Activity 2 - Elements of Design REWRITE

February 25, 2007

“Ambulance on the Go” by William H. Johnson, a Harlem Renaissance painter, was created around 1942. The medium used is tempera, pen, and ink with pencil on linen adhered to paper. The art piece is located at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The painting depicts a directional line of ambulances moving farther out towards the horizon. Directional lines guide our eyes in the painting and suggest movement. As we follow the trail of ambulances we can notice there is a linear perspective, where the farthest left-most ambulance is approaching a vanishing point. The term linear perspective means that objects seem to diminish in size as they recede from us and corresponding parallel lines converge into a distant point on the horizon (vanishing point). The farthest ambulance also appears to be foreshortened as it turns a slight curve in the road. Foreshortening occurs when objects appear shorter than normal, because they are shown at an angle in a two dimensional image.
In addition to linear movement, we can see many horizontal and vertical lines. More specifically, there are several cross-like shapes. Crosses can be seen in the red wheel spokes of the ambulances, red crosses contrasting against the white vehicle sides & blue backs, and brown crossed telephone poles contrasting against green fields.
Johnson also appears to use analogous color harmonies. An analogous color harmony is an arrangement of colors that are also adjacent to one another in the visible spectrum of colors. The most notable color harmony is the green fields against yellow flowers, yellow ambulance wheels and yellow houses.
Finally, the shadows underneath the wheels and body of the closer ambulances indicate there is an implied light source (perhaps the sun).


“Dinner Horn”, an oil painting on canvas, was created by Winslow Homer around 1870. The painting is located at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Similar to William Johnson’s “Ambulance on the Go”, this painting also uses directional lines and movement. This direction and movement is seen through the woman standing in the center of the painting. In one direction the woman is facing and blowing a dinner horn at workers in the field. However, her blowing dress implies wind movement in the opposing direction.
We can also see vertical lines in the edge of the house and window seal and diagonal lines in the house’s side boards & tree limbs. Unlike “Ambulance on the Go”, this painting contains a contour line which outlines the shape of the hillside closest to the house.
In terms of color, there are several analogous autumn earth tone colors. These colors can be seen in the brown, yellow, and red leaves blown at the woman’s feet (including the brown color of the house).
From an atmospheric perspective, we can see a receding landscape, where the field workers, animals, and trees are less distinct. Atmospheric perspective is an optical effect where a receding pale blue sky causes other intervening distant objects to be less distinct and take on a bluish tinge. As in Johnson’s “Ambulance on the Go”, the landscape also recedes into a blue sky.

Finally, the shadow underneath the blown dress and the shadow along the nearby hillside, indicates there is implied sun light, similar to the implied light in “Ambulance on the Go”