Describe
Label information: Artist, title (in italics), date of work. Size. Medium (what is it made of)/Process(es) used to make it. Location of work.
Subject matter: Figures, animals, objects (trees, sun, clouds, grass, birds, machines, buildings, etc.). If there are no recognizable objects in the artwork, describe art elements; line, color, value, shape, texture, space, movement.
Describe what figures, animals and other things that move are doing. How many are there? what is large/small, near/far, in front/behind?
Elements of Art:
Lines: Are they straight, curved, swirling, jagged, diagonal, vertical, horizontal, continuous, broken, heavy, thin, dark, light? Do they occur at edges where color, value or texture changes suddenly? Are there lines that direct your attention from one place to another?
Colors: Are they warm, cool, bright, dull, opaque, transparent? Are they like colors you see in the real world, or different from the real world colors? Is there a dominant color? Are there related colors?
Values: Are the colors dark? Light? Both? Describe the range of value (light to medium blue). Are there contrasts of dark/light?
Shapes (two-dimensional) and Form (three-dimensional): Are the shapes realistic, unrealistic, or not representational? Do shapes appear flat or do they appear to have depth (roundness)? Are they geometric (squares, triangles, circles)? Are they organic (curved and irregular edges)? Provide evidence of form. How do you know it has form or implies form?
Textures: Are they visible in the artwork? Where? Describe it. Don't confuse texture (bumpy, smooth, etc) with patterns like checkerboards, stripes, and polka dot.
Space: Does space appear deep? If so, is it due to: overlap; placement of small objects high on the picture and large ones low; making objects smaller as they get farther away; linear perspective (converging lines); colors that seem to advance and recede? Does space appear shallow? Why?
Analyze
Principles of Design: Analyzing involves identifying relationships among elements in an artwork. It means looking at how the artist organized subject matter and elements including line, shape, form, texture, colors, and space so that they interrelate as a composite
Similarities: Are things similar in shape, form, value, color, pattern, size, or texture? Are some lines or edges similar in direction: horizontal, vertical, diagonal, circular?
Contrasts: Are there contrasts of dark/light, cool/warm, large/small, curved/angled, hard/soft, rough/smooth? (Contrasts can occur in line, color, value, texture, shape, or form.)
Repeated Elements (Rhythm): Is anything repeated over and over? Is there a repeated alteration of elements. Are there progressions from large to small, warm to cool, light to dark and so on?
Movement: If movement is suggested in the work, it is due to: altering shapes; figures and other life forms doing something; repetition of one thing after another; elements that progress from large to small, small to large, dark to light?
Dominance (Emphasis): Is there an area, element, or arrangement that dominates the rest of the work? Is it due to size, central location, complexity, isolation, contrast of some kind, or convergence?
Balance: What arrangements or relationships of elements contribute to the balance in the composition? Is the balance symmetrical, asymmetrical, approximately symmetrical, radial? (Relationship Between Subject and Medium) What are relationships between the subject and the art elements? What are relationships between the subjects and the medium used to produce it?
Unity: Is the work of art balanced, harmonious, and complete as a whole? What unifies the elements within the work of art contributing to its success?
Interpret
To interpret an artwork is to explain the meaning of it. Interpretation builds on description and analysis.
There are two more sources of information you can use for interpretation: Your own knowledge & experience and Art history for background about periods and styles of art and social conventions relevant to the work in question.
Look for clues in your description and analysis to help guide your interpretation, such as dominant elements, repetitions, similarities, lines that direct vision, moody colors, subtle or strong contrasts, and so on. The artist had reasons for including these things. What does it all mean?
Describe the expressive quality of the work: happy, sad, serious, lighthearted, calm, chaotic, depressing, ominous, sensual, joyful, angry, aggressive, passive, tense, relaxed, restful, threatening, and so on. What is happening? Even if the work is nonrepresentational, try to answer this question. Draw on your own knowledge and experiences related to the subject matter, forms, shapes, and colors of the work. Have you seen, read, or studied about situations or things similar to what you have seen in the artwork?
Metaphors may help to get at the meaning of the work. Is there something in the work that makes you think of another, different thing? For example, the man has a poker face. Her lips are a sealed envelope. The pitchfork is a three-pronged spear.
Form a Hypothesis
A hypothesis is an assumption or guess based on evidence you have collected. It can’t be just based on personal opinion. When you have generated a hypothesis, ask: Does evidence from the description and analysis support this hypothesis? Does evidence based on personal knowledge and experiences support the hypothesis? If your evidence does not support the hypothesis, try another one. It is not unusual to generate more than one hypothesis for an artwork.
Evaluate
Based on your analysis in the first three stages, how would you judge the quality or success of the work? Judgment may be affected by the following criteria.