THREE-DIMENSIONAL DEPICTING

Three-dimensional: It is an adjective for volumes or spaces because of their height, width, and depth.Form: Three-dimensional shape.Rough drawing: First step for a drawing which is about locating the elements in their right place and withtheir right proportions and sizes.Sculpture in the round: Free-standing sculpture that can be observed from any point of view.Relief sculpture: Sculpture attached to a surface so it can only be observed from the front. Depending onhow much the figures stick out of the surface they can be High reliefs (the figures stick out a lot) or Bassreliefs (figures stick out slightly from the surface).Modeling: It is an sculpture additive technique in which a three-dimensional form is manipulated in a softmaterials such as clay.Carving: The substractive technique of cutting and wasting the surface of a block of material to shape itinto a particular form.Casting: To form (molten metal, or other liquid materials) into a three-dimensional shape by pouring it intoa mold.Mold: (mould UK) A hollow form for shaping (casting) a fluid or plastic medium, such as clay, plaster, plasticor molten metal. It holds a negative volume of the final result enclosed in it.

CHIAROSCURO

Chiaroscuro: It is a word borrowed from Italian. It referres to any drawing or painting depicting lights,shadows and shades.Natural light:This is the light emited by the sun, its quantity and quality may vary depending on the seasonof the year or the hour of the day.Artificial light: It is light emited from lamps or spotlights. It can copy the natural light or any kind of lightingor illumination.Front light: The source of light is pointing the scene in the same direction as the observer, it decreases thevolume or depth sensation so provides a flatness sensation.Side light: The source of light is aside and it enphasizes volume and textures of the objects through contrastof lights and shades.Back light: Light coming from behind a subject so it is shown dark and shaded and the observers only seea silhouette.Form Shadow: It is the shadow on a subject on the side that is not directly facing the light source.Cast Shadow: It is a shadow projected on any surface by any element blocking the light source.Reflected light on the form shadow: It is a part of the light that hits the background which is reflected tothe shadowed areas of the objects so it softly illuminates it.Light area: it is the side of the object or subject which receives the light from the source, it usually has abrightness spot that it is the most lighted thing in the drawing or paint.

PERSPECTIVE

Linear perspective: Representation system based in the horizon line, the vanishing point and lines whichgives the drawing a very realistic appearance.Horizon line: A level line, always at the same height than the point of view, where water or land seems toend and the sky or the background begins.Vanishing point: In linear perspective, it is a point on the horizon line where lines or rays (vanishing lines)between near and distant places appear to converge (come together).

SOLIDS AND POLYHEDRA

Polyhedron: Solid three-dimensional shapes formed by polygonal flat faces. Each face is a polygon, Thelines where here two faces meet are called edges and the points where several faces meet are calledvertices.Prism:A three-dimensional figure whose bases or ends have the same size and shape and are parallel toone another, and each of whose sides is a rectangle or parallelogram.Pyramid: Polyhedron with a polygonal base and sloping faces that meet in a point at the top.Platonic Solids (or platonic polyhedra): They are five solids whose faces are only one single regular polygon.Tetrahedron is formed by four triangles, a cube holds six squares, the octahedron has six triangles,dodecahedron has twelve penagons and the icosahedron is formed by twenty triangles.Sphere: It is a round solid where all its points are equidistant (at the same distance) to a center.Cylinder: It is a surface or a solid generated by a straight line turning around a circle. It ususally has twocircular bases.Cone: A three-dimensional shape having a surface formed by a straight line passing through a vertex andmoving along a circle.

SPACE, LIGHT AND VOLUME GLOSSARY Page:1 of 1

TECHNIQUES

THREE-DIMENSIONAL REPRESENTATION

MODELING

3D REPRESENTATION ON A FLAT SURFACE

SUSTRACTIVE ADITIVE

TYPES

RELIEF

IN THEROUND

ClayPlasticine

Wax

CASTINGCARVING

SCULPTURE

StoneWood Metals

CHIAROSCUROFITTING DRAWING

TYPESOF LIGHT

POSITIONSOURCEARTIFICIAL

VsNATURAL

LATERALBACK

FRONT

LINEARPERSPECTIVE

HORIZON LINE

VANISHING POINT

VANISHING LINES

SHADOWS

FORMSHADOWS

CASTSHADOWS

LIGHTAREA

STILL LIVESA still life is a painting or drawing that shows non animated objects orfood. Very important painters as Leonardo, Zurbaran,Morandi or AntonioLopez have painted this kind of depictions.

