keep glazing transparent and clean.
not decorated or elaborate; simple or ordinary in character.
Terms used to describe the materials, techniques, tools and related concepts used in painting.
The process includes steps for soaking the paper, stretching it and taping the paper to a stable panel to support it during painting.
Casein is a water based painting medium derived from milk. It's properties resemble Gouache. A fast-drying, water-soluble paint derived from milk protein, or casein
This is a simple watercolor technique where a variety of objects (brush handles, empty ball point pens, blunt knives) can be used to compress the paper while a wash is still wet. The compressed paper will absorb more pigment than the surrounding paper leaving interesting dark marks in your painting.
Material and lighting framework using measurable parameters (albedo, roughness, metallic) for realism.
The process of preparing to create a painting.
Pigment is the substance that gives paint its color. Pigments can be natural or synthetic; usually an insoluble powder. For example, pigment is mixed with water and gum Arabic to create watercolor paint
A colored material, typically an insoluble particulate, used to impart hue and other optical properties to a paint or ink.
Software system controlling stroke behavior (pressure, tilt, spacing, opacity, flow).
Wherever candle wax is applied to the painting surface, no paint will adhere. White areas can be preserved in this way before the painting is started. Unlike white preserved with masking fluid, the area can never be painted over. Washes of underlying color can be preserved in this way too. The various colored marks in the example below were preserved by drawing wax onto a dry wash then applying another wash, waiting until it drys then drawing on more wax marks.
The concept that tension and compression roles can be interchanged in complementary structural forms, as seen in Gaudi's hanging-chain models and later explored in tensegrity practice.
The use of ultramarine blue as the primary shadow color, providing chromatic depth and visual weight.
A bolder choice than Payne's gray or neutral mixes; requires confidence that the saturated blue will integrate with the overall palette.
The process of creating a 3D sculpture using digital media.
Using a granulation medium, apply the medium to a dry or wet area, or mix the medium directly with the paint. This casues fine-grained accumulation of particles of pigment in the area.
Informationalism is a concept of strengthening the capacity of information processing and communication, made possible by technological innovations.
A tensegrity structure designed to fold and expand, used in space structures and robotics.
A pattern is a design in which lines, shapes, forms or colours are repeated. The part that is repeated is called a motif. Natural patterns echo forms and patterns found in nature.
The source of the interpretation of the artwork is Google Gemini
The selection of what to include and exclude at the edges of a composition.
Adventurous cropping is cutting into forms at the edges to create dynamism and imply continuation beyond the frame.
Initial graded and variegated washes to set overall light, atmosphere, and major value masses.
This is the painting's breath. A single decisive pass often reads better than piecemeal local color.
One coherent sky-to-ground wash that locks the value horizon and dominant temperature.
A practitioner who engages in art-making casually, without sustained commitment to skill development or artistic standards.
Not pejorative; describes orientation toward the activity rather than skill level.
Carbon black produced from incomplete combustion of oils or resins; deep masstone, slow drying in oil.
A fluid composition of liquid latex and ammonia, or an adhesive film; used to cover (mask-off) areas of of your painting where paint is not wanted; excellent at preserving white space. (see; masking, white space)Liquid frisket dries very quickly and can be easily peeled off waterclour paper (or rubbed off with an eraser) when no longer needed. Frisket adhesive film must be cut to shape and then applied to the paper; the low tack of the adhesive film allows it to be easily removed when no longer needed.
This could be considered a material, as well
The perceptual distinction between a subject (figure) and its surrounding area (ground), and the compositional interplay between them.
The overall spatial pattern formed by all tension elements considered as a single organism: how cables sweep, cluster, and define voids. This pattern often governs both structural behavior and visual identity.
A process used by an individual artist in the production of a creative work in the digital arts.
A color's relative lightness or darkness
Materials used in the production of art.
Popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame.
Practices that mitigate risk to people and works during fabrication, transport, and installation.
Substances and stock used in constructing sculpture, physical or digital.
Includes digital assets as immaterial materials when used as primary modeling matter.
The combination of recurring choices in palette, technique, subject, and handling that make an artist's work recognizable.
A signature can be a strength (identity) or a constraint (predictability).
Copper acetate complex; transparent bluish-green noted for reactivity and historical stability issues in oil.
Coarse placement of forms and value masses to resolve staging before detail.
With this watercolor technique, rough gesso brushstrokes add interest to the predictable texture of watercolor paper. Watercolor gesso or absorbent ground works best. The important thing to remember is to allow the gesso to dry thoroughly before painting on it. Watercolor, particularly sedimentary colors will settle into the fine crevasses in the gesso brush strokes making an interesting texture.
This occurs when you carry on adding more and more to a painting when it would have been stopping at an earlier stage would have resulted in a livelier fresher looking piece of work. This is rather subjective and can be difficult to judge. Try and evaluate what you're trying to achieve with every single brushstroke before making it rather than just mindlessly piling on more.
The source of the interpretation of the artwork
Torn Japanese Rice Paper is glued to the surface with dilute PVA glue, Matt acrylic varnish or a similar neutral pH glue. The results are interesting and unpredictable, depending on the type of rice paper.
Some watercolor pigments have smaller particles which means that they flow very smoothly and have intense color saturation, for example, the 'Pthalo' colors, where others are more sedimentary producing more of a granular effect, for example viridian. Colors that absorb into the paper before the water has had a chance to evaporate; they're difficult to lift and will leave a stain on the paper. Not an indicator of paint quality as some pigments are inherently staining, and some are non-staining.
The bubbles are created from a small quantity of dish soap added to water used for a wet wash.. In a small deep dish mix the soap and water. Some paint is then mixed with the water maintaining a very fluid solution. Using a straw, with one end under the soapy water, blow into the straw producing bubbles filling up the dish. Using the straw scrap bubbles now with traces of paint onto the paper. The resulting texture reiterates the bubble shapes that formed then popped on the paper.
The process includes compositional layout, palette choices and selection of techniques.
Rebuilding dense or sculpted meshes into cleaner, animation-friendly topology.
Laying a sheet of watercolour paper on a rigid support and taping all sides down to the support in order to avoid buckling and warping; paper stays relatively flat while you paint (avoiding unwanted and uneven pooling) and the finished painting dries perfectly flat.Any paper of less than a 300lb weight will warp if not stretched; the amount of warp is dependent on the amount of water absorbed in the painting process. Stretching is not necessary if you're using synthetic papers (which are not prone to warping) or if you're using a watercolor block as long as the painting is left on the block to dry.
A polyhedron with two parallel, congruent n-gon bases rotated relative to one another and connected by an alternating band of 2n triangles.
For n = 3, the regular triangular antiprism is the octahedron.
The ability of a tensegrity structure to absorb disturbances (impact, vibration, shock) and return to a stable configuration while maintaining structural integrity. This is crucial in robotics and deployable systems.
Compiled by ChatGPT per user request, Nov 2025.
Added skos:editorialNote and other skos:note types for clarity and curation.
A top-level sequence of fine-art watercolor processes from planning to archival presentation.
This scheme favors painterly clarity over exhaustive technique lists. It aims to protect luminosity and focal design while allowing variation by subject and temperament.
First issued as a compact 10-step scaffold; refined with editorial notes per user request.
Related properties suggest a loose flow; implement actual order per project and subject.
Processes can iterate and reorder; this is a scaffold, not a prescription.
Intended for studio workflows emphasizing luminous washes, glazing, and controlled accents.
Descriptions of the sense of twist in a tensegrity prism or module. A left-handed prism twists counterclockwise. Alternating handedness can produce symmetrical towers or balanced toroidal forms.
; A wash is a large solid area of colour, a smooth field of colour without visible brush strokes. Washes can be just one colour, or they can gradate from a light to a dark shade of a single colour, or they can graduate from one colour to another.
Terms used to describe visual arts creative works.
the underlying framework, composition, and arrangement of a work's visual elements according to specific principles to create a unified and meaningful whole.
A back run occurs when painting into a wet area of watercolor with a mix of paint that is more dilute than is currently there. This causes the paint to spread out (Bloom) and often leaves a cauliflower shaped pattern when dry. This is often considered to be undesirable but can also be done intentionally to create a textural effect.
The mixing of colours in a semi-controlled way by adding new colour to a wash that hasn't dried; backruns can be an unwelcome accident, but are also deliberately created by some artists to represent abstracted clouds, foliage or flowers, or just to create a specific mood and for visual interest.
created by adding water to the original color; the more water that's added, the weaker the intensity
Willingness to use bold, saturated colors decisively rather than defaulting to safe, muted choices.
Integration of Figures and Structural System (RS)
Bind figures to tensegrity nodes and axes; balance symmetry, asymmetry, and chirality; reveal readable lines of tension.
