This assignment normally requires for you to visit an original artwork in person.
However, this is no longer a requirement. You may do this same assignment using any work from THE GOOGLE ART PROJECT (Links to an external site.) (This is a hyperlink, please click it to choose the art work you wish to analyze.)
For the image requirements for this paper please submit a screen shot (feel free to crop the image) of the artwork you chose from THE GOOGLE ART PROJECT. You can also download an image from another website to illustrate your paper, but PLEASE REMEMBER TO CITE THE SOURCE OF THE IMAGE IN YOUR WORKS CITED PAGE. NOTE
REQUIREMENTS:
1) Your essay should include a discussion of all the elements and principles listed in the formal analysis guide (see attached)
Each element and each principle should be addressed using three sentences. Your discussion of each element or each element may discuss one example in depth, or several examples. For example, you might use three sentences to discuss the color in a figure’s shirt, or you might identify the artist’s use of color in three different places.
b) To organize your essay, your overall argument and conclusion should address how the artists used the principle of emphasis.
c) Your essay should be 1500-2000 words. Use APA format.
2) Turn in an image of the artwork with your essay.
3) Compositional Design. A compositional design is the student’s visual expression of how the elements and principles work in a specific work of art. No two students will ever have the same compositional design on the same painting. For an example of a compositional design for the painting Las Meninas. As you can see, a compositional design is not a recreation of the work of art, but instead it shows the relationships between the elements and principles and emphasizes the ones that are most important.
CHOOSING AN ARTWORK:
For the purposes of this assignment please chose your artwork carefully. No copies or reproductions! In other words, the work must be one of a kind.
It must be a work that is publicly exhibited, and the main purpose of the object is to be art.
For this assignment, the work must be a painting, sculpture, or drawing. This EXCLUDES items whose main purpose has some other function – Such as:
• A car
• Taxidermy
• Furniture
• Crafts
• Holiday decorations
• Historical exhibits at a history museum
• Scientific exhibits at a science museum
• Any other exhibit at a non-art museum or non art-related institution (such as NASA.)
• Ballet or other dance performance
• Music/ Musical concerts
If you have concerns about the art you have chosen, send a picture and ask before turning it in (send before you proceed working on the assignment for approval).
FORMAL ANALYSIS GUIDE
Formal/Visual Analysis
A work of art is the product of the dynamic interrelationships between the various art elements and principles as they are utilized by the artist. As you engage yourself with a work of art, ask yourself why do you think the artist made such choices? By using concrete elements and principles to make ourselves look more closely at works of art, we may further understand the artist’s intended vision and will notice how the artwork often reflects the time and place from which it came.
Art Elements
Line ― Do you see any outlines which define objects, shapes, or forms? Are lines used to emphasize a direction (vertical, horizontal, diagonal)? Describe the important lines: are they straight or curved, short or long, thick or thin? How do you think the artist utilized to emphasize certain objects, forms, or people? Are any invisible lines implied? For example, is a hand pointing, is the path of a figure’s gaze creating a psychological line, or is linear perspective utilized?
Light ― For a two-dimensional object, is a source of light depicted or implied? Is it a natural light source or artificial? Are the shadows created by the light true to life or does the artist distort them? How does the artist depict shadows? Through line or color? If a three-dimensional object, how does the object interact with the light in its setting? How do gradations of shadows and highlights create form or depth, emphasis, or order in the composition?
Color ― Which colors are dominantly used in this depiction? If the object is black and white, or shades of gray, did the artist choose to do this because of the media he was working, or did it create a certain mood or effect? Color can be described by its hue and value (shades to tints). Does the artist’s choice of color create a certain mood? Does the artist make use of complementary colors (red/green, violet/yellow, blue/orange)? Or analogous colors (those next to one another on the color wheel)? Does the artist utilize colors that are warm or cool? Where? Is atmospheric perspective utilized (in which blurred and cool colors appear to recede and create an impression of depth in the distance, while warm and clear colors fill the foreground)?
Texture ― What is the actual texture on the surface of the object? Is it rough or smooth? If a painting, is there impasto? What is the implied texture? Are patterns created through the use of texture?
Shape ― What shapes do you see? Are the objects in the work (for a painting or drawing) or are the objects themselves (for a sculpture or architectural work) flat or volumetric? Organic or geometric? For representations of people, how does shape lend character to a figure? Are these figures proud or timid, strong, or weak, beautiful or grotesque? What is the size of all the forms and how do they relate proportionally to one another? Are they located in the foreground, middle ground, or background? Why do you think the artist placed them there?
Space ― How does the form created by shape and line fill the space of the composition? Is there negative, or empty, space without objects? How does the artist create depth in the image (layering of figures/objects, linear perspective, atmospheric perspective, foreshortening of figures)? If the object is three-dimensional, how does it fill our space? Is it closed or open? If a two-dimensional object, is the space flat or does it visually project into our space?
Art Principles
Consider how the artist utilized the Elements of Art to produce these design principles.
Scale and Proportion – What is the size of the work itself? How does that size relate to the size of the human interacting with the work? Within the artwork, are all the objects and figures the same size? If not, why? Is the scale of any aspect of the work distorted? Are the proportions of the figures accurate? Is hierarchical scale used? How is the composition proportioned?
Balance ― Balance is produced by the visual weight of shapes and forms within a composition. Balance can be symmetrical, in which each side of central line is the same, asymmetrical, or radial. When describing balance, discuss how opposites are utilized or related (light/shadow, straight/curved lines, complementary colors).
Rhythm ― Rhythm is created by repetition. What repeated elements do you see? Does the repetition create a subtle pattern, a decorative ornamentation? Or does it create an intensity, a tension? Does the rhythm unify the work, or does it seem like a group of disparate parts?
Emphasis ― The emphasis of a work refers to a focal point in the image or object. What is your eye drawn to? Does the artist create tension or interest by creating more than one area or interest? Or is the work of art afocal ― that is, the viewer cannot find a particular place to rest the eye? Is there even a psychological focus created through the elements of art?
