Analyzing Visual Texts: Description, Analysis, and Evaluation

Posted on Jan 25, 2025 in Arts and Humanities

Dealing with Visual Texts

Description

  • Composition and Structure:
    • The picture can be divided into separate segments.
    • The picture consists of, contains, or is composed of various parts.
    • The picture falls into distinct parts.
    • The picture is made up of various pictorial elements, namely speech bubbles, thought bubbles saying or containing specific content, and captions.
  • Placement and Focus:
    • In the foreground, there is/are…
    • In the background, you can see…
    • In the center, the picture shows, depicts, or presents...
    • Our attention is caught or attracted by…
    • Our main attention is drawn to…
    • The main focus is on…
    • …is highlighted.
    • …are in focus or out of focus.
    • …is clearly shown.
    • …are blurred.
  • Medium and Technique:
    • The painting…
    • The pencil or charcoal drawing…
    • The etching…
    • The sketch…
    • The painting is done in oil, watercolors, or pastels.
    • The picture was painted in oil, watercolors, or pastels.
    • The artist used oils, watercolors, pastels, pencil, or charcoal.
  • Atmosphere and Perspective:
    • A convivial, warm, emotional, or heavy atmosphere is conveyed or created.
    • …is viewed from a low angle.
    • …is depicted from an eye-level angle.
    • …are shown from a high angle.
    • You look at… from a low angle.
  • Shot Types:
    • The visual shows or depicts a long shot, a medium long shot, a full shot, a medium shot, a normal shot, a close-up shot, or an extreme close-up shot.

Analysis

  • Artist’s Intent and Effect:
    • The artist succeeds in capturing the viewer’s attention by showing, depicting, catching, or grabbing.
    • The viewer’s eye is drawn into the picture by…
    • The viewer feels drawn into the picture by…
    • The visual is surprising, amusing, puzzling, confusing, shocking, offensive, provocative, thought-provoking, or moving insofar as…
  • Message and Interpretation:
    • The visual text as a whole deals with, is concerned with, talks about, describes, refers to, makes reference to, alludes to, or raises the question…
    • The visual comments on or hints at…
    • The message conveyed is…
    • The problem illustrated here is…
  • Artist’s Purpose and Attitude:
    • The artist or photographer wants, tries, or intends to show, to express, to expose, to prove, or to point out that…
    • What the painter wants, tries, or intends to show is…
    • …reveals or indicates the artist’s attitudes towards…
    • The artist obviously agrees with, approves of, supports, defends, praises, disagrees with, disapproves of, rejects, or condemns…
    • The artist gives an unbiased, impartial, neutral, or objective description of…
    • The artist’s view of… is biased, partial, one-sided, or subjective.

Evaluation

  • Personal Response:
    • The visual directly or strongly appeals to me because…
    • I didn’t find the visual appealing at all for the following reasons:…
    • The visual draws my attention to…
    • My first reaction to the picture was…
    • I find the visual surprising…
  • Critical Assessment:
    • The visual convinces me insofar as…
    • The visual fails to convince me because…
    • The visual partly or entirely fulfills its aim of…
    • The visual successfully criticizes or praises…
  • Opinion and Agreement:
    • As far as I am concerned…
    • Personally, I think or believe that…
    • To my mind…
    • In my opinion…
    • In my view…
    • It seems or appears to me that…
    • I agree with…
    • I share the artist’s opinion that…
    • I disagree with…
    • Contrary to the artist who…, I believe that…