Up to this point we have studied and practiced many ways and aspects of drawing, but mainly intwo dimensions.In the Shape's unit we studied the bi-dimensional shapes, and actually we studied some resourcesor tricks to make the drawing appear to be three dimensional. Those tricks were displaying theshapes overlapping themselves, changing their size or using color contrasts.When we refer to a shape we usually think of a flat shape such as a polygon, a circle, etc. Unlesswe use the adjective "Three dimensional" a shape will be thought as flat.A form is always thought as three dimensional. Forms can be truly three dimensional, or even twodimensional but with a three dimensional or volume appearance. That appearance is obtaineddepicting the light and dark areas, the shadows. The light depiction is called chiaroscuro and it isachieved through shading the drawings. Shading or chiaroscuro can be done in many colors or withone single color, usually black and white.Perspective is another important aspect of three dimensional depiction.Learn How to turn a flatshape into a form byshading the areas of thedrawing watching thisshort Youtube videohttp://youtu.be/ExRRHY9wT6Q

Still life. Giorgio Morandi, 1947Image source: http://closetpoesie.tumblr.com/post/10256965074/1947-still-life-giorgio-morandi

Dish with lemons, basket with oranges and cup with a rose.Francisco de Zurbarán, 1633Image source:http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_de_Zurbarán

Observe both still lives below and think about which one depicts better space and volumes. Why?. It is not that Morandidid not know how to do it better, it is more that Morandi was not interested in chiaorscuro as much as Zurbarán.

SPACE, LIGHT AND VOLUME INTRO.SHAPE AND FORM AND SILL LIVES

Page:1 of 4

COLOR VALUE SCALES

As clear or whithish (pale) the shapesare as far as they seem to be. Observethe picture on the right, see how themountains that are further look muchclearer or lighter than the ones whichare closer. This is caused by the airmoisture and other environmentalagents. This phenomenom or resourceis called Aerial perspective.

GORKY’S OVERLAPPING SHAPES

Observe how Arshile Gorky, who was an Armenianabstract painter, overlaps some shapes in order tocreate a depth impression in his paintings. While theshapes he paints look totally flat, the overlapping givesthe depictions a spacial touch.Gorky did use different styles, mostly cubist as Picassoand also abstract expressionists did as Kandinsky.This image has a cubist style.

PERSPECTIVE, LEONARDO DA VINCI, AND THE LAST SUPPER.

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the first artists studiying linear perspective. The last supper is one ofhis master pieces showing a one point perspective.Linear perspective comes from the observation and study on how we, human, see the world. Its maincomponents to stablish a drawing or pictorial system are the point of view, the horizon line and thevanishing points and lines. Perspective is a system that needs lots and lots of auxiliary lines.

Aerial Perspective.Image Source: http://willkempartschool.com/how-to-instantly-add-depth-to-your-mountains-in-acrylic-landscape-painting/

Still Life (Red and Yellow). Arshile Gorky. 1930Image Source: http://arshilegorkyfoundation.org/image-gallery

This is a Youtube video channelthat shows different videos ondrawing different stuff and famousbuildings in perspective.https://www.youtube.com/user/DRArchW/videos

Mark on the picture the vanishing lines, where they all intersectyou will find the vanishing point and through it you can drawthe horizon line.

The Last supper. Leonardo da Vinci.(1452–1519)Image Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%C3%9Altima_Cena_-_Da_Vinci_5.jpg

Watch this Youtube video thatshows the vanishing lines and thevanishing point in the last supperpainting by Leonardo.http://youtu.be/ODEvCINTADs

Besides Perspective, "The last supper" is a painting which hasa lot of misteries in its composition as well as in its symbolism.

THREE DIMENSIONAL TIPS FOR SHAPESAND PERSPECTIVE

Page:2 of 4

HORIZON PLANE

GROUND PLANE

PIC

TURE

PLA

NE

GROUND

LINE

HORIZ

ON

LINE

PP

PVPRINCIPAL RAY PV

How we lived a secret life from racist eyesyou said i couldn't understand you anyway i tried

But in this moment together, in our secret unityour skins become the _______, our souls epiphany

Chorus

CHIAROSCURO

'

HIGH LIGHT

CAST SHADOW

LIGHT AREA

REFLECTEDLIGHT

CORE SHADOWFORM SHADOW

In this Youtube videoyou can listen to"Chiaroscuro" by PaulaCole.http://youtu.be/6W6pLt2n3eM

Chiaroscuro takes place in a drawing or painting whenever the artist orauthor is taking on acount the light onthe objects as well as in theenvironment.To work more focused on chiaroscurodepictions are usually in black andwhite or in a grey scale, but they canalso be colored.Any objects or subjects have differentareas of ilumination. The main areasare the light area and the shadowarea on the object. Shadow area onthe object is called form shadow orcore shadow.The Light area usually shows a highlight spot or area where light hits harderor more perpendicular to the object ''

LINE DRAWING GRISAILLE SHADOW AREAS BLEND VALUES

'

LIGHT AREAS

PROCESS TO CREATE A CHIAROSCURO DRAWING

A Grisaille consists on giving a meidum value (50% grey) to the drawing before the line drawinghas been done. After the grisaille the artist would erase the medium grey where he or she wantsthe light areas and get the shadow areas darker. With that, the drawing will have a medium value,a general dark one and a general light area.

