AD 150 Final Exam - FORMAL ANALYSIS

AD 150 - Final Exam Study Guide

1. Formal Analysis
   1. The Word Analysis
      1. Analysis = detailed examination of the elements or structure of something.
   2. Elements of Art
      1. Line = An actual or implied element in a composition.
      2. Value = Relative light and dark, with our without the presence of hue. (High-value samples are light, low-value samples are dark)
      3. Shapes = circles, triangles, squares, etc.
      4. Forms = encompasses qualities of line, shape, color, light, texture, space, mass, volume, and composition.
      5. Space = a feeling of depth or three dimensions
      6. Color = A category of visual experience including hue, value, and saturation. Also, a synonym for hue and chroma; the name of a color
      7. Texture = The quality of surface and its relative smoothness or roughness. Texture may be actual or implied.
   3. Principles of Design
      1. Balance
         • Axial Balance = the two sides may be actually different in form but sufficiently similar to make the axis positively felt
         • Occult Balance = control of opposing attractions through a felt equality between the parts of the field. It employs neither explicit axes nor central points.
           • the absence of actual axes or focal center emphasizes the relativity of all the elements in the field. And it means opposing elements that are different rather than alike
      2. Contrast
         • The overall contrast level of a composition changed with the range of luminosity between chosen hues
         • Low Contrast = compositions use colors within a narrow range of luminosity or brightness levels
         • Moderate Contrast = compositions use colors within a moderate range of luminosity or brightness levels
         • High Contrast = composition use colors that range from very light (high luminosity) to very dark (low luminosity)
      3. Movement = the way a viewer's eye is directed to move through a composition, often to areas of emphasis
      4. Emphasis = the part of the design that catches the viewer's attention
      5. Pattern = a coherent visual structure, usually created by repetition of similar design elements
      6. Proportion = the relationship between the different sized components within one whole composition
      7. Unity = when all parts of the art design work in harmony to create a sense of completeness
   4. Identify the Colors
      1. What is a Color Scheme = a plan for selecting, organizing, and using colors in a specific application
         • Achromatic = Having no discernible hue or color, only black, white, and a range of grays) A color scheme can also be generally achromatic with a single colored featured element highlighted.
         • Monochromatic Color Scheme = Containing only one hue. The use of a single hue and its variations (tints, tones, and shades) to impart color to a composition.
         • Analogous Color Scheme = Colors adjacent on a color spectrum, sometimes defined as hues limited to the range between a primary and secondary. A group of colors including any two primaries but never the third.
         • Complementary Color Scheme = Colors directly opposite each other on the artists’ spectrum or color wheel. Each pair of complements contains the three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) in some proportion or mixture.
         • Split Complementary Color Scheme = A color scheme formed from any hue and the two hues at each side of its complement. The three colors are NOT equidistant on the color wheel.
         • Triadic Color Scheme = A color scheme formed from any three hues equidistant from each other on the color wheel.
         • Tetradic Color Scheme = A color scheme formed from any four hues arranged in two complementary pairs.
   5. Color Treatment
      1. Saturated vs Unsaturated
         • Saturated Color = the most intense manifestation of a color imaginable; the “reddest” red or “bluest” blue. Saturated colors are undiluted by black, white, or gray. Synonyms are pure color, or hues at maximum chroma.
         • Saturation = the degree of purity of a color; its hue intensity or vivid quality, as opposed to muted or dull quality. A fully saturated color can contain one or two of the primary colors but never the third. Saturated color does not contain any black, white, or gray.
      2. High vs Low Contrast
         • Contrast = the pairing of elements or colors that are opposite from one another
      3. Value = Relative light and dark, with our without the presence of hue. (High-value samples are light, low-value samples are dark)
   6. The Composition
      1. Symmetry - is there symmetry? What kind of symmetry?
         • Symmetrical Composition = When visual elements are balanced around an axis or radiating from a point
         • Bilaterally Symmetrical = Visual elements are materially the same or mirrored on either side of an axis. Can be the same reflected about either a horizontal or vertical line.
