Project 1 - Visual Analysis

Select a mural in the Downtown Phoenix area.

There is no single correct way to structure a visual analysis, however, as with all good
writing, it should engage the reader and convey a sense of the writer's views supported
by appropriate evidence or examples.

Simply by selecting particular qualities of the work to discuss, you are forming and
expressing an opinion about their importance. In effect, your analysis should persuade
your reader that your interpretation and evaluation are valid. Keep this idea in mind
when structuring your paragraphs to ensure that the information they contain is
relevant. Each paragraph should advance your argument towards the conclusion,
where you will draw together and reflect on the observations you have made.

Writing a visual analysis is partly a technical activity, but it is also a reflective and
subjective one where your personal responses are central. Your analysis should
therefore integrate the descriptive language of formal observation with phrases which
are more speculative. The language of your visual analysis should be simple and
precise. When describing the object or artwork, use the present tense to reveal the
work from the viewer's perspective. The object or artwork itself is often the subject of
the description, rather than the artist or designer.

Your description of the technique involves explaining and detailing the means by which
the designer or artist has achieved a particular effect. Use evidence or examples from
the work to demonstrate what you mean. Be evocative. Think about how you would
describe the artwork or design to someone who has not seen it. Which features are
most intriguing? How do they contribute to the overall effect? How does it make you
feel?

These descriptions of the object and technique form the basis of your interpretation of
the meaning or intention of the work. Often, you are only guessing at the artist or
designer's meaning and this uncertainty can be conveyed through verbs like evokes,
creates, appears and suggests which reflect thinking or guesswork. Other conditional
forms, such as may, could and seems can also be used.

Introduction:
The introduction to your visual analysis could consist of sentences that provide some
context for the artwork or design. These sentences could also indicate your attitude
toward the work or your response to it. Alternatively, you might like to begin your
analysis with a strong statement that grabs the reader's attention before going on to
explain why this observation is significant.

Analysis
Visual Elements:
• What do you see? How do the light, color, form, and size together create an
impression?

• Color-How is color used?

• Scale-What is the scale? How does it compare to other media?

• Light-How did the artist use light? Is one area brighter?

• Lines and Forms- Where do the lines lead your eyes? Do you see solid, stable
shapes or lots of curves and diagonal lines suggesting unrest and movement

Rhetorical Situation:
• The text itself, the mode or forum for communication, how this is presented

• The author and his/her credentials or right to offer this piece

• The audience (who is this meant for?) and the assumptions made by the author
about said audience

• The purpose the mural serves

• Major appeals (ethos, pathos, logos)? How are they used? Are they effective? Why
or why not?

Context
• The setting (timing, place, environment surround the moment of communication)

• What is the Context of the mural?

• Social context- Who are the people who made it? How does it fit into the
community? Physical context…where is it?

• Political context- What is its purpose? Does it sell, promote, inform, inspire?

• Historical context- When was it made? What difference does that make?

Conclusion
Your conclusion should revisit the qualities of the work you’ve discussed and the
formation and expression of their importance. Offer a way of summarizing what you
have experienced from this piece (what we should have experienced). It should be a
reminder of why this piece is/is not worth viewing (a reminder of your central
argument).

Glossary
Composition: the arrangement of parts that together form a unified whole the parts of the
environment (physical, environment, historical, etc.) that surround something

such as a word, passage, or work of art and can throw light on its meaning

Depict: to represent in a picture

Façade: the face of a building

Juxtapose: to place side by side

Historical context: the events that took place around something through which you understand that

thing

Impression: an effect, feeling, or image retained after an experience

Media: forms of expression determined by materials or creative methods

Physical context: the physical environment around something

Political context: the environment in which something is produced indicating it's purpose or

agenda

Social context: the environment of people that surrounds something's creation or intended
audience

Subject: the main theme of a work of art

3-5 pages, APA formatting

3 sources

Initial Draft Due: 1/8

Polished Draft Due 1/15