This is the point at which the work becomes unmistakably yours. When figure placements feel inevitable and the tension network reads at a glance, the sculpture acquires the calm of necessity rather than the noise of options.
Top-level processes for digital 3D sculpture focused on tensegrity-oriented practice.
This scheme offers a sculptor-centered, geometry-aware view of digital practice. It emphasizes structural logic and experiential presentation rather than a film or VFX style pipeline. The intent is to keep the categories tight enough to remain useful for tensegrity-inspired work while still general enough for other structurally driven sculpture.
Categories are indicative and may iterate; not a rigid production line.
Related properties suggest a loose flow; implement actual order per project needs.
The degree or rate of rotational twist along an axis. In tensegrities, helicity governs how strongly one polygonal end of a module is rotated relative to the other, affecting both structural response and visual energy.
Principles governing the use, interaction, and perception of color in visual art.
A condition in which the range of values is narrowed, often resulting in reduced contrast and diminished sense of depth.
Can occur intentionally for atmospheric effect or unintentionally as a technical limitation. Mid-tone compression is particularly common.
The web of cables that connects all struts, maintaining the structural form.
A process used in the production of a creative work in the visual arts.
Is the technique of laying down a large area of even, consistent color.
Early-phase activities that establish intent, mood, and composition prior to detailed production.
Arsenic trisulfide; brilliant lemon to golden yellow with known incompatibilities (e.g., with lead and copper pigments).
the process of analyzing a work of art and assigning it meaning.
A complex structure built from repeating tensegrity cells, analogous to biological systems.
Shadows rendered using saturated colors (typically blues or violets) rather than neutral grays or black.
Contrast with 'dead' shadows created by adding black or Payne's gray.
Keeps shadows luminous and integrated with overall color harmony; a characteristic of Impressionist and post-Impressionist practice now standard in watercolor.
A wash in which the value gradually changes from dark to light. A graduated wash is painted like a flat wash except that more water is added incrementally to lighten the colour as the wash progresses. This technique can be useful for painting skies and seas etc.
The judgment to cease work on a painting before overworking diminishes its freshness or luminosity.
One of watercolor's hardest lessons; a sign of experience and discipline.
Projection of a 3D surface to 2D coordinates for precise texture placement.
Paint characteristic; the ability of certain paints and/or certain colours to cover completely, not allowing you to see through to lower layers; the opposite of transparent & translucent; ideal for over-painting.
The scope, risk, and complexity an artist pursues in their work.
Work characterized by depiction of specific, visited, remembered locations rather than invented or studio compositions.
Has a travel-journal quality; records of encounter with particular sites.
Mapping synthesized from prior chats; user practice summary, Nov 2025.
Top-level watercolor processes mapped to Rick Spates practice; kept discrete and aligned to general concepts.
This scheme captures a practice centered on luminous atmosphere, negative painting, and selective late accents. The works read strongest when large coherent washes establish mood early and detail arrives only where it serves the focal path.
Close matches maintain semantic alignment while allowing personal evolution of terms.
A design approach in which geometric, material, and prestress parameters (angles, lengths, force densities) are exposed as variables. Parametric tensegrity allows systematic exploration of families of forms rather than a single fixed object.
A mop brush is a type of Round Brush that has a thick hair at it's base tapering into a very thin tip. The mop brush is very versatile and can create many different kinds of strokes.
The application of tensegrity principles to biological systems, explaining how cells, muscles, and skeletons maintain form and function.
(of signals or data) expressed as series of the digits 0 and 1.
Colors in the red, orange, and yellow range that appear to advance visually and evoke warmth.
A dagger brush has a straight edge and a sloping edge reminiscent of a knife blade. This brush is ideal for painting thin or tapering lines.
Document container supporting vector and raster content for print and delivery.
Dipping a pen nib in watercolor paint then drawing on the paper creates very controlled and potentially very fine lines. A glass dip pen offers similar results and can hold more paint.
a trend or tendency in art, defined by a group of artists sharing a common philosophy, style, or goal
Synthetic brushes can be made from Nylon, Polyester or Taklon. They tend to be stiffer and springier than natural haired brushes.
The rich colors and linear quality of permanent artists ink can be used to unify a painting. Experiment using a fine water spray just after the ink is applied. The soft spidery textures add an ancient weathered patina to your painting.
Approximation of soft contact shadows caused by occluded ambient light.
Standardized Colour Index designation for a pigment (e.g., PB29, PR106, NR9).
Legacy PostScript-based vector document format used for print and interchange.
randomly determined; having a random probability distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely.
Analogous colors are colors that are adjacent on the Color Wheel. e.g. blue, blue/green, green.
Image generation and lighting tests used to evaluate form, material response, and legibility.
Drying, Flattening and Surface Protection (RS)
Minimal flattening on 300 lb paper; patient observation during drying to identify final adjustments.
Silence in this step is productive: it protects the freshness you built earlier.
Use the slow dry to judge whether the focal path still reads from across the room.
The simplest tensegrity prism, usually with three struts and nine cables (a T3).
The deliberate progression from warm colors in the foreground to cool colors in the distance, creating spatial depth.
A fundamental technique for establishing pictorial depth without relying solely on linear perspective.
The visual effect by which the tension network and compression members reveal their own load paths. Structural transparency is central to the aesthetic appeal of many tensegrity sculptures and installations.
Right-handed 3-strut tensegrity antiprism: upper ring rotated relative to the lower so that helical cross-cables trace a right-handed twist.
Number of distinct vertices in the configuration.
A family of tensegrity structures with n struts arranged in a twisted, prismatic form.
A characteristic, recurring selection of colors that becomes recognizable as part of an artist's visual identity.
Can be a strength (instant recognizability) or a limitation (predictability).
Computer graphics process is a step or set of steps performed in the creation of a computer graphics creative work.
Basic copper carbonate mineral used since antiquity; coarse particles yield bright azure, finer grades shift greener.
Visual programming paradigm connecting operators as nodes for materials, compositing, or geometry.
Hydrated chromium oxide; cool, transparent green introduced in the 19th century; good permanence in watercolor.
Loose watercolor painting is a style characterized by free-flowing, spontaneous brushstrokes and a focus on capturing the essence of a subject rather than precise details.It often involves letting colors blend naturally on the paper, creating soft edges and unique color mixtures.
This video seems the epitome of loose painting style.
A structural system that achieves stability by balancing isolated compression elements within a continuous tension network.
A mathematical group describing the full set of symmetries of a geometric or structural object, including rotations, reflections, or other operations that leave the object unchanged.
Do not conflate with informal descriptions of visual balance. Reserve this concept for group theoretic symmetry as applied to geometry and tensegrity configuration.
Used for recording symmetry classifications of tensegrity structures, including groups such as A5, D3, or other point groups relevant to strut and cable arrangements.
Sizing is a gelatin based substance used in the making of watercolor paper, canvas stretching and panel preparation. Sizing slows the absorbtion of the paint so that most of the pigment remains on the surface of the paper. Can maintain the structural integrity of the paper, the paper can be soaked with water without falling apart; reduces paper buckling and warping once dry; encourages paper to shrink back to it's original shape.
Some references to sizing consider it a process/tool
In a colored wet wash, use the edge of a small piece of plastic the edge of a knife to scrape away small areas of paint producing an effect like sunlit faces of rocks.
Sculptural Modeling of Figures and Form Elements
Model figures and forms with sculptural intent, refine silhouette and negative space, prepare topology for integration.
Modeling choices should serve force readability. Silhouette, proportion, and the treatment of negative space all contribute to whether tension and compression read as legible structure rather than decoration.
Binder is a substance that holds watercolor pigment in suspension. The substance used is generally Gum Arabic or synthetic Glycol.
Creation and preparation of three-dimensional forms for visualization, animation, or fabrication.
A value structure dominated by dark values, creating a somber or dramatic effect.
Left-handed 4-strut tensegrity antiprism with left-handed helical cross-cables.
Is a technique that involves dropping a new wet color into an existing wash allowing them to blend ad create interesting variations of color or tonal value. Mixing two or more colors directly on the paper instead of premixing on a palette
The term "Abstract" is used to describe a painting that is non-representational. i.e the subject matter of the painting is not about the depiction of reality.
The central line about which a tensegrity structure is organized. In many prisms this axis aligns with the 'vertical' direction of stacking, setting both structural hierarchy and visual reading.
A practitioner who works with rigor, accumulated skill, and high internal standards, but for the love of the work rather than professional advancement.
Distinguished from hobbyist by level of commitment and skill; from professional by motivation and livelihood.
From Latin 'amare' (to love). Historically respected category, now often undervalued due to semantic drift of 'amateur' toward 'unskilled'.
Simulation of light, image synthesis, and multi-pass assembly into finalized imagery.
A configuration in which alternating modules have opposite chirality. Antichiral patterns can produce toroidal, wave-like, or lattice forms with global balance even when each unit is individually twisted.
