activity # 2- visual elements

“The Shipwreck” and “Baby at Play” are two pieces that caught my eye right away. The choice colors are the first thing I noticed. In “The Shipwreck” the artist used cool colors: the water, rocks, and most of the sky. He also added contrasting colors with the warm, orange and red tones on the people. The most drastic example of this is the blue hole in the clouds right next to the red lightning bolt. He takes advantage of implied shape and light. Implied light is when the observer cannot see the source of the light. The waves crashing against the rocks are highlighted assuming that a ray of sunlight is coming through the clouds. The tilted line of the mast take the eyes all the way from the bottom right to the upper left of the scene, allowing one to take in the surrounding detail. This is called a directional line: A line in which directs attention to certain parts of the work. Implied shape is when several objects in the painting form a greater shape. In this piece a triangle stands out, forming from the ship’s mast, to the vertical rocks to the far left, and ending at the rocks in the far right bottom.
There is also use of implied light on “Baby at Play”. The child’s outfit is such a bright light, it can be assumed that there is a ray of light on it. Unlike “The Shipwreck”, the warm tones on the color wheel dominate “Baby at Play”. Red-orange and red is used for about half of the painting while, on contrast, the green plants take up the rest of the background. The child also stands out due to direction of the contour lines. Contour lines are the lines that represent the boundaries that aren’t visible in real-life. The contour lines of the baby are diagonal. This is in contrast to the building blocks that are going vertical, therefore enhancing the shape of the baby.