1st term

Escola Mare de Déu del Carme

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INDEX

1.VISUAL SYSTEMS AND PERCEPTION Basic concepts about form 4 Skecht and stereotyped drawings Basic structures of shapes 5 Shape, silhouette, dintorno, outline& size. Expressive values in colour and texture 6 Primary colours 6 The stereotype of colours 7 texture 7 2.Visual Arts Language: Shape 9 Organic shapes and geometric shapes 9 Positive and negative shapes 10 Two-Dimensional - flat shapes 10 Three dimensional shapes 10 Language of the visual Arts and geometry 11 Point, lines Shape perception 12 Gestalt Principles of Organization 12 Shapes relationship 14

3.Visual Arts Language: Colour 16

Additive colour mixing Subtractive colouring

The colour wheel 17

Colour Properties 19

Hue, value, tints, shades, tones, saturation & lightness Munsell colour system 21 Colour harmonies 22 Basic techniques for creating colour schemes 22 Colours: Importance in Visual Communication 24 Resources index 27

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1.VISUAL SYSTEMS AND PERCEPTION

There is something about the ability to interpret the surrounding environment by processing information that is

contained in visible light. This resulting perception or vision and its various physiological components are referred to

collectively as the visual system. This is the focus of much research in psychology, cognitive science, neuroscience

and molecular biology.

“Perception is an active process of locating and extracting information from the environment and learning is the

process of acquiring information through experience and storing information. Thinking is the manipulation of

information to solve problems.”

Visual information processing refers to the visual cognitive skills that allow us to process and interpret meaning

from the visual information that we gain through our eye sight.

Basic concepts about form

Form, in art, means the whole of a piece's visible elements and the way those elements are united. In this context,

form allows us as viewers to mentally capture the work, understand it and

attempt to analyse it.

Form refers to the visible elements of a piece, independent of their meaning.

For example, when viewing Leonardo's Mona Lisa, the formal elements

therein are: colour, dimension, lines, mass, shape, etc., while the feelings of

mystery and intrigue the piece evokes are informal products of the viewer's

imagination.

Visual discrimination is the ability to be aware of the distinctive features of

forms including shape, orientation, size, and colour.

A sketch is painting or drawing capturing the essence of an object or scene,

giving an idea or outline of it or simply a part thereof. Any medium can be

used for sketching, though pencil, pen, and watercolour are the most commonly used. There's no rule for the size a

sketch needs to be either, sketchbooks range from pocket-size upwards. Usually they're smallish to make carrying

them around easier.

Stereotypes drawings are a conventional and oversimplified images.

The most frequently occurring stereotypes are the stick figure, the landscape, the pine tree….

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Basic structures of shapes

Shape is the external appearance of a clearly defined area with a specific form

and nothing inside.

Silhouette: Is a two dimensional representation of the outline of something filled

in with a solid colour.

Dintorno: Is the intermediate part of a figure or shape. It is usually formed

by dots, lines, textures and colours.

Outline: drawing is a ketch represented with contour lines only

without shading

Size: Refers to variations in the proportions of objects, lines or shapes. There is a variation of sizes in objects either

real or imagined. Rather than endlessly comparing one thing to another, most cultures agree on systems of

measurement that help to establish clear dimensions of an object.

Equal or identical : The figure is exactly alike.

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Similar: The figure is having a likeness or showing resemblance in qualities, characteristics, or appearance but not in

size.

Expressive values in colour and texture

Primary colours

In theory, the Primary Colours are the root of every other hue imaginable.

The primary pigments used in the manufacture of paint come from the

pure source element of that Hue. There are no other pigments blended in

to alter the formula.

The commonly used subtractive primary colours are cyan, magenta and

yellow, and if you overlap all three in effectively equal mixture, all the light

is subtract.

When you combine any two of the Pure Primary

Hues, you get three new mixtures called

Secondary Colours.

When you mix a Primary and its nearest

Secondary on the Basic Colour Wheel you create

six new mixtures called Tertiary colours.

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The stereotype of colours

Similarly to what happens with stereotyped forms, we also apply it to the colours, the sea is blue , lips are red, trees

are always green…. We often simplify our surroundings but if you look you will see that the reality is more nuanced

Texture

Texture is defined as the tactile quality of the surface of an object--how it feels if touched. But it is so much more

than that. Texture, is another element of art, is used to describe

either the way a three-dimensional work actually feels when

touched, or the visual "feel" of a two-dimensional work.

Tactile texture:

Is the actual 3D feel of a texture: Tactile means touch. Painters

like Van Gogh used sand in their paint to get a texture on their

painting.

Vincent Van Gogh,fritillaries in a copper vase 1887, Musee d’Orsay.

Visual texture:

Refers to the illusion of the surface´s texture. It is what tactile

texture looks like. The texture you see in a photograph are visual

textures. No matter how rough objects in the photograph look, the

surface of the photograph is smooth and flat. Visual texture is an

illusion of texture created by an artist.

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We can also divide texture in another category:

Natural texture. It's the texture we find and it is not made by humans. For example: stones, sand, grass, etc.

