A. Investigating
Introduction & Overview
Read summaries of the section's main ideas at different levels of detail.
Detailed
The 'Investigating' criterion is the intellectual foundation of your artistic journey. It moves you from a passive observer to an active inquirer who critically analyzes the how and why behind an artist's choices.
The Multi-Faceted Process of Investigation
- Active Inquiry: This is the process of moving beyond simple observation to asking critical questions about an artwork. It means asking: Why did the artist choose that specific color? How does the compositional structure contribute to the story? This effort deepens your understanding of the artist's intentions and methods.
- Critical Analysis: This requires systematically breaking down an artwork into its fundamental visual and structural components. You must analyze:
- Visual Language: How are line, shape, and color used?
- Symbolic Elements: What do recurring objects or gestures represent?
- Compositional Structures: How does the arrangement of elements guide the viewer's eye and shape the narrative?
- Contextual Understanding: Art is not created in a vacuum. Investigation requires placing the artwork within its broader cultural, historical, and personal contexts. This layer of understanding is crucial for uncovering meanings that are not immediately apparent, enriching your perspective.
- Informing Personal Practice: The knowledge gained from this investigation is the fuel for your own creativity. Insights, techniques, and narrative strategies absorbed from diverse artists will directly strengthen and inform your own creative work (linking to Criterion B and C).
Key Areas of Visual Storytelling Investigation
Your research will focus on the following interconnected areas:
- Artists as Storytellers: Prioritize how artists construct their Narratives. This involves analyzing their deliberate choices regarding:
- Medium and Style
- Compositional Strategies
- Recurring Motifs and Themes
- The Language of Imagery and Symbolism: Deeply investigate the role of Symbolism (e.g., objects, colors, gestures) as a powerful tool for conveying layered meaning, enriching the narrative, and allowing for diverse interpretations.
- Communicating Diverse Narrative Types Visually: Explore the strategies used to visually communicate various types of stories:
- Myths and Folk Tales: Analyzing established cultural symbolism.
- Personal Histories: Understanding how unique perspectives are expressed.
- Social Commentaries: Dissecting how art addresses and confronts societal issues.
- Strategies for Audience Engagement: Identify the techniques artists use to capture attention and shape the audience's response, such as:
- Effective Framing
- Evoking Emotional Resonance (through color or expression)
- Controlling Pacing and Sequencing (especially in sequential art)
The Significance of Investigation
By thoroughly investigating how others tell stories visually, you lay the crucial intellectual foundation for becoming a powerful and insightful visual storyteller yourself. This process:
- Broadens your perspective on visual communication.
- Provides inspiration for creative narratives (Criterion C).
- Equips you with knowledge to apply diverse skills (Criterion B).
- Sharpens your ability to critically evaluate visual stories (Criterion D).
Audio Book
Dive deep into the subject with an immersive audiobook experience.
Active Inquiry: Asking the Right Questions
Chapter 1 of 1
π Unlock Audio Chapter
Sign up and enroll to access the full audio experience
Chapter Content
Investigating begins with Active Inquiry, moving past surface-level observation to ask how and why an artist makes specific visual choices. This is about seeking out the artist's intentions and methods.
Detailed Explanation
When you look at an artwork, don't just see a picture; ask a question: "Why is this character placed in the center?" (Compositional choice). "What does the darkness symbolize here?" (Use of value and symbolism). Active inquiry forces you to think like the artist and understand the decisions that drive the final image. This critical questioning is the first step in deep analysis.
Examples & Analogies
Imagine you are a detective analyzing a crime scene. You don't just look at the room; you meticulously question every detailβwhere the object is, what the angle of the light is, what the clues imply. Active Inquiry in art is the same meticulous detective work.
\--
- Chunk Title: Critical Analysis and Context
- Chunk Text: Critical Analysis is the systematic breakdown of an artwork into its components (imagery, symbolism, composition) to understand the whole Narrative. This must always be viewed within the artwork's Contextual Understanding (historical, cultural, personal).
- Detailed Explanation: You can't separate the art from the world it came from. Analyzing Frida Kahloβs self-portraits requires knowing her personal struggles and her Mexican cultural heritageβthat's the Contextual Understanding. The Critical Analysis then involves breaking down how she uses colors, motifs, and a direct gaze (her visual language) to communicate that context in the Narrative. The components only make sense when their context is understood.
- Real-Life Example or Analogy: Reading a poem from a different era. You must first research the historical period and the social norms (Contextual Understanding) to truly understand the poet's choice of words and metaphors (Critical Analysis). Without context, the literal words might be clear, but the profound meaning is lost.
