UNIT 1

VISUAL ARTS

Topics

• Visual Arts
• Visual Literacy
• Multimodal Ensembles

Overview

Visual art manifests itself through media, ideas, themes and sheer creative imagination. Yet all of
these rely on basic structural principles that combine to give voice to artistic expression.
Incorporating the principles into your artistic vocabulary not only allows you to objectively
describe artworks you may not understand, but contributes in the search for their meaning.

Learning Objectives:

After a successful completion of the lesson, the students should be able to:
• discuss the nature and meaning of visual arts
• demonstrate understanding of the factors that concerns reading visual arts and visual literacy
• give specific examples of multimodal ensembles

Introduction

The visual arts are those creations we can look at, works which are primarily visual in nature.
The visual elements and principles of art, their nature, function and relationship in painting,
sculpture, architecture and graphics. Emphasis on basic approaches to understanding works of
art and development of personal interpretations.

The world outside school today is replete with words married to images, sounds, the body, and
experiences. When we play a video game we integrate words, maps, images, actions, goals,
choices, and experiences. We manipulate a surrogate body, our avatar in the game.

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Visual Literacy
Visual literacy is the ability to read, write and create visual images. Both static and moving.
It is a concept that relates to art and design but it also has much wider applications. Visual
literacy is about language, communication and interaction. Visual media is a linguistic tool with
which we communicate, exchange ideas and navigate our highly visual digital world.
Visual literacy is a very complex practice which demands more than just everyday practices: it
requires specific skills in the processes of seeing and reading, the relationship between
representation and reality, and the ways in which visual experiences are also moments of
communication
Mode
A mode is a system of visual and verbal entities created within or across various cultures to
represent and express meanings. Photography, sculpture, painting, mathematics, music, and
written language are examples of different modes.

This new world is a multimodal world. Language is one mode; images, actions, sounds, and
physical manipulation are other modes. Today, students need to know how to make and get
meaning from all these modes alone and integrated together. In the 21st century anyone who
cannot handle multimodality is illiterate.
Multimodal Ensembles

Humans have created and shared texts that include visual images, graphic designs, and written language
for hundreds of years. Egyptians used visual images and hieroglyphs to adorn their temples and burial
sites. Artists from around the world have included titles and written descriptions with their visual
artworks.

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Monks created illuminated texts by adding colorful designs and historiated initials, oversized
letters at the beginnings of paragraphs, to medieval codices using gold, silver, and other precious
materials.

Renaissance scholars, in
particular Leonardo da
Vinci, used drawings to
enhance their written
observations and scientific
notebooks.

In the early days of the printing press, texts were dominated by written language because the
inclusion of black and white images in printed texts was very expensive and time-consuming. In
order to print black and white visual images in these texts, artists carved images onto plates to
which ink could be applied.

No one could have imagined back then how easy it would become to reproduce paintings,
photographs, and other visual images and incorporate them into books, magazines, and picture
books, let alone foresee the advent of digital publishing.
Nowadays we simply drag and drop an image into a digital text, and then add music or sound
effects to it. In digital environments, visual images, sound effects, video clips, and written text
are all rendered through the same basic code (digital bytes), making it relatively simple to join
them together in a variety of multimodal configurations.

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Figure 1.1. Multimodal Continuum

Watch:
• How to do visual (formal) analysis in art history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM2MOyonDsY
• How to Look at an Artwork https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZoKElBwKCs
Questions:
1. Identify a work of art, static or moving that you admire and respect. (It can be painting that is
nationally or internationally prominent or something you watch-movie or series, or play -online
games) Briefly describe once you identified, the history, the manner in which it was made, and
creativity.
2. What do we see when we look at a work of art?
Assessment
Essay:
1. If you were an artist, what kind of artist will you be?
2. What art field will you explore? Why?
3. How can you utilize the arts to express yourself, your community, and your relation to others
and with the earth?
4. Think about your house or apartment— do you have a piece of artwork, perhaps a
reproduction of a painting, a photograph, or a print, on the wall? Why is it there, and what does it
mean to you? What do you know about the work, or the artist who created

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 UNIT 2
VISUAL TECHNOLOGIES

Topics:
• Visual Technologies
• Physiology and Seeing
• Seeing as Literacy
• Space and Perspective

Overview

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a plethora of books, journals, conferences and
university courses suddenly appeared, all of them dealing with what appeared to be a new
topic, a new area of study: visual culture. In this chapter we take up the mechanics of visual
perception more specifically. This includes the physiology and neurology of seeing—how do our
bodies and brains engage with the world around us?—and also the visual apparatuses and
technologies people have developed over the centuries as aids for seeing.

Learning Objectives:

After a successful completion of the lesson, the students should be able to:
• determine how our bodies and brains engage with the world around us- and also the visual
technologies people have developed as aids for seeing
• identify another component to the physiology and the cultural
• explain the space and perspective as a truth to reality presented by photography

Introduction
We address the relationship between mechanisms of perception and the types of ‘visions’ they
produce. We also look at cultural frames such as photography, film and 3-D or interactive
devices, and discuss their effect on seeing and perceiving. Central to the question of perception is
how space and objects, and movements in space, are arranged and ‘mapped’ in the two-
dimensional format that constitutes much of visual culture.
Physiology and Seeing
Modern neurophysiology has determined that something like half the brain is dedicated to visual
recognition, and that how and what we see is tied up with our physiological structure. Our optic
nerve comprises some 800 000 fibres, over 120 million rods and over seven million cones. This
means that an enormous amount of information can be transmitted swiftly and accurately to the
brain (Jay 1993: 6). The eye focuses the image on the retina, just as the camera focuses an image
on film. The retina then organises the material which has been focused on it by using its
photoreceptors (light-sensitive cells). This is where the rods and cones come into play, the rods
processing dim light, and the cones processing colour and bright light. The photoreceptors
transform what we have ‘captured’ visually into recognisable objects, and it is not until this work
is completed that the image goes to the brain via the optic nerve, to be processed further there
(Hoffman 1998: 66).

