CHUI Sze Wa(Tracy) talks on R Scott's 'eighteenth century geological engravings'(fig.1)

INTRODUCE THE DRAWING IN GENERAL TERMS

 •What is the title of the drawing?
Eighteenth century geological engravings

 •What is the name of the artist?

        R Scott

•What is the year the drawing was done?
--

•What is the medium? (ie the materials used to produce the picture, for example charcoal on paper, pen and ink etc)
engraving

•What is the subject matter or general theme of the work? (eg is it a figure drawing, a map, a portrait, an autobiographical work, a picture about nature, a drawing of the city etc?)
it is a engraving about landscape. I can see the sky, cloud, costal line of the sea, small mountain and there are some people standing, maybe working on the land.

•What is the purpose of the drawing?

       It describes a group of people working on the costal line of the land.

       2) DESCRIBE THE DRAWING IN DETAIL

•How is line used? What does it do/express?
In this drawing, most of the line are crossed lines, which is use to create shadows, tone and the outlines of the objects. For example, the clouds on the sky is created by the short straight lines which crossed together to form the shape of the clouds. With more stress, it creates various level of tones, it makes the clouds more realistic.

       Instead of using lines, there is a flat area in black color to describe the part of the mountain that is not be lighted by the sunshine (the area which not facing to the sun). it is really dark that makes a contrast between the mountain with sunshine and without the sunshine.

•How is tone used? What does it do/express?
we can see that, it is used quite large range of tone to create the sense of distance, shape and the shadows. For example, the different range of tone used in depicted could shows the different colors of the cloud, the darker one, depicted the grey clouds, shows that, the clouds is placed near the land/ together to show its thickness. The sunshine cannot go through the cloud to the land because they are too thick. So the cloud with deeper darkness of tone shows its thickness. Moreover, the range of tone creates the sense of distance. For example, the tone used to depict the sea in far distance is lighter; but the depiction of the sea near the small mountain is more clear and detailed with darker tone of color.

•What can you say about the composition of the drawing? What is the effect of this type of composition on the overall drawing?
The composition of this picture is very stable. We can see the sky on the top, the land on the bottom. Also, the place of the small mountain shows that it is very steady, and let’s people think of the sense of safety. Besides, since the tone used for the sky is more lightly, and the land with darker tone, it create a sense of regular. It makes the audience to feel comfortable. Moreover, we can see that in comparing to the other cloud, the upper part is the darkest, together with the dark tone in the bottom part of the picture; it shows quite a balance composition. This composition gives a sense of harmony and peace.

•Is texture a feature of the drawing?

       The texture of the picture is quite easy to recognize. For example, it can show quite real texture of the rocks of the small mountain and gives a sense of the hardness.

•Is the picture balanced? Explain...
this picture is quite balances. In comparing to the other cloud, the upper part is the darkest, together with the dark tone in the bottom part of the picture; it shows quite a balance composition. Also, although the mountain is very makeable because of the used of tone in quite a big area, it didn’t give a sense of imbalanced as there are area of darker tone in the right side, together with the character depicted in the right, it highline the right part of the picture, therefore it balanced the composition.

•Is perspective used in the picture?
The perspective used in this picture is very noticeable as we can see the distance in it. The small mountain in the right side is predicted more lightly, and clouds upon the sea level is in very light tone, it can help to shows the distance.
 

•Is the picture harmonious?

        The tone used in this picture show a sense of harmony.

•Are there any strong contrasts in the picture?
There is quite strong contrast in this picture. For example, in the depiction of the mountain, the area with face to the sunshine is very light, but the back side is very dark. And also the sky in the back compare to the darkness of the mountain shows a extreme contrast of the lightness.

3) INTERPRETATION AND EVALUATION

•What is the mood of the drawing?
This drawing carries out a sense of tired. It seems that, the characters crated in the drawing are working for a very long period of time, but they still work very hard. It looks like depicting a view of sunset.

•What does the drawing express?

        It depicts a scene of a few people, or fishermen whom are working on the beach. It seems expressing the sense of hard-working and they are striving toward the goal.

           

      •In your opinion, why is this work interesting/moving/ clever/ imaginative/thought-provoking/......?  Choose the adjective(s) that best fit(s) the work, and then justify your conclusion in terms of specific features and qualities of the drawing.

The reason why I choose this drawing is, it is quite special to other drawing that the lines and the tone are drawn differently. And it does not contain some flat area or form but the lines are crossed.

Also the subject matter of this drawing is quite interesting. A group of people are working on the beach under a big sky. This is a description of life. Through looking at the working people, the strong mountain, together with sea, they shows some kind of humanity!