clarification

Just to make sure everything is clear, some more information on grading, the syllabus, and formal analysis.

Grading:
Assignments: 50%
Final Paper: 10%
Participation: 40%

Our remaining syllabus:
Date, Lecture, Assignment for the next class

November 12	19th  century painting	"paint a picture with your words" - this is focused primarily on your description of what you see, accurately describing what is there, how it is positioned, what it looks like and then the overall effect of all of those components
November 19	Early 20th century painting	Write one page paper describing  a painting - this is focused primarily on your description of what you see, accurately describing what is there, how it is positioned, what it looks like and then the overall effect of all of those components
December 3	Propaganda (primarily World War II)	Write one page paper analyzing an image of propaganda (poster, etc) - what it looks like, what is presented and how, what is the message and how is it supported by what you see
December 10	20th century American painting	Write one page paper analyzing a modern painting; Select work for longer paper
December 17	“How the Work Means”	Write two page paper - introduction, thorough description, interpretation of what those visual cues suggest through formal analysis of elements
January 14	Popular imagery – magazines, movies, musicians, etc	Write reflection on course, experience, new knowledge, perspective on art

Notes and clarification on writing:

In the introduction provide us with the artist, title of the work, date, location, media used, etc.

I find it helpful to fill out this list of formal elements and then rearrange them into sentence form as the next body paragraph after the introduction. Covering all (or almost all) of these topics will give your reader a clear sense of what constitutes the work you are looking it and how to imagine it.

Formal elements:

• color - what are the colors used? try to be as specific as possible, use adjectives and comparisons to items that are universally recognizable (ex: grapefruit pink, avocado green, dingy grey of old snow, pink of a fingertip pressed against a flashlight, child's primary colors, etc)
• composition - what is shown? are there people, buildings, animals, shapes? what do you recognize and how would you name it? are the people/buildings/animals general types or specific and known people (not by the title but by their recognizability either through fame or symbols)? how are things arranged - what is where in the work (above, below, front, back, left, right, etc)?
• texture - what is the surface of the work like - smooth, rough, perfect, imperfect, lumpy, is it consistent throughout or does it change depending on where it is, what is depicted, or when it was done?
• quality of brush strokes/application - for paintings, is the paint applied in a way that we can tell it was painted or does it blend so well that it isn't obvious? is there evidence of "the artist's hand" - that is, can we tell that someone painted it? is it flat or lumpy (impasto)? and so on...
• lighting - where does light come from? is there a light source in the painting? does the light in the painting clearly come from the light source in the painting? if the painting is made to be displayed only in one place (for example, a fresco in a church will forever be in that location), has the artist incorporated the light in that setting into the painting (sometimes artists "use" a real window to cast light upon their painting as though it comes from that part of the architecture)
• size - what are the dimensions
• subject matter - who is in the painting? what is happening?
• values/tonal variation - related to color, how bright are the colors? how much variation between colors are there - is there just one hue of blue or are there many different blues? is everything bright or faded? is it faded because that was the intention of the artists or the effect of time/light exposure/other damage?
• support/surface - what is it done on, in painting: on wood, plaster (fresco), canvas, etc
• space/perspective - what is space like in the painting - is it flat, are there layers of depth, is there perspective? is perspective accurate? how are space and perspective created (lines, size, something in front of something else, etc)?
• viewing angle - how do we see/approach the work? in painting, do we look at the figures front on or are they presented looking down/up at us?

Description will be about the use of these formal elements

Analyze how these formal elements affect the viewers understanding of the work

How does the artist use formal elements to give you initial emotional response

Thesis: How does the painting mean 

Imagine describing in a succinct way: dimensions, subject, arrangement to enable someone who can’t see it to see in the minds eye in 1st paragraph

Detail formal elements, figure out how they mean, conclude

The heart of your paper grade is how well you describe these formal elements and then once you have described them, what interpretations you can make. But I am largely interested in seeing how well you can describe what you see so that I can imagine a fairly accurate image of the work of art that you have chosen. Can I follow clearly your description, is it organized in a way that easily helps the viewer "draw" a mental image?

I hope this helps you in writing about your papers and thinking/talking about art in general. Let me know if you have further questions.