Tactile - regular Tactile – irregular Visual – irregular

Artificial texture. It's the texture from things made by humans.

An artist (or a designer) recognizes that different textures can affect interest in different ways. Some surfaces are

inviting and some are repellent and so are the textures that suggest those surfaces. Using different textures can

increase interest in a composition by adding variety without changing colour or value relationships.

Visual – regular Tactile - regular Tactile - irregular

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2.Visual Arts Language: Shape

Shape is a flat area surrounded by edges or an outline. Artists use all kinds of shapes. Geometric shapes are precise

and regular, like squares, rectangles, and triangles. They are often found in human-made things, like building and

machines while biomorphic shapes are found in nature. These shapes may look like leaves, flowers, clouds—things

that grow, flow, and move.

Like lines, we see shapes all around us. One of the

easiest ways to see the shape of an object is to look

at shadows.

Shadows flatten a three dimensional object into a flat

shape. This enables you to see the object in a

different way, without details like colour and texture.

Kate Edson, Circles galore, September 2011.

Organic shapes and geometric shapes

Organic or biomorphic shapes are the type you see in

nature. The term biomorphic means: life-form (bio=life

and morph= form). Biomorphic shapes are often rounded

and irregular,

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Geometric shapes are mathematically determined.

Positive and negative shapes

Positive shapes are the shape of the actual object (like a

window frame). Negative shapes are the spaces in between

objects (like the space within the window frame).

Positive shapes occupy positive space. The area around positive

shapes, the background, is negative space. A solid piece of

sculpture occupies space, and makes the space around it come

to life. In fact, sculptors think of the entire composition, the

interplay between solid and space, when they create a work of

art.

Two-Dimensional - flat shapes

A shape that only has two dimensions (such as width and height) and no thickness. Plane

figures are flat two-dimensional (2D) shape. A plane figure can be made of straight lines,

curved lines, or both straight and curved lines.

Three-dimensional. An object that has height, width and depth.

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Language of the visual Arts and geometry

To see where geometry and art intersect, an understanding of some fundamental concepts is key. The visual arts and

math share a vocabulary, though there often multiple terms for the same concept.

Artist use basics components (often called the elements of art) to create a work of art. The principles of design, such

as perspective and proportion, are used by to arrange the elements of their artworks and to create certain effects.

Point

The point is the first and simplest element of visual design. The point serves as the focus of a visual, highlighting or

drawing attention to important information.

Several points in combination may represent a more complicated object or idea.

Seurat, La Parade de Cirque. 1888. Metropolitan Museum of Art, EE.UU.

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A series of points can attract attention, especially as they move closer together.

Lines:

A line can be thought of as points so close together that they lose their individual identity and form a new entity.

Lines can vary in width, length, curvature, colour or direction. A line can be where a drawing starts or lines can tie

everything together in a work of art. You’ll also see Works of art that reveal lines in the world around us, and pattern

and texture created by line.

Andreu Alfaro Núvol i cadira, 1990 © Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona

Shape perception

Composition refers to the way objects are arranged relative to each other and relative to the frame. Composition

serves multiple purposes, from improving the harmony of the painting to helping understand the scene. Harmony is

influenced by the way objects in the painting relate to each other, how similar repetitive patterns group together

and how some figures segregate from the background.

Shapes serve many purposes in visual images. Value, texture, and colour help us see different shapes.

Gestalt Principles of Organization

Our experience of the world is quite organized. That is, in spite of the fact that our visual experience is based on the

building blocks of receptive fields of varying complexity, we don't experience receptive fields. Instead we perceive

objects such as people, desks, etc. What happens to the visual input between receptive fields and objects? The

answer to that seemingly simple question is quite complex. One piece of the answer may lie in the Gestalt

organizational principles.

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Below you will see figures that illustrate a number of these principles.

Proximity: we organize nearby objects together. Thus, you should see columns

because the dots in columns are closer than the dots in rows.

Similarity: We organize together objects that are similar in shape. Thus, you

should see rows instead of columns.

Closure: We organized lines to create whole figures when possible. Thus, you should

organize the figure this figure as a square in spite of the gap.

Good continuation: We organize lines to minimize abrupt changes. Thus you

should see the curved line as one, with a straight diagonal line cutting through it.

Good figure: It states that every stimulus pattern is seen in such a way that the resulting structure is as

simple as possible. This means that the viewer will always try to organize the elements of a design into the

simplest pattern possible. A cross that is overlapping a triangle is seen as two simple overlapping shapes,

rather than a single more complex polygon.

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Familiarity:The law of familiarity states that visual elements are more likely to form a

group if that group of elements appears meaningful or familiar. If the individual forms

of a design create a larger, more recognizable form, then those forms are grouped

together. If a rectangle and a triangle are arranged in such a way that they resemble

the form of a house, then those shapes are seen as a group.

Figure/ground: refers to the relationship between positive elements and negative

space. The idea is that the eye will separate whole figures from their background in

order to understand what’s being seen. It’s one of the first things people will do

when looking at any composition.

Shapes relationship

The different characteristics of a shape convey different moods and meanings (.doc file). Changing the

characteristics of a shape alter how we perceive that shape and make us feel differently about a design.