When that is achieved, it is only about blending values and giving the last detail touches suchas the reflected light area on the form shadow or the high light on the light area, also a haloaround the cast shadow if the spotlight is hard. Not all the artists need to follow that process, itcan be done in a different way, but this is one of the safest and easiest.

CHIAROSCURO By Paula Cole. Listen to the song and fill in the blanks with the given words below.

Goya and el greco, Gaugin and Van Goghpainted light in the ____________, chiaroscuroimagine we were a ____________a woman and a man,two lovers on a ___________one is white, one is black.

Darkness and ____will be married tonight in chiaroscuroyour body on mine - two colors combined in chiaroscuro

Vermeer and Velazquez, Rembrandt and Rousseau__________perfect union, chiaroscurothe man and the womanthe knife and the spoonthe xylem and the phloemthe sun and the _________

Chorus painting · still life · darkness · moon · canvas · light · painting

The object drops, while blocking the light direction, a cast shadow that sometimes shows a littlelighter area around it called halo. The halo has a higher value than the rest of the backgroundbecause of the light direction. The cast shadow is usually the darkest area, or the lowest value, inthe chiaroscuro drawings.

HALO

Page:3 of 4

PLATONIC SOLIDS

Tetrahedron:Formed by four triangles.

Cube:Formed by four square faces.

Octahedron:Formed by eight triangular faces.

Icosahedron:Formed by twenty triangular faces.

Dodecaedron:formed by twelve pentagons.

Was associated with water because it flows out of your hand ifyou hold it because it is very similar to an sphere as water whichis made of tiny little balls.

Was associated to air because its minuscule components are sosmooth that one can barely feel it. This polihedron seems to beas light as the air.

Was associated with fire because the heat of fire feels sharp andstabbing like this polihedron.

Was associated with Earth because it is a very different to asphere solid and looks very stable as Earth.

Plato associated it with the universe as he said it was God usedit for making a plan for the constellations on the whole universe”

NAME:

ELEMENT:

NAME:

ELEMENT:

NAME:

ELEMENT:

NAME:

ELEMENT:

NAME:

ELEMENT:

SOLIDS OR MAIN VOLUMES

There are only five polihedra which can be made out only with one regular poygon. Plato, anancient greek philosopher, associated each of these polyedra with the earth, air, water, fire andthe universe.Fill in the labels of each polihedron below First read the descriptions below on the left. And after that you’llbe able to find out the association Plato made to each one reading his reasons for this associations.

Cézanne was interested in the simplification of naturally occurring forms to their geometric essentialsand in the space representation in his paintings. Read in the following text what he was telling afriend:"Treat nature in terms of the cylinder, the sphere, and the cone, the whole put into perspective so that each side of anobject, or of a plane, leads towards a central point. Lines parallel to the horizon give breadth,.... Lines perpendicular tothis horizon give depth.. .."Source: What he told me – The motif, Joachim Gasquet, as quoted in Joachim Gasquet’s Cézanne, - a Memoir with Conversations, Thames and Hudson, London 1991 pp. 163-164

Polyhedra are Solid three-dimensional shapes formed by polygonalflat faces. Each polihedron face is a polygon. The lines where twofaces meet are called edges and the points where several facesmeet are called vertices. There are many types and ways to list apolihedron, but we can mainly tell three or four types: Regular andsemi regular polihedra (whose faces are regular polygons and canbe inscribed in spheres), Prisms and pyramids. While prisms havetwo bases and the edges that connect them are parallels, pyramidshave only one base and an opposite vertex.Other type of Solids are round and don't have faces. Cones ancylinders have one or two bases and they are surfaces generatedby making a straight line turn on a base, which is usually a circle.A sphere is generated by making a circle turn around itself and itsmain example is a ball.

A solid is a closed surface in three-dimensional space also such a surface together with the volumeenclosed by it. Archimedes was the philosopher who studied deepest this concept in a scientific way

Mont Sainte Victoire (Barnes). Paul Cézanne, 1895Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Page:4 of 4

HUMAN FIGURE

Proportion: Also called Ratio. It refers to the comparative relationship of one part to another orto the whole regarding to size, quantity, or degree. For the human body the unit usually is one head,so one body could be 7-8 heads.

Statue: is a three-dimensional form of a person or animal sculpted, carved, modeled, or cast in anymaterial, usually an entire figure, and especially when done in the round rather than in relief.

Portrait : A painting, drawing, sculpture or even a picture that depicts a person, a group of people,or an animal. Portraits show what a person looks like as well as something about the subject'spersonality.

