Exercise: Reading an image

For this exercise we were asked to analyse the image above by Mark Oliver as part of understanding hierarchy. I have responded with my analysis under each of the questions given below:

What is the image about? What is it saying?

The focal point of this image is a large sleeping red dragon. The dragon is sleeping atop lots of hoarded treasure and clearly protecting it and there are remnants of ‘knights’ or soldiers’ armour scattered around where people have clearly come before and tried, and failed, to kill the dragon and get to the treasure. There are two young characters on the left. The little girls seems to want to go towards the dragon and the little boy is behind her trying to get her to leave and pointing to what is probably the exit to the cave they are all situated in.

What is the narrative? What is the story?

It’s a fantasy story of a land where dragons exist, live in caves and gather and protect masses of treasure. The armour style and clothes of the two children given a medieval times look and given that the dragon is also hoarding what seems like a throne – perhaps the dragon may have stolen this after attacking or even killing the King/Queen. The children could either have wandered into the cave to explore and come across the dragon or be looking for the dragon to potentially get back the throne or solve the mystery of the King/Queen’s disappearance. I like the latter idea better so I will go with that and also presume one of the kids is related or is a prince or princess. Clearly, other adults have come before them to find this dragon and recover the treasure etc. but have failed. Perhaps the kids will have better luck. They are likely to be the main characters and thus it may be a story more for children than adults.

Describe the palette and tonal range and where elements and detailed or textural

The image has bold hot colours with bright reds, oranges and yellows which are used mainly for the dragon itself, the treasure and parts of the cave wall and the faces of the two kids. The dragon has the most red and is the most detailed. The same reds and orange is reflected in the cave wall on the left but more textural and less detailed. The rest of the image is portrayed in cool colours with blues and greens and cooler range purples. Again the cave and floor is more textural. This helps give the ‘cave’ effect with shadows and contrasts with the hot colours. When elements in cold colours are detailed its to convey the two kids and the armour on the floor.

Explore the connection between hot colour and how important it is in telling the story

Given that hot colours are more visually dominant and the main focal point of this image is the red dragon, the hot colour clearly helps make the dragon the most important element in this image. I also believe that the reflection of the red in the cave wall helps bring unity to the image between the cool and hot colours.

Describe the hierarchy in the image

The focal point of this image is the dragon hugging the treasure which is emphasised by its larger size compared to all other elements, the detail of the image given, the hottest colours used and how it takes up two thirds of the space of the image. The reflecting red and orange on the cave wall then draws your eyes to the left to the warm faces of the two kids who are the second most important part of the image and are also rendered in much detail. After them you are drawn to the cooler coloured but still detailed armour lying around. The rest of the image is texture and colour that has little detail but helps frame the image within a cave.