Artistic Criticism

One thing that comes with being an artist is an abundance of criticisms. This can be a very helpful thing to artist who are looking to get feedback about their work and how they can improve it. However, it seems that artist now have lost the ability to write a formal art analysis and critique. This is a very important tool to have, it not only lets you express in a well written way what you enjoy about a piece but also how you think the artist can improve their artwork. Before I dive right into how to write a proper art critique I thought you might like to know what exactly it is first.

Art criticism is responding to, interpreting meaning, and making critical judgments about specific works of art. Art critics help viewers perceive, interpret, and judge artworks. When we think of criticism we tend to have a negative perception on it, however this is not completely rational. Although the media critics do not give a good name to criticism there is a way to have helpful critiques about one's work without losing all self-esteem. 

There are a few different ways to to write a formal analysis to explain a work of art. The ones I tend to gravitate toward the most are:

1. Description: A pure description of the object focused on in the art without actual analysis or interpretation of the piece. Simple answering the question "What do you see?" and stating the medium, form of art, size and scale of the work, element and general shapes, description of color scheme, texture, and the original location and date of the piece. 
2. Analysis: Determining what features suggest and deciding why the artist used the features to convey a certain idea. Answers the question "How did the artist do it?", determine the subject matter through the title, selection of most distinct features, analysing principles of design and composition, discussing how elements and structure contribute to art, use of light and role of color, treatment of space and landscape, portrayal of movement and how its used, effects of medium used, and the perception of balance proportion and scale, final reaction to the art. 
3. Interpretation: Establishing broader context for art. Answers the question " Why did the artist create it, and what does it mean?" looking at various elements that make up the piece, the main idea(overall meaning), interpretive statement( can the artworks meaning be expressed in a single sentence?), evidence(what evidence supports my interpretation?) 
4. Judgement: Giving a work a rank in relation to other works and its originality. Is it a good piece of art? What criteria is more appropriate for judging the work.  What evidence relates to each criterion? Based on eveidance and criteria what is the overall judgement of the quality of the piece?