Worksheet: Visual Description
The main goal of this assignment is to help you practice visual description, an important component of visual analysis. Your job is to describe not just what you see (i.e., the content or subject) but how, visually, the subject matter is depicted. Visual description requires that you convey the formal or visual properties of a work in words, and this can present some challenges. In a few weeks, you have a Visual Analysis Paper due, so your work here will help prepare you for that assignment.
Look carefully at your chosen work. For each of the elements below, write approximately 2-4 complete sentences. Spend some time observing and brainstorming before you write your responses. The questions are intended to help you identify and describe the major visual elements in the piece. You should aim for clarity, precision, and specificity in your descriptions.
Subject Matter
What does the image portray? What is the nature of the setting and the figures’ identities, if discernible? Are there significant poses or gestures that indicate the subject or action? Does the scene allude to a larger narrative? Is there a sense of imminent or unfolding action? Or does the scene appear to be removed from the flow of time? Is there background scenery and, if so, how is it represented?
Scale
What is the size of the work? Does the size convey or suggest anything about the status of the subject matter or impact its interpretation? What is the scale in relation to the viewer? Is the viewer dominated by it, or can one hold or handle the object?
Medium & Materials
What is the medium of the work? Are there multiple media or materials used? Are the materials costly or inexpensive and everyday? Does the artist’s handling of the materials bring out any special properties or characteristics of the medium or materials?
Composition
How are the different elements of the subject arranged on the pictorial surface? How do they visually relate to each other? For instance, are there repeated shapes, lines or patterns? Is there a dominant vertical, horizontal or diagonal structure that organizes the image? All these things are part of “composition.”
Space
Does the artist create a structured “stage” for the scene or is space more vague? Does the artist create the illusion that the space is a continuation of our own? Is space portrayed as shallow, deep, or flat? Is it densely packed with solid forms or is it open or empty?
Line
Are there strong linear elements in the work—created, for example, by certain motifs, gestures, etc.? Do horizontal or vertical lines predominate? Are lines curved or angular, sharply contoured or blurry and indistinct? Do they create key connections and/or divisions in the composition?
Color & Light
What is the role(s) of color? Has the artist used a limited or wide range of colors? Do the colors unify or create contrasts between different elements of the work? Is there a consistent, identifiable light source in the image? Does it illuminate and clarify and/or obscure elements of the work? Does light suggest volume (through illusionistic shading)? Is the scene evenly illuminated?
Visual Emphasis
What elements or motifs get special emphasis in the work? How is this visual emphasis created?
Viewer’s Relationship to the Work
What is the spectator’s relationship to the scene? What point of view does the image assign to the viewer—do we look up, down, or directly at the scene? Do we encounter it from nearby or far away? Does the scene appear to take place on another level of reality or is it continuous with our space? Do elements of the work invite the viewer into the scene? Or do they keep the spectator at a distance? Does the size of the work impact how spectators would view the work?
Conclusions & Assessments
Here, you will practice using your descriptive observations to start building an analysis. Using your responses above, suggest three ways that the work’s visual qualities create certain meanings or effect(s) or encourage particular interpretations of the subject matter.
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