Formal elements analysis on one of my favorite paintings by Amano Yoshitaka: RED.
Amano Yoshitaka, RED, 1995, Watercolor, Paint, Pencil on Paper, 30 by 20 inches, Mizuma Art Gallery, Scanned from Hiten / Flying Universe: The Art of Yoshitaka Amano (1989) (ISBN 4-257-03229-4)
LINE
We see a big, hard stroke of circle. Then we see chaos of soft lines. They seem busy at first, yet all in “S” and “C” curves. The goddess and horse’s hair and ribbons indicate the line of their moving direction. The use of gold also gives the red circle an interesting edge. The lines in various densities form a diagonal triangle in this painting. The triangular arrangement also carries the rhythm of the horse jumping out of the surface.
SHAPE
Since parallel shapes are intentionally avoided by the artist (except for the big red circle) , we see lots of pinched “S” and “C” shapes. In terms of the “shape” concept as “form” in 3D, there are shapes of the goddess, horse head, ribbons, big circles, small circles, blurred dots, organic patterns.
VALUE
We see a wide range of values. Upon dark background, there stand out a white body of goddess and a horse head. The value on the horse head is used to describe light falling on the form, but not quite so with the goddess’s body. The value on her is hardly following any subtle light transition rules. However, the values of ribbons and contours tend to get lighter as they approach the goddess’ body, which is an interesting way to indicate a glow. Because of this contrast, the horse seems solid and wild, while goddess’ body generates soft, sacred light. Also, the rendering of very little value transition on her makes her flat as a form.
COLOR
Colors are compartmentalized, except for gold. Gold are used atmospherically, especially behind the goddess’ body. Red is the primary tone. We focus our eyes on the red because black is the negative space. Yellow(gold), blue and red are primary colors here. The artist also shifted the color wheel a bit by choosing the neighbor color to get a tilted variation. Therefore we see white, gold, blue, purple blue, cyan, light pink and some neutral colors on details and edges.
In addition, pink, white, cyan colors that are lighter, less saturated, appear closer to the brightest part of the painting; blue, purple blue colors that are darker, more saturated, tend to come in group around darker areas.
Moreover, the goddess’ face is titanium white, but her body is warm white. Cold and warm color contrasts are used for many places in this painting.
TEXTURE/PATTERN
Noticed that the red circle has another space of design within it. The organic pattern, a mix of water-grass, bird, worm and flower, indicates that this is kimono-like cloth. But other details like water or ink circles, give audience another magical experience of texture and depth. The red colored parts immediately look like the reflection of a giant brush stroke in the dark ink .
The horse skin is very different from goddess’ skin. Gold foils and gold lines bring an ancient, sophisticated, luxurious texture to the painting.
There are little red “C” shapes and blurred dots indicating wavelets on the paper surface. The texture combination of paper and liquid surface emphasizes the drama of the main movement.
SCALE
The horse head and goddess form a group. The scale of the major red circle is relatively big to the group. There are little red “C”s and blurred dots indicating wavelets on ink/paper surface. The contrast in scale contributes to the asymmetric layout of the painting.
SPACE
We see a lot of dark spaces. The brush circle opens up a new world as if we can peek through the stroke into the red pattern. The overlapping red circles also create their distance from the main moving group. The moving group itself contains strong flat(2D) aesthetic flow, while its moving direction has a strong sense of depth in 3D.
Q: Which one matters in particular in creating some principles of design in this painting?
A: Principles of Design are Unity, Variety, Balance, Emphasis, Proportion, Movement, Rhythm. While this painting has a good mix of almost everything, the LINE and COLOR in particular matter more in creating the principle of Movement and Rhythm in this painting.
Art History Escape 