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Obviously, the process of visual perception is very physical—eyes are focusing on objects; rods
and cones are processing matter; and optic nerves are transporting the images they have
recorded. The history of theories of perception shows that the writers and thinkers of the past two
and a half millennia have experienced a surprising degree of agreement about the physicality,
and the tangible quality, of the process of perception. They have, of course, differed on how this
process works: the ancient Greek philosopher Plato proposed the notion of vision by
‘extramission’—that we see as the effect of a stream of light that flows out from the eye and
strikes objects outside the body (Plato, Timaeus). His student, Aristotle, had a different
explanation: he argued that the water in the eye transmits an image through to the soul. Although
those who followed Plato and Aristotle took various perspectives on vision, we can trace the
focus on the tactile aspect of seeing to the eighteenth-century philosopher René Descartes, who
wrote that images are ‘received by the external sense organs and transmitted by the nerves to the
brain’ (1998: 61), so that the process of sight is like that of a blind person feeling their
environment by the use of a stick (Descartes 1998: 64). Even as late as the early twentieth
century, the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud wrote that seeing is ‘an activity that is ultimately
derived from touching’ (Freud 1905: 156).

But seeing is more than touching: Descartes may have used the analogy of feeling one’s way
through the world, but he did not assume that seeing depended only on a sensory experience.
Instead he insisted (as do contemporary physiologists) that our senses are inadequate for
perception—we need to make sense of what we see using rational thought (Jay 1993: 72–3). So,
though sight might appear to be a perfectly natural physical action, neurologists insist that both
the ease with which we see and the apparent truth of what we see are deceptive. Seeing, they tell
us, involves a huge amount of practice, and the application of an enormous portion of the brain
(Hoffman 1998: xi); and the brain sees not just ‘what is out there’, but what it constructs from
the matter it collects in seeing. Think of colour, for example. As early as the eighteenth century,
scientist Isaac Newton 36 visual technologies wrote: ‘Rays to speak properly are not coloured. In
them there is Reading the Visual Pages 6/1/05 11:37 AM Page 36 nothing else than a certain
Power and Disposition to stir up a Sensation of this or that Colour’ (Newton 1730/1952: 124).
We identify colour not by itself, but by its context—by the relation of light to colour, by other
colours around it, and by what we already know. A stop sign, for instance, looks red at any time
of day, though if we were to measure it with a spectroscope, its shade would vary remarkably
with the light (Finkel 1992: 402).
Three Cognition Figures

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 Contour lines

Line puzzle Star image

Not only does the brain make up, or construct, what it sees, but it is also liable to be fooled by
what is seen. We perceive topographical maps and contour lines (see Figure 2.1a), for instance,
as three-dimensional and varied in depth, even though they are only lines on a flat page or
screen. And, despite the incredible receptive facility of the eye, it is (we are) fooled by light,
distance and intensity. Figure 2.1b is a common puzzle: we are asked to determine, without
measuring, which line is longer. And though we are likely to know, from previous experience,
that they are precisely the same length, virtually everyone will see the upper line as longer.
Similarly, we see the centre of the star image in Figure 2.1c as being much whiter and brighter
than the paper outside the lines, although in fact there is no difference at all.

That is to say, we see relationally—when we observe something that really exists in the material
world and relate with our view of it to bring it into our meaning world. We also see in a
phenomenal sense—when we see visions, mirages or other ‘imagined’ things, for instance, and
also when we construct what we see gestaltically (Hoffman 1998: 6). This means that we do not
see, even in neurophysiological terms, simply what is there; instead, we are confronted with an
incredible variety of possibilities.

Seeing as Literacy
As an analogy, consider the processes of communicating in language. The school system trains
children to develop sophisticated literacies in the various components of written language—we
learn the shapes of letters, we learn the look of words, we learn grammar and syntax— and,
with these literacies (and discipline-specific training), we can write or read anything from
abstract philosophy to shopping lists. If we are to develop similar skills in the manipulation and
interpretation of visual texts, then we must again learn a number of skills and knowledges—or
literacies. Just as we needed to learn how individual letters were shaped, we need to learn how
to produce and read the basic components of visual texts—point, line and plane.

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Basic Components of Visual Texts
• Point = the simplest visual element; it has location but no dimension
• Line = is a point in motion, and is one-dimensional—only able to extend along
one direction.
• Plane = two-dimensional, having both length and width.

Together with the effects of light, hue and colour saturation, tonal value, texture and
scale, dimension and motion, these three elements make up the visual field we observe,
and convey the impression of density, movement and dimension. By knowing these
elements, and how they are combined, we have the basic skills to read visual texts.

Figure 2.2 ‘Jeté’ by Enzo Plazzato (Italy, London, 1921–1981). The statue is on Millbank, near
the Tate Gallery, in London. It is one of 9 cast in bronze, and the model for the sculpture was
dancer David Wall. The original clay model was made in 1975.

Look, for example, at the image reproduced in Figure 2.2, Enzo Plazzato’s ‘Jeté’. We can
identify line, plane, light and texture in the outline of the shape, the sweep of limbs and fabric,
the texture of material, the varying density of light across the curves—particularly the hair,
muscles and ribs. We can also identify dimension by comparing one part of the object with
another. Motion is implied by the arrangement of the whole—most viewers would read it as an
arrested moment in mid-leap. Its title, ‘Jeté’ (a ballet step), tells us what is happening, but even
without the caption there is no doubt that this is someone in full flight. An utterly still statue,
reproduced here in an utterly still photograph, calls up movement because of the combination of
line, texture and bodily organisation.

But knowledge of lines, planes and other elements is not enough on its own. One of the
technologies of visuality is depth, which is in fact physiologically unattainable. The eye sees only
two dimensions, and has to manufacture depth on the basis of the clues before it (Hoffman
1998: 23). We make the assumption, with our twodimensional eyes and from this two-
dimensional reproduction, that 42 visual technologies this is a statue in three dimensions
because of the way light falls on the curves, and because of the density of the colour against the
lightness of the sky/background.
A second very important technology of seeing, related to depth, is dimensionality, which is
practically impossible to read in an image without additional cues. We can’t, for example, tell by
looking at the photo of ‘Jeté’, how large the statue is, how high it is elevated, or what the

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distance actually is between the viewer and the statue. Insufficient clues have been
incorporated to allow us to guess this aspect reliably. By adding in other literacies, we might be
able to clarify some of these. We can assume it is probably elevated (because it seems to have
been shot from below), and we can assume it is relatively large, firstly because it must be quite
high to have so much clear sky above it in the middle of a city, and secondly because we can
assume that the building against which it is photographed is a major city edifice.