Bust : A portrait sculpture or a painting representing a person's head. Usually busts Sometimesinclude neck and sometimes shoulders, upper chest, and perhaps the upper arms.

Life drawing : The act of drawing the human figure from a live (usually nude) model. It is also thename for a drawing created in those circumstances. It is a main component of an artist's educationbecause trains the eyes, the brain, and the hand simultaneously.Anatomy: The study of the body muscles, bones or other parts, whether human or animal. Knowinganatomy is important for drawing or sculpting human and animal figures.

Foreshortening: A way of representing a subject or an object, which position is perpendicular tothe frame or point of view, so that it shows the illusion of depth.

Human silhouette: It is a person shape filled up with a solid color. Shadows are silhouettes.

Movement in the human figure: It gives expression to the bodies. The first human depictions byegipcian and greek cultures hardly showed any movement.

Praxitelean curve: Also called contraposto. It refers to a curve hips show when the other side ofthe body is supporting the wheight of the subject. It gives the human body image some kind ofgrace and movement.

Non-verbal language: Not involving or using words or speech.

Gesture and position: Gesture and position are part of the non verbal language of human bodyso they can express emotions or moods.

COMICComic: It is a media for artistic expression which combines image and text. The stories are dividedin pages which contain several frames.

Comic strip: is a short work of comics which has its origins in the world of newspapers ormagazines. In comic strips, generally the only unit of encapsulation is the panel

Frame / Panel / Box: They are, usually rectangular, boxes usually with an outline or border,containing drawings and text which arrange the structure of a comic.

Speech bubble/balloon: The place in which the dialogue is written in comics.

Caption: A text box sometimes separated from the rest of the panel, sometimes within them usuallyto give voice to a narrator, but sometimes used for the characters' thoughts or dialogue.

Motion lines: Imaginary lines used to express movement of objects or bodies.

Symbols: They are images, usually in bubbles, which mean any kind of thoughts. They are visualmethafores, a very common one is the light bulb standing for an idea.

Onomatopeia: They are letters or words reproduzing noises.

Page:1 of 1HUMAN FIGURE AND COMIC GLOSSARY

Page:1 of 4

Human Skeleton, front.Image source:http://commons.wikimedia.orgFile:Human_skeleton_front_pa.svg

Human Skeleton.Image source:http://www.aokainc.com/human-body-muscles-front/

A canon in the field of visual arts and aesthetics, or an aesthetic canon, is a rule for proportions, so as toproduce a harmoniously formed figure.Talking of proportions in general is comparing dimensions of one part with the total, or one total with another.Talking of human proportions or human canon, usually artists use the head as the unit for dimensioningthe full body.Classic Greek sculptors dimensioned a harmonius (beautiful) body as with 7 to 8 heads high depending onthe authors or period. Egiptians used a closed fist and a forearm (three fists) as the unit to dimension thefull body, from 18 to 22 fists high.Ancient Egiptian and Greek sculptures of human figures were very, symmetric, fixed and rigid. Then, differentduring the Greek classic era, the human depictions started to get asymmetries through movement and diferentgestures and positions. One leg holds all or most of the weight while the other is relaxed, which is calledthe contrapposto. Praxiteles exagerated with his famous praxitelean curve.

Doryphoros. Polykleitos.440-450 BCEImage source:http://en.wikipedia.org/File:Doryphoros_MAN_Napoli_Inv6011-2.jpg

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Apoxyomenos. Lysippos.330 BCEImage source:http://en.wikipedia.org/File:Doryphoros_MAN_Napoli_Inv6011-2.jpg

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Hermes and the infant DionysusPraxiteles*. 4th century BCEImage source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_and_the_Infant_Dionysus

Egyptian human figure.The 18 fists canon.10th/15th Century BCE.

THE IMPORTANCE OF ANATOMY FOR FIGURE DRAWING. STICK TO FIGURE

1 2 3

On the left we can see the human skeleton and the muscles structureand arrangement. They are very similar for men and women. Theseare basic anatomy knoledges for human figure drawing.We won't draw a human figure by making its outline anymore. Firstwe will use this (a little bit more complex) stick figure whose jointsare little circles, setting up the pose that we want to depict. Then,second, we will draw main shapes for the muscles and finally we willbe able to draw a better outline or human shape. Watch this Youtube video by

a Mexican artist teaching youto draw human figure fromyour imagination. Watch out!there's na second part!!http://youtu.be/2WJxFgAzWR4

