FIVE STEPS TO CREATING VALUABLE RESPONSES TO A THREAD

By Alison Barrows

As part of your assignments you are required to provide constructive feedback on your classmates work or their work in progress.
These “critiques” can vary in length but they need to do more than just offer enthusiastic encouragements.  E.g. “Great work dude! I would have never thought of that one.”

1. Before adding to a thread about someone’s work please go to your word processor and paste in the flowing questions.  See if you can answer these questions about the work you are viewing. 
2. Write your responses down one by one.  After you have gone through the list, cut and paste your responses into one response and then choose words, sentences and ideas that will link them all together. 
3. Use spelling and grammar check to make sure your response is well written. If you find you are using the same word over and over again try to see if the thesaurus option under language can offer you some other choices. 
4. After all this is done save your response into a folder of critiques you have written. “My Critiques for Color Theory” might be a good name for the folder. Make sure the First line in the document states the week, assignment and classmates name that you are responding to.
5. Once your work is saved and filed, either copy and paste your response on the appropriate place on the thread or upload a word document.

Introduce
Introduce yourself and the topic of your discussion. Include the artist’s name, title, date of work, assignment, week and medium
Describe
Make a description of the artwork you are critiquing.
This is a careful listing of those things that can be seen, elements of design such as line and shape and things represented in the artwork, such as figures and objects, as well as details about them such as size, distance, and color.
The list should include facts, not opinions. Facts are real. Opinions are personal beliefs and impressions which may be true for one person but not for others.
Analyze
Analyzing artwork means looking at the layer beneath the subject matter. 
What elements are most important?  How are the elements organized?
In your analysis of a work you can ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are some things similar in shape, color, texture, form, or size
2. Are some lines similar in direction or kind?
3. Are there contrasts in shape, form, texture or line?
4. Are there contrasts in color such as dull/bright, cool/warm, dark/light?
5. Is there some area, element, or arrangement that seems most important, or dominant?
6. Are the lines, shapes, colors balanced?
7. What kind of balance does the lines, shapes, colors have: symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial?
   

Analysis Includes Elements and Principles of Design

Design
Design is the organization, plan, or composition of a work of art.  An effective design is one in which the elements and principles have been combined to achieve unity.
Elements of art
Elements are the basic components, or building blocks, used by the artist when producing works of art.  They are line, shape, form, space, value, texture, color
Line
An element of art that refers to the continuous mark made on some surface by a moving point. It may be two-dimensional (pencil on paper) three-dimensional (wire), or implied by the edge of a shape or form.
Shape
An element of art, it is an area clearly set off by one or more of the other elements such as color, vale, line, and texture.  It has length and width.
Form
An element of art, it describes an object that is three-dimensional and encloses volume. 
Color
An element of art that has three properties:  hue, value, intensity
http://www.educ.kent.edu/community/VLO/design/elements/color/index.html
Value
An element of art that describes the lightness or darkness of a color. 
Space
An element of art that refers to the distance or area between, around, above, below, or within things.  It can be described as either three-dimensional or two-dimensional.
Texture
The element of art that refers to the way things feel, or look as if they might feel if touched.

Principles of art
Refers to the different ways that the elements of art can be used in a work of art.  Principles - or rules of design - include balance, emphasis, harmony, variety, contrast, movement, rhythm, and proportion
Unity
Unity is a quality of wholeness or oneness that is achieved through the effective use of the elements and principles of art.
Harmony
A way of combining elements to accent their similarities and combine the picture parts into a whole.  It is often achieved through the use of repetition.  Harmony is similar in meaning to unity.
Symmetrical balance
The elements are arranged so that both halves of the composition are identical and have identical visual balance
Asymmetrical balance
The elements of art are arranged to that there is visual balance, but the composition is not identical on both halves of the paper.
Contrast
A principle of art refers to a way of combining art elements to stress big differences.
Emphasis or dominance
A principle of art in which there is a focal point or a center of interest among the elements.
Movement
A principal of art in which the elements produce the look of action or cause the viewer’s eye to sweep over the work in a certain way
Proportion
A principle of art that refers to size differences
Radial balance
A principle of art that occurs when objects are positioned around a central point
Repetition
A principle of art in which the same elements are used again and again
Rhythm
A principle of art in which elements are repeated at regular intervals to create a feeling of movement.
Variety
A principle of art that refers to differences.