If we do not know how the visual elements are combined, we will not be able to read a visual
text.

Space and Perspective

Perspective in visual images means that the arrangement and relative size of objects is true to
the eye-witness principle, so that the whole image is dependent upon the point of view of the
potential beholder. Perspective makes the single eye the center of the visible world.
Linear perspective begins with the Renaissance artists’ development of proportional systems,
and their attempt to create a simulation of the actual vista and thus achieve beauty and order in
art works. It is a powerful reality effect, because it mimics the way in which we seem to see in
normal vision. It is also a political gesture.

Activity:

Look at the photograph of the train

and explain the linear perspective
in the way the railway lines, the
vanishing point, the relative size of
the various objects

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 Unit 3
Communication and the Visual

Topics
• Communication and the Visual
• Visual Saturation
• Images as Signs and Meanings

Overview
Seeing is a kind of reading, one which makes use of particular technologies and various skills in
framing, selecting, editing and decoding the visual material that surrounds us.
In this chapter, we trace some of the central ideas of why we decode texts in particular ways,
and how the ‘truth’ effect (or reality effect) of visual experience works to communicate ideas and
ideologies within cultures.

Learning Objectives:
After a successful completion of the lesson, the students should be able to:
• apprehend specific skills in the processes of seeing and reading
• integrate different techniques to understand complexity of contemporary vsual texts
• demonstrate understanding on images as signs and meanings

Introduction
No one really needs finely honed skills to function in the ordinary sense as a visual being—
indeed, most of the time people get along just by relying on habitual ways of seeing and making
sense of what they see.

Communication and the Visual

Seeing is on the one hand an automatic, physiological function we perform without thinking and,
on the other, a complex and absorbing process. Eyes in particular fascinate us. They are the
‘windows to the soul’; parents tell their children to ‘look me in the eye’ as proof that they aren’t
lying; lovers and flirters use eye contact to seize, hold and caress the object of their desire. And
writers, philosophers and social scientists have long wrestled with what it means to be ‘seeing
subjects’: human beings whose feature characteristics are that they access the physical and
intellectual world through vision.
Seeing, and making sense of what we see, are thus neither simple nor natural. Indeed, the art
historian Bates Lowry notes that our ability to see is similar to our ability to speak: ‘We are not
born with a knowledge of how to see, any more than we are born with a knowledge of how to
speak English. We are born only with the ability to learn how’ (1967: 13). W.T.J. Mitchell
extends this sense of the complexity of seeing, by drawing a distinction between reading
(‘decipherment, decoding, interpretation’) and spectatorship, or ‘just looking’ (Mitchell 1994: 16).
Provided we have the physiological ability, we can all look; however, our ability to ‘read’ or ‘see’
(that is, to interpret) is contingent: what we see is not what we get— rather, it is what our eyes
have been socialised to see, and our minds to interpret. So what we make of what we see is
determined by our cultural context, our own habitus, what we know about how meanings are
made in our culture and the particular field in which we are ‘seeing’.

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Visual Saturation

Look at the image presented. It is an ordinary noticeboard located in an ordinary city street. It
makes use of no digital technology, has no cunning printing devices, sound or movement, and
makes no specialised use of linear perspective. Hence we could say it is a less complex text than,
say, a video game. But the multiple shapes, textures and sizes of the papers attached to the board,
the complex layering of individual parts, the range of fonts, styles and layout—and of course the
various colours not reproduced here—all render it a text that is not easily accessed. The process
of reading it is terribly complex too, because it is loaded with distractions. Where do you begin
to read this text: at the top left? At the centre? At the ‘noisiest’ or the largest sheet? And how do
you read it sensibly when you are being bombarded by a baffling array of distractions—the
sounds and movements of people passing by; cars and buses on the road just behind you; the
click of the traffic lights signalling pedestrians to cross the road; the hiss of automatic doors
opening and closing; the texture, shape and colour of the wall and pavement that frame the
noticeboard. The clamour of colour and sound that interfere with the reading of the simplest
visual text, and the range of signs within any text, mean that there seems no end to the variety
and complexity of the visual matter before our eyes.

Images as Signs and Meanings

The notion that, despite all the intuitive evidence, we are no longer as visually complex as
people in earlier periods is developed by the US historian Martin Jay (1993, 1995). His central
argument is that we are living in a deeply nonvisual period, not because there are now fewer
visual texts or because the texts are simpler in design, but because we make sense of the world
by using non-visual analytic devices.
Twentieth-century scholarship continued in this strain, because it was marked by what is called
the ‘linguistic turn’—a move within the Humanities to focus almost exclusively on literary texts,
and to use the analytical devices associated with literary texts to make sense of society, visual
images, individual psychology and so on.
Semiotics is certainly an effective tool for analysis because, as we indicated in the introduction,
it deals with signs—anything which stands for something—and, in general, even obscure visual
images can easily be imbued with some meaning.
Example:
A rough survey (of friends and colleagues) brought up a range of interpretations: it was a photo
of rotten eggs, and hence communicated the idea of decay; it was a planetary image, and
hence conveyed the idea of unthinkable vastness; it was of the bubbling volcanic mud pools at
Rotorua, New Zealand, and hence a representation of the exotic; or it was a piece of abstract

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art, and hence was all about the inarticulable. Although they couldn’t be certain what it actually
represented, everyone was confident that it meant something—that it was a sign, and not just
patterns on the page.
Images as Meanings

The semiotic principle of analysing signs is attractive because it makes good sense in terms of
how people approach texts, and it has been thoroughly tested over a considerable period of
time. Though it is usually associated with the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and his
Course in General Linguistics (1907), the idea of language as a series of signs is found as early
as Aristotle, who defined the human voice as semantikos psophos, ‘significant sound’, or
sounds that make meanings.
But semiotics is about more than just meaning. Its basic principle is that language is not simply
a naming device, but rather a differentiated symbolic system. Each word (or sign) applied to an
object or idea can be understood and identified because it is distinguishable from every other
word (or sign) that might have been used.
However, this principle of difference, and hence the technique of (linguistic) semiotics, can’t
easily be applied directly to visual culture.