HUMAN FIGURE, CANON, AND ANATOMY

HUMAN PROPORTIONS IN ART HISTORYComplete the gaps with the given words bellowVitruvius was a Roman author, architect, and civil engineer during the 1st century BCE, probablybest known for his books entitled De Architectura. For his buildings, engineering inventions, hisstudies and his books he needed to know about the human _______. He took out the Golden ratioidea, discovered and widely studied by ancient Greeks, as a mean that arranges the human______ parts.Albrecht Durer was a humanist during the Renaissance in Germany. He is very well known byhis engravings and animal and human figure studies. He noticed that the ____________in humanbody change depending on the pose or ____________, but he also took on account the Glodenratio.Leonardo Da Vinci, another humanist but in the Italian Renaiscence, also _______a lot of artworksabout human proportions, the most famous one is Vitrubian Man, that you can see in this pageand also in Italian Euro coins.Some centuries later, Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Swiss architect and artist wrote a book calledLe Modulor in which he insists on human __________attending to architecture construction. HeAlso used the Golden mean.If you observe the illustrations below you can see an illustration by each of the three authors. Theone on the left, Durer's female body is in another __________ , but the two on the right, Leonardo'sVitruvian man and Le Corbusier's Le Modulor are in the same scale and you can see how theirproportions are exactly the same (same height for knees, crotch, head, ect)

2.260

432

698

432

266

165

1.829

1.397

863

1.130

534

863

330698

204

534

126

432

330

204267

126102

102165

63

78

43301811

6338241596

Vitruvian Man. Leonardo da VinciImage source:http://commons.wikimedia.org/File:Uomo_Vitruviano.jpg

Le Modulor.Le Corbusier

· drew · figure · position · scale · proportions · dimensions · body ·

FEMALE MALEDIFFICULT PARTS OF THE BODY HANDS FEETAND FACE. THE IDEAL FACE

In the old times, painters charged more money to their clientswhen they wanted one or two hands to be depicted in theirportraits. That was because hands are one of the mostdifficult parts of human body to depict. The best and the onlyway to improve the artists skills about it is practicing andrepeating hands sketches countless times. Feet are alsodifficult, but not as much. And foreshortening, body poseand point of view perpendicular to the frame, is also verydifficult to achieve properly.Stephen R. Marquardt is a Californian (USA) doctor. He is a maxilofacial surgeon (doctor thatgives surgery to people's faces). He was always obsessed with face beauty and always lookedup for finding the most beautiful face type. He developed a mask(above), one for women and another for men, attending to thegolden ratio and maths in order to find the best ratios orproportions for people's faces. If you superimpose Marquardtmask to any beautiful face they will match perfectly.

Watch the MBA websiteb(Marquardt beauty analysis)in which you will learn aboutthe golden ration and aboutthis mask watching examples.

http://www.beautyanalysis.com/

HUMAN FIGURE AND GOLDEN RATIOPage:2 of 4

Human proportions illustrations.Albrecht Durer.Image source:http://f12arch531project.wordpress.com/author/lyndsaydt/

BOTERO Vs GIACOMETTIPROPORTIONS. FAT Vs THIN

Fernando Botero is a contemporary Colombianartist well known for his particular way ofdepicting human body. His style is based onpainting or sculpting round fatty human bodies.So his main artistic feature is changing thestandard of human proportions.

Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) was a Swissartist, painter and sculptor who was also knownfor representing the human body, always thinand tall. So he also applied human proportionsdistortions in his artwork.

CARICATURES. CHANGING THE HUMANPROPORTIONS

On the left we see other way of depicting the humanbody which is the caricature. Caricatures ususallydistort the size relationships in human body andfaces, exagerating people’s features, in order to obtaina funny representation of somebody.We always THOUGHT caricatures are a style of drawingmuch easier than objective and realistic drawing.While caricatures "are only about" distorting andexagerating personal physical features, objective andrealistic drawing is about being sharp, accurate andstrict when observing and depicting someone.However, observing some of the best caricaturists work,we must admit being a good caricature maker also needsa lot of practice as well as good skills for being ableto express properly the model's personality.

Dancers at the bar. Fernando Botero. 2001Image source:http://www.wikiart.org/en/fernando-botero/dancers-at-the-bar

Walking Man. Alberto GIacometti. 1959-60Image source:http://museum.cornell.edu/collections/view/walking-man.html

Haring in fron of one of his murals.Image source:http://www.badmagics.com/the-legend-keith-haring/

KEITH HARING, HUMANSILHOUETTES AND CONTOURS

Keith Haring was a famous artist fromthe United States. He firstly started as astreet artist with painting spray paintsand posters, so that led him to use a lotof outline drawing as well as silhouettes.He also used a lot of human shapesimplificating, so his artwork is easy torecognize and has been used bypublishers and advertising.

Untitled. K. Haring.Image source:http://animalnewyork.com/2011/urban-scrawl-auctioned-off/keith-haring-untitled-figure/

Picasso. Jan Op de Beek.Image source:http://www.opdebeeck.com/

Watch this Youtube videowith short explanations onhow to do a caricature. This isa cartoonist, so you can seehis cartoon style in his work.

http://youtu.be/rSNA0Y1knsU

HUMAN FIGURE IN MODERN ART AND CARICATUREPage:3 of 4

COMIC

Complete this comic strip with bubbles, using more than one kind of them, and adding text to make a coherentstory. You can use also Symbols or Onomatopeias.

