Module Two - Project 2: An analysis on Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

 

Chloe McCaskill

An analysis on Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

Starry Night is one of the most popular paintings by artist Vincent Van Gogh. It was painted in 1889 and is now valued at over $100 million. It sits in the MoMA in New York City. Something that makes this work of art so striking is the color choices. Vincent utilized a pallet with three main colors that I pulled out directly from his art and placed them on the side. In Van Gogh’s genius, he decided to work with complementary colors. The yellow and blues sit opposite each other on the color wheel, making each stand out when combined. The yellow seems brighter and fuller with the blue background intensifying it. Together they create a high contrast that is visually appealing for all audiences. It draws the eye easily. The darker shades are most likely just darker versions of the blue and yellow. 

Starry Night is an interesting piece of art to analyze because of the way Van Gogh included multiple Gestalt principles. For anyone who knows the origins of the Gestalt Theory, might be surprised to recognize just how much Van Gogh has in his artwork, especially considering the theory was made much later on. Nonetheless, we can see a variety of principles. The cyprus tree nearest to the viewer is bigger and in the foreground, behind it are the houses and mountains which are less in focus. This is the Gestalt principle of figure-ground. The way we view the tree as the object of focus showcases this. Furthermore, Van Gogh's painting style easily reflects the Gestalt principle of continuity. One’s eyes can trace the tree, then the mountains, clouds, and the loops in the sky. Everything in this painting flows together, giving the eyes a pattern to follow along with. It lulls the viewer into a soft, comforting, almost dream-like state, where they are then faced with the bright composition of the stars. 

Another reason why this painting is so alluring is its composition. We’ve discussed the colors and the flow of the lines, but what I haven’t addressed is the rule of thirds. Van Gogh places the subject of the painting, the tree, to the side at a little more than one-third of the painting. He also uses the rule of thirds to divide between the mountains, sky, and civilization below. By using this compositional technique Van Gogh makes the viewer seem small, and everyone else small too. The large tree and smallness of the city contribute to the tone of the painting. It highlights the awe of the heavens. 

The use of these complementary colors, gestalt principles, and the rule of thirds all work together to contribute to my interpretation of the work as a whole. It conveys the message that humanity is small and insignificant, but in a gentle way. Van Gogh points to looking to the stars, seeing their eternity and admiring the natural beauty that surrounds them all. The complementary colors pull the viewer out of their misery about mortality and instead excite them with the life they currently have. The foreground makes the viewer feel as if they too are standing behind that towering cypress tree and watching the city. The continuity of the lines in the sky represents each person trying to read or find a path to go in life, in the stars. The rule of thirds makes the viewer small. Together these things make The Starry Night a painting about reflection on mortality, and nature. 

Module One Project

 AQS11-04 Chloe McCaskill interview lesson 6 project 

Asking questions of my sister who works in graphic design: 

1. What do you do to prepare for initial meetings with clients?

I do three steps:

1. Research their specific industry 

2. Research to find if there are specific names of people

3. Research the location of where they are. An example of this is, if it is for restaurant research it’s history, food, audience, owners, and neighborhood.

2. What do you do to learn more about your audience?

• Hands on part: Do user evaluative research. This would look like taking a cluipboard find people in audience and asking them specific questions 

• Hands off part: looking at other people who have done user evaluation research and pulling information from theirs 

3. What ways do you stay in touch with your clients?

In the past I would do email. But now at my official job working in the industry I keep in touch with my boss through a specific timeline of three different emails. The first is a concept, then a rough draft, and the final. Then I overlook the evaluative report of the project, to see if it was successful. Sometimes I reach out with things I see to ask clients if they like ideas similar to that. 

4. Is it easier or harder for you to work with others? Why?

It is much harder to work with others. I’ve found that part of this is because there are clashing skill levels. Recently one of the projects I had was especially difficult because they didn’t know how to use adobe products. But for as challenging as it was she had a different skill set which made her really good at presenting which helped my ideas come off in a better way. It’s also difficult because people get attached to their ideas, even when they’re not the best for the client. 

5. What helps you manage projects?

Online I use the Asana software that helps keep track of your tasks. Bosses or clients can see my work and can put comments or check boxes off. I also use a physical notebook to write everything down, and I keep a calendar in my room when I write what times of day I will be working. 

6. Do you find it difficult to work around copyright and permissions?

So far, yes, because the typefaces I use and get attached to are very expensive. I want to use cool fonts but oftentimes they aren’t commercial free so that is very difficult to work around. 

7. What sort of online applications do you use? Which do you prefer? Which do clients prefer?

I use a Figma. Of Adobe products I use: InDesign, illustrator, photoshop, and premier. Personally I really like Figma. Because in that one application I can create slideshows, apps, and animations. I find that clients are very impressed when I present things made with it, they’re more polished and easier to understand. Whereas adobe products seem to look like a rough draft.

8. Do you feel that clients are usually knowledgeable about what they want? Or does creative responsibility fall to you? Do you prefer creative control?

No, because they will say what they want, but then when they see it compared to what I think would look good they change their mind. They also become emotionally attached to a design they have in their mind that doesn’t exist or doesn’t look good in reality. I find that I love when creative control falls to me because I’m able to explore my ideas, have more freedom, and the audience seems to like it more. 