Structured overview compiled by ChatGPT, November 4, 2025.
A scheme covering common terminology used across contemporary digital fine art workflows from concept to output.
Relationships are indicative (not exhaustive) and aim to aid discovery across adjacent practices.
The process of preparing the surface to receive the painting medium.
Flexible, high-bit-depth raster format favored for archival and print workflows.
The connectivity pattern of cables and struts independent of their specific geometry.
Is a species of weasel found in Siberia. The most highly prized and expensive watercolor brushes are made from the tail hairs of the male of the species.
A rigger is a watercolour brush with long thin hairs. It is useful for painting thin lines such as the rigging on ships, hence the name.
the art of drawing solid objects on a two-dimensional surface so as to give the right impression of their height, width, depth, and position in relation to each other when viewed from a particular point.
your point of view--how you see, understand, and interpret things, shaped by your experiences, beliefs, or location
Number of compression members (discontinuous compression) in the configuration.
Categories describing different orientations toward artistic practice.
Iron oxide earth; warm to deep red-brown; stable and widely used since prehistory.
Assignment of per-vertex influence values that determine how bones deform a mesh.
High-resolution, pigment-based inkjet print on archival media for fine art reproduction.
The perceived heaviness or importance of an element within a composition, determined by size, color, value, position, and density.
Sodium aluminosilicate sulfur chromophore from lapis lazuli; historic blue with characteristic warm masstone and reddish violet bias in tints.
The magic erase rubbed on a dry area of watercolor paint acts as a very fine sandpaper to lift and trap the paint. One example of the resulting texture is to create a horizon line with deeper color below and lighter color above.
a parallel rewriting system and a type of formal grammar. An L-system consists of an alphabet of symbols that can be used to make strings, a collection of production rules that expand each symbol into some larger string of symbols, an initial "axiom" string from which to begin construction, and a mechanism for translating the generated strings into geometric structures. L-systems were introduced and developed in 1968 by Aristid Lindenmayer, a Hungarian theoretical biologist and botanist at the University of Utrecht..
Mathematical operations that combine layer pixels to achieve compositing effects.
A tensegrity system deliberately designed for controlled motion or reconfiguration. Used in responsive architecture, adaptive mechanisms, and time-based sculpture.
Final adjustments after rendering: color grading, sharpening, denoise, and stylistic effects.
Creating skeletal controls and constraints to deform and animate a model.
to bring into accord, harmony, or sympathetic relationship; adjustment or alignment.
This refers to the brightness or dullness of a particular color. A color's saturation, brightness or strength
A flat brush is a short haired brush with a straight edge. Flat brushes are generally useful for laying down washes of all kinds and are particularly useful for painting hard edged shapes such as mountains tree trunks etc.Great for crisp hard edges, washes, buildings and figuresGreat for crisp hard edges, washes, buildings and figures
A bead is the line of water that pools at the base of a Wash. Maintaining the bead becomes important when attempting to paint a consistent wash as streaks will occur in the if it dries out too quickly.
Links a tensegrity configuration to its chirality value (left-handed or right-handed).
Line and wash is the technique of combining ink pen drawings with with watercolors. Traditionally this was done with dip pens but can also be done with markers, biros and Rapidograph style engineering drawing pens.
An approach to representation that captures how things appear to human vision rather than their objective physical properties.
Distinguished from photorealism; emphasizes the experience of seeing over mechanical reproduction.
A-Z Glossary Of Watercolor Terms (article)
A 3-strut tensegrity antiprism with two parallel triangular vertex rings, mutually rotated; a continuous cable network forms two 3-edge rings and three helical cross-cables, stabilizing three isolated struts in self-stress.
Chiral: realizable in left-handed or right-handed forms depending on ring rotation; typical cable layout = 2n (ring) + n (helical) with n=3.
Texture encoding per-pixel normals to fake small-scale relief without altering geometry.
Descriptions of the sense of twist in a tensegrity prism or module. A right-handed prism twists clockwise when viewed from above. Alternating handedness can produce symmetrical towers or balanced toroidal forms.
A clearly defined boundary between adjacent areas, created by painting onto dry paper or allowing previous washes to dry completely.
Watercolor canvas is similar to oil painting canvas. Watercolor canvas has been treated with Gesso to enable it to take water based paints.
Light drawing or transfer, masking fluid placement, planning hard and soft edges.
The more the pencil dictates, the less the wash can discover. Let paint lead whenever possible.
Keep lines minimal; think scaffolding, not blueprint. Mask selectively to preserve crucial highlights.
Gouache is similar to watercolor but is much more opaque. An opaque watercolor that can be applied thick or thin
A gradual transition between areas with no distinct boundary, typically achieved through wet-into-wet application.
The property of a structure being non-superimposable on its mirror image. In tensegrity prisms, chirality defines whether the twist between upper and lower bases is right-handed or left-handed. Opposite chiralities can influence torque, stability, and the visual rhythm of the structure.
Architect and inventor who coined the term 'tensegrity' and advanced its theoretical foundations.
The system of struts that do not touch each other but are stabilized by the surrounding tension network.
Lifting, soft scrubbing, and re-glazing to unify; remove masking; resolve value hierarchy.
This is where the painting often clicks: the hierarchy becomes legible and the mood locks in.
Use lifting to reclaim light and re-glazes to bind passages into coherent atmosphere.
Evaluation in art is the process of assessing the value, quality, or significance of a work of art. It involves analyzing the work's techniques, elements, and overall impact. Evaluation can help to understand the cultural relevance, effectiveness, and artistic intention of a work. An artistic evaluation tends to focus on a more subjective judgment of an artwork's overall quality, meaning and impact
A reference to the representation of things found in nature.
Software and computational utilities used in digital 3D sculpture practice.
Art criticism is the analysis and evaluation of art, including its significance in art history and its communication with the audience
A technique used in watercolor painting.
Standard orientations and proportions of the picture plane.
Apply paint to an area then, while wet, lay down a piece of parchment paper, pressing to form areas in full contact with the wash and areas not in contact like bubbles in the parchment paper. Experiment with different levels of wetness before applying the parchment. The texture is in part due to a contrast between areas of full contact and areas not in contact. Alternatives to parchment paper including crumpled plastic cling wrap.
A vertical stacking of prisms, often forming a repeating module.
The selection and organization of colors an artist uses, either for a specific work or as a characteristic practice.
A condition where the structure's internal forces can be calculated purely from equilibrium equations.
This is a sticky paper tape that can be used to mask off a white border around your painting or to mask off an area of your painting that needs to be preserved.
Terms describing perceptual, aesthetic, and generative aspects of tensegrity as art and design practice.
Separately computed image channels (for example, diffuse, specular, shadow) for flexible compositing.
Commitment to accurate representation of what is seen, as opposed to invention or idealization.
Glazing, or layering, is the technique of laying a thin wash of color over the top of another color which has dried. Due to the transparency of watercolor, this can have he effect of creating a third color or can simply be used to darken an existing color.
A process used by an individual artist in the production of a creative work in the visual arts.
This is experimental in that individual artist's data currently live in the instance data guided by the VisualArtsDNA ontology, while the thesaurus is for general concepts. ChatGpt introduced the notion of creating personalized concepts matched to the generalized process steps. Ultimately the personalized concepts may migrate to the instance data but currently there is no scaffolding to support processes.
Mud refers to the dull earthy neutral colors that result from mixing colors that contain too much of their complementary hue. e.g mixing a red with a green.
Real time viewing and interaction for sculpture models in browsers or kiosks.
Covers viewer components, environment maps, and performance considerations.
Light, economical under-drawing; occasional masking only for tight highlights or architectural edges.
You paint best when the drawing invites discovery rather than dictates outcome.
Use gesture for organics and sparing line for architecture; let paint do most of the describing.
Lossy compressed raster format balancing file size and quality; not ideal for heavy edits.
The process of producing a creative work using digital media.
A 4-strut tensegrity antiprism with two parallel square vertex rings in relative rotation; cables form two 4-edge rings and four helical cross-cables to stabilize four isolated struts.
Chiral: left-handed or right-handed according to the sense of ring rotation; canonical cable topology totals 3n for n=4.
A practitioner who derives income from artistic work and/or identifies publicly as an artist.
Category head for all sculpture related concepts in this scheme.
Rule driven modeling and numerical solving to maintain geometric or structural relationships.
The depiction of water surfaces and their reflective properties.
A challenging subject requiring understanding of both transparency and reflection, often testing an artist's full technical range.
Lead antimonate yellow; historical warm opaque yellow with characteristic orange cast.
11x15 in on 300 lb cold-press as default; 9x12 in on 140 lb occasionally; tape edges, test swatches; proceed to immediate wet work.