Activity:
1. Choose two print advertisements for different types of products. Analyse the way these
adverts use cultural myths to promote the products. Use semiotic theories of Saussure and/or
Pierce to explain your ideas.

2. Fill in the grids below noting the denotations and connotations of the signs.
Sign Denotation Connotation(s)
Rose
Gold White
Black
Hostage
Freedom fighter
Feminine

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 UNIT 4
VISUAL NARRATIVES

Topics
• What is a Narrative
• Plot and Narrative
• Time and Narrative
• Content and Narrative

Overview
A picture, so popular culture tells us, paints a thousand words, and this is the issue we deal with
in this chapter: the degree to which pictures—visual culture—can communicate or present not
just forms, but stories too.

Learning Objectives:
After a successful completion of the lesson, the students should be able to:
• examine the degree to which pictures- visual culture- can communicate or present not just
forms, but stories too.
• give importance to plot, time and content narrative
• organize and convey narrative in a visual image

Introduction
We have written in earlier chapters about ‘reading’ visual texts, and this expression alludes to
the notion that pictures, images and visual objects more generally are not just to be looked at,
but contain a story, or a body of information, which we can access as we might access the
content of a written text. To explore this concept, we turn in this chapter to the question of what
constitutes narrative, what its various elements are and how these elements work together. And
we look at the effect that socially valued ways of organising and disseminating material have on
the meaning of a visual text.

What is a Narrative?
A narrative at its simplest, means “story.” But of course it is more complex than this: the word
comes from the Latin narrare, ‘to relate’, so it denotes both what is told and the process of the
telling. A whole discipline exists to describe and analyse narrative, its practices, its various
elements and how they come together to produce a coherent story.
Narratology, or the study of narrative, begins with the ancients, and with works such as
Aristotle’s Poetics. Most narrative theorists agree that the first, and central, issue about narrative
is that stories always operate within a social context. The way we organise the content of a
narrative, what elements it must have, who reads it, where it is read and what it seems to be
saying are all determined by its cultural context.

Plot and Narrative

Plot is one of the basic elemnts of a story (what happened and why). A narrator (the point of
view from which it is told), characters who participate in the story (human or otherwise), events
(everything in the story that happens to or because of the characters), the time and place in
which those events take place, and the causal relations which link the events together.

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Example:
There was a young lady from Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger
They returned from the ride
With the lady inside
And the smile on the face of the tiger

This satisfies all the criteria of narrative. It has a plot (young woman rides tiger, is eaten); it has
a narrator, or narrative viewpoint (the position from which the story is told); it has characters (the
woman and the tiger), events (riding, eating), time (the duration from when she leaves, smiling,
to when the tiger comes back alone) and place (within the narrator’s view, and somewhere off
stage); and it has causality (she smiles because she rides; the tiger smiles because it has been
fed).
Time and Narrative
Theorists of narrative argue that one of the most important design tools is time.
For Arthur Asa Berger, ‘narratives, in the most simple sense, are stories that take place in time.’
Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan agrees that ‘time itself is indispensable to both story and text. To
eliminate it (if this were possible) would be to eliminate all narrative fiction.’ This makes sense
when considering a verbal narrative, where the words are arranged in a linear fashion and what
is being told is a sequence of events. Therefore, however the writer actually handles the issue
of time, we are expected to read it in a linear fashion, to understand the time scale within which
those events occur and to allow the time of the telling to map out the spatial domain of the story
world.

Content and Narrative

Time is not the only issue in visual stories. Narrative can also be implied or identified in a visual
text by devices such as the arrangement of the iconography or the use of perspective to provide
a central focus. The use of light particularly structures the reading of the narrative: lighting
draws attention to particular features in a text, and ensures we make sense of the images.
Bright colours and a whimsical drawing style, for instance, create a light, possibly fantastical
sense; dark images convey melancholy or threat; black-and-white immediately signals a
particular aesthetic.
Another way of organising and conveying narrative in a visual image is to depict characters
making expressive movements—a smile, a hand extended in friendship, a fist raised in anger.

Visual texts also use figures and techniques to convey stories through conventions known by
most people in a society. The use of literary (and other) allusions is one approach; we see this
in, for example, the many paintings, sculptures, stained glass windows and other illustrations
that draw heavily on stories from classical myths and the Bible. Because the stories illustrated in
these ways were so well and so widely known until fairly recent times, the story itself could
direct the reading of the visual text. For instance, an image of a man in a robe, bent beneath the
weight of a plank of timber, automatically evoked the story of Christ’s trial and execution.
Similarly, a painting of a semi-naked young woman watching dispassionately as a pack of
hounds attacked a young man immediately reminded people of the story of Diana and Actaeon.

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Assessment:

1. When looking at this picture of Teresa May and Donald Trump there is not enough
information to know precisely what is going on and therefore the image is polysemic and can be
interpreted in various ways by the reader.
Using the image create different captions that could be used to give different meanings that
could be associated with the picture.

2. Visual Story-Telling Exercise:

To hone the visual thinking and creative skills needed to be a master visual story-teller and top-
notch videomaker, it’s a great idea to begin with this simple exercise.

Now, this is just an exercise and the point is to stimulate your ability to THINK VISUALLY.
So you can actually video these stories, but it’s easiest to begin with simple visual drawings.
The point is, no expensive equipment is needed. Make the visuals simple and easy to obtain so
you can concentrate your efforts on WHAT VISUAL TELLS THE STORY?

