5.4: Extra Credit Essay

Formatting Guidelines

Use the following formatting guidelines to write an extra credit essay

• Your finished essay should be no shorter than 2 single-spaced typewritten pages, or three double-spaced typewritten pages.
• Use correct grammar and complete sentences.
• Use your own words, no copying/pasting (plagiarism).
• Acceptable file formats: .doc, .docx, .rtf, .pdf, Google doc
• Submit to Extra Credit Essay Assignment in Canvas by the due date.
• This assignment can replace one low writing assignment grade or add 1-2% percent to your total grade average. This will only help your total grade if your average is 59, 69, 79 or 89 percent. Example: 89% (B) will increase to 90% (A).

Expository Writing Format

1. Introduction: Introduce the idea you are talking about in a thesis statement and supporting paragraph.
2. Body: Discuss the various aspects of your thesis. Include any research and materials that support the idea.
3. Conclusion: Recapitulate the original idea and its supporting material briefly, together with any conclusions you have about the results of your research.

Assignment Guidelines

Review one work of colorful fine art. Make sure your essay includes:

1. Your name, the course, and the title of the assignment (see the library's guide to MLA Style).
2. The gallery or museum you visited, or at least three sources on the same work of art from a text, if you are unable to attend an exhibit (to be included at the end of the paper on a Works cited sheet).
3. The name of the artist.
4. The title of the piece.
5. The medium used.
6. The size (estimate if the information is not available to you).
7. Include biographical information on the artist, and the period in which the work occurs within the artist’s career.
8. Discuss the function of color in the work of art. Describe the colors used with regard to their hues, values, saturations.
9. When discussing the work of art, consider its formal elements and its composition. Refer to the design principles outlined in the next section.

Design Principles

• Harmony (Unity): Agreement among the art elements (line, color, space, light, volume, value, texture, time and motion).
• Variety: Difference, provides interest or contrast to sameness Variety is achieved by changing aspects of an element (ex. same shape, different size or value), hold one or two elements constant & change others (ex. all round shapes, but different values or colors), transition of one element into another (ex. dark grades into light, smooth texture changes into rough) and contrast two different elements juxtaposed so we compare difference (ex. strong dark next to strong light).
• Unity: Achieved by repetition (of kind of line, shapes, etc.), proximity or grouping of forms, continuation of contour or edge from form to form, and careful placement so the eye connects parts (ex. triangular composition).
• Balance: Visual scale of weights, it is felt optically. Consider the position and placement of information on the picture plane as well as the size and proportion.
• Movement/Rhythm: It is implied by placement, directional lines, contour edges. Indicates the path the viewer’s eye must travel though the picture plane, a sense of visual cadence is developed.
• Economy: Use only what works to support the whole, the less complicated the more successful the composition. “Less is More!”