This robust surface lets you paint decisively; it forgives correction without dulling the paper's breath.
300 lb supports assertive lifting and multi-glaze sequences without fatigue.
Proprietary scene format supporting meshes, rigs, animation, and materials.
The deliberate treatment of transitions between forms, ranging from hard (sharp) to soft (diffused) to lost (merged).
(T)he digital age has ushered in an era of "algorithmicism"--the increasingly steadfast belief that everything in the world, from business processes to financial markets to interpersonal interactions and more, can be analyzed and broken down into discrete model that are representable and manipulable by mathematical/digital processes.
Policies and conversions (ICC) that keep colors consistent across devices and media.
A sequence of frames mapping intended color and lighting beats across a narrative or series.
An area of demonstrated competence and reliability in an artist's practice.
What the artist does well and can depend upon.
Right-handed 5-strut tensegrity antiprism with right-handed helical cross-cables.
Iron oxide and manganese oxide earth; cool dark brown with greenish cast.
When the tonal value of the edge of a foreground object begins to match the tonal value of it's background the edges of the object start to become indiscernible against the background. This creates the appearance the optical illusion of a disappearing edge but the brain still interprets the edge as being present. This is often used to create a deliberate effect, used to create and suggest movement. A found edge is the reverse of this.
The internal tension or compression introduced into a tensegrity structure before any external load is applied.
Connectivity pattern and flow of polygons affecting deformation and efficiency.
This is the technique of painting wet paint on to dry paper. This creates crisp hard edged shapes.
A process used by an individual artist in the production of a creative work in watercolor.
Technique or style: The technique or style used to create the artwork Subject matter: The subject matter of the artwork Inspiration: What inspired the artist to create the piece Meaning: What the artwork means to the artist Context: The historical background, location, and time of the artwork
A tension member intentionally allowed to stretch under load. Elastic tendons are common in soft tensegrity and biomimetic models, where controlled compliance is desirable.
Process philosophies, organizational methods, and computational paradigms guiding production.
Layer that applies tonal or color operations non-destructively to layers beneath it.
Range between darkest and brightest reproducible tones in an image or device.
Painting processes are the steps combining materials, techniques, tools and related concepts to produce a painting or to complete a part of the production of a painting.
Dark accents, crisp passages, calligraphic marks, and controlled lifting to refine edges and emphasis.
Late, minimal, and precise accents keep the painting fresh and prevent overworking.
Place the sharpest edges and deepest darks only where they serve the focal path.
The process of determining the equilibrium geometry of a tensegrity given its topology and element properties.
Core ideas that define what tensegrity is and how it attains stability through balanced tension and compression.
Clean borders, archival matting and framing under glazing; consistent documentation and metadata capture.
Your archival discipline supports the public reading of the work and its long-term care.
Record paper weight, pigment list, and date; keep photo documentation consistent for the oeuvre.
Per-pixel opacity data used to control transparency during compositing.
Paper type; a heavy-weight, slow-to-absorb paper featuring a very smooth finish; manufactured using steam, heat and/or pressure to to help the fibres (wood pulp and/or cotton) nestle very close together, making the paper very slow to absorb; sized for water media.
A stable stand, supporting an artist's painting .
The Hake is a traditional wide short-haired, long-handled Japanese brush into which goat's hair is stitched. The Hake brush is useful for painting natural looking foliage and skies. It was popularized by artist/author Ron Ranson.
The perceived warmth (toward red/yellow) or coolness (toward blue/green) of a color, used to create spatial depth and atmospheric effects.
Transparent glazes for form and atmosphere; strong use of negative painting; edges moving in and out of focus.
This is your voice zone: where abstraction and depiction negotiate in real time.
Favor transparency; let value and edge quality shape the form more than contour lines.
Colors in the blue, green, and violet range that appear to recede visually and evoke coolness.
A gum-arabic based watercolor binding medium.
gum arabic powder, distilled water, glycerine (humectant), essential oil of clove, essential oild of rosemary
1. Dissolve the gum Arabic powder: Dissolve two-part gum Arabic powder in four parts warm distilled water. Pour slowly and stir continuously for 10-15 minutes. 2. Add Humectant: Add one part of honey or glycerine (humectant) into the binder mixture at this stage. 3. Natural preservative: Add a couple of drops of essential oil (clove/rosemary) to the binder solution. 4. Let the solution stand for 24-48hrs to allow complete hydration of the gum arabic particles before use.
Implements and software used to create, manipulate, join, or finish sculpture.
Structural textures preferred: drybrush for architecture, granulation for botanical surfaces, restrained spatter.
Texture supports breath and structure; it should never upstage the value design.
Let pigment separation and paper tooth do the work before reaching for effects.
This refers to the rough untrimmed edges of certain brands of watercolor paper.
Export, Optimization and File Preparation (.glb) (RS)
Consolidate, bake transforms, reduce heavy meshes, confirm PBR maps, export glb with RDF hooks for cataloging.
The quieter this step is, the better. Clean exports and stable metadata keep the experience consistent across platforms, so curatorial attention remains on the sculpture and not on file idiosyncrasies.
Selective textures such as drybrush, spatter, and granulation to support form and focal contrasts.
Texture reads best when it rides on good value design. Without that, it becomes noise.
Use texture to amplify structure, not to decorate. Favor pigment behavior and paper surface over tricks.
Fabriano Artistico Grana Fina cold press
A cold-press watercolor paper in sheets.
Advanced Watercolor Techniques (article)
Once you have mastered the basic skills of color mixing, applying washes, softening edges, dropping in color etc. there are a number of more advanced watercolor techniques you can incorporate into your work.
An opinion of a work of art is a personal interpretation or judgment about its aesthetic qualities, meaning, and impact, based on an individual's subjective experience and perspective when viewing the piece; essentially, how someone feels about the artwork and what they think it conveys, which can vary greatly from person to person.
Basic lead carbonate; historic staple white with high opacity and warm tone.
A mathematical system for representing three-dimensional space on a flat surface using converging lines and vanishing points.
People, theories, and framing ideas that shaped the development and cultural reading of tensegrity.
Sculptor who first realized tensegrity structures in physical form, notably works such as 'Needle Tower' and 'X-Piece'.
The tendency for some colour pigments to precipitate (or settle out) when water is added, resulting in a granular, speckled effect; also commonly referred to as sedimentary colours; it's a natural effect, not indicative of poor quality paint, or technical misuse. Only some colours will granulate.
Preparation for display, print, archival, or distribution, including file formats and color management.
The process of creating a watercolor painting.
the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions, e.g. through the viewfinder and the lens of a camera.
the apparent shift in an object's position when viewed from different locations
A Mat is a 'Window' of card that sits inside a picture frame between the glass and the painting. It has the aesthetic function of creating a clean border around your painting and the practical function of separating the surface of the painting from the glass.
Liquid latex used to preserve the white of the paper and to create textures
Robots that use tensegrity frameworks for mobility, flexibility, and shock absorption.
Presentation, Interactive Viewing and Contextualization (RS)
Model-viewer as part of the work; environment presets as expressive devices; documentation to frame attention as medium.
Presentation completes the circuit. By inviting the viewer to orbit and re-orient, the sculpture unfolds as a timed experience. Attention is not a byproduct; it is a structural material on par with light and metal.
A stable stand, with an angled board that supports an artist's painting .
The primary colors are red , yellow and blue. A split primaries palette, is a palette of 6 colors consisting of three warm and three cool primaries. For example Cadmium Red, New Gamboge and Ultramarine, and Alizarin Crimson, Lemon Yellow and Cerulean Blue. The purpose of the split primaries palette is to enable a watercolor painter the greatest range of warm and cool color mixing options with the fewest colors.
The brightness or hue of a color. Paint straight from the tube is at maximum chroma.
A variegated wash is a wash painted with different colors in a wet into wet blend. Variegated washes are a signature technique of watercolor painting. They are often used to convey the natural scattering and bouncing of light and color that occurs in real life. Variegated washes can also be used to create abstract patterns and effects.
Before painting mix table salt with water. Apply the salt water wash to the paper. Paint colors into the wash which tend to disburse more due to the presence of the salt. Experiment with different ratios of salt to water producing varied results.
The loss of stability in a compression member when the compressive force exceeds a critical threshold. Buckling sets an upper limit on how slender tensegrity struts may be before failure or large deformation.
Buckminster Fuller's theoretical framework describing how systems gain stability and order through the interaction of independent components; tensegrity exemplifies this principle.
Rule- and node-based methods that generate results from inputs and parameters, enabling reuse.
The quality of emitting or reflecting light; in watercolor, often achieved through transparent washes over white paper.
Define structural logic, tensegrity intent, figure-to-structure relations, geometry family, and expressive aims.
This stage frames meaning before any mesh is committed. Decisions about tensegrity, figure orientation, and geometric language act as constraints that later steps elaborate rather than correct. Clarity here shortens the entire project.
