Chapter Overview

Through the use of critical thinking, an artist or designer can identify strengths and weaknesses in a project and determine the improvements that need to be made.
Understanding the criteria on which a project will be judged helps focus critical thinking.
Many artworks can be analyzed in terms of three basic aspects: form, subject, and content.
Objective critiques focus on observable facts. Subjective critiques focus on feelings, intentions, and implications.
Four common critique methods are description, cause and effect, compare and contrast, and greatest strength/greatest potential.
Many critique methods may be used when you are working on a long-term project. In every case, there are three primary objectives: explore alternatives, delete nonessentials, and strengthen essentials.
It is only by pushing a project to the limit that its potential will be fulfilled. Basic arithmetic, transformation, and reorganization can be used to increase compositional power.
Responsibility for the success of a critique rests with each participant. Come with your mind open rather than your fists closed.

2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Any use is subject to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education is one of the many fine businesses of The McGraw-Hill Companies.