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Visual Literacy

Visual Literacy. Teaching Awareness of Visual Elements. DEFINITION:. Visual literacy is the ability, through knowledge of the basic visual elements, to understand the meaning and components of an image. The Basic Visual Elements. Direction. Dot. Shape. Saturation. Line. Texture. Scale.

andrew-mcdowell
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Visual Literacy

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  1. Visual Literacy Teaching Awareness of Visual Elements

  2. DEFINITION: Visual literacy is the ability, through knowledge of the basic visual elements, to understand the meaning and components of an image.

  3. The Basic Visual Elements Direction Dot Shape Saturation Line Texture Scale Motion Dimension Value Hue

  4. The Dot In a process called visual fusion, our minds combine dots by blending and organizing the patterns into coherent images.

  5. The Dot Georges Seurat. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884, 1884-86. Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection, Art Institute of Chicago.

  6. The Line J. M. W. Turner Tours; Sunset The Tate Gallery, London

  7. Shape We can say that the geometric basis of shapes provides us with an elementary vocabulary, an alphabet of the shape language.

  8. Shape Here the curves seem optimistic, even humorous.

  9. Shape Lever House, New York. Skudneck, Auriges, and Merril, Architects The square might be read as dull, straightforward, sometimes unimaginative, stable. . . . and, well, . . . . SQUARE!

  10. Shape The triangle is interpreted as action, agitation, conflict, tension, and aspiration.

  11. Shape Women's perfume bottles are generally more curvy, circular, and triangular. The curves may be reflecting the actual body, but also imply feelings of warmth, continuity, and security. Men’s cologne bottles are generally square, implying strength, honesty and reliability.

  12. Direction The motion created by various shapes and lines can convey different emotional states. The direction of that motion will contribute the intensity of the emotional response. Edvard Munch, The Scream

  13. Direction If a diagonal direction is substituted for the horizontal and vertical, the image will feel less stable. The diagonal direction conveys a feeling of movement, excitement, and change.

  14. Direction Curved direction also has an element of instability in it, but unlike diagonals, it also has the ability to be reassuring and safe. Clarence John Laughlin. The Fierce-eyed Building, 1938

  15. Direction Triangles serve a similar function to circles in that they trap the eye within a specific sub- frame, created by three different points in the image. Naomi Savage, Pressed Flower, 1969-80

  16. Texture Few dots or lines interrupt the surface of the baby's cheeks. The value is also very even, enhancing the illusion of the skin's smoothness.

  17. Texture Lack of detail communicates a smooth texture, while the gentle nuances of color and value make the viewer believe the baby's skin would be soft.

  18. Texture In this painting the old woman's face is delineated and roughened by age, in sharp textural contrast to the smooth image of the baby. Paula Modersohn-Becker, Old Woman with Head Scarf. Private Collection

  19. Texture In a close-up of the painting, we see how the artist used dimension to give the wrinkles “depth”. The brush strokes are like curves on an etching or topographic map, giving the impression of three dimensions.

  20. Hue WARM COOL The primary colors: red, yellow, and blue

  21. Hue Visually, hue does three things: 1. It adds another dimension to images that once were black and white. 2. It acts as a formal element that directs the viewer’s attention. 3. It creates moods and feelings that complement the message of the image’s form.

  22. Hue and Dimension Colors tend to recede and contract. Placing certain colors next to each other can enhance dimension. Harry Callahan, Chicago, 1951

  23. Hue and Mood Red evokes feelings of strong emotion or anger. Blue is cool and passive. From The Year of Living Dangerously (Australia, 1983), directed by Peter Weir Gucci, 1994

  24. Saturation These four images are the same watercolor of a frog, reproduced at different saturations. The image on the far left is fully saturated, and the one on the far right is completely unsaturated.

  25. Saturation The past in black and white: a teen-aged Bill Clinton shaking John Kennedy's hand and the Bush Oval Office The future in highly saturated images: a triumphant post-election Clinton shaking his fist and Clinton, the then President-to-be, walking into the Oval Office

  26. Saturation The color picture on the left illustrates a magazine article presenting eight models. They "come from incredibly diverse backgrounds." The saturated colors in this picture exaggerate this diversity of cultures. If we lower the saturation of the image, as in the picture on the right, we don't notice the contrast and the effect changes dramatically.