Brush type; similar in shape to round brushes but with hairs that are twice the usual length; ideal for drawing out long, thin continuous lines; available in small sizes only (#3 is generally the largest size).It's debatable whether there's any difference between Liners and Riggers. Brush manufacturers don't seem to differentiate; one will call it a rigger, while the other calls it a liner, yet the brush is identical for all intents and purposes.x
An aspect of practice where growth is possible; a challenge or limitation that reappears across works.
Framed constructively as opportunity rather than deficit.
The alcohol watercolor technique involves using rubbing alcohol on wet watercolor paint to create unique effects. The alcohol repels the paint, pushing it away and creating lighter areas or interesting textures. This technique can be used to achieve various effects like bubbles, swirling patterns, or abstract designs.
Selective lifting and edge softening on heavy paper; re-glazing to unify; remove masking; finalize value hierarchy.
This is where your paintings often lock: the structure clarifies and the mood coheres.
If a passage feels overbuilt, lift lightly and re-glaze to rejoin the painting's atmosphere.
Sculptural Modeling of Figures and Form Elements (RS)
Model figures as agents of tension; pose to express force vectors; refine silhouette and negative space for structural read.
Figures neither dominate nor decorate; they participate. The success of this step is measured by whether a pose clarifies the force diagram of the whole. If the pose can be swapped without loss, the modeling is not yet specific enough.
Previewing how an image will reproduce on a specific device or substrate before final output.
Depictions of plants, flowers, and garden settings as primary subject matter.
A configuration that achieves maximum apparent stability or span with the fewest necessary members. The term highlights tensegrity's economy of means as an aesthetic as well as an engineering goal.
Watercolor ground is an acrylic based primer that allows a degree of absorbency. This enables a watercolor artist to paint on surfaces which would not usually be suitable for watercolor paint such as printer paper, thin card or even materials such as wood or stone.
Manual (mouth operated) paint spraying tool that creates a fine mist and similar painting effect to an airbrush or aerosol spray can; sometimes referred to as a diffuser.
Sometimes referred to as an atomiser sprayer
Paint type; a slightly confusing term that simply means opaque water-based paint (such as Gouache or Tempera). Opaque colours can be used to add punches of solid colour to transparent watercolours, and opaque white is used to bring highlights back out of muddy or over-saturated areas.
A process used in the production of a painting as a creative work.
A system where the geometry itself resists loads efficiently, of which tensegrity is an example.
Records describing the work, its provenance, process, and technical details.
Paper type; Blotter paper; a highly absorbent type of paper used to absorb an excess of liquid (such as ink or paint) from the substrate.
Crumpled paper towel will lift pigment from a wet was in a soft, predictable way. Keep rotating and re crumpling the paper so you dont get a repeating pattern in the blot marks. This is a good watercolor technique for lifting clouds out of a wet sky. Manually soaking up excess paint before it dries using a small sponge, piece of absorbent tissue or a towel
The steps performed in the creation of a computer graphics creative work.
Waterproof ink is applied, allowed to almost dry, then scrubbed off. This will produce interesting textures and shapes. The results are unpredictable and permanent, so this technique is best used before watercolor washes are added. Best results are obtained using a spray bottle of water and rough bristle brush to scrub the ink back.
Gently scraping paint off of the substrate (paper, in this case); scraping usually takes place after the paint has dried (or at least partially dried); results in subtle details and irregular textures and can help in restoring white space. A razor blade or craft knife, sandpaper, a piece of cardboard or a cut up credit card can be used; anything scratchy.
Design approach driven by adjustable parameters to explore families of solutions.
Single coherent atmospheric washes establishing temperature shifts and a global light scaffold.
When this pass is confident, later passages feel inevitable rather than labored.
Elephant Ear: warm vegetal gradient in one pass. Court of Myrtles: cool architectural field unified early.
A curated collage of references establishing aesthetic, palette, material, and lighting cues.
The application of colored acrylic ink to watercolor causes a separation of the wet area not unlike adding oil to vinegar or water in salad dressing. The resulting dispersion of colors has a unique appearance. Other media can be used as well including "Brusho," a unique painting medium, a transparent, highly-pigmented watercolour ink. The result of using these watercolor alternatives is a mixed media creation.
Painting with a damp sea sponge dipped in watercolor produces a highly varied, rough looking texture on the paper.
The category or type of content depicted in a work of art.
Left-handed 3-strut tensegrity antiprism: upper ring rotated relative to the lower so that helical cross-cables trace a left-handed twist.
Watercolor paper is often sold in a 'Block', which is a number of sheets of paper that are glued around the edges as opposed to loose. This minimizes Cockling and eliminates the need for stretching paper.
A deliberately constrained selection of colors, typically three to six, from which all mixtures are derived.
Often used as a learning exercise or to achieve unified color harmony.
Named classes, modules, and families of tensegrity configurations and how they repeat or scale.
A book of swatches for all the paint colors in the palette. The swatch book paper is 140 lb. cold press.
The techniques by which a two-dimensional picture plane creates the illusion of three-dimensional space extending into the distance.
A composition oriented with the height greater than the width.
Iron(III) hexacyanoferrate; first modern synthetic blue (early 18th c.); deep greenish-blue undertone and strong tinting strength.
The condition where all forces in a tensegrity structure balance so that it is stable and motionless under given loads.
The depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view with its elements arranged into a coherent composition.
This is a rather flat scheme. Mostly an operational aid.
All google Keep note instances for digital artworks belong to this scheme.
A thesaurus aligned with the CWVA creative-process domain ontology for the visual arts
Thesaurus for the process in the Visual Arts
This thesaurus provides a vocabulary for describing process modeled by the CWVA ontology, http://visualartsdna.org/model/. Visit visualartsdna.org for more information.
This thesaurus provides a vocabulary for describing data modeled by the CWVA ontology, http://visualartsdna.org/model/. Visit visualartsdna.org for more information.
Thesaurus for process in the Visual Arts
Terms describing twist, handedness, rotational order, and other geometric/symmetry properties of tensegrity structures.
Binary form of glTF optimized for compact delivery of PBR-ready 3D assets on the web.
The process includes hydrating paint cakes, creating mixes and dilutions. The process can include creating new watercolor paint from raw pigment and watercolor binder solution. This involves mulling the paints and binder together. The mixture is then allowed to dry forming a 'cake'.
A value structure dominated by light values, creating a bright, luminous effect.
Proportional relationship of width to height that determines framing and composition.
small cakes of watercolor paint that come in half-pan or whole-pan sizes
A condition in which one half of a structure is the mirror image of the other. Pure tensegrity prisms are typically chiral and therefore lack reflection symmetry, unless paired with an oppositely handed mate.
Basic copper carbonate green mineral; granular particles give characteristic pale, slightly bluish green.
Pool of networked machines distributing render jobs for speed and scale.
Depictions of buildings, monuments, and built environments as primary subject matter.
Workflow approach that preserves source data via layers, masks, and parametric nodes.
Depictions of inanimate objects, typically arranged on a tabletop.
Constrains a layer's visibility to the shape of another layer below.
A point where cables and struts connect, transmitting forces between elements.
Triangulated surface format commonly used in additive manufacturing; no color or materials.
Non-destructive technique to reveal or hide parts of a layer using grayscale control.
Colors are divided into cool and warm. Colors that lean towards Red/Yellow are considered to be warm colors and colors that lean towards Blue/Green are classified as cool.
Cartridge paper can be torn to a suitable shape, placed on the painting then the area left exposed can be wiped over with a damp brush or sponge to remove pigment. This process works best with sedimentary and non staining colors. The technique can also be used with straight edged paper to change the tone in a formal, geometric manner.
Named physical components of a tensegrity system and how they interact to carry load.
Presentation, Interactive Viewing and Contextualization
Deploy in model-viewer, tune tone mapping and exposure, set environment presets, document concept and viewing logic.
Interaction is part of the medium. Allow rotation and context to reveal the work over time, but maintain a disciplined lighting and exposure envelope so the sculpture does not become a lighting demo.
Packaging and distributing models and media for archival, review, or exhibition.
Includes glTF, USD, and related formats and manifests.
Encodings for storing and exchanging raster, vector, and 3D data.
A palette is a surface for mixing paint on. Watercolor palettes often contain a number of wells or depressions so that the paint doesn't run. Palettes are often made of white plastic but the best palettes for watercolor are pure white and porcelain. Palette can also refer to a color scheme or selection of colors.
Paint that is applied to a canvas or panel in quantities that make it stand out from the surface.
Terms related to the creation of sculpture.
Concept scheme for sculpture creation, tools, materials, and practice specific digital 3D terms.
