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
Motion
Value
Hue
Dimension
The
Dot
In a process called visual fusion, our
minds combine dots by blending and
organizing the patterns into coherent
images.
The
Dot
Georges Seurat. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884, 1884-86. Helen Birch
Bartlett Memorial Collection, Art Institute of Chicago.
The
Line
J. M. W. Turner
Tours; Sunset
The Tate Gallery, London
Shape
We can say that the geometric basis of
shapes provides us with an elementary
vocabulary, an alphabet of the shape
language.
Shape
Here the curves seem optimistic, even
humorous.
Shape
Lever House, New York. Skudneck, Auriges, and
Merril, Architects
The square might be read as dull,
straightforward, sometimes
unimaginative, stable. . . . and, well, . . .
. SQUARE!
Shape
The triangle is interpreted as action,
agitation, conflict, tension, and aspiration.
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,
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Hue
WARM
COOL
The primary colors: red, yellow,
and blue
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.
Hue and Dimension
Harry Callahan, Chicago,
1951
Colors tend to
recede and
contract. Placing
certain colors next
to each other can
enhance
dimension.
Hue and Mood
Gucci, 1994
Blue is cool
and
passive.
Red
evokes
feelings
of strong
emotion
or anger.
From The Year of Living
Dangerously (Australia,
1983), directed by Peter Weir
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.
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
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.
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.
Value
(Tone)
Rembrandt, The Woman Taken in
Adultery, 1644.
“Low key:”
dark
Claude Monet, The Petit Bras of
the Seine, 1872.
“High key:” light
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.
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.
Value
(Tone)
Chiaroscuro is
the effect of
creating 3dimensional
volume with light.
This contrast
technique
exploits the
difference
between light
and dark.
.
Rembrandt, The Adoration of the Magi, National Gallery,
London
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
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.
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.
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.
Dimension:
Perspective
Reproduced from Sensation and Perception,1993
Linear perspective: objects appear
progressively smaller the farther
away they are.
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
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
Motion
By blurring a subject, a still image can be
infused with implied movement.
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.
Motion: Contrapposto
"Contrapposto" refers to the technique of
twisting or shifting the weight of a figure to
imply motion.
Sarah Nathanson,
Dancers, 1994
Motion: Line
The line creates the feeling that it
is moving by leading the viewer's
eyes along its path.
Sarah Nathanson,
Motion, 1994.
Motion: Advertisement
Basic visual elements work
together to create the effect of
motion in this ad by Porsche.
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.
3. Connect it with context,
audience, purpose.
4. Evaluate its effect on the
intended audience.
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
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/Visuallit/intro/intro.html
Cecil Collins, The Artist and
His Daemon. Victoria and
Albert Museum, London
August Leopold Egg, The Traveling
Companions, 1862. City Museum and
Art Gallery, Birmingham, England