Color & Composition: Home

This guide has been created to support assignments for the "Color and Composition" class. It provides information on how to write about works of art. It introduces resources focused on terminology, materials, and techniques, discusses various styles and movements, helps distinguish between formal and contextual analysis, and explains how to cite textual and image sources.

While conducting your research you will need to build preliminary knowledge, review existing literature and understand methods used by other authors. You will consult numerous print and web-based resources. The wide variety of available materials ranges from dictionaries and encyclopedias, monographs, essays, journal articles, to actual paintings and their images. This guide will help you to identify critical sources. 

Once you have conducted your research and compiled your resources, the next step is to synthesize these materials into a paper that reflects your findings. This guide also provides access to some resources for writing about art and helps to learn how to cite textual and visual resources. For more information, you can also check our other guides. 

As always, feel free to contact us or stop by the library if you have any questions about starting a research project, locating or using resources, or writing and citing your work. Also, do not forget about the University Writing Center and its services.