Project: Hierarchy- Exercise: Reading an image

The constituent parts of the picture from Tom’s Clockwork Dragon by Mark Oliver:

·         Dragon

·         Throne

·         Treasure

·         Weapons

·         Two children or small people

·         Cave

The dragon is asleep in his cave and is curled protectively around a mound of treasure which is topped by a throne.

The tip of the dragon’s tail rests on the seat of the throne, pointing to it like an arrow.

The cave is littered with weapons and two figures look at the dragon that is immense in comparison to them. One hides behind the other suggesting fear and they have their arms raised in expressions of dismay.

The cave entrance is just behind the figures, suggesting that they have come in through it and are not held captive. The figure who stands behind the other gestures backwards towards it as if he wants to go back through it, the other holds his hands out towards the treasure.

The story, as I see it:

The two bounty hunters have tracked down the treasure in the cave only to discover that they must overcome the dragon in order to claim it and the throne.

They can see the evidence of previous battles around them and as the dragon sleeps on they are working out how best to tackle him. One is keen to claim the treasure while the other wants to make a swift exit.

The palette covers a large range; from red right through to purple and the colours are intense. The artist has mostly used differentiation of colour rather than tone to separate the constituent elements.

He has mainly used dark to mid-tones, with lighter tones being reserved to accentuate the details of the weapons, the foremost figure’s hat and the cave opening and very dark tones being used to create shadows around the weapons, the figures and the dragon and his scales.

The colours are mostly hot, even the blues are reddish and the greens yellowish, although they’re slightly cooler on the weapons, in the cave entrance and on the cave wall directly above the dragon.

I’d say the following elements were textural rather than detailed: the rough cave floor, the pile of coins, dragon’s body and the stalactites.

And that the following elements are detailed: the figures; the decoration of the throne; the weapons; the dragon’s claws, teeth and horns.

The hottest elements draw the eye first, so they’re definitely the most important and I’d set the hierarchy as:

• Dragon (largest, hottest object). I saw his back first and my eye was drawn down  to his head by the contrast of the black and white of his horns and front claws, then back up by the line of dark tones shadowing the scales on his back, taking in his back leg, which fills the lower right corner nicely and is accented with white claws, then around his tail to end at the throne.
• The throne and treasure, the use of complementary green for the throne upholstery makes it stand out against the red of the beast.
• The hot sheen on the cave wall above the entrance then draws the eye left.
• The figures then come into view against the lighter tones and cooler colours behind and below them. The front figure’s hat and forelock draw the attention first and then their hands and faces.
• The cave entrance then comes into focus followed by
• The weapons in the lower left corner and then
• The other pile of weapons next to the entrance and finally
• The shadow and cave wall above and to the right of the dragon