Tile
DEFINITION
A flat, thin piece of earthenware or terra-cotta, it is often used for both decorative and practical purposes such as covering walls, counters and floors. Hand-decorated tiles are a specialty of potters and ceramic artists. Catalina Island in California is known for decorative tiles. Sources: Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques"; AskART database <br><br>A slab of hard material such as baked clay or plastic, laid in rows to cover walls, floors, and roofs. It is thin, and either flat, textured or in low-relief. It may either be single or considered as a group.To tile is to cover with (or lay) tiles. In digital imaging, tiling is repeating a graphic in an all-over pattern. An artist noted for his explorations of graphic tiling was Maurits Cornelis Escher (Dutch, 1898-1972).Internet resources concerned with tile and tiling: "Chalkboard" on drawing skills. You'll find excellent graphics and text explanations on each of its pages, including: Drawing Grids and Tile Floors in one-point perspective. Chalkboard comes from the University of Evansville, IN. D'Mundo Tile Inc., CA. Also see antefix, imbrication, mortar, mosaic, overlap, pique assiette (also called picassiette), plaque, slab construction, and tessellation.