COMIC

WISPER NORMALDIALOGUE SHOUT!!THOUGHT TWO PEOPLE

YIELLING!!

Comic is a media for artistic expression which combines image,basically drawings, and text. The stories are divided in panelswhich contain several frames or boxes. A frame is a boxcontaining a drawing of a frozen moment and, most of the times,text. Frames are the minimal unit for the structure of any comicand they ususally are outlined.So panels are the rows of frames or boxes, but these two termsare many times used randomly.On the right you can see a three panel comic with nine frames.And as you can see frames in comics can show different shapes.

Comic language has developed, appart from panels and frames, a self way of transmitting theinformation. Speech bubbles or balloons contain the text, and sometimes they might contain imagesexpressing some idea. There is a code for speech bubbles outlines and shapes to indicate differentmoods and circumstances of the characters speech.

If there is a narrator his thoughts or observations are framed, or not, in captions but they will neverbe inside a speech bubble.

Emptied comic strip. Image source: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic

Popeye Character sheet.Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/deniscomix/4791062768/

Motion lines are another main feature of comiclanguage, they are imaginary lines used toexpress movement of objects or subjetcs.Symbols or visual metaphors are very frequentin comics. They are images, usually in bubbles,which mean any kind of thoughts, a very commonone is the light bulb standing for an idea.Onomatopeias show up quite often, they areletters or words reproducing noises.Character sheets are often used in comics andcartoons for the animators or illustrators to followcorrectly the characters proportions.These show different positions of the character'sbodies as well as different face expressions.

Check out thisBitstrips.com which isa cool website to designsyour own characters,comics and avatars.http://bitstrips.com/pageone/

The light bulb is a symbol that stands for an idea.

"Z" is used repeatedly as a sound effect (onomatopeia)For the breathing sound of a person sleeping.

Page:4 of 4

1

VISUAL LANGUAGE

Visual language: Communication system which uses images as a way of expression.Sender: It is the person or group of people who produces the message for comunication.Message: a communication containing some information.Media:The means of communication that reach the receiver who can be one person or a largenumber of peopleVisual code: Group of signs and rules that give sense to a visual message.Receiver: Individual, group of people or organization recipient of the message.Visual metaphors: Graphic resources that are used to symbolize memories, situations or feelings.Visual perception: Process in which a person recieves a group of visual stimuli.Pictogram: It is figurative schematic drawing or picture, ususally a silhouette, representing a word,sound or idea.

IMAGE PURPOSES

Aesthetic images:Images meant or thought because of their beauty, or at least with some exclusivelyvisual objective.Hortatory images: It is a kind of images or messages whose main purpose is to encourage thereceiver to do something. The most common and typical Hortatory image are the ones in advertising.Indicative Images: Images, usually simplified, that try to give us directions or short informationabout how to behave or how to act in certain circumstances. The traffic signs are sometimes indicativeand some other hortatory.Informative Images: Images which main purpose is to transmit information, a good example aremost of the images that can be found in newspapers. They are meant to illustrate a story and theycan be either photos or drawings.

SOME PERCEPTION LAWS:

Enhance: An element of an image is highlighted from others,when it is placed in the center or onthe right side of the image as well as when its colors size are different.Uniformity:A state or condition in which everything is regular, homogeneous, or unvarying in images.All the visual elements of the image are perceived with the same intensity and probably as one onlything.

SOME GESTALT PERCEPTION LAWS:

Figure-Ground law: The human brain, when perceiving an image, always identifies a figure offoreground object on or infront of a background.Continuation law: Takes place when several visual elements are placed in a specific direction, sothat direction is perceived clearly as a unit.Proximity law: It happens when several visual elements are placed so close to each other that itis percived as one group.Similarity law: When the several elements in an image are similar or the same, visual perceptionsmake sgroups attending to their resemblance.Symmetry law: As the world is totally full of symmetric objects people have had that visual featuresettled in their minds so the idea of symmetry unconsciounsly affects our perception perceiving theobject's symmetry rather than the asymmetries.

VISUAL LANGUAGE GLOSSARY Page:1 of 1

VISUAL LANGUAGE

Fill in the gaps with the right choice from the words given below the text:

Perception is the process by which a person, or a group of people, aquires information from the outside.Perception starts at one of the five senses: Sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste. From those five sensesmany people agree that the sense of _______ is the most important, or at least the one they appreciate themost.

