Final Project: Visual Analysis

-Week 11~Week 14-

(2.11.2021~23.11.2021)

Design Principles

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Topic: Visual Analysis

Learning Outcome:

Visual Analysis is a method of understanding art that focuses on an artwork's visual elements, such as color, texture, line and scale. In its strictest definition, it is a description and explanation of visual structure for its own sake. Yet the purpose of visual analysis is to recognize the choices that an artist made in creating the artwork and better understand how the formal properties of an artwork communicate ideas, content, or meaning. Visual analysis is not just for art. It is also a critical part of visual literacy, a skill that helps people read and critically interpret images, whether in a museum, on social media, in entertainment, advertising, or the news. Practicing visual analysis sharpens critical judgment skills and helps people seek out answers instead of passively receiving information.

Visual analysis can include three phases: Observation, Analysis and Interpretation

Observation(Phase 1) means closely looking at and identifying the visual attributes of an artwork, trying to describe them carefully and accurately in your own words. Focusing on the visual elements such as color, line, space.

Analysis(Phase 2) requires you to think about your observations and try to make statements about the work based on the evidence of your observations. We have to think about how the specific visual elements combine together to create a whole, and what effect that whole has on the viewer. And also, what design principles are applied in the design/art.

The difference between visual analysis and Interpretation(Phase 3) is research. In this final phase, we need to balance observations, descriptions, and analyses with facts about the artist and historical context from trustworthy published sources.

Visual Research:

Figure 1:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/70043531/-Dreams-Plants

Figure 2:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/70043531/-Dreams-Plants

Figure 3:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/70043531/-Dreams-Plants

Selected Design:

Fig 3

Phase 1: Observation 

This design is in portrait format. The main color observed are pink, mint green, dark green-blue, purple, navy blue, grey-blue, black and white. Overall, this is a colorful design with candy color. This design is a flat illustration since it draws by using some simple shapes and elements. A little girl is standing on the ground floor and looking at the sleeping humans in the circle area or inside a building. I can see plants and mountains are drawn in this design in the main background.

Phase 2: Analysis

Harmony is shown in this design because it is colored by cold color. As we can see mountains and land is drawn in the main part (circle area), while there are also some plants or trees added to make it unity. This design is approximately symmetrical balance. Contrast is created between white & light grey blue face and some dark colors hairs or mountains. Besides that, Gestalt theory that applied in this design is figure-ground principles. We can see some humans are sleeping, their hair can also looks like the mountains. A repetition of mountains and trees is found in the circle area. Furthermore, there is a proportion in this design, we can see a little girl is standing on the ground floor and looking at the sleeping giant humans that in the main major background.

Phase 3: Interpretation

This illustration is drawn by Hao Hao from Beijing. This is a design collection and its name is called 'Dream & Plants'. The story of this design is the designer draws plants and people in his/her dream. The designer imagines the plants grow out of people and he/she cut those flowers into a human. Then, people become mountains and lands. 

I think there are also metaphors in this design talking about people growing from the land and enjoying their life on the land. When people die, they lay on the land which means they go back to the land. Then, the plants grow out of people again. I intercalate this design as representing the life cycle of humans.

Feedback by lecturer (week 12):

Ms. Jinchi said my visual analysis needs to describe the place because the placement is not mentioned. Then, she wanted me to make the meaning behind the artwork more clear.

Idea Exploration:

Fig 4: a little pond with water pour
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/583005114270301984/

Fig 5: water ripple
https://unsplash.com/s/photos/water-ripple

Sketch 1 :

I draw a little girl sitting on a vase which is pouring water into the pond. Some rocks are surrounding the pond. The water ripple shows a smiling face and the water splash will look like hair. The story of this sketch is about a little girl missing someone, maybe her mother. There is also a metaphor I want to show is "饮水思源", which means when drinking water thinks of its source and must not forget where it comes from.

Feedback by lecture (week 13):

Ms. Jinchi wanted me to figure out why I choose water for my design and also try to do more sketches with different layouts. Try to make the connection between this design and the meaning because is it not really seeing the message when looking at the sketch. And also list down what principles are selected from the design (fig 3).

Idea Exploration:

Fig 4: a little pond with water pour

Fig 5: water ripples

Fig 6: Aquarius
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/15410823714192721/

Sketch 2:

Since my horoscope is Aquarius, I choose to draw water in my design. At the top corner, I draw a little girl sitting on a vest that is pouring water. The water is pouring into a big pond. The little girl and the big pond will show a proportion in this design. Then, the water overflow to the ground, so plants grow out as they get water. 

I going to apply Gestalt theory in this design by drawing the water ripples to look like a smiling face. The little girl looks toward the water means she is missing someone that is gone but takes care of her a lot before. The message in this design is "饮水思源", which means when drinking water thinks of its source and must not forget where it comes from. As we can see the water pour into the ponds and overflow to the ground. This provides water to plants and makes them grow up. Besides that, I would like to create harmony in this design by using analogous colors of blue and green. 

Here are some colors I pick to use in my design.

I think is also repetition and unity shown in this design, since I draw different types of plants on the ground.

Feedback by lecture (week 14):

Ms. Jinchi told me to add more flowers to show the growth of plants. And also draw some fish inside the pond to make it lively.

                      Final Result                    

This design shows a little girl sitting on a vase and looking toward the water ripples which seem like a smiling face. She is missing someone she loved but gone. Besides that, the message that I want to convey is "饮水思源", which means when drinking water thinks of its source and must not forget where it comes from as we can see the plants grow up because they get water.

Reflection:

From this project, we learn to analyze a design, find out what design principles are applied in a design. It may help us to learn more from other designs.