         • Radially Symmetrical = Elements are radiate from a central point.
         • Asymmetrical Balance = Balance that relies on non-symmetrical design components, in which both sides of the work are not the same or divisible.
         • Translational Symmetry = Elements are shifted to produce a repeating pattern or array of the same elements
      2. Perspective - where is the viewer in relation to the image? Vanishing
         point, horizon line?
         • Vanishing Point = the point in fictive space which is supposed to appear the furthest from the viewer - the position at which all receding parallel lines meet.
         • Horizon Line (A.K.A. Eye Level) = the distant point at which the sky and ground appear to meet. The line on which the vanishing points lie in an accurate perspective.
         • Atmospheric Perspective = The effect of an intervening body of air between an object and the viewer, causing a softening of outlines, blurring of colors, and loss of detail at the horizon; the simulation of depth in two-dimensional art by the portrayal of this effect.
      3. Foreground vs Background / Negative vs Positive Space
         • Foreground = helps lead our eyes toward the focal point in the middle ground. 
         • Background = provides contrast, depth, and context.
         • Ground = the background against which colors, forms, or shapes, are laid
         • Negative Space = The area around the primary objects in a work of art
         • Positive Space = the space occupied by the primary objects is known as positive space.
      4. Geometry = studying the relationships between lines, angles, and surfaces
      5. Description of space (compressed, extended, realistic, fractured, etc.)
         • Space = a feeling of depth or three dimensions.
         • Realistic Space = three-dimensional
      6. Spatial Organization (Depth)
         • Depth = creating the illusion of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface
      7. Texture = the quality of surface and its relative smoothness or roughness. Texture may be actual or implied
      8. Grid Systems, Proportions
         • Grid = a network of lines – physical or implied – that may be horizontal, vertical, angled, irregular, broken or continuous, curved, and/or circular. A network of coordinates.
         • Law of Thirds = The rule of dividing a rectangle or square into thirds vertically and horizontally, with the four intersecting points being the points of optimal focus.
   7. Key Formal COLOR Terms
      1. Color = A category of visual experience including hue, value, and saturation. Also, a synonym for hue and chroma; the name of a color (see “hue”).
      2. Chroma = A synonym of hue and color; the name of a color (see “hue”). Also, a term used to describe the relative presence of hue in a sample. A vivid color has high chroma, a muted color sample has lower chroma.
      3. Hue = The name of the color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, or violet. Synonyms are chroma or color.
      4. Hue Intensity = The saturation or purity of a color; its vivid versus dull quality (see “saturation”).
      5. Pure Color = See “saturated color” and “maximum chroma.”
      6. Intensity = Sometimes used as a synonym for brilliance, or the strength of a hue (see “hue intensity” and “light intensity”).
      7. Brilliance = The combined qualities of high light-reflectance and strong hue, typically found in saturated colors and strong tints.
      8. Saturated Color = The most intense manifestation of a color imaginable; the “reddest” red or “bluest” blue. Saturated colors are undiluted by black, white, or gray. Synonyms are pure color, full color, or hues at maximum chroma.
      9. Primary Colors = The simplest colors of the artists’ spectrum; those that cannot be reduced or broken down into component colors. In artists’ media the primaries are red, yellow, and blue. This is the subtractive RYB color model. (Remember we are subtracting reflected light that reaches our eyes when we mix these primaries together.) Most color wheels and color schemes that artists and designers use refer to these primaries. In the additive RGB color model, the primaries are red, green, and blue. (These projected color lights when added together create white light.) In the process CMYK color model, the primaries are cyan, magenta, and yellow. (Black is used in printing because these combined colors cannot produce values very dark values)
      10. Secondary Colors = Colors made up of two primary colors. In artists’ media, orange (red and yellow), green (blue and yellow), violet (red and blue); in additive mixtures cyan (blue and green), yellow (red and green), and magenta (blue and red); in process colors red (magenta and yellow), green (yellow and cyan), and blue (magenta and cyan).