A visual language is a system of communication using ________ elements. As well as verbal means ofcommunication, images transmit information. And, as any other means of communication, the visual languagecommunication process starts with a sender who is the individual, or sometimes a group of people, thatinitiates a message (in this case an image). Image messages are involved in some circumstances such asthe media, the code, the channel, etc. and end up the communication process with the receiver who is theobserver or the _______ of the images.

The Gestalt was a group of psychologists that studied Visual ___________. Gestalt stands for "shape"or "form" in German. They set up some laws that lead everybody to interpret in certain ways any imagewe ________. These laws have been taken into account by _________ designers, visual artists andadvertising agents to achieve their communicative goals when producing their images.

Images have, as any other kind of messages, an intended purpose. Most of the images hold more than onepurpose, even though usually any __________ has its main purpose. Some of the most important purposesare: Informative, indicative, aesthetic and hortatory (wanting or advicing us to do something), attendingto these and some other purposes Visual Perception Gestalt laws are used and followed.

perception · sight · graphic · image · see · visual · viewer

Label each diagram with the corresponding Gestalt law: Similarity, Proximity, Good continuation, Closure

VISUAL LANGUAGE

STIMULUS

LAWS

PERCEPTION

IMAGE PURPOSES

VISUAL PERCEPTION

ENHANCE

CONTINUATION

PROXIMITY

SIMILARITY

UNIFORMITY

RECEIVERMESSAGESENDER

INFORMATION

COMMUNICATION PROCESS

MEDIA

VISUAL CODE

LEISURE/ AESTHETIC

HORTATORY

INFORMATIVEINDICATIVEIDENTIFICATIVE

DESCRIPTIVE

NEWS

ADVERTISING

ART

INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL LANGUAGE: GESTALT

Page:1 of 4

OTHER PERCEPTION LAWS.UNIFORMITY AND ENHANCEMENT

OTHER GESTALT AND NON GESTALT PERCEPTION LAWS

Watch this Youtube videoon the main Gestalt lawsand an exaple of attendingto them with a main pageof a website design.

http://youtu.be/LlzuJqZ797U

One of the most important Gestalt law is the Figure-Ground law. Our brain, any time we observe a picturetries to identify a figure of foreground object on or infrontof a background.Symmetry is another image perception law. As theworld is totally crowded with symmetric objects peoplehave had that visual feature settled in their minds sosymmetry definitely affects our perception.On the right you can see two images showing the figureand background law. It is imposible to separate bothelements and percieve them independently of oneanother.The image on the left also shows a symmetry.

Andy Wharhol was a Popartist. Pop artits used imagesof daily consumer society.Wharhol also made portraitsof many famous people ofthe moment. He used brightcolors and many times madedifferent versions of thesame portrait using differentcolors.

1

POLLOCK AND HIS DRIPPING UNIFORMITY:

FAUVIST AND WARHOL ENHACEMENTS:Fauvism was an artistic movement formed by artists who weretired of the current depicting rules. They used shocking brightcolors in their artworks.Matisse, the author of Portrait of Madame Matisse. (The greenline), took a long new breaking step depicting the lights andshadow areas frontier as a green line border that enhancesthe profile of the woman's face.

Portrait of Madame Matisse.(The green line). Henry Matisse. 1905Image source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Matisse_-_Green_Line.jpeg

Untitled (Marilyn)Andy Warhol.1967.Image source:http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=61239

Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist painterwho started a new technique for painting called DRIPPING.It consisted on letting the paint flow all over the canvasor board surface by pouring it with brushes or straightfrom the pots. That is called Action Painting.Most of the artworks made this way looked very uniformed.

Visit this YoutPollockwebsite of the nationalGallery museum and watchpictures, read his biographywatch footage, etc.

http://www.nga.gov/feature/pollock/

Page:2 of 4

Enhancement and Uniformity are other aspects that also affect our visual perception constantly.Sometimes these two opposite features come along together in images, and some other separated.For instance while advertisements or traffic signs use enhancement as their main feature to callthe attention of observers, army camouflage clothes or many animals skin or fur use uniformityin order to be unseen.Many times enhancement or uniformity are one of the main features of some visual artists, artistictrends or artworks.

Photographer Hans Namuthextensively documentedPollock's unique paintingtechniques.

Image source:hhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock

DAVID HOCKNEY’S COLLAGES:.

ARTISTS, VISUAL LANGUAGES AND PORTRAITS

Name the authorship of the given portraits regarding to the descriptions of the following artists artworks:

Vik Muniz: He is a Brazilian art photographer who takes pictures of portraits or other images drawnor made by himself with unsusual (extrange or random) materials like food.Hanoch Piven: He is an Israeli illustrator who mixes illustration with objects to represent famousreal or imaginary charactersArcimboldo: He was a renacentist artist who made portraits composing the images with any kindof vegetables.Tony Oursler: This contemporary american artist works with video. He projects gesture faces onpuppets expressing different situations.

