The Itzcuintli Dog with Me from 1938 by Frida Kahlo includes media of oil on canvas as shown in Figure 2. This piece of art is a self-portrait of Frida Kahlo and her dog. She was not able to have children, so she substituted animals for kids, such as the dog in the portrait. The pets filled the void of her children, so choosing to do a self-portrait with one of her pets is not surprising (Itzcuintli Dog with Me). The oil paint used to create this picture contains a pigment that is mixed with oil. Because of the oil in the paint, the picture takes much longer to dry than paintings that are done with other types of paint such as temperas (Materials & Techniques: Oil Paint). The canvas on which the artist painted consisted of a fabric woven …show more content…
closely together and then stretched over a wooden frame (Materials & Techniques: Canvas).
To create this oil on canvas portrait, an observer can determine that the artist used a wet onto dry technique where certain parts of the picture needed to dry before more paint could be added. Because of this, the artist would not have completed the painting in one setting with what is known as a direct painting method. For example, the wrinkles in her dress have white highlights. In order to keep the white oil paint from blending too much with the black paint on the dress, the black would need to be dry. This artist did not leave visible signs of the texture of the canvas and does not appear to have built up layers of paint (Frank 123-124). The paint in the background and on the floor appears to use a technique of gradient blending where one color transitions gradually into another color. On the floor, the dark brown on the edge of the wall blends into a lighter brown towards the part of the floor in front of the dog and artist. On the wall, the gray color blends into white (Burke). The artist used vertical brush strokes to create the effect of a large ruffle on the bottom of the dress. Circular arc strokes were used to create layers of material on the dress skirt. Small brush strokes were used on the top part of the dress to create …show more content…
intricate details. The style of the artist is considered to be that of a naïve artist since she learned many of her techniques from her husband and father. She expressed great detail in her painting on the dress and jewelry. When compared to Henri Rousseau, another artist considered to have a naïve style, Kahlo’s self-portrait shows her full face much like the figures in the portrait paintings of Rousseau. While Rousseau is considered to display intensity through the eyes of the individual in the portrait, Kahlo differs from Rousseau with her style in her painting because the eyes do not show that same level of intensity (Naïve Art). Many artists during this same time period painted art that was abstract. Kahlo’s art was mostly personal, of herself, her family, and her friends. In fact, she sold very few of her paintings. This particular piece of art relates of the life of the artist during this time period. Because she was not able to have children, her pets were like her children. Thus, including a pet in her own self-portrait shows the importance of the pet in her life (Tuchman). This work of art shows many of the different visual elements and principles of design.
The most dominant visual elements include line, shape, and color. The artist uses lines in this picture with the brush strokes on the ruffle of the skirt and in places where two colors have met including where the ruffle meets the skirt, where the gold vest meets the dress, and where the edge of the floor meets the edge of the wall. Lines can also be seen with the necklace that is worn. Curved lines are used to indicate wrinkles in the dress while the lady is sitting in the chair and to show the ribs of the dog. Shape is seen in the facial features of the lady as the nose is a triangle and the mouth and head are both ovals. The ears of the dog are triangular in shape while the dog’s face eyes, and the area around the mouth are all circles. The body and the legs of the dog are all cylinders. The top part of the back of the chair is a quadrilateral while the spindle is a cylinder. With the way that the lady is holding her hands in the picture, a hexagonal shape is created with her lower arms, upper arms, and shoulders. Color can easily be seen as a visual element heavily used throughout this piece. Many different colors were used in this piece such as blue, red, tan, light pink, brown, white, black and gold. White, brown and tan with shades of light pink were used as the background colors on the wall while brown and tan were used on the floor. The main color of the dress is black
with a large white ruffle on the bottom. The black and white colors of the dress are certainly opposite and suggest a depressing mood which can be supported by the fact that the dog is not sitting in the lady’s lap. The use of gold on the dress and with the necklace does add some sparkle, and the blue bow in the hair certainly stands out among the other colors used in the painting. The principles of design include movement, proportion, and unity. When a viewer first sees this painting, their eyes may be instantly directed to the blue bow in the lady’s hair because the color stands out much brighter than other colors used in the painting. Movement around the lady’s face would be followed by movement to the intricate details of the gold on the top of the dress. Movement then proceeds down to the skirt of the dress attached to the wide white ruffle attached to the bottom. The vertical lines in the ruffle direct movement to continue down until a viewer notices the small dog standing near the bottom. Proportion can clearly be seen in the painting because the size of the head and arms compared to the rest of the body show a normal relation. The same can be said about proportion in the size of the head and legs of the dog compared to the rest of the dog’s body. The size of the dog is also in proportion to the size of the lady seated in the chair. The facial features are in proportion with the size of the face. The necklace and bow are in proportion with the head of the woman. The chair is in proportion with the size of the lady who is seated in it. Unity is displayed among the parts of the painting because the woman, chair, wall, floor, and dog appear to all produce a feeling of harmony in that the picture is complete.
