Visual Elements

First consider the painting The Digital Venus (1996 ) by Lynn Hershman . Balance in this art work is achieved by control of the direction of the lines . Venus is seen lying diagonally in the direction to the right but the painting is slightly balanced by the small dog at the foot of Venus . The direction of Venus is balance by the dog who is facing to the left . However , generally there is a slight imbalance in the painting since the left area is bare

The artists both use horizontal and diagonal lines for Venus

. Horizontal lines suggest relaxation and rest while the diagonal line from the hips up suggest action of abandonment but efforts is still exerted . The dog on the other hand is lying in complete horizontal suggestive of complete rest . The body of Venus is full of combination of curved , vertical and horizontal lines placed side by side . The same thing can be said of the dog although of lesser degree . The dominant color used are green ( body of Venus ,bed red and dog ,red ( background and flower , brownish yellow ( bed sheet and pillow ) and white ( small dots . The red color suggests love as Venus is the God of love and the green colors is suggestive of coolness . The brownish yellow color lightens the lower portion of the painting and is in contrast to the red of the surrounding . The small white dots on the body of Venus and the dog appear like antibodies and remind the viewer of city lights that contained electrical energy . The bed sheet has a feel of silky texture while the body of Venus looks slippery (like the body of a snake ) and smooth because of the many lines crowding on it and the application of brown color in some areas all over it . The silky texture of the bed sheet is accomplished by creating soft line curves in all areas of the sheet . The bare background also lends a smooth texture to the painting The whole picture is dominated by strong tonal contrast between the brownish yellow bed sheet and the red background but the emphasis is placed on the naked Venus who is lying between them (Lovett 1999 .Generally the painting has a warm light glow . The artist used basically outlined cylindrical (body , bed and pillow ) that gives firm solidity

The first thing that will catch the attention of the viewer is the bare upper red background since the color is applied from light to dark and red really stands out in any painting and then the eye is led to the lower portion of the painting specifically to the body of Venus and stay there longer to figure out what those lines and white dots are for and then finally proceed to the bed sheet and dog

Space is achieved by different shading application of the background giving the illusion that the background is somewhat farther . The relative sizes of the two objects (dog and Venus ) suggest that Venus is near...