Question

One of the triumphs of art is creating the impression of depth on a two-dimensional canvas. Look at pictures in an art book, or online and identify the depth information that helps increase the perception of depth in these pictures. You may also notice that you perceive less depth in some pictures, especially abstract ones. In fact, some artists purposely create pictures that are perceived as “flat.”

What steps do these artists have to take to accomplish this? What did you like about the artwork? What are the first things you perceived from the visual sensation? If possible, please include the picture of the art and include this in your discussion. Describe the pictorial cues from this art.

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) Artists can use tropes, subjects, shadows, light, gradient, hues, colours etc to make the viewer feel like they are looking at a three-dimensional image. One might take a particular painting to better analyse these elements to find the depth of the painting.

Children's Games is a Baroque style painting from around the same age by painter Pieter Bruegel. It is of the typical baroque style where numerous details are congested within the frame. The purpose of these details is so the viewer grasps the idea of the moment as much as possible. This is a painting of a typical town square with several children playing.

In this case, the artist has used detail and the angles of light and shadows to make the painting mimic reality. The view might get the feeling that they are looking outside a window to a three-dimensional scene of children playing.

The painting makes use of banal sights in order to make the subject relatable and the scene believable. One might look at the painting and find that the scene appears lively. These are the elements that add depth to the dimensions.