\--
- Chunk Title: Informing Your Own Practice
- Chunk Text: The ultimate goal of investigation is to absorb techniques and insights from diverse artists. This knowledge then serves as a rich source of inspiration, directly Informing Personal Practice and strengthening your own creative work.
- Detailed Explanation: By studying how master storytellers handle color, composition, and emotional expression, you are essentially training your eye and mind. Every technique you analyze, whether it's Rembrandt's use of light or Kehinde Wiley's use of pattern, is a tool you can add to your own artistic toolkit. The more you investigate, the more strategies you have to draw upon when you face a creative challenge in your own projects.
- Real-Life Example or Analogy: A chef studies diverse recipes and cooking techniques from around the world. They don't copy the recipe exactly, but they absorb the methodβhow to balance flavor, how to use heatβto invent their own original dishes. Your investigation is your artistic 'recipe book.'
Key Concepts
-
Active Inquiry: The core investigative mindset.
-
Critical Analysis: The methodical study of visual components.
-
Contextual Understanding: The appreciation of an artwork's background.
-
Artists as Storytellers: The focus on narrative strategies.
-
Informing Personal Practice: The practical application of research.
-
-
Examples
-
Analyzing Pacing in Sequential Art: Investigating how a comic artist varies panel size and spacing to slow down or speed up the Narrative (Critical Analysis).
-
Researching Cultural Symbolism: Looking up the traditional meaning of a specific color or object in a non-Western artwork to deepen Contextual Understanding (e.g., the symbolic meaning of jade in Chinese art).
-
-
Flashcards
-
Term: What is Active Inquiry?
-
Definition: Asking critical questions (how and why) about an artist's choices rather than just observing the art.
-
Term: What is Contextual Understanding?
-
Definition: The process of researching and placing an artwork within its specific historical, cultural, or personal background.
-
Term: What is the ultimate goal of Investigating (Criterion A)?
-
Definition: To absorb techniques and strategies that will inform and strengthen your own creative work (Informing Personal Practice).
-
-
Memory Aids
-
Rhyme: Critique and Context, Analysis so deep, what the artist intended, your knowledge you keep.
-
Story: A young artist felt stuck until she started Investigating. She did a Critical Analysis of her favorite master's brushwork, researched the Contextual Understanding of their life, and used those findings to Inform her Personal Practice, breaking her creative block.
-
Mnemonic: C.A.I.S.T.: Context, Analysis, Inquiry (Active), Storytellers (Artists as), Technique (Informing Practice).
-
Acronym: D.I.S.S.E.C.T.: Deep Investigation Shapes Storytelling: Explore Context and Technique.
Examples & Applications
Analyzing Pacing in Sequential Art: Investigating how a comic artist varies panel size and spacing to slow down or speed up the Narrative (Critical Analysis).
Researching Cultural Symbolism: Looking up the traditional meaning of a specific color or object in a non-Western artwork to deepen Contextual Understanding (e.g., the symbolic meaning of jade in Chinese art).
Flashcards
Term: What is Active Inquiry?
Definition: Asking critical questions (how and why) about an artist's choices rather than just observing the art.
Term: What is Contextual Understanding?
Definition: The process of researching and placing an artwork within its specific historical, cultural, or personal background.
Term: What is the ultimate goal of Investigating (Criterion A)?
Definition: To absorb techniques and strategies that will inform and strengthen your own creative work (Informing Personal Practice).
Memory Aids
Rhyme: Critique and Context, Analysis so deep, what the artist intended, your knowledge you keep.
Story: A young artist felt stuck until she started Investigating. She did a Critical Analysis of her favorite master's brushwork, researched the Contextual Understanding of their life, and used those findings to Inform her Personal Practice, breaking her creative block.
Mnemonic: C.A.I.S.T.: Context, Analysis, Inquiry (Active), Storytellers (Artists as), Technique (Informing Practice).
Acronym: D.I.S.S.E.C.T.: Deep Investigation Shapes Storytelling: Explore Context and Technique.
Memory Aids
Interactive tools to help you remember key concepts
Acronyms
**D.I.S.S.E.C.T.**
Deep **I**nvestigation **S**hapes **S**torytelling
Flash Cards
Glossary
- Informing Personal Practice
Using knowledge gained from research to strengthen and inspire one's own creative work.
- Informing Personal Practice
The practical application of research.
- Researching Cultural Symbolism
Looking up the traditional meaning of a specific color or object in a non-Western artwork to deepen Contextual Understanding (e.g., the symbolic meaning of jade in Chinese art).
- Definition
To absorb techniques and strategies that will inform and strengthen your own creative work (Informing Personal Practice).
- Acronym
D.I.S.S.E.C.T.: Deep Investigation Shapes Storytelling: Explore Context and Technique.