Elements of Design

 

December Afternoon

Grant Wood

Line – The red in this painting symbolizes the lines Wood used. He mainly used straight lines and a little bit of curvy lines. You can see the straight lines on the house and its roof. Most of the curvy lines were part of the sled.

Shape – The red in this painting shows the shapes Grant Wood used. He used some shapes but he also focused on form. Rectangles and squares are the most common shapes, but there are also a few triangles.

 Color – Grant basically only used the colors black and white. However, there is some shades of grey throught the painting.

Texture – In the blue circle, Wood implied that the side of the house was rough by using vertical lines and different shades of black and grey. In the red circle, the snow looks soft, fluffy, and light because it is pure white. The back of the sleigh in the green circle looks smooth becuase he started with white at the top of the sled and slowly painted darker until it was black.

Value – This artwork low key and high key becuase Wood uses black and white evenly throughout the painting.

Space – The sleigh in the blue square is an example of change in size because its bigger than the child and horse because it is closer. In the red rectangle, the child and horse overlap the house because they are closer. The green rectangles show aerial perspective because as the sky gets higher the darker it becomes.   

Form – An example of implied form is the sleigh, child, and horse because they look 3-D even though they are 2-D. They are also an example of open form because they interact with each other, the snow, and the house.