The color wheel is a visual representation of the colors of the visible spectrum in order of Temperature laid out in the form of a circle. Color wheels can be useful to artists as they show the relationship of colors to each other. Color wheels can be used to develop color schemes.
A simple technique where cling wrap is arranged over a wet wash and left until the wash is thoroughly dry. The results are fairly predictable, but this technique makes interesting rock like textures
Paper choice and prep, taping or stretching, palette layout, water containers, test swatches.
A disciplined prep step protects spontaneity: fewer mechanical problems means freer painting.
Heavier sheets (for example, 300 lb) reduce cockling and support assertive wet-in-wet work.
An inexpensive natural haired chinese style brush (Often squirrel hair) that has a bamboo handle and is mainly used to create loose painterly strokes. For example, use this brush for natural looking foliage and skies
Pans are small thumbnail sized paint containers that slot into portable trays. Pans are most often used for painting in small sketchbooks and outdoors
Creating imagery through a series of dots made with the point of a paint brush; dimension is achieved by slowly building areas of light and shadow with dots in various hues, enabling the colours to mix in the viewer's eye (known as optical mixing); a traditionally ideal method of working on miniature scale paintings.
Carbonized animal bone containing hydroxyapatite; slightly warmer undertone than lamp black.
Coordinated sequence of tools, data formats, and handoffs moving work from concept to delivery.
Embedded technical and rights information enabling attribution, search, and workflow automation.
Late, selective sharpening; clean transparent darks; calligraphic marks confined to focal zones.
Placed sparingly, your darks operate like a signature: necessary, unmistakable, and final.
Aim for the minimum number of hard edges needed to seal the focal path.
An architectural tensegrity system used to span distances with minimal material.
Ordinary, local, or traditional buildings constructed without formal architectural design.
Examples include barns, farmhouses, rural structures.
The most commonly used type of watercolour paper; a heavy weight; absorbent paper featuring a pronounced toothy finish and sized to accept watermedia (see; sizing).Highest quality cold pressed papers may be hand-made and will contain 100% cotton fibres; they're loved for their irregular rough texture and reliable performance and absorbency
Mercuric sulfide red, natural or synthetic; brilliant warm red with historic darkening issues in some conditions.
A flexible or tensile element that resists stretching forces and connects the structure's nodes.
A set of internal forces that maintains equilibrium without any external load.
Design and verification activities for tension and compression systems where compression members do not touch and the network is in self stress.
Includes topology selection, routing, parameter sweeps, and solver assisted self stress search.
Grayscale image encoding distance from the camera, used for depth-of-field and atmospheric effects.
Memory-driven scenes with light in motion; abstract passages inside representational subjects; small value studies as needed to stabilize focal energy before paint.
Your strongest starts happen when composition and value hierarchy are decided in miniature, so big washes can stay bold and un-fussy.
When a subject risks over-control, a 1 to 3 inch value thumbnail clarifies the sharpest edges and deepest darks.
Dull muted grays and browns. Neutrals can be mixed in a number of ways. e.g mixing 3 evenly spaced color wheel colors, mixing complementaries.
A small sketch or painting produced in preparation for the creation of a larger work.
Materials, Light Logic and Rendering Setup
Select materials, control reflectance, choose HDRI environments, and configure lighting to reveal tension and form.
Materials and light are not afterthoughts. Reflectance and HDRI selection can either collapse subtle tension lines or make them sing. Treat this step as a sculptural decision made with photons.
Cockling, or buckling, occurs when a sheet of watercolor paper is wet. This creates a series of uneven undulations or ridges which can cause problems when trying to paint. Cockling can be minimized by Stretching, using heavier Weight paper such as 140lb/300gsm or above, or by using a watercolor Block.
Mounting, matting, framing under glazing; documentation, metadata, archival storage conditions.
A strong frame and accurate documentation reinforce the painting's authority and provenance.
Use archival mats and UV-protective glazing; document pigments, paper, and process notes.
The distribution of visual weight within a composition to achieve equilibrium, whether symmetrical or asymmetrical.
To spread over an area with paint in an aerosol form.
All KeepNote instances for painting belong to this scheme.
Watercolor medium is a substance which can be added to watercolor paint to create effects that couldn't be obtained purely with water, such as texture, gloss or glitter.
A natural non-toxic gum made from the sap of various species of the acacia tree used as a binder in watercolours; gum arabic fluid can be added to colours to thicken inks and watercolours, increasing the viscosity of the paint film and also intensifying colours. Gum arabic can also be diluted with water and applied directly to watercolour paper as a sealant, making it less absorbent, or over top of a finished watercolour painting (much like a varnish).
Quite simply, a hue is a color. This is independent of it's intensity or brightness. A color's common name (for example, cadmium red)
The pleasing arrangement of colors based on their relationships on the color wheel or through repetition and variation.
A cold-press watercolor paper in sheets with an extra rough surface.
After the wash is dry, remoisten the area, say by spritzing, then use a papertowel or other means to lift the pigment creating finely detailed and random looking areas of dark and light in the wash. Similarly, in a wet area of paint use a sea sponge to lift paint.
A dry brush technique used to lift paint from or add color to an area of the surface
Sketching out the intended composition on your substrate prior to applying paint. Pencil lines can be lightly erased after the composition has been blocked-in with paint, or pencil lines can be left as they are.
A very commonly used watercolor brush with hairs that taper to a fine point. The round brush is a versatile brush that can be used to paint a variety of brush strokes.A very versatile brush. It can be used for painting washes, fine details and broad strokes
Yellow-brown iron oxide earth; semi-transparent and stable.
Simulation of indirect light transport via interreflections and color bleeding.
A paint made from combining gum arabic watercolor medium with a dry pigment color using a muller to create a smooth paste which is stored in a pan and allowed to dry. The pigment is identified by the label name and brand, and the binder is identified by material.
The specific hue chosen to represent shadows in a painting.
Shadow color choice significantly affects a painting's overall mood and luminosity.
passages are left economical while focal areas receive full attention. a design principle that emphasizes using only the necessary elements to communicate a subject or feeling effectively. It is the practice of achieving maximum impact with minimal descriptive details, colors, or lines.
A 5-strut tensegrity antiprism with two parallel pentagonal vertex rings in relative rotation; cables form two 5-edge rings and five helical cross-cables to stabilize five isolated struts.
Chiral: left-handed or right-handed variants; canonical cable topology totals 3n for n=5.
A tensegrity configuration with two parallel n-gon vertex rings rotated relative to each other, where discontinuous compression members span between rings and a continuous cable network links each vertex to two adjacent vertices on the opposite ring, yielding a chiral, self-stressed system.
For an n-strut tensegrity antiprism under this node: vertices = 2n; struts = n; cables = 3n (comprised of 2n ring cables + n helical cross-cables). Chirality is determined by the sense of relative rotation between vertex rings.
Describes topology independent of metric regularity; commonly realized as the canonical n-strut tensegrity prism (e.g., T3, T4, T5).
Conceptual Structuring and Formal Logic (RS)
Tension and attention as core; figure orientation inward or outward; icosahedral and prism logics; viewer rotation as part of meaning.
Concept drives everything here. The decision to let figures address each other instead of the viewer recasts the sculpture as a field the viewer must orbit and read. The work asks for time and rewards it with shifting alignments of force and gaze.
Balance achieved through mirror-like arrangement of elements on either side of a central axis.
For this technique, thick white gouache is painted on to preserve any areas of white paper. The gouache is allowed to thoroughly dry before being completely covered with pigment ink. When the ink is dry the surface is washed back with a water spray and bristle brush, dissolving the gouache and revealing the white paper underneath.
Terms describing mechanical behavior, analysis methods, and quantitative descriptors of tensegrity systems.
Salt and rice can be used as desiccants. When added to a wet wash of color, the salt or rice absorbs some pigment from the surrounding wash creating lighter areas in the wash when dry and the salt or rice is brushed off the paper. The convention is to wait until the sheen disappears from the wash on the paper before adding the salt.
Terminology and frameworks used in the analysis and evaluation of visual art.
produced in a range of grit sizes and is used to remove material from surfaces, either to make them smoother or to remove a layer of material
The organization of value layers to imply depth, with distinct tonal zones corresponding to spatial planes.
The arrangement and organization of visual elements within a picture plane.
Significant historical or cultural buildings such as palaces, churches, and public monuments.
Examples include the Alhambra, Venetian churches, Korean palaces.
Technical method or treatment; (excessive) use of or reliance on technical terms or procedure.
Integration of Figures and Structural System
Fuse figures with tensegrity elements, balance symmetry and chirality, and make tension lines legible as form.
This is the inflection point where the work either coheres or fragments. Integration must preserve structural clarity while allowing expressive deviations. Successful pieces feel inevitable at this stage, as if the figures could not be placed otherwise.
