Visual Literacy

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Visual Literacy

• Teaching Awareness of Visual Elements

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DEFINITION
Visual literacy is the ability, through
knowledge of the basic visual elements, to
understand the meaning and components of an
image.
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The Basic Visual Elements
Direction
Dot
Shape
Saturation
Line
Texture
Scale
Motion
Dimension
Value
Hue
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The Dot
In a process called visual fusion, our minds
combine dots by blending and organizing the
patterns into coherent images.
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The Dot
Georges Seurat. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte1884,
1884-86. Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial
Collection, Art Institute of Chicago.
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The Line
J. M. W. Turner Tours Sunset The Tate Gallery,
London
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Shape
We can say that the geometric basis of shapes
provides us with an elementary vocabulary, an
alphabet of the shape language.
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Shape
Here the curves seem optimistic, even humorous.
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Shape
Lever House, New York. Skudneck, Auriges, and
Merril, Architects
The square might be read as dull,
straightforward, sometimes unimaginative, stable.
. . . and, well, . . . . SQUARE!
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Shape
The triangle is interpreted as action, agitation,
conflict, tension, and aspiration.
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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.
Mens cologne bottles are generally square,
implying strength, honesty and reliability.
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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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Hue
WARM
COOL
The primary colors red, yellow, and blue
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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
viewers attention.
3. It creates moods and feelings that complement
the message of the images form.
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Hue and Dimension
Colors tend to recede and contract. Placing
certain colors next to each other can enhance
dimension.
Harry Callahan, Chicago, 1951
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Value (Tone)
Claude Monet, The Petit Bras of the Seine, 1872.
Rembrandt, The Woman Taken in Adultery, 1644.
High key light
Low key dark
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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.
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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.
.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Dimension Perspective
Reproduced from Sensation and Perception,1993
Linear perspective objects appear progressively
smaller the farther away they are.
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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
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Dimension Eye Level
Birds eye view

Poster from Film und Foto International
Exhibition, Stuttgart, Germany, 1929.
Worms eye view
Walter Ioos, Jr., 1994
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Motion
By blurring a subject, a still image can be
infused with implied movement.
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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
mouths motion.

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

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Motion Line
The line creates the feeling that it is moving by
leading the viewer's eyes along its path.

Sarah Nathanson, Motion, 1994.
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Motion Advertisement

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

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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
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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.ed
u/Academics/courserelated/classprojects/Visual-lit
/intro/intro.html
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Cecil Collins, The Artist and His Daemon.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
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August Leopold Egg, The Traveling Companions,
1862. City Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham,
England