AUTHOR:...................................AUTHOR:................................... AUTHOR:................................... AUTHOR:...................................

CHEMA MADOZ VISUAL METHAFORS: OBJECT POEMS

Chema Madoz (Madrid 1958) is one of the most popular Spanishphotographers and his work is considered as visual poetry. His picturesalways provoke people to think.

VISUAL LANGUAGE THROUGH PORTRAITS.MADOZ VISUAL POEMS AND HOCKNEY COLLAGES

Chema Madoz.Image source:hhttp://www.chemamadoz.com/

Observe Chema Madoz’s pictures andthink about what they suggest to you.Compare with your class mates yourthoughts.Are your class mates impressions thesame as yours?

David Hockney is a British artist who makes many kindof visual arts and studies. His collages are some of hisbest known pieces.He makes collages out of the pictures he took from placesbefore. Hockney’s collages have influenced many artists

Pearblossom Highway. D. Hockney 1986Image source:http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hockney/

Page:3 of 4

Image sources: Arcimboldo. summer. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arcimboldo_Verano.jpg Hanoch Piven. Homer. http://www.neatorama.com/2006/09/02/hanoch-pivens-artwork/#!133BwVik Muniz. Che. http://www.artandculture.com/users/4171-vik-muniz Tony Oursler: http://www.artattacksonline.com/post/57535227260/tony-oursler-for-decades-has-been-known-for-his

Watch Arcimboldoportraits on this websiteyou'll also find a bio andsome other info.http://www.abcgallery.com/A/arcimboldo/arcimboldo.html

Watch Vik Munizpictures on thiswebsite you will alsofind a bio and someother info.http://vikmuniz.net/

Watch HanochPiven portraits andillustrations on hiswebsite.

http://www.pivenworld.com/

Surf Tony Ourslerwebsite and seehis artwork.

http://tonyoursler.com/

Watch Chema Madozvisual poemson thiswebsite yand thinkabout them.

http://www.chemamadoz.com/

Watch this Youtubevideo on Hockneyexplaining where he gotthe idea for this collage.

http://youtu.be/sD123svCFHQ

IMAGE PURPOUSES AND PICTOGRAMS

Images can hold different purposes. All the images have more than one purpose, although usually mostimages have their main purpose or role.Informative images are images which main purpose is to transmitinformation, a good example are most of the images you can find innewspapers, those are meant to illustrate a story and they can beeither photos or drawings. But we cannot avoid thinking that anyphotographer would be interested in beauty and aesthetics, so thatcould be a second purpose for that type of image.Sometimes graphic journalists, photographers, don't have time to thinkabout aesthetic, composition or beauty and just take the picture all ofa sudden. I those cases there wouldn't be any other purpose but theinformative.

World trade center attack image, 2011:Image Source http://pinkunderbelly.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/worldtradecentersept2001.jpg

Aesthetic images are those meant more because of theirbeauty or at least with some exclusively visual objective. Apiece of artwork in a museum is the best example for anaesthetic purpose for an image. It is hard to give a definitionto the word aesthetic, it is related to beauty, but every imagenice looking or not transmits some sort of information, so wecould still say a aesthetic image is also informative.

The Birth of Venus. 1485. Sandro Boticelli.Image Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sandro_Botticelli_-_La_nascita_di_Venere_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Hortatory, also exhortative, exhortatory and hortative, is a purpose for images ormessages that encourage us to do something. The most common images with thispurpose are advertising images. Even us not being aware of it (subconsciously), theyuse color theory, composition rules and the Gestalt laws to achieve their goals. Sowe could wonder, any time we see an ad we should, if an advertising image shouldbe more informative or descriptive rather than hortatory as a main purpose...Indicative images are usually simplified pictures that try to give us directions or short informationabout how to behave or how to act in certain circumstances. A common example of those are "thewoman" and "the man" on the restrooms doors, or some road signs that might also be hortatory ata time.

Page:4 of 4

PICTOGRAMS:

National Park Service sample pictographsImage source:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:National_Park_Service_sample_pictographs.svg

Egyptian hieroglyphs.Image source:http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egypt_Hieroglyphe4.jpg

A pictogram is a figurative drawing or picture,usually a silhouette, representing a word,sound or idea. Pictograms are the earliestform in the evolution of a system of writing.An example is the ancient Egyptian writingcalled hieroglyphs. This method ofcommunication is still used today by certaincivilisations including Chinese, Japanese,and American Indians.

Pictograms are ideograms that convey their meaningthrough their pictorial resemblance to a physical object.That is why they can often transcend languages in thatthey can communicate to speakers of a number oftongues and language families equally effectively, evenif the languages and cultures are completely different.This is why road signs and similar pictographic materialare often applied as global standards expected to beunderstood by nearly all.

STOP