This exercise doesn't involve me making anything - boo! But I also read a quote this week that went something along the lines of - "don't try to be creative and reflective at the same time, they are very different activities".
I think that's so appropriate for this exercise, because it's time to get my analytical and reflective hat on! I was tasked to look at the image below, and consider some questions:
What the image is about. What is it saying?
Work out the narrative and identify the story.
Describe the palette and tonal range which has been used. Note if the colours are hot or cold, whether the elements are detailed or textural, and where these approaches are used.
Is there any connection between hot colour and the importance of the element in telling the story?
When asked specific questions, I don't like to just answer them block by block. My mind often doesn't work that way, and I need to consider how all the aspects fit together before feel confident to answer them. To aid my analysis I used a tablet to annotate the images in overlay. This helped my thinking process as well as hopefully helping you to get some context into my observations.
In my coursebook, the material before this exercise talked a lot about the different qualities of colour, how they can be hot and cold, and how this difference plays out in an image to aid the sense of hierarchy. So I started off by looking at the blend of hot and cold. When I researched what other students had said about this piece, there seemed to be a common consensus that red is hot and blue is cold. I suppose we are indoctrinated to make this simplification; just think of bath taps!
But when I looked at this image I really disagreed with those observations. There are two clear areas to me: a dominant 'hot' area and a much smaller 'cold' area. It actualy makes this image a overwhelmingly warm illustration. I think this aids the narrative, it's like the warm area is overwhelming the smaller cooler area in the corner. If you look at the blues in the hot area, they are not blue at all, they are purples - from indigos to violets. They fundamentally have red mixed into them. It ties them to the hot, red, dragon.
Inside our hot area is our primary focus, the dragon. It is placed purposefully in the composition to draw your eye to it. We take in the large creature, and its ominous surroundings before our eye is drawn to the details of the cooler section.
When you overlay the 'golden ratio'[1] it matches perfectly, showing the illustrator's intention for how your eye should travel across the illustration.
So how does all of this add to the narrative? Well, without text we are left to ourselves to decide what is happening in the image. The illustrator shows us great skill in storytelling, even without words. Of course, at first our eye is drawn to the dragon. As we discovered above, the hotter colours and composition let us know the drag on the focus. The dragon also takes up a great deal of space in the composition, letting us get a sense of just how big it is.
By the time our eyes have travelled the image we have acknowledged the two children. But why are they there? This is where I noticed a wonderful device used by the illustrator. He has placed the forked tail of the dragon upon a contrasting green background. The contrast denotes importance. Whats more, the shape of the tail literally points us where the illustrator wants us to look! The treasure.
But the cave is full of treasure why is this the important treasure? Because of the palette used! It, like the dragon, uses warm colours, raising it in the hierarchy and making us notice it. The other treasure, by comparison, is cold in colour, and so recedes. If one was to take a second look at the image, they might realised the cool treasure might not be treasure at all, but the remains of fallen adventurers!!
Which brings me to the next set of narrative observations - the sense of threat. The reflected light of the torch is greatly exaggerated in luminosity and saturation, goving it special prominence. The heat looms over the two children, almost dripping like lava above them. The light blooms out from the torch, foreshadowing the fiery demise they might meet should they wake the dragon.
This obviously creates tension between the two children. Rather than just stand there looking apprehensive, the illustrator cleverly uses gesture to tell us what they are thinking ad feeling. They are both pointing: one which reinforces the focus and objective of why they are there, the other pointing in the other direction. Literally showing the reader that they are pulled apart on this topic.
I thought the use of texture in this image was interesting. The stalactites of the cave give a rough feeling, and rough means uncomfortable. When contrasted between hotter and cooler variations, their meaning and prominence also changes. By pointing downwards we also get a sense of claustrophobia.
The ground is also very interesting - the texture could be grave, coins or shed scales, they mirror the scales of the dragon. They almost tell us who this cave belongs to, like they are a sign of territory. The dragon's face, however, actually looks calm, serene and nonthreatening. There is a lack of rough texture and the facial features are passive and almost feminine. It made me think that the threat the dragon posed might actually be more a construction of the children's fear.
Overall, I enjoyed analysing this image - it really grew on me the more I realised all the clever devices that the illustrator had used to tell the story. It is actually extremely intelligent and this is hugely motivating to me. I would like my work to have some sense of hidden intelligence and wit in it, and there is a lot I can take from this image to try and put into my own work.
[1] McVeigh, K. (2009). Why golden ratio pleases the eye: US academic says he knows art secret. [online] The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/dec/28/golden-ratio-us-academic [Accessed 13 Feb. 2019].
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