The black background contrast with the predominate colors of blue and red gives these colors intensity. The red and green are complementary colors that give the painting visual appeal. The green juxtapose above the blue and red gives the artwork color balance as well as implies a triangular shape. The triangular shape and pattern is repeated throughout the painting by; the bend of the flute player's elbow, the head and shoulders of the guitar player, the head and shoulders of the lady whose back is to the viewer, the body of the guitars and the location of the three right-most musicians
Large and medium sizes of the forms dominate over small in the painting. The arrangement of the objects in this art piece is mostly centric. However, even though it is central, it is not symmetrical. The painter also touched the left edge of the burlap and the right bottom corner of it; this helps viewer’s eye to enter the painting smoothly, move around and escape from it. The asymmetry of the arrangement creates the sense of imbalance. Lam uses basic lines and shapes in the composition. Nevertheless, the painter creates wonderful light movement inside the figure with wavy shapes, which directs viewer’s eye from the top to the
The texture of the paint is smooth and flows very nicely the paintings composition is primarily bundled into the bottom right half of the image. The wings and legs of the animals as well as and table help form an invisible sloping line across the painting.
The visual elements in this painting are shape, color and light. The shapes and contours of the mother and child are life like.
This painting consists of regular lines as well as implied lines. Some of the regular lines that have been included are flowing, curved lines, such as the Earth that the woman is sitting on top of. Additionally, the background is made of small scenes that have been outlined by a dotted line, which places emphasis on the scenes. Besides regular and visible lines, there are a few implied lines in this painting. For instance, the woman's eyes are looking forward, so there is an implied line to the audience. Additionally, another implied line would be the woman's right arm, which is pointed towards her headpiece, while her left arm is pointed towards the earth. Nonetheless, this painting is not intense; although it does have splashes of color, this painting does not have a bright saturation. Instead, this painting is slightly dull, which makes this painting appear vintage. Additionally, since this background is a dark color, it makes the rest of painting, especially the headpiece, stand out. Besides colors and lines, even though this is a painting and there is no physical texture, there is invented texture. Upon viewing this painting, underneath the earth where the woman is sitting on, there are roots as well as grass, which give texture and feeling to the painting. In the end, this painting consists of several elements of composition, which Heffernan has done a wonderful job
The painting is organized simply. The background of the painting is painted in an Impressionist style. The blurring of edges, however, starkly contrasts with the sharp and hard contours of the figure in the foreground. The female figure is very sharp and clear compared to the background. The background paint is thick compared to the thin lines used to paint the figures in the foreground. The thick paint adds to the reduction of detail for the background. The colors used to paint the foreground figures are vibrant, as opposed to the whitened colors of the Impressionist background. The painting is mostly comprised of cool colors but there is a range of dark and light colors. The light colors are predominantly in the background and the darker colors are in the foreground. The vivid color of the robe contrasts with the muted colors of the background, resulting in an emphasis of the robe color. This emphasis leads the viewer's gaze to the focal part of the painting: the figures in the foreground. The female and baby in the foreground take up most of the canvas. The background was not painted as the artist saw it, but rather the impression t...