      11. Tertiary Colors = Colors made of any mixture of the three primaries; “brown” or chromatic neutrals. Or, a hue that results from the mixing of a primary hue and an adjacent secondary hue.
      12. Saturation = The degree of purity of a color; its hue intensity or vivid quality, as opposed to muted or dull quality. A fully saturated color can contain one or two of the primary colors but never the third. Saturated color does not contain any black, white, or gray.
      13. Tint = A pure color plus white, or made lighter.
      14. Tone = A nonspecific word referring to some changes in a hue. Most often used to mean a graying, or reduction in saturation (chroma).
      15. Shade: A pure color made darker, or with black added.
      16. Monotone = Color without variation. Generally used to describe two or more colors of close or identical value and saturation.
      17. Dilution = Changing a pure or saturated hue by lightening, darkening, or muting (or by the addition of black, white, gray, or its complement).
      18. Oppositional (or Opponent) Color = Also called complementary color and formerly known as binary colors. When mixed together such hues will dull each other; when adjacent to each other, they will intensify each other. On a color circle, they lie directly across from each other.
      19. Color Temperature = In lighting, the measurable temperature in degrees Kelvin of any given light source. In color theory and description, the relative warmth (red-yellow-orange cast) or coolness (blue or green cast) of a color.
      20. Atmospheric Perspective = The effect of an intervening body of air between an object and the viewer, causing a softening of outlines, blurring of colors, and loss of detail at the horizon; the simulation of depth in two-dimensional art by the portrayal of this effect.
      21. Pastel = An apparel-industry (also used by color product manufacturers that include paint, wallcovering, etc.) term for colors diluted by white to high or middle values; also clean tints with little or no muted quality.
      22. Color Schemes
          • Achromatic = Having no discernible hue or color, only black, white, and a range of grays) A color scheme can also be generally achromatic with a single colored featured element highlighted.
          • Monochromatic Color Scheme = Containing only one hue. The use of a single hue and its variations (tints, tones, and shades) to impart color to a composition.
          • Analogous Color Scheme = Colors adjacent on a color spectrum, sometimes defined as hues limited to the range between a primary and secondary. A group of colors including any two primaries but never the third.
          • Complementary Color Scheme = Colors directly opposite each other on the artists’ spectrum or color wheel. Each pair of complements contains the three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) in some proportion or mixture.
          • Split Complementary Color Scheme = A color scheme formed from any hue and the two hues at each side of its complement. The three colors are NOT equidistant on the color wheel.
          • Triadic Color Scheme = A color scheme formed from any three hues equidistant from each other on the color wheel.
          • Tetradic Color Scheme = A color scheme formed from any four hues arranged in two complementary pairs.
   8. Key Formal COMPOSITION Terms
      1. Figure-Ground = In two-dimensional design, the relationship that exists between the principal image (the focus) and the background shapes. The term “figure-ground ambiguity” implies both are of equal importance (visually).
      2. Grid = A network of lines – physical or implied – that may be horizontal, vertical, angled, irregular, broken or continuous, curved, and/or circular. A network of coordinates.
      3. Ground = The background against which colors, forms, or shapes, are laid.
      4. Horizon Line = The distant point at which the sky and ground appear to meet. The line on which the vanishing points lie in an accurate perspective.
      5. Occlusion = The obstruction of one visual element by another in a composition, often used as a method to convey or imply depth.
      6. One-Point Perspective = Spatial drawing or rendering of a figure/object whose sides recede towards a single point.
      7. Pattern = A coherent visual structure, usually created by repetition of similar design elements.
      8. Symmetrical Composition = When visual elements are balanced around an axis or radiating from a point
      9. Bilaterally Symmetrical = Visual elements are materially the same or mirrored on either side of an axis. Can be the same reflected about either a horizontal or vertical line.
      10. Radially Symmetrical = Elements are radiate from a central point.
      11. Asymmetrical Balance = Balance that relies on non-symmetrical design components, in which both sides of the work are not the same or divisible.
      12. Translational Symmetry = Elements are shifted to produce a repeating pattern or array of the same elements