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 UNIT 5
ANALYSIS OF FORM AND CONTENT

Topics
• Analysis of Form and Content
• Elements of Art
• Art Criticism/Evaluation for Reading Visual Arts
• The Media as Spectacle
Overview
Paintings, sculptures, drawings and art photography, though obviously part of the general field
of visual culture, are often seen as somehow outside or beyond the everyday world of
advertisements, television shows, magazines and family snapshots. In this chapter we take up
the question of analysis of form and content in visual art, elements of art, evaluating visual arts
and the media as spectacle.
Learning Objectives:
After a successful completion of the lesson, the students should be able to:
• Identify and describe the difference between form and content as used in art
• differentiate the nature and elements of art
• discern how and why people think, behave and come to see the world by making reference to
media and their various roles

Introduction
Watch the video and be guided on the Elements of Art.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=OUvTI-Syamo&feature=emb_logo
Art is generally an extremely visual field, or set of practices, even if we look outside the obvious
candidates of painting, drawing and sculpture. Dance, film and theatre are highly visual, and
even music— the most abstract of the arts—is frequently associated with visual imagery. And to
keep our attention on the strictly visual arts, not only are the works themselves committed to
visual values, so too is the field in which they exist.
The Definition of 'Form' in Art

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The term form can mean several different things in art. Form is one of the seven elements of
art and connotes a three-dimensional object in space. A formal analysis of a work of art
describes how the elements and principles of artwork together independent of their meaning
and the feelings or thoughts they may evoke in the viewer. Finally, form is also used to describe
the physical nature of the artwork, as in metal sculpture, an oil painting, etc.
When used in tandem with the word art as in art form, it can also mean a medium of artistic
expression recognized as fine art or an unconventional medium done so well, adroitly, or
creatively as to elevate it to the level of fine art.
Geometric forms are forms that are mathematical, precise, and can be named, as in the basic
geometric forms: sphere, cube, pyramid, cone, and cylinder. A circle becomes a sphere in three
dimensions, a square becomes a cube, a triangle becomes a pyramid or cone.
Geometric forms are most often found in architecture and the built environment, although you
can also find them in the spheres of planets and bubbles, and in the crystalline pattern of
snowflakes, for example.
Organic forms are those that are free-flowing, curvy, sinewy, and are not symmetrical or easily
measurable or named. They most often occur in nature, as in the shapes of flowers, branches,
leaves, puddles, clouds, animals, the human figure, etc., but can also be found in the bold and
fanciful buildings of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi (1852 to 1926) as well as in many
sculptures.
Form in Sculpture

Form is most closely tied to sculpture, since it is a three-dimensional art and has traditionally
consisted almost primarily of form, with color and texture being subordinate. Three-dimensional
forms can be seen from more than one side. Traditionally forms could be viewed from all sides,
called sculpture in-the-round, or in relief, those in which the sculpted elements remain attached
to a solid background, including bas-relief, haut-relief, and sunken-relief. Historically sculptures
were made in the likeness of someone, to honor a hero or god.
Form in Drawing and Painting

In drawing and painting, the illusion of three-dimensional form is conveyed through the use of
lighting and shadows, and the rendering of value and tone. Shape is defined by the outer
contour of an object, which is how we first perceive it and begin to make sense of it, but light,
value, and shadow help to give an object form and context in space so that we can fully identify
it.
Elements of Art
Form is one of the seven elements of art which are the visual tools that an artist uses to
compose a work of art. In addition, to form, they include line, shape, value, color, texture,
and space. As an Element of Art, form connotes something that is three-dimensional and
encloses volume, having length, width, and height, versus shape, which is two-dimensional, or
flat. A form is a shape in three dimensions, and, like shapes, can be geometric or organic.

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The elements of art are sort of like atoms in that both serve as "building blocks" for creating
something. Artists manipulate these seven elements, mix them in with principles of design, and
compose a piece of art. Not every work of art contains every one of these elements, but at least
two are always present.
Why Are the Elements of Art Important?

The elements of art are important for several reasons. First, and most importantly, a person
can't create art without utilizing at least a few of them. No elements, no art—end of story. And
we wouldn't even be talking about any of this, would we?
Secondly, knowing what the elements of art are enables us to:
1. describe what an artist has done
2. analyze what is going on in a particular piece
3. communicate our thoughts and findings using a common language
Once you know what the elements are, you can trot them out, time after time, and never put a
wrong foot forward in the art world.
The elements of art are both fun and useful. Remember line, shape, form, space, texture, value
and color. Knowing these elements will allow you to analyze, appreciate, write and chat about
art, as well as being of help should you create art yourself.
Analyzing an Artwork

When analyzing a work of art, a formal analysis is separate from that of its content or context. A
formal analysis means applying the elements and principles of art to analyze the work visually.
The formal analysis can reveal compositional decisions that help to reinforce content, the work’s
essence, meaning, and the artist’s intent, as well as give clues as to historical context.
For example, the feelings of mystery, awe, and transcendence that are evoked from some of the
most enduring Renaissance masterpieces, such as the Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci,
1517), The Creation of Adam (Michelangelo, 1512), the Last Supper (Leonardo da Vinci, 1498)
are distinct from the formal compositional elements and principles such as line, color, space,
shape, contrast, emphasis, etc., the artist used to create the painting and that contribute to its
meaning, effect, and timeless quality.

