FINAL PROJECT - VISUAL ANALYSIS
9 November 2022 - 30 November 2022/ Week 11 - Week 14
Sim Jia Min 0349784
Design Principles / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Final Project: Visual Analysis
From the bride's expression, I can feel that she is clearly unhappy with the marriage, her eyelids look red, looks like she already cried before the wedding ceremony started, these little details indicate that it is a forced marriage. She looks like a young teenage girl who is not over 18. Her hand is reaching out to the priest to accept the ring while her eyes are hopelessly looking down, it looks like she wants to escape from this disaster but still accepts her fate, maybe deep down she knew she can't run away from this. It is hard to not feel sorry and injustice for the young bride.
Figures 2.2 & 2.3 show two old women wearing wedding wreaths standing at the back with other people. It would be strange if there are three brides at a wedding, so they are definitely not human but spirits, probably the groom's dead wives, because they are both staring at the groom. Their existence in the painting makes the groom becomes more suspicious for me, because if spirits are following a person, that means the person has probably done something guilty towards the spirits before.
The bride sitting in the middle is congratulated and receiving blessings from her friends while the bride herself looking fed up and unbothered, looks like she is grumbling about her marriage even without actually speaking about it. A younger girl is standing behind trying on a wreath, probably picturing her future wedding.
This is a painting of a beautiful bride getting ready for her wedding but looking reluctant, which you can clearly see from her facial expression, "this is fine". With her expression, it is obvious that she doesn't want this marriage.
The bride is sitting at the corner, holding flowers and looking at the mirror with an unhappy expression. The two persons standing at the foreground are her parents, the father is shaking his hand with another hand from the bottom right side. It is the hand of the groom that is going to marry the bride.
The foreground is the groom shaking his hand with another man, who is the bride's father. The bride is standing at the back, her eyes expression is looking unpleasant while staring at the viewers, looks like she is asking for help.
I added a few people behind the bride, they are the attendees of the wedding, the woman who is holding a cigarette is looking at the bride with dead eyes, I imagine her as the wealthy groom's sister, who is looking down on the bride who came from a different class. The two persons on the right side are some random attendees who are gossiping about the situation, perhaps they know this wedding is a financially-motivated forced marriage.
Since I want to present a dark and oppressive atmosphere to fit the bride's negative feelings about the forced marriage, I added some adjustment layers.
Inspired by the artwork from visual analysis and the references, I made this artwork. It indicates the relation between income & class inequality and forced marriage, the bride is sold by her father to marry a rich man. She's staring at us, looks like she has lots to tell, but still silently accepts her fate, just expressing her resentment by giving us the stare. Except for the bride, everyone else is wearing black like they are attending a funeral, it is a foreshadowing of the death of bride's freedom and happiness.
Sim Jia Min 0349784
Design Principles / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media / Taylor's University
Final Project: Visual Analysis
INSTRUCTIONS (MIB)
FINAL PROJECT:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
The composition of the painting is fitting into the rule of thirds, which the bride as the main subject (the emphasis) of the painting is placed at the right intersection points of gridlines.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Visual analysis:
- method of understanding design that focuses on visual elements & principles
- recognise the designer's choices in creating a design
- produce a work of design inspired by the selected work
- theme: reduced inequalities
- 50 words explanation for the choice made
- 500 words of visual analysis
- Phase 1: observation (identify visual elements of design and describe them)
- Phase 2: analysis (think about observations and make statements about the work, how the design principles have applied)
- Phase 3: interpretation (meaning & purpose of creating the design)
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| Figure 1.1: "The Unequal Marriage" by Vasili Pukirev, 1862. |
The moment I saw the theme of inequalities, this painting instantly popped up in my mind. This is a famous painting that revealed the phenomenon of financially-motivated forced marriage during the bureaucratic society in Russia. From the first time I saw this artwork, it left me with a deep impression, especially seeing the young bride's face full of sadness but still accepting her fate of marrying an elderly man, I feel deeply sorry for her. For me, this painting does have the effect of "reduced inequalities", because it tells a message that forced marriage based on income inequality is sick and inhumane, such as poor family forcing their young children to marry rich families for money.
Phase 1: Observation
The painting is a wedding ceremony of a young bride and an old groom, it is obvious that the couple has a big age difference. The bride, groom, and priest are in the foreground of the painting, the other people are in the middle ground, and the background is a dark brown interior. The bride's eyes are looking down while her hand is reaching out to the priest to accept the ring. The priest is slightly bowing down to put the ring on the bride's finger. The groom is standing beside the bride, holding a candle and staring at the bride. The other people in the background are standing behind the couple and viewing the ceremony. The majority parts of the painting have dark colour scheme, while the most highlighted part is the bride.
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| Figure 1.2: Colour palette |
The majority of the colour used in the painting is brown in different shades and tones. The darkest colour is occupying the majority of the proportion since it is heavily used in the background.
Phase 2: Analysis
Emphasis is presented in the painting, where the bride is the most highlighted point with the lightest colours in the whole painting. The chiaroscuro technique is also applied in the painting, the bride is receiving light the most while being in a darker surrounding, which makes a strong contrast between them. Harmony in colours is also presented in the painting, the majority of the colours are brown in different shades and tones.
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| Figure 1.3: Rule of thirds |
This composition makes a good balance between the focal point (bride) and the other elements in the painting, which makes the priest, bride & groom in the foreground form a triangle shape based on their positions and placements in the painting.
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| Figure 1.4: Forming a triangle shape |
Phase 3: Interpretation
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| Figure 1.5: Display at Tretyakov Gallery (source) |
"The Unequal Marriage" is an oil painting by Vasili Pukirev in 1862, who was a Russian painter in the Realism genre. This painting is his most popular painting, currently displayed at Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia.