For my project I interviewed my older sister, Ellie McCaskill, who is currently attending Cornish College of the Arts in Washington state. I asked questions to understand how our learning in class reflects the reality of working with clients and found many similarities, as well as a few differences. For example, the way we were taught to research corresponds with how she finds further information on clients prior to a meeting. But, she also mentioned parts of the job that we hadn’t discussed in class, like doing evaluative research and using other tools like Asana and Figma. She also enlightened me on the topics of copyright. I’ve found that there are very few times I’ve even thought about the concept, but she has to work around it every day. Her stories made me realize just how important and difficult it can be to respect and understand copyright laws. Similarly, both of us prefer to work alone. The clashing of skill levels and communication styles make it very difficult to work in a team, though it can have some benefits. Overall I found that our classwork is a genuine reflection of how it is to start working in the graphic design industry. I learned that each client has specific ideas, needs, and criteria that will influence how artists work, and that this is why Ellie’s experience differs from mine. 

Mandala and Reflection

 

What I've Learned:

I've learned a lot in Photoshop so far. Most of it stems from tutorials where I was taught the basics. I was also taught: how to recolor, fill, add layer masks, remove and add things with generative ai, move, overlap, and work with texts, import images, layer things behind one another or on top of, draw using symmetry, and change dimensions.

Glow and Grow:

• My glow for this entire marking period is that I feel like I really memorized the tutorials and was able to replicate them easily. Oftentimes I even helped out my friends so they could understand too. 
• My grow for this marking period is that I could be more creative, or more organized with the way that I group and name layers. 

Project Four - Altered Graphic Poster

  The subject of my poster was someone travelling, posing on the peak of a mountain. I used the word “travel” to convey the freedom, power, and happiness that comes from getting out and travelling to have adventures like these. The poster has 5 layers, but one is just a blank extra. The first layer is the background, it is the imported image with the subject. The second and third layers were selected with the subject, filled with a color, made into overlay, lowered opacity, and repositioned to give the same altered affect as the tutorial. The third layer is the text. I converted the text to a shape, used the path selection tool, and I used free transform to reposition the letters. 

Project Three - Wallpaper

 

I imported the background from google. Then I used the type tool to write out my name. Then I selected the text and converted it to a shape using the “type” tab on the top left. Then I would select each individual letter and change it to “free transform path” in the edit tab at the top left. Then I would drag the letter to turn it. And I used the move tool to repeat that and move the characters so they overlap. Once I was done I excluded the overlapping shapes. 

Project Two - Climate Flyer

Materials:                                                             what did you Photoshop?

Graphic Layer 1 =  (text tutorial 2)

The first graphic was the one with the polar bear with the background. I had this one act as a background. I then made a shape with the ellipse tool, and used text tutorial 2 to position the ellipse behind the subject (polar bear). 

Text Layer 2 = (text tutorial 3 and 5).

I created a layer of text to go inside the ellipse shape that I made. Then I used a layer and created a clipping mask with the layer of greenery in order to fill in the colors of the letters. 

Overall design reflection: (which text method did you use for your flyer screenshot of your final design: I used the methods from text tutorial 2, 3, and 5. I made sure to have the polar bear be the main subject in the poster, drawing focus. Then the colorful text, alongside the pure white ellipse contrast to draw attention to the message. Using the various shapes of text boxes I was able to communicate my point in a creative, but simple, way.

Project One - Self Portrait

 

Materials:                                                    what did you Photoshop?

Layer 1 (tutorial 2) = My schedule: I photoshopped it so that it had a low opacity and was layered over the rocks in the foreground or middle ground of the second layer. 

Layer 2 (tutorial 4) = A photo of the city at night from a park in New Jersey. I used a layer mask, coloring over the bottom rocks with a gray to partially erase the rocks at the bottom and have the schedule show through. 

Layer 3 (tutorial 2) = A boat. I used the tool to remove the background, and added a layer over it to make it a “screen” layer instead of normal settings, to make it pop more. 

Layer 4 (tutorial 3) = I used the object selection tool and removal background tool to get the outlines of me and my siblings. I then used that mask and moved it to show our silhouettes with a background of the sky. 

Layer 5 (tutorial 5 & 1) = The final layer is one with hot air balloons. I used the object selection tool to isolate them from the background and the move tool to move them to the top left corner. 

Overall design reflection: (what was easy / hard for you to do?)

It was originally difficult for me to figure out how to import the images, but I got the hang of it. Another thing I found difficult was remembering how to make one of the layers have a lower opacity to show the one below it. But after playing around with the settings and tools, everything became much easier. I found it easy to position things, layer them, and move them.

Multimedia Essay

  Since the beginning of time humans have been yearning to create. The argument has been made that the domestication of animals was primarily to give humans a chance for recreation, and with the progression of man came the age of art. From paintings on cave walls, to canvases, to sculptures and then photography. The modern age has offered, for the first time, a combination of newer modern technologies, becoming what is known as Multimedia art. Multimedia Art uses the elements of past inventions, including video and audio editing to create what is nothing short of art that expresses humanity itself. Formally, it is known as combining multiple types of art together into one piece. In this class we’re going to focus on the modern equivalent of that with computer programs like photoshop. 

My experience with photoshop was mainly one of surprise. I didn’t realize how smoothly the program would run. It could do things that I didn’t know it could, like retouching or the generative fill, adjusting the tone, colors, and contrast. I am curious to know how artificial intelligence has evolved to be able to accomplish such things. I am familiar with digital drawing so many of the components were similar, like working with layers. I spent a lot of time playing around with the features and was amazed by its capabilities. It really is an impressive program and I can easily see how the many types of tools allow for people to combine different art techniques to make Multimedia Art. 

This last semester I hope to be able to learn all of the tools on photoshop. Also, I’d find it really interesting to be able to dig deeper into the morals, origins, and thoughts about artificial intelligence in the art world. I wonder if people worry about its growing use. I think that learning photoshop more deeply would be a valuable tool to better my own photos while also developing my technical skills. If there’s a chance I’m also interested in video editing as well as photo editing.