MODELLING CONCEPTS
Vertex.
The simplest and most fundamental element of a mesh. Much of the work you will do as a modeller consists of moving a vertex or a group of vertices.
Vertices are displayed as small dots and when selected, highlight the edges they are connected to by shading half of that edge in orange. This is useful when identifying which of several closely situated vertices are selected or when you have overlapping vertices in a mesh.
When two vertices are selected which are connected by an edge, the entire edge is highlighted in orange.
When 3 or more vertices are selected that form a complete face, that face will be highlighted in orange.
Selected vertices will be orange and the last selected - or active vertex - will be displayed in white.
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Vertices selected on a mesh
In order for any objects to become visible faces at least 3 vertices must be connected to each other. A vertex can live by itself and it can be useful to use vertices rather than empties in some more advanced situations We call this "Ghost Geometry" but great care should be taken that when a model is finalised that these stray vertices are removed.
Ghost geometry is often used to control the spacing along all three axes when used with array modifiers.
Vertices are manipulated in "edit mode" in blender by pressing "1" on the number line of your keyboard. This will put you into vertex (or point) manipulation mode meaning every task you perform will act on a single vertex or a group of selected vertices.