Natural madder lake from Rubia tinctorum roots; transparent cool red noted for delicate glazing and historical fading concerns.
A composition oriented with the width greater than the height.
A smooth finish multi-media drawing and painting surface.
Pixel-based images whose resolution directly determines detail and print size.
Image synthesis method tracing rays to compute reflection, refraction, and shadows.
Number of tension members (continuous tension) in the configuration.
Scoring the paper (using a stylus or the end of a paintbrush) directly after an application of fresh paint; the scored marks are recessed into the paper so pigments will naturally settle in the lines, showing off the scored details.
Export, Optimization and File Preparation (.glb)
Consolidate scene, bake transforms, manage mesh density, verify PBR, export optimized glb with metadata hooks.
The goal is faithful portability. If a viewer or device changes, the sculpture should still read as intended. Tight asset hygiene prevents presentation layers from rewriting the work.
Watercolor techniques supporting development of texture in the painting
Domains in which tensegrity is applied or interpreted, including architecture, robotics, and biology.
The regular n-sided geometry forming the top and bottom faces of a tensegrity prism (for example, triangular for T3, square for T4). The number of sides defines the module family and repetition symmetries.
After a painting has been produced this is the process of preparing the painting for storage. This has tangible and intangible aspects, the latter includes capturing and perhaps publishing information about the newly completed work.
Pixel- and vector-based image creation and editing practices, tools, and constructs.
The generative process by which a tensegrity form emerges or evolves. The term is borrowed from biology and used in architecture and sculpture to frame tensegrity as something that 'grows' rather than something merely assembled.
A watercolor technique in which forms are defined by painting the space around them rather than the forms themselves.
Particularly effective for foliage, floral subjects, and complex overlapping forms where traditional positive painting would be difficult.
Hydrated iron oxide earth; staple yellow earth with greenish to orange undertones depending on source.
Small, rapid studies to iterate on composition, value grouping, and focal hierarchy.
Paint characteristic; the tendency for certain paint colours to allow light to pass through the paint film enabling layers beneath to be distinctly seen; the opposite of opaque.
the quality of the execution of a painting; an artist's characteristic handling of the paint. 'Manet's sensuous facture'
Plein Air, or En Plein Air means painting outdoors.
The placement of forms in front of one another to establish spatial relationships and depth.
Into a wet wash scrape the dust off a suitably colored pastel with a sharp blade. Test the pastel color against a patch of the dry wash first. This technique works well with sedimentary pigments using a similar colored pastel.
Computational Geometry and Parametric Construction (RS)
Generate prisms, icosahedra, toroids; chirality and inversion; solver checks; numeric sweeps; armatures for figure placement.
The computational step ensures clarity rather than complexity for its own sake. Chirality and scale sweeps become instruments for stating the piece more exactly, not for multiplying versions. The math lifts expression rather than constraining it.
Artist paint is a professional-grade paint that is designed to resist chemical reactions from exposure to water, ultraviolet light, and oxygen. Artist paints have more pigment than student paints, which allows for more medium manipulation and limits color shift.
Right-handed 4-strut tensegrity antiprism with right-handed helical cross-cables.
Guides such as thirds, golden ratio, and dynamic symmetry aiding visual balance and flow.
A rigid element that carries compressive load and does not directly contact other struts.
The property by which a tensegrity prism, dome, or ring can be rotated about its axis by a certain angle and still appear identical. Rotational symmetry is often used to classify higher-order tensegrity assemblies.
It involves painting wet-on-wet, directly onto the paper, often in one sitting, without letting layers dry completely. This technique can create vibrant colors and expressive brushstrokes. Alla prima aims for a fresh, immediate look with visible brushstrokes and blending of colors on the paper.
The computational process of refining which members exist, how they connect, and how loads flow through them, in order to improve performance, efficiency, or aesthetic intent.
Constructing and organizing forms in a 3D environment, including part to part alignment and hierarchy.
Covers mesh, curve, surface, and rig based assemblies for sculpture scale and intent.
wavy, uneven surface once water has been applied; can and should be avoided by stretching the paper prior to painting. (see; stretching)Although some aspects of painting once thought to be negative (such as backruns) can be used to ones advantage, buckling paper is never desired and never considered a happy accident.
An artistic assessment usually involves an objective analysis of technical skills, composition, and adherence to specific criteria, often used in educational settings to track progress or judge competency.
Watercolor is available in tubes or pans, In tube form the paint is squeezed on to a Palette like toothpaste in pans the paint is in solid form and needs to be reactivated with water.
Areas of watercolor paper intentionally left unpainted to represent the lightest values, exploiting the paper's inherent luminosity.
Distinguished from white gouache or lifting techniques; refers specifically to planning and preserving untouched paper.
A deformation mode in which the structure can change shape without stretching or compressing its members.
Total number of structural members (struts + cables) in the configuration.
High-range panoramic image used as a light source and reflection environment in rendering.
Top-level digital sculpture processes mapped to Rick Spates practice; kept discrete and aligned to general concepts.
This scheme treats model-viewer and HDRI selection as integral parts of the artwork, not merely display layers. The sculptures assert tensegrity as both structural metaphor and viewing discipline: attention is the medium that completes the piece.
The overall organization of light and dark areas within a composition.
A reference to the representation of flowers.
Brush type; a flat, wide brush with shorter hairs, exactly the same shape as a Bright brush; ideal for creating hard edges and square fields of colour; great for street-scapes and other architectural subject matter.
Typically a gum-arabic based watercolor binding medium.
The angular displacement between the top and bottom polygons of a tensegrity prism. The twist angle directly determines chirality and overall form, and strongly influences stiffness and articulation between modules.
The process of turning a graphic representation of structured data into a creative work.
Using a paint brush that is relatively dry, but still delivers paint to your substrate. The resulting brush strokes will have a coarse, scratchy appearance, contrasting the smooth, uniform look of washes or blended paint.
brushing successive strokes of color on a wet or dry surface, with each stroke placed next to the other, to create an even layer of color
The span from the lightest light to the darkest dark in a composition.
Red, Blue and Yellow are called the Primary Colors because they cannot mixed from other colors but all colors can be mixed from them.
Brushes that contain animal hair such as squirrel, sable or goat
Yellowish fluid from gall bladders (usually obtained from cows) mixed with alcohol and used as the wetting agent in paper marbling and watercolor painting.If a watercolour wash is not covering the paper evenly, is beading up, or failing to absorb into the deep texture of the paper leaving tiny white specks, add a drop of ox gall to improve flow and even out the absorbancy.
Collect paint on a brush, then using the side of the brush, rub is across the paper allowing paint to accumulate on the peaks of the uneven surface of the paper.
Texture driving geometric displacement at render time for true surface relief.
Formal definition of a device or working color space enabling consistent color reproduction.
Thesaurus for the Visual Arts, Tesegrity Terms
This thesaurus provides a vocabulary for describing data modeled by the CWVA ontology, http://visualartsdna.org/model/ related to Tensegrity. Visit visualartsdna.org for more information.
Thesaurus for the Visual Arts--Tensegrity
Textures, HDR environments, shaders, and parameter sets treated as working material.
Intent setting, subject selection, value structure, color family, thumbnails and value studies.
Decisions here save the painting later. A crisp value map prevents over-modeling and keeps the work luminous.
Use thumbnails or small value studies to establish a clear focal pathway before the first large wash.
Removing paint from a surface with a brush, paper towel or tissue. Removing colour from an area of wet paint, or re-wetting an area of dried paint and removing colour; a painting technique in it's own right, not just a correction method; the basis of subtractive painting.Lifting creates soft edges and can diffuse or modify colours, reducing their intensity and leaving only the undertones. Strategic or detailed lifts can be done using a slightly damp paintbrush to wick up the colour.
small spatula-style knife used to apply or remove paint, or to add texture
A Provider of art supplies either directly or indirectly to the public
Algorithm that smooths coarse meshes by iterative subdivision to create high-quality curvature.
Is the British convention for referring to Cold Pressed watercolor paper, it simply means 'Not hot pressed'
Influences can be many and varied. Artists can be influenced by other artists, both past and present. An artist's background, journey, and experiences can shape their work. For example, an artist's early experiences of the visible world can be deeply woven into their subconscious and carry over into their creative process. Also, basic visual factors like symmetry, complexity, contrast, curvature, color, and lines can influence aesthetic experiences.
In watercolor painting, white areas are usually depicted by preserving the white of the paper. Masking fluid is a rubbery fluid which can be painted on to the watercolor paper and once dry, can be painted over preventing water from seeping through on to the paper. Masking fluid can be removed with gentle rubbing and peeling once the paint is dry.
Chose to use 'masking' for the technique and 'maskingFluid' for the material; however, 'masking' does not necessarily imply the use of masking fluid
Resolution-independent images defined by paths, fills, and strokes.
capture the energy, movement, and essence of a pose through quick, fluid, and expressive lines, focusing on the whole figure's action rather than details, often using a single "line of action" to convey flow from head to foot
primarily the observation of people in normal activities.