Although a wedding is supposed to be a happy scenery, but there's no happiness in the painting. The age difference between the bride and groom, the expressions of people, and the dark colour scheme of the painting create an oppressive atmosphere, which can make viewers feel that there's something wrong with this wedding.
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| Figure 1.6: Bride's red eyelids |
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| Figure 1.7: Her hand accepts the ring from priest |
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| Figure 1.8: Groom's expression |
The groom is clearly an old man in his 60 or even older, bald and full of wrinkles, looks like he can even be the bride's grandfather. The way he stares at the bride makes him look like the predator of this unequal marriage because his eyes expression doesn't look friendly, his stare looks like a predator is observing and waiting for prey to fall into a trap.
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| Figure 1.9: People at the back |
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| Figure 2.1: People at the back |
The people at the back are probably the attendees of the wedding. They are witnessing the ceremony but none of them is smiling, which indicates that no one blesses this marriage because a forced marriage has nothing to be happy about, especially the big age difference that makes the wedding even more ridiculous.
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| Figure 2.2: Woman with wedding wreath |
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| Figure 2.3: Another woman with wedding wreath |
References:
The Unequal Marriage by Vasili Pukirev. (2013, November 4). Artisoo. Retrieved from https://www.artisoo.com/OilPaintingBlog/the-unequal-marriage-by-vasily-pukirev/#:~:text=It%20was%20made%20by%20Vasily,be%20seen%20on%20her%20face.
Ermakova, E. (2021, October 7). Unhappily Ever After: Unequal Marriage by Vasili Pukirev. Daily Art Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/unequal-marriage-by-vasili-pukirev/
Wikipedia contributors. (2022, October 12). Vasili Pukirev. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasili_Pukirev
VISUAL REFERENCES
The inequality shown in my phases is income inequality, which caused financially motivated forced marriage. I decided to make my own design focus on the same topic, the relation between income inequality and forced marriage.
While doing the research, I discover that there are many paintings of women looking unhappy or fed up about getting married just like the painting that I analysed. The amounts make these paintings have the potential to become a specific art genre, which I found that is extremely interesting.
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| Figure 2.4: "The Hesistant Fiancée" by Auguste Toulmouche, 1866. |
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| Figure 2.5: "The Reluctant Bride" by John George Brown, 1869. |
From these references, I found that the facial expression of the characters in the paintings is significant, because expression can tell a story. Emphasising the focal point of the main subject in the paintings are also important, you can see that the brides are always with the lightest colours and making a strong contrast with the surroundings.
IDEA EXPLORATION & DESCRIPTION
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| Figure 2.6: Sketch 1 |
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| Figure 2.7: Drawing reference of bride's sitting position |
I used a reference for drawing the bride's sitting position, photo by Jenny(@JookpubStock), she is a photographer & model who creates references for artists.
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| Figure 2.8: Sketch 2 (Reposition the bride to the middle) |
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| Figure 2.9: Sketch 3 |
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| Figure 3.1: Colouring in progress |
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| Figure 3.2: Colouring in progress |
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| Figure 3.3: Expression reference of the bride (reference photo by Jenny(@JookpubStock) |
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| Figure 3.4: Week 14 progress |
I darkened the foreground and the background to make the bride who positions in the middle ground as the focal point.
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| Figure 3.5: Reference of holding cigarette (reference photo by Jenny(@JookpubStock) |
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| Figure 3.6: Bride's pearl necklace reference (Vivienne Westwood Bridal Couture SS22) |
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| Figure 3.7: Adjustment layers |
FINAL DESIGN
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| Figure 3.8: Final artwork, "The Grudging Stare" |
Design principles applied
Emphasis & Contrast: The bride who's wearing a white wedding dress, has a strong contrast compared with anyone else who is in black. She's also the brightest in the dark surrounding, it is to indicate her innocence.
Balance: The composition of the art is symmetrical balance, with two men from both left and right sides shaking hands in the foreground, while the bride is standing at their back and positioned in the middle.
Harmony: The colours used in the art are quite harmonious, with a total of 4 types of colours: white, beige, brown & black.
FEEDBACK
Week 11:
- artist name and year in interpretation
- indicate should write in interpretation
- think about chiaroscuro & tenebrism
-"Realism" or "realism", they are different, "realism" is any painting that looks real, "Realism" is a period
- observation: Describe what u see (What are they wearing? Who are the persons? )
- symbol should be a visual symbol
- think about the composition of the painting (exp: rule of thirds)
Week 12:
- need to be more careful with the mirror reflection, the reflection should be a side profile based on the bride's sitting position.
- Can take some real-life photos of your own mirror reflection for drawing reference.
- need to be careful drawing the fabrics
- try a more symmetrical way to do the sketches, the bride sitting in the middle, while the parents and the groom standing at the left and right shaking hands.
Week 13:
- Sketch 3 works better by presenting the meaning behind
- The position of the bride can be moved upper a bit
- Add something in the background, could be a wedding ceremony
Week 14:
- Add some beard on the man who is supposed to be the bride's dad
REFLECTION
It is a good experience for doing research on the oil painting that I liked for a long time, "The Unequal Marriage. For me, it is a very powerful painting about the phenomena of forced marriage, the sad and hopeless facial expression of the bride makes me have a deep empathy for her. It is also interesting to find out tons of small details that I did not notice about the painting when reading online sources. By doing the analysis, I feel that design principles are very powerful when it comes to transmitting the meaning and message of art to the viewers. It's also been a while since I've done a full-colour digital drawing because I usually only do digital sketches and scribbles without applying any colouring, so it is something that I am not familiar with, but I am glad to take this chance for practicing my digital drawing skills.
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