Vincent Van Gough created this master piece from a mental asylum, Saint Remy in Provence. While treating Vincent the doctors realized that the only way he would survive was if he was given the freedom to paint and create and that kept him alive. He created at least 150 paintings during his stay at the asylum, almost 1 painting every other day. He create The Starry Night on 18th Jun 1899. He took great inspiration from Japanese prints which lay the foundation of this work. The Starry Night depicts the nocturne view form his asylum window on the upper floor . Vincent considered this work to be a failure and shot himself 2 months after release from the asylum.
1) Improve Design 2) Ease of Creation/Design, 3) Improve Experience 4) Eliminate Complexity 5) Detectability 6) Stability 7) Visibility 8) Space optimization

The Starry Night

  • 1

    Symbolize death

    Goal-  Vincent had tried to kill himself multiple times and death was his favorite topic which he wanted to include in this painting. (Ease of Creation)

    Subject - Vincent Van Gough

    Object- The Starry Night

    Blocker - Inability to design or create an object that depicts death and also relevant to this painting that can be understood by the viewer (Ease of the user to understand the concept)

    Solution - Vincent used an existing object in the painting that symbolizes death. Cypress trees depict death in the Mediterranean culture. The cypress trees were much smaller and beyond the far wall but he bought them closer to the viewer.

    Digitization Principle and ID - Merging

  • 2

    Connection between heaven and earth

    Goal-  Vincent wanted to show the connection between heaven and earth (Ease of Creation)

    Subject - Vincent Van Gough

    Object- The Starry Night

    Blocker -  It will add too many objects to the work. (Quantity of components)

    Solution - Modify one of the existing objects to show the connection. He modified the Cypress tree where the top reaches the sky (heaven).

    Digitization Principle and ID - Transform Properties

  • 3

    Create something that cannot be seen

    Goal-  Create something that we cannot see or touch like the turbulence of Galaxy

    Subject - Vincent Van Gough

    Object- The Starry Night

    Blocker - Hard to paint something that he could not see or touch

    Solution - He created an amalgamation of whatever he saw during the night and dawn over a period of time. He integrated different elements seen at different periods into one timeframe. For example the morning star was Venus but at that time the moon had been a crescent instead of waning gibbous

    Digitization Principle and ID - Merging

  • 4

    Fill the night sky with imagination

    Goal-  He wanted to illuminate the sky with his imagination

    Subject - Vincent Van Gough

    Object- The Starry Night

    Blocker - Night Sky is Dark and will impact the stability on the other components of the painting

    Solution - He was inspired by bright contrasting colors used by Rubens and Delacroix. He read about the Delacroix's color theory, where he used opposite colors on the color wheel that gives high contrast and impact.

    Digitization Principle and ID - Changing the Color

  • 5

    Lord Rosse's drawing of Galaxy

    Goal-  He wanted to show turbulence in the sky caused by Galaxy's as he had seen from Lord Rosse's drawing of Galaxy

    Subject - Vincent Van Gough

    Object- The Starry Night

    Blocker - It would be hard for the viewer to under the concept

    Solution - He transforms the traditional way of depicting the sky and the stars using multiple tiny brush strokes of multiple contrasting colors,

    Digitization Principle and ID - Segmentation, Changing the Color, Transformation of Properties

  • 6

    Village in the valley

    Goal- Vincent wanted to show the village near the asylum where he used to take strolls to the viewer through the art

    Subject - Vincent Van Gough

    Object- The Starry Night

    Blocker - The village was not visible from the asylum and he had not seen the village in the night

    Solution - He places the village I the valley even though it was not visible from his room, in fact it was in the opposite direction. He observed the villages when he went for short walks and bought them into the valley.

    Digitization Principle and ID - Merging

  • 7

    Number of houses

    Goal-  Wanted to depict as many houses as possible that were in the village

    Subject - Vincent Van Gough

    Object- The Starry Night

    Blocker - The Area in the canvas was small and too many houses will make it hard for the viewer to follow

    Solution - Though there were hundreds of houses he only chose to show just over a dozen houses

    Digitization Principle and ID - Separation

  • 8

    Brighten the village

    Goal-  Illuminate the night sky making the sky vibrant

    Subject - Vincent Van Gough

    Object- The Starry Night

    Blocker - The village in the valley became dark due to the vibrant colorful sky (Stability of the  composition)

    Solution - To balance out the light from yellow stars, he shows houses lit with extremely bright gas lamps

    Digitization Principle and ID - Changing the Color

  • 9

    Hokusai's Connection

    Goal-  Create the turbulence in the sky that is not seen so far

    Subject -

    Object-

    Blocker - 1) It is difficult for the viewer to understand the turbulence in the sky 2) Add strength to the turbulence of the Galaxy's created by Lord Ross

    Solution - As Vincent was a great admirer of Hokusai, he got inspired by The Great Wave of Kanagawa and used it to being the turbulence to the canvas. In this work we can easily see the similarity not only in the composition but also in the usage of blue tones in Hokusai's stormy waves and the turbulent sky.

    Digitization Principle and ID - Merging