Prepare and issue the work of (a particular writer).
A tag used in Google Keep/Takeout to distinguish Keep notes intended for publication
Computational Geometry and Parametric Construction
Build primitives and constraints, encode tensegrity rules, run solver checks, and perform parametric transforms.
Here form becomes data. Parametric control and solver feedback ensure that variation does not drift away from the chosen logic. Outputs from this step should be clean enough to invite sculptural decisions, not fight them.
"Spatter" refers to a technique where small, controlled droplets of paint are scattered across the surface, often achieved by flicking a brush with loaded paint, while "splatter" implies a larger, more chaotic distribution of paint, creating a messier effect with bigger drops, usually resulting from a more forceful application of paint; essentially, "spatter" is a more delicate version of "splatter."
The thickness of watercolor paper is referred to as it's weight. When measured in pounds (lbs) this refers to the weight of 500 sheets. Or it can be measured in gsm. i.e. Grams per square metre. Heavier weight paper is more expensive but is more resistant to cockling.
Cleaning up muddy or over-saturated areas, restoring white space (see; white space), creating highlights, or making blurry edges crisp again; generally speaking, over-painting is done with an opaque white water-based paint (such as Titanium White Gouache, or Chinese White Watercolour).Some traditionalist folks consider over-painting to be cheating, however it's a widely practiced technique and can be artfully done. Over-painting is often a much better solution than chucking out an otherwise successful painting.... Besides, who cares what some folks think! Art is not meant to be perfection.
Applying a new colour to the painting without waiting for earlier applications to dry first; colours blend together without leaving of any hard edges or sharp transitions; a technique that is only partially controllable.
The arrangement of visual elements to indicate their order of importance and guide the viewer's eye through the composition.
A set of concepts and categories in a subject area or domain that shows their properties and the relations between them.
Calcined umber; stronger red-brown masstone with higher chroma than raw umber.
Refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any markings or details within the object also decreases. The colours of the object also become less saturated and shift toward the background colour, which is usually bluish, but may be some other colour under certain conditions (for instance, reddish around sunrise or sunset).
Canonical set of historically significant pigments used in artworks across periods and regions.
Embellish a basic graphic representation of data.
Brush type; similar in shape to a Filbert brush, but with a pointed tip. The ideal tool for creating single-stroke flower petals and leaves.To help clarify the definitions of specialty brushes in this glossary, use this visual guide to basic brush shapes as a reference.
The process of producing a basic graphic representation of structured data.
A tensegrity form in which compression members occupy positions consistent with icosahedral symmetry and are held solely by a continuous network of tension members so that compression members do not touch.
Use this concept for high symmetry tensegrity exemplars. Distinguish it from a purely geometric icosahedron without a tension compression partition. For instances, record member counts, routing, and intended symmetry group with dedicated properties in the data model.
Common didactic models use six struts with a surrounding cable net; member counts and cable routing may vary while preserving non touching compression, global self stress, and approximate icosahedral symmetry.
A pen nib is used to apply masking fluid to the paper creating sharp edges and fine lines of resistance when the watercolor is applied over the dried mask.
A hemispherical structure composed of struts and cables arranged for lightweight, stable enclosures.
Processes are the steps taken to produce a completed creative work in the visual arts.
Care is taken to distinguish processes from techniques. Processes focus on the order of steps while a technique can describe the details of a single step. It is possible to conceive of a many-to-many relationship between processes and techniques depending on the scale at which each is defined.
Process is a useful concept but not a priority to elaborate on at this time.
Left-handed 5-strut tensegrity antiprism with left-handed helical cross-cables.
Analytical and geometric vocabulary used to describe equilibrium, force states, and structural computation in tensegrity.
Vegan watercolor brushes are brushes made from synthetic fibers but have similar properties to natural hair brushes.
A watercolor wash in the presence of another material intended to affect the behavior of the wash
Pressing plastic wrap or fabric into a still wet application of paint; capable of creating a vast array textured effects.
Thesaurus for the Visual Arts covering materials
This thesaurus provides a vocabulary for describing data modeled by the CWVA ontology, http://visualartsdna.org/model/, concentrating on art materials
Exploratory imagery that communicates ideas, tone, and direction before production assets are made.
A scheme containing all tensegrity terms. A controlled vocabulary of concepts related to tensegrity structures, analysis, fabrication, perception, and history.
Repeatable methods and procedures applied during creation and finishing.
Materials, Light Logic and Rendering Setup (RS)
Polished metal and high-clarity edges; HDRI sets to maximize luminous read; control temperature and shadow for force visibility.
Lighting articulates tension with the authority of a chisel. The choice of HDRI is not cosmetic: it is how the piece announces its line of force to the eye. Treat reflections as drawn lines that happen to be made of light.
Assembling multiple layers and passes into a final image, with grading and effects.
Unusual textures can be made by lightly sanding the surface of a very dry painting with fine sandpaper. The surface takes on a slightly weathered appearance. The sanded area can be adjusted by the application of further washes.
The ratio of internal force to member length. Force density is widely used in computational form-finding of tensegrities to solve for equilibrium shapes.
Any substance that can be applied to watercolour paper that will repel water and therefore paint pigment as well; wax crayons and oil pastels are commonly used resists: resists are generally a permanent addition to your painting (unlike frisket which is removed).
Planning and execution stages that produce a sculpture from concept to realized work.
Covers ideation, studies, modeling, assembly, finishing, and installation workflow.
Applying fresh water drops to a wet, near dry or dry area of color produces a bloom by lifting paint in a fluid way resulting in organic shapes.
an art movement, prominent in 18th-century Italy, focused on highly detailed, realistic paintings or prints of cityscapes and landscapes, especially popular with Grand Tour travelers as souvenirs of famous sites like Rome and Venice. Key elements include precise architectural detail, often achieved with tools like the camera obscura, and two main types: veduta esatta (exact views) and veduta ideata (imaginary or idealized views, also called capricci). Masters like Canaletto and Guardi defined the Venetian style.
Complementary colors are directly opposite each other on the color wheel. In other words, they are the colors that are furthest apart from each other in terms of hue and color temperature. e.g Red and Green, or Orange and Blue. Complementary colors contrast with each other when placed side by side. When mixed together they tend to cancel each other out, forming a 'Muddy' neutral color.
also known as a glaze or layering wash; a wash that's applied to a dry surface
Human figures included in a composition primarily for scale, animation, or compositional purposes rather than as psychological subjects.
Distinguished from portraiture or figure painting where the human subject is the primary focus.
Dipping a paint brush handle into fresh paint and dragging it through a wet wash makes an interesting, unpredictable line ranging from soft feathered edges to solid dabs of paint
A set of vertices, edges, and faces describing the surface of a 3D object.
Interestingly, overall they are quite close to the real processes though there are a few incorrect assumptions.
These individual artist processes were inferred by chagGpt after a review of the artist's work.
Apply a fabric like gauze to a water wash (or dry paper) shaping the fabric as needed. Choose colors and paint over the fabric. Let dry and remove the fabric to reaveal the texture of the fabric in the painted area. Some colors work well with fabric and some do not.
A cold-press watercolor paper in a block.
A technical assessment of a work of art is an examination of the work's technical execution, materials, and other aspects that can help determine its authenticity, history, and value.
Balance achieved through the arrangement of unlike elements that nevertheless feel visually equivalent.
Generally considered more dynamic and sophisticated than symmetrical balance.
type of wet-into-wet wash that involves placing colors side by side and then mixing and blending them along their edges
Lossless raster image format supporting transparency; suitable for web and compositing.
Quantification of image detail for print or viewing; DPI for print devices, PPI for pixel density.
An unintended and unforeseen event that occurred during the course of a painting which nevertheless resulted in a desirable effect.
This better belongs under paintingTerm when that is available
Plain-text 3D mesh interchange format supporting geometry, UVs, and materials via MTL.
The characteristic ways a tensegrity can oscillate or deform when excited dynamically. Modal behavior reveals resonance frequencies, softness directions, and stiffness distribution.
The perceptual balance created when a tensegrity appears poised, neither collapsing nor exploding. Visual equilibrium is the felt stability that mirrors mechanical equilibrium.
A fan brush is often used in watercolor painting for painting grass and foliage. It is a short haired brush with the hairs spread out out in a fan shape. Ideal for blending edges, or mimicking the texture of many things such as fur, feathers, ripples on water, grasses, tree boughs.
The contrast between transparent watercolor and flat, opaque gouache can add interest and vibrancy to a painting. Be sure to keep distinct areas of watercolor and gouache or the opaque/transparent contrast will be lost. See the article on Gouache for more information.