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The Media as Spectacle

It is impossible to make sense of how and why people think, behave and come to see the world
without making reference to the media and their various roles: as an alternative public sphere;
as a repository for what Judith Butler (1993) calls ‘authorised performances of subjectivity’, and
as a set of techniques for making the world available to us in an immediate and apparently
straightforward way. In this chapter, we consider how contemporary visual practices are
influenced by a field whose main function is arguably to provide, in Claude Lefort’s words, ‘the
constant staging of public discussions . . . [as] spectacle, encompassing all aspects of
economic, political and cultural life’ (1986: 226).
What do we understand by this reference to the media as the site of spectacles? We normally
think of spectacles as extravagant, over-the-top and largerthan-life performances, something
akin to chariot races in ancient Rome or the opening ceremony at sporting events such as the
Olympic Games.
Spectacle is not primarily concerned with a looking at images but rather with the construction of
conditions that individuate, immobilize, and separate subjects . . . In this way attention becomes
key to the operation of noncoercive forms of power . . . Spectacle is not an optics of power but
an architecture. Television and the personal computer . . . are methods for the management of
attention . . . even as they simulate the illusion of choices and ‘interactivity’. (Crary 1999: 74–5)
Most nation states and empires have their own collections of these kinds of icons— moments
captured in paintings or photographs or on film which ‘stand in for’ and homogenise the diffuse,
dispersed set of identities that make up a wider community. It is not as if the meanings that are
read into these icons are natural or homogeneous in themselves; rather, they are deployed and
disseminated throughout the society and its cultural sites and texts, and eventually assume a
considerable— and usually non-negotiable—importance and value.
This explains why certain images, substances or materiality are credited with attributes that
usually only apply within their communal contexts. For the United States, these would include
the American flag, pictures of Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty.

The above examples testify to two important propositions. Firstly, dominant and pervasive
meanings about the nations and other communities—such as what virtues constitute, or what
historical moments reflect, true national character—are created, transformed and exchanged

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within cultural institutions and communication practices. In other words, while communities are
supposedly based on, and authorised and justified by, supposedly shared and continuous
cultural traditions, such traditions and their meanings are themselves often ‘manufactured’
within cultures—an example of this is the virtual invention of national traditions and cultural
icons.
Secondly, the advent of the mass media has sped up, and increased the reach of, this process
of disseminating and naturalising meanings, ideas and traditions. This change from the old-
world scenario of communication as being place-dependant and limited to the ‘brave new world’
of instantaneous mass communication

ASSESSMENT:

1. Diffrentiate the nature and elements or art based on the lecture provided.
2. In order to better learn about the “language of visual arts”, or what we call the Elements of
Art, find and/or take photos of images that show the use of each particular Element.
3. Analyzing the types of forms and materials used in the sculpture.

4. Which of the Element(s) on the list is used in this Photograph?

1. Line
2. Shape
3. Form
4. Value
5. Color
6. S p a c e
7. Size (yes- I added one extra!)
8. Texture
5.The repeated use of the fish and bird could be which Element?
6. The strong lights and darks would suggest what Element?

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 UNIT 6
PRINCIPLES OF DESIGN

Topics
• Principles of Design
• Media and Techniques
• Major World Art Movement
• Art Exhibiting in Reading Visual Arts

Overview
In this chapter, you will learn to identify and distinguish how the principles of design are used to
visually organize an artwork.
Visual art manifests itself through media, ideas, themes and sheer creative imagination. Yet all of
these rely on basic structural principles that, like the elements we’ve been studying, combine to
give voice to artistic expression. Incorporating the principles into your artistic vocabulary not
only allows you to objectively describe artworks you may not understand, but contributes in the
search for their meaning.

Learning Objectives:
After a successful completion of the lesson, the students should be able to:
• demonstrate understanding on the different principles of design
• capitalize on the different media and techniques used
• create their own art masterpiece

Introduction
Here is a video that focuses on the Principles of Design.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=71&v=W1bpDgp8ID0&feature=emb_logo
Here is another one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK86XQ1iFVs&feature=youtu.be
The “principles of design” are mechanisms of arrangement and organization for the various
elements of design in artwork. Please note that different sources might list slightly different
versions of the “Principles of Design,” but the core fundamentals are essentially the same.

1.Harmony
2.Balance
3.Proportion

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4.Dominance/Emphasis
5.Variety
6.Movement
7.Rhythm

Harmony
Harmony in art and design is the visually satisfying effect of combining similar, related
elements. For instance: adjacent colors on the color wheel, similar shapes etc.

Balance
A feeling of equality in weight, attention, or attraction of the various visual elements within the
pictorial field as a means of accomplishing organic unity.
There are a few types of balance:
• Symmetry: A form of balance achieved by the use of identical balance compositional
units on either side of a vertical axis within the picture plane.

• Approximate Symmetry: A form of balance achieved by the use of similarly balanced

compositional units on either side of a vertical axis within the picture plane.

• Radial Symmetry: A form of balance than is even, radiating out from a central points to
all four quadrants of the shape’s constraining plane.

• Asymmetry: A form of balance attained when the visual units on balance either side of a
vertical axis are not identical but are placed in positions within the picture plane so as to
create a “felt” equilibrium of the total form concept.

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 Horizontal Symmetry Approximate

Radial Asymmetry

Proportion
Proportion is the comparison of dimensions or distribution of forms. It is the relationship in scale
between one element and another, or between a whole object and one of its parts. Differing
proportions within a composition can relate to different kinds of balance or symmetry, and can
help establish visual weight and depth.

Proportion (ratio) Proportion (scale)

Dominance/Emphasis
The principle of visual organization that suggests that certain elements should assume more
importance than others in the same composition. It contributes to organic unity by emphasizing
the fact that there is one main feature and that other elements are subordinate to it. In the below
examples, notice how the smaller elements seem to recede into the background while the larger
elements come to the front. Pay attention to both scale and value of the objects that recede and
advance.

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 Dominance / Emphasis

Variety
Variety is the complement to unity and harmony, and is needed to create visual interest. Without
unity and harmony, an image is chaotic and “unreadable;” without variety it is dull and
uninteresting. Good design is achieved through the balance of unity and variety; the elements
need to be alike enough so we perceive them as belonging together and different enough to be
interesting.

Variety

Movement
Movement is the path our eyes follow when we look at a work of art, and it is generally very
important to keep a viewer’s eyes engaged in the work. Without movement, artwork becomes
stagnant. A few good strategies to evoke a sense of movement (among many others) are using
diagonal lines, placing shapes so that the extend beyond the boundaries of the picture plane, and
using changing values.

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Rhythm

A continuance, a flow, or a feeling of movement achieved by the repetition of regulated visual

information.

