For the Discussion Forums, you will read the questions/topics and, after completing the reading assignments, should be able to discuss your findings and share opinions.  Your posts should reflect academic, polished, respectful writing — think of your posts as essays.  Points will be deducted for errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

You are to add to each Discussion Forum at least  twice.   One post is to be your original thought post on the questions/topics, and the second post is your response to someone else’s post.  The response post should be just as substantive as your original thought post.  Agreements, praise, and re-stating what either the original author or you wrote in the original thought posts do not count as substance and will not receive credit.  It is completely fine to agree/disagree and express your praise for the original author’s points but remember that those statements will not count as substance in your response post.  Think of it as a discussion you are having with that student — how might you respond to what she/he said?  You might relate some relevant personal experience or knowledge, a memory or idea invoked by their post, describe additional examples of the ideas/themes being discussed, or provide additional relevant information that perhaps the student did not include in their post.  What relationships can you make between the content of their post and your own life?

Cutting and pasting information from the text, internet, or any other source is not allowed. Your posts should be written in your own words. This is a respectful forum for discussion.  Foul language or posts in poor taste are not allowed.  Repeated offenses will earn a zero for the discussion boards, and you may be banned from posting.

Topics/Questions:

1)  What is the overall difference between the elements of form and the principles of design?  

2)  Describe how the two work together to form a composition.

3)  Analyze a work of art from another chapter in the textbook (not Chapter 7) to describe how an artist uses both the elements and the principles to create a strong composition.  You must be specific and thorough in your explanation to receive credit.  Your analysis should include both the identifications and descriptions of the principles, including  how  the artist used the elements to convey the principles.  Go beyond identification and thoroughly describe .  See below for more information on that.  Make sure to also identify the artwork with its title, artist’s name, and date of creation.

4)  Explain how your understanding of the principles of design helps you in experiencing and describing this work of art.

Organize your answers into an essay, making sure that each of the four prompts above is thoroughly addressed/answered.

***For part 3) of this discussion forum, since the visual elements are used to convey the principles of design, I recommend forming your analysis around the principles of design.  In order to analyze the principles of design, you will naturally need to identify and describe the elements as well.  For example, an analysis of just the unity in Alphonse Mucha’s 1900 lithograph The Seasons: Spring might go as follows:

Principle of Design:  Unity

Identification:  Alphonse Mucha’s  The Seasons:  Spring conveys the principle of unity through the consistency in the visual elements used to portray the figure, the natural elements in the scene, the background, and even the frame-like pattern around the perimeter of the work.

[This statement conveys that I know what unity is (a principle of design that can be conveyed through consistency in the visual elements) and that I can identify it in a specific work of art.  It is more of a broad, general statement.  It does not go into too many specifics yet.  Those will come with the description below.  Remember that one of the purposes of the discussion forums is an opportunity for you to convey that you know the concepts that we are studying — do not assume that I know that you know what unity is, for example.]

Description:  The crisp, thin, black lines used to convey the contours of the figure are also used in the contours of the flowers that the figure holds, the plants that wrap around the figure’s legs, and the plants that are at the figure’s feet.  They are a bit thinner in the plants, but the visual connection still remains.  This similar line work is also used in the frame-like design that surrounds the scene and even in the pattern of arrows and crosses on that frame.  This consistency in the lines helps to unify the work, making it read as a whole  There is a similar green color used in the figure’s flowing gown, the frame, and the flowers she is holding.  The pink color used in the background is similar in hue and value to the colors used in the figure’s hair, shawl, and the ground on which she stands.  All of the colors used in the work are not highly saturated; their intensity has been somewhat decreased.  This similarity in colors used throughout the work also helps to unify it.

[These statements delve deeper into the initial observation made in the identification, analyzing and explaining it further.  Specifics and details from the artwork are used to help further convey the points I am making.  The visual elements of line and color are identified, and the types of each element are described.  The art terminology that we have been learning is used to more effectively make my points.]

It is important to note that the uses of line and color are not the only ways that this artwork conveys unity.  There are many others.  In your analysis, you do not have to include all of the ways in which each principle is conveyed, but pick a couple of the visual elements to describe how that principle is conveyed.  Remember also that the above example is an analysis of only the principle of unity.  Your analysis should include identification and description of the other principles as well — including, but not limited to — variety, balance, movement, rhythm, scale/proportion.