Miranda Tang analyses "Buy a Liberty Bond to-day! "

Introduction in general terms

Title

Buy a Liberty Bond to-day! 

Artist

W. A Rogers

Year 

1918

Medium

Pen and ink

Subject matter and general theme

Sketch of "melting pot" on verso; not recorded on videodisc.

Soldiers in Statue of Liberty torch. "Blue devils" on left banner; "Pershing's vets" on right banner with slogans "Come across!" "We've been across!" and "Buy a bond." And the words on the flags are refers to the 88th Infantry Division of the US Army and and General Joseph Pershing. And I think the solders are from Germany and the U.S. according to the uniform. Also, the flying birds around the torch symbolised the freedom of liberty.

Purpose of the drawing

William Allen Rogers is an American political cartoonist. This drawing is not depicting an actual scene but the imagination of the artist. The drawing is asking the audience to support liberty.

Description in detail

Line

For the line, it is so thin as it's in pen and ink. The artist used diagonal lines to depict shadow on the torch. And use the darker ink for main characters like the people and torch; the lighter ink for the sky and the flag at the back. Also, Rogers used lines to depicted shadow in his work.

Also, there are not many straight lines, most of the lines are curvy. While the straight lines will give audience a feelings of solidness and motionless, the artist use curved lines to make the drawing so energetic and optimistic. On the other hand, implied lines are used in the drawing. In the right picture, we can see the implied lines of hands and body is in purple color and the eye gaze is in orange color. Implied lines from the hands and bodies of the soldiers are spreading out of the verso. It is like the sun light on the sky and it is bringing hope to Americans.

Composition

For the composition, the liberty touch is in the middle and some tiny persons are on top of it. It is quite balance as it's easy to divide people into two groups, left and right. Also, we can see "liberty" in the middle of the drawing and flags and slogans are on the top right hand corner and top left hand corner.

Rhythm
I can see that the draw it fast according to the shape and line. The artist use diagonal lines to depict shadow and a small part of the sky. The birds and the lines of sky seems to be done spontaneously. And this feeling of rhythm bring us a sense of joy and hope, as the lines and curvy and looks soft. Also, the spreading implied lines I have talked before is like suggesting a fresh new opening of a song played by trumpet.

Space
In this drawing, there is lots of negative space surrounding the torch and people. But the artist also draw some flying birds to make it look like a sky. The negative space let us to focus more of the main figure.

In order to depict 3 dimensional space, linear perspective is being used in this drawing, People at the back is smaller than those at the front. Also, the artist used modelling and shading to suggest the 3D space, for example, the hand and the torch.

Harmonious?

Yes. The lines are thin and do not contain many angles. Although the solders and their posture is quite strong and with power, it is not giving are sense of intense but optimistic. Also the curvy lines of the flag and the round torch gives me a sense of harmonious. I think is harmonious feeling is because of the message and the lines.

Interpretation and evaluation

Message

I think this drawing is about encouraging and a positive mood. We can see that the artist is encouraging the audience to join him and the soldiers. It shows the friendly relation between them and they raise up their hands. This also imply the power and strength of people and liberty.

In my opinion, I found this work interesting. Political cartoon was popular in the first few decades in America. After one to two decades, political wood block print also started to be popular in China. I like how artists use political art as a medium in order to educate people. 

This is me, Miranda.

Reference
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/disp_textbook.cfm?smtID=8&psid=2892&filepath=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/primarysources_upload/images/buy_a_liberty_band_today_l.jpg
http://olive-drab.com/od_soldiers_gear_ww2webgear.php
Picture by ARTstor