  27. Saturation Howard's End, directed by James Ivory, 1992 Do the Right Thing, directed by Spike Lee, 1989 The colors in Howard's End are much less saturated because the movie is much more tranquil and serene. Do the Right Thing , however, is an intense movie that expresses highly charged, extreme feelings, so its colors are highly saturated and emotionally loaded.

  28. Value (Tone) Claude Monet, The Petit Bras of the Seine, 1872. Rembrandt, The Woman Taken in Adultery, 1644. “High key:” light “Low key:” dark

  29. Value (Tone) Pablo Picasso, Reclining and Standing Nudes, 1942. A monochrome image depicts the importance of value in a work. This type of image is composed of different degrees of value for one color or a few complementary colors.

  30. Value (Tone) Leonardo Da Vinci's La Gioconda (Mona Lisa) demonstrates sfumato in the eyes and mouth. Specifically, the eye featured here depicts this notion by suggesting movement. .

  31. Value (Tone) Chiaroscuro is the effect of creating 3-dimensional volume with light. This contrast technique exploits the difference between light and dark. . Rembrandt, The Adoration of the Magi, National Gallery, London

  32. The Basics of Scale: Depth We assume the building is considerably larger than the figures. But if we actually measure them, the building is in fact the same size as the figures in the painting. The respective sizes create the illusion of depth. Raphael, The Marriage of the Virgin

  33. The Basics of Scale: Relations between Characters in Film Stanley Kubrick, 2001, A Space Odyssey HAL and Dave in conflict: Dave is dwarfed by the powerful computer, implying his powerlessness and inevitable defeat.

  34. The Basics of Scale: Provoking Emotional Response Orson Welles, Citizen Kane, 1941 Scale may be altered in order to create a variety of other emotions, for example, tension and anxiety.

  35. Dimension Duane Michals. Chance Meeting, 1969. “[In film] the enlarging or shrinking of an object over a period of time or the length of time it takes to travel between two points are two familiar ways of defining terms like 'close' and 'far'" [Mast]. These changes in scale appear so natural that we forget we are looking at a flat screen.

  36. Dimension: Perspective Reproduced from Sensation and Perception,1993 Linear perspective: objects appear progressively smaller the farther away they are.

  37. Dimension: Light and Shadow Changing the placement or number of light sources In the center and right frames, the light changes. The left frame is the same scene rendered with no tonal information

  38. Dimension: Eye Level Bird’s eye view Poster from Film und Foto International Exhibition, Stuttgart, Germany, 1929. Walter Ioos, Jr., 1994 Worm’s eye view

  39. Motion By blurring a subject, a still image can be infused with implied movement.

  40. Motion: Sfumato By blurring the corners of her mouth, Da Vinci creates the illusion that the Mona Lisa is in the process of smiling. Or is she about to frown? Sfumato forces the viewer to interpret her mouth’s motion.

  41. Motion: Contrapposto Sarah Nathanson, Dancers, 1994 "Contrapposto" refers to the technique of twisting or shifting the weight of a figure to imply motion.

  42. Motion: Line The line creates the feeling that it is moving by leading the viewer's eyes along its path. Sarah Nathanson, Motion, 1994.

  43. Motion: Advertisement Basic visual elements work together to create the effect of motion in this ad by Porsche.

  44. Analyzing an Advertisement Getting students to understand and analyze basic visual elements: Use the Levels of Critical Thinking (a Metaprocess): 1. Describe the ad. 2. Break it down into visual components: the basis elements. Connect it with context, audience, purpose. Evaluate its effect on the intended audience.

  45. Applications in the classroom: AS WE HAVE SEEN-- Analysis of advertisements and their intended effects Analysis of art works Analysis of film BUT ALSO Understanding and interpreting political cartoons Analysis of photographs in the news Examination of graphs and tables in popular media Analysis of Web pages OR ANY VISUAL DOCUMENT OUR STUDENTS ENCOUNTER

  46. Visual Literacy Awareness, Analysis, Contextualization, and Critical Thinking about Visual Elements Thanks to The Online Visual Literacy Project, Pomona College, Claremont, CA http://www.pomona.edu/Academics/courserelated/classprojects/Visual-lit/intro/intro.html

  47. Cecil Collins, The Artist and His Daemon. Victoria and Albert Museum, London

  48. August Leopold Egg, The Traveling Companions, 1862. City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England

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