Practice question · Put in order
Arrange these steps of a formal analysis in a workable order.
- Describe the colour relations and what the value structure does
- Describe the facture and what it asks of the viewer
- Describe the light: its source, direction and function
- Describe the overall composition and its geometry
- Trace the path the eye takes and what directs it
Hints
- Start with the largest organisation and work inward.
- Facture is the closest looking, so it comes last.
Show the answer
- Describe the overall composition and its geometry
- Trace the path the eye takes and what directs it
- Describe the light: its source, direction and function
- Describe the colour relations and what the value structure does
- Describe the facture and what it asks of the viewer
Why
Working from the whole inward stops the analysis becoming a list of noticed details. Each step also constrains the next: the light usually explains the value structure, and the value structure usually explains why the composition holds.
Practise Painting II: Reading the Surface
The app has 5 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Art History I is free to start.
More questions on Painting II: Reading the Surface
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