In this piece Benny has depicted himself in the artwork creating another piece of artwork. He is standing at a 45° angle as if he has been interrupted by us, the viewer. This is how Benny engages us, the viewer into his painting. As if we are just as much a part of it as he is. When looking at his painting from a distance it seems as if it is just another oil painting but upon closer observation you can clearly see the different fabrics that he uses to create the collage and which gives the painting its textures. He shows space in the painting by leaving the wall on which the canvas hangs, bare, as is the floor with the exception of the box of rags that he uses in his collage.
Malcolm Gladwell’s Usage of the Straw Man Method of Persuasion in What the Dog Saw
Color is used to draw attention to important characters and objects in the painting. The red of Mary’s shirt emphasizes her place as the main figure. A bright, yellow cloud floating above the room symbolizes the joy of the angelic figures. De Zurbaran uses warm colors in the foreground. The room, used as the background for the scene, is painted in dark colors utilizing different hues of gray and brown.
The two focal figures are illustrated with complementary colors, the woman 's dress being orange, and the man’s pants being blue. Benton uses these colors to bring life into the painting. The background is made up mostly of earthy colors like, greens, browns, and greys and a light blue for the sky. Benton seems to add white to every color he uses, which gives the painting an opaque look. The deepest hues found in this painting are the blue one the man’s pants and the orange on the woman’s dress, everything else around them looks washed out and Benton does this to emphasize his focal points
Every individual interprets a painting in his/ her own way and sometimes one could find more than one explanation for the same piece of art. As a non-professional my understanding of this painting indicates that it represents a medical experiment of a cow that in her turn is observing another painting of her own species. The cow is accompanied by a group of people who probably are scientists and doctors. Realism is well executed in the painting. To be more clear, on the right side one scientist is standing with pen and paper in his hand to take notes of the cow’s reactions to the painting. The doctors and the people standing by all wearing glasses, except that one person on the left who has a mop in his hand, possibly to clean after the cow
This piece is acrylic, oilstick, and spray paint on wood panel that is 186.1 centimeters in height and 125.1 centimeters in width. This piece features a human-like figure in the center that is mostly half red and half black. This figure has a gray head with one yellow eye and one light gray eye and above its head is a black halo. The background consists of patches of various colors such as light blue, black, dark red, light green, beige, turquoise, pink, and yellow. On the bottle left corner there is a figure drawn that looks like a fish and has a strip of mustard yellow painted through it. Also towards the bottom right of the artwork, there is some drawn on letters that almost look like words but are messily painted over with a desert sand color. This piece is my favorite because I find it aesthetically pleasing. There is a lot going on in this piece that makes looking at it genuinely interesting. The colors that Basquiat choses for the background go very well together and overall compliment the figure in the center. I like how incredibly expressive this piece is and it makes me want to buy a canvas and start painting that I desire. I also like how the human-like figure is drawn. One could see what looks like an outlined ribcage on the figure, which makes me believe that the head is actually a skull. Upon further research I learned that Basquiat was
Color is a very meaningful part of almost all artworks. For this sculpture, the artist chose a particularly vibrant blue. The light blue hue used is not only a common color for balloon animals, but it also is one of the first colors we learn as children, which further ties this piece to memories of our youth. This artwork conveys simplicity in its use of only one color. This is reminiscent of the simplicity of childhood.
White is especially arduous in this regard because, in the case of painting, it is usually the same color as the canvas. The primary media used in this piece is white paper, which on its own, when combined to form an image would make for a figure that is difficult to see. To offset this issue, Thigpen also utilizes the color black, and in doing so, the face is given features, such as facial lines, thick eyebrows, a goatee, as well as shadowing on the right cheek. In a portrait, it is essential that the viewer’s eyes are dragged to the subject of the piece, the individual portrayed, and therefore, it is crucial that the figure is viewable as well as clearly defined within the piece. At the same time, in the case of this piece, one is immediately drawn to the texture. When observing a regular portrait made from paints, it is easy to visualize the surface of the piece as smooth and flat. In Robert Simon, one can not help but assume that the surface is rugged and somewhat layered due to the many pieces of shredded
The most prominent color in this painting is blue; it is used in the walls, the doors the articles of clothing hanging on the wall hook and some of the items resting on the nightstand. The other prominent color is green, used on parts of floorboards, the window, a part of one of the doorframes, parts of the hanging paintings and the empty vase on the nightstand. Brown is the only ...