Regular Rhythm Progressive

Rhythm

Media and Techniques

The choices a designer or artist can make are determined by the characteristics of the materials
used, and the techniques applied to those materials. The combination of materials and techniques
used are also referred to as the medium used.
The media we will discuss are:
Painting and Related Techniques
Drawing
Printmaking
Textiles
Metal
Wood
Ceramics

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Painting and Related Techniques
Painting involves applying color to a surface. The colors were traditionally earth pigments
which were ground into a fine powder and then mixed with a medium, usually a liquid, so they
can be applied to a surface. Today there are also some artificial compounds used as pigments.
The choice of the medium and the method by which the color is applied have important effects
on the characteristics of the finished work, since each medium has its own limitations and
potentials.
We will discuss many different painting related media:
Encaustic
Fresco secco
Fresco
Egg tempera
Mosaic
Oil paint
Watercolor
Acrylic paints
Collage

The oldest examples of painting date to more than 20,000

B.C, and can be found in the caves in southern France. The
best known of these caves is at Lascaux, although there are
many others. These portraits of animals and hunters were
probably done with a mixture of minerals such as ochre, with
animal fat used as the medium. Rock paintings in this
technique can be seen in many parts of the world.
Encaustic
In the technique known as encaustic, the medium for the powdered color is hot wax which is
painted onto a wood surface with a brush. It is then smoothed with a metal instrument
resembling a spoon, and then blended and set over a flame to soften and set the colors into the
wood. This method produces durable colors and permits sculptural modeling of the paint surface.
Because of the wax medium, the colors are semi-translucent and look fresh and lively. This
technique is rare today, but it was practiced in late Roman times; for example, we have burial
portraits from Faiyum, Egypt, 2nd century, A.D.
Fresco Secco
In the dry plaster or "fresco secco" technique, pigments are usually mixed
with water, although other substances might also be used. The paint is then
applied to a dry plaster wall which has been wetted down with water. Since
the plaster is relatively dry, it is non-absorbent, and the pigment adheres to
the surface of the plaster. This technique differs from true fresco (described

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below) in several ways. The colors tend to flake off the surface of the plaster. The colors have a
harder and more brilliant appearance and tend to be lighter in value than those in true fresco.
Advantages of the technique are that the painting can be done more slowly and carefully, and
changes can be made simply by over-painting, since colors are opaque. Examples: Egyptian
murals, 2500-1000 B.C.
Fresco
Fresco, also known as Buon Fresco or True Fresco, entails painting on freshly spread, moist
plaster. First, layers of plaster are applied to the surface. While the final layer is still wet, the
artist applies the colors, which are earth pigments mixed with water. The colors penetrate the wet
plaster and combine chemically with it, producing a painted surface which does not peel when
exposed to moisture. As the paint must be painted on wet plaster, the amount of plaster which
may be put down at one time is limited to what can be painted at one sitting. Often lines can be
seen in frescos around an area which was one day's work. The painting must be done rapidly and
without mistakes. It produces a mat surface with fairly desaturated colors. This technique was
perfected in Renaissance Italy. Examples include Roman wall paintings at Pompeii, 1st
century A.D ; Giotto's Arena Chapel at Padua, 14th C.; Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel
ceiling, 16th C.

Egg Tempera
In this method, the pigment is mixed with egg yolk or both the yolk and white
of an egg. It is thinned with water and applied to a gesso ground (plaster mixed
with a binding) on a panel. It was also used on parchment or paper to illustrate
or embellish books in the era before the 15th century development of the
printing press. This type of painting dries very quickly and produces an opaque,
matte surface. The colors tend to dry to a lighter value than they appear when
wet. The colors produced are bright and saturated. Modeling is achieved by
hatching. Egg tempera was used for panel painting until the 15th century.
Examples of artists that worked in egg tempera include Cimabue (14th C.);
Duccio (14th C.); Andrew Wyeth (20th C.) Islamic and Medieval miniature paintings in books
and manuscripts are another important class of egg tempera paintings; the celtic Book of Kells is
a well-known early example, as is the Book of Hours commissioned by the Duc du Berry in the
14th century.
Mosaic
The design is created by small pieces of colored glass, stone, or ceramic (called
Tesserae), embedded in wet mortar which has been spread over the surface to be
decorated. Their slightly irregular placement on a surface creates a very lively,
reflective surface when viewed at a distance. This was often used to decorate
walls, floors, and ceilings. This link takes you to an gallery of Byzantine
mosaics.

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MAJOR WORLD ARTS MOVEMENT
These 10 visual art movements are fundamental to understanding the different types of art that
shape modern history.

REALISM
Realism is a genre of art that started in France after the French Revolution of 1848. A clear
rejection of Romanticism, the dominant style that had come before it, Realist painters focused on
scenes of contemporary people and daily life. What may seem normal now was revolutionary
after centuries of painters depicting exotic scenes from mythology and the Bible, or creating
portraits of the nobility and clergy.
Artists to Know: Gustav Courbet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet
Iconic Painting: The Gleaners by Jean-François Millet
IMPRESSIONISM
It may be hard to believe, but this now beloved art genre was once an outcast visual movement.
Breaking from Realism, Impressionist painters moved away from realistic representations to use
visible brushstrokes, vivid colours with little mixing, and open compositions to capture the
emotion of light and movement. The Impressionists started as a group of French artists who
broke with academic tradition by painting en plein air—a shocking decision when most
landscape painters executed their work indoors in a studio.

Artists to Know: Claude Monet,

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt

Iconic Painting: Water Lilies series by Claude Monet

POST-IMPRESSIONISM
Again originating from France, this type of art developed between 1886 and 1905 as a response
to the Impressionist movement. This time, artists reacted against the need for the naturalistic
depictions of light and colour in Impressionist art. As opposed to earlier styles, Post-
Impressionism covers many different types of art, from the Pointillism of Georges Seurat to the
Symbolism of Paul Gauguin.
Artists to Know: Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin
Iconic Painting: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

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CUBISM
A truly revolutionary style of art, Cubism is one of the most important art movements of the 20th
century. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque developed Cubism in the early 1900s, with the term
being coined by art critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1907 to describe the artists. Throughout the 1910s
and 1920s, the two men—joined by other artists—would use geometric forms to build up the
final representation. Completely breaking with any previous art movement, objects were
analysed and broken apart, only to be reassembled into an abstracted form.
Artists to Know: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris
Iconic Painting: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso
SURREALISM
A precise definition of Surrealism can be difficult to grasp, but it is clear that this once avant-
garde movement has staying power, remaining one of the most approachable art genres, even
today. Imaginative imagery spurred by the subconscious is a hallmark of this type of art, which
started in the 1920s. The movement began when a group of visual artists adopted automatism, a
technique that relied on the subconscious for creativity.
Artists to Know: Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte
Iconic PaintingThe Persistence of Memoryby Salvador Dalí

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
Abstract Expressionism is an American art movement—the first to explode on an international
scale—that started after World War II. It solidified New York as the new centre of the art world,
which had traditionally been based in Paris. The genre developed in the 1940s and 1950s, though
earlier artists like Wassily Kandinsky also used the term to describe work. This style of art takes
the spontaneity of Surrealism and injects it with the dark mood of trauma that lingered post-War.
Artists to Know: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Still
Iconic Painting: Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) by Jackson Pollock
POP ART
Rising up in the 1950s, Pop Art is a pivotal movement that heralds the onset of contemporary art.
This post-war style emerged in Britain and America, including imagery from advertising, comic
books, and everyday objects. Often satirical, Pop Art emphasized banal elements of common
goods, and is frequently thought of as a reaction against the subconscious elements of Abstract
Expressionism.
Artists to Know: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns
Iconic Painting: Campbell's Soup Cans by Andy Warhol

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KINETIC ART
The seemingly contemporary art movement actually has its roots in Impressionism, when artists
first began attempting to express movement in their art. In the early 1900s, artists began to
experiment further with art in motion, with sculptural machine and mobiles pushing kinetic art
forward. Russian artists Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko were the first creators of
sculptural mobiles, something that would later be perfected by Alexander Calder.
Artists to Know: Alexander Calder, Jean Tinguely, Anthony Howe
Iconic Artwork: Arc of Petals by Alexander Calder

PHOTOREALISM
Photorealism is a style of art that is concerned with the technical ability to wow viewers.
Primarily an American art movement, it gained momentum in the late 1960s and 1970s as a
reaction against Abstract Expressionism. Here, artists were most concerned with replicating a
photograph to the best of their ability, carefully planning their work to great effect and
eschewing the spontaneity that is the hallmark of Abstract Expressionism. Similar to Pop Art,
Photorealism is often focused on imagery related to consumer culture.

Early Photorealism was steeped in nostalgia for the

American landscape, while more recently;
photorealistic portraits have become a more common
subject. Hyperrealism is an advancement of the
artistic style, where painting and sculpture are
executed in a manner to provoke a superior
emotional response and to arrive at higher levels of
realism due to technical developments. A common
thread is that all works must start with a
photographic reference point.

Artists to Know: Chuck Close, Ralph Going,

Iconic Painting: Untitled by Yigal Ozeri
LOWBROW
Lowbrow, also called pop surrealism, is an art movement that grew out of an underground
California scene in the 1970s. Traditionally excluded from the fine art world, lowbrow art moves
from painted artworks to toys, digital art, and sculpture. The genre also has its roots in
underground commix, punk music, and surf culture, with artists not seeking acceptance from
mainstream galleries. By mixing surrealism imagery with pop colours or figures, artists achieve
dreamlike results that often play on erotic or satirical themes. The rise of magazines

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like Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose have given lowbrow artists a forum to display their work outside
of mainstream contemporary art media.
Artists to Know: Mark Ryden, Ray Caesar
Iconic Painting: Incarnation by Mark Ryden
Source: mymodernmet.com

Art Exhibit in Visual Arts

An art exhibition is traditionally the space in which art objects (in the most general sense) meet
an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is
rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called
"exhibit", "exposition" (the French word) or "show". In UK English, they are always called
"exhibitions" or "shows", and an individual item in the show is an "exhibit".
Such expositions may present pictures, drawings, video, sound,installation,performance,
interactive art, new media art or sculptures by individual artists, groups of artists or collections of
a specific form of art.
The art works may be presented in museums, art halls, art clubs or private art galleries, or at
some place the principal business of which is not the display or sale of art, such as a coffeehouse.
An important distinction is noted between those exhibits where some or all of the works are for
sale, normally in private art galleries, and those where they are not. Sometimes the event is
organized on a specific occasion, like a birthday, anniversary or commemoration.

Activity:
You will choose one of the 7 Principles of Design. You will create a work of Art that teaches this
idea to your audience through example.
Go on the Web and find (at least) 3 images:
1. a photograph (search Terms: type in your element + the word photograph)
2. a drawing or collage (search terms: type in your element + the word drawing/collage)
3. a painting or sculpture (you get the idea)
All these works of art should be examples of your Design.

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Now composite them together in Photoshop! Make sure your image is in a square format as
Instagram uses a square for its image interface…

Create a Title using the Type Tool, then

use the Layer Styles Palette to make the
title really pop. (See example at the top of
this page). Remember to see your work of
art as your audience will see it, not as you
the artist.
Practice that 21st Century emotional
intelligence and put yourself in the shoes
of your audience. Can you learn to see
things from others perspective?

Save the image as Principlesofdesign.jpg and post it to your Instagram with the hashtag:
#Principlesofdesign2020.

Resources and Further Reading

Serafini, Frank (2013-10-24T22:58:59). Reading the Visual: An Introduction to Teaching

Multimodal Literacy (Language and Literacy Series) . Teachers College Press. Kindle Edition.
Scirato Tony_Webb Jen Reading Visual Arts
https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-form-in-art-182437
The Elements of Art: Form, Grade Level: 3-4, National Gallery of
Art, https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/education/teachers/lessons-activities/elements-of-
art/form.html
Shape and Form in Art: Instructional Program for Grades K-4, Teacher’s
Guide, http://gettingtoknow.com/wp-content/uploads/shapeinartTG.pdf
http://learn.leighcotnoir.com/artspeak/principles/
har.txa.cornell.edu/MEDIA/intromed.htm

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