Shapes are a powerful way to communicate.

The shapes we normally perceive are not isolated but interrelated to each other.

Distance

Contact

Overlapping

Opacity transparency

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Addition

Subtraction

Penetration

Intersection

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3.Visual Arts Language: Colour

Colour is the element of art that is produced when light, striking

an object, is reflected back to the eye.

Isaac Newton’s Colour Wheel

Our modern understanding of light and colour begins with Isaac Newton

(1642-1726) and a series of experiments that he publishes in 1672. He is

the first to understand the rainbow — he refracts white light with a

prism, resolving it into its component colours: red, orange, yellow,

green, blue and violet.

Additive colour mixing

Charles Augustus Young showed with an experiment called additive

synthesis of colour that we could obtain white light by mixing the three light

colours fully saturated that are green, red and blue. Adding red to blue

yields magenta, adding blue to green yields cyan blue and adding red to

green yields yellow; adding all three primary colours together yields white.

Subtractive colouring

The colour that a surface displays comes from the parts of the visible spectrum that are not absorbed and therefore

remain visible.

Without pigments or dye, fabric fibres, paint base and

paper are usually made of particles that scatter white

light (all colours) well in all directions. When a pigment or

ink is added, wavelengths are absorbed or "subtracted"

from white light, so light of another colour reaches the

eye.

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When we work with pigments or inks, the more colours we mix, the

more light is absorbed until we reached Black. This is called subtractive

mixture, which is the opposite of additive synthesis of colour. The

primary colours of subtractive mixture are yellow, magenta and cyan.

All three together mixed give Black.

The colour wheel

A colour circle, based on red, yellow and blue, is traditional in the field of art.

Sir Isaac Newton developed the first circular diagram of colours in 1666. Since

then, scientists and artists have studied and designed numerous variations of

this concept. Differences of opinion about the validity of one format over

another continue to provoke debate. In reality, any colour circle or colour

wheel which presents a logically arranged sequence of pure hues has merit.

There are also definitions (or categories) of colors based on the color wheel. We begin with a 3-part color wheel.

Primary Colours: Red, yellow and blue.

In traditional colour theory (used in paint and pigments), primary colours

are the 3 pigment colours that cannot be mixed or formed by any

combination of other colours. All other colours are derived from these 3

hues.

Secondary Colours: Green, orange and purple.

These are the colours formed by mixing the primary colours.

Tertiary Colours: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple,

blue-green & yellow-green.

These are the colours formed by mixing a primary and a secondary colour.

That's why the hue is a two word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange.

Primary colours secondary colours Tertiary colours

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Complementary colours

Colours that are opposite each other on the colour wheel are considered to be

complementary colours (example: red and green).

The high contrast of complementary colours creates a vibrant look especially when

used at full saturation.

Complementary colours

Complementary colours

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Colour Properties

Hue: Is the term for the pure spectrum colours commonly referred to by the

"colour names”, is what we call any colour that can be plucked, in a pure

state, out of the light spectrum.

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Value: is defined as the relative lightness or darkness of a colour. It is an important

tool for the designer/artist, in the way that it defines form and creates spatial

illusions. Contrast of value separates objects in space, while gradation of value

suggests mass and contour of a contiguous surface.

Tints, Shades, and Tones

These terms are often used incorrectly, although they describe fairly simple colour concepts. If a colour is made

lighter by adding white, the result is called a tint. If black is added, the darker version is called a shade. And if grey is

added, the result is a different tone.

Tints - adding white to a pure hue:

Shades - adding black to a pure hue:

Tones - adding grey to a pure hue:

Saturation

Saturation is a colour term commonly used by imaging experts. It defines a range from pure colour (100%) to grey

(0%) at a constant lightness level. A pure colour is fully saturated.

From a perceptional point of view saturation influences the grade of purity or vividness of a colour/image. A

desaturated image is said to be dull, less colourful or washed out but can also make the impression of being softer.

SATURATION

SATURATED SATURATED

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Lightness

Lightness is usually one property of three when used to determine a

certain colour and measured as percentage value.

Lightness defines a range from dark (0%) to fully illuminated (100%).

Any original hue has the average lightness level of 50%.

A painter might say lightness is the range from fully shaded to fully

tinted. You can lighten or darken a colour by changing its lightness

value.

Munsell colour system

Albert Henry Munsell (6 January 1858 – 28 June 1918) was an

American painter, teacher of art, and the inventor of the Munsell

colour system. The function of Value is to tell us how light or how dark

a given colour is. For this purpose we shall need a scale of Value,

which we may conceive as a vertical pole, or axis, to our circle of Hues.

Black is at the lower end, representing total absence of light. White is

at the top, representing pure light. Between these are a number of

divisions of grey, regularly graded between black and white. This

gradation could also be infinite. Since pure black is unattainable, we

will call that 0 and begin our scale with the darkest grey as 1,

numbering the steps up to 9, which is the lightest grey. Pure white,

which is also unattainable, we will call 10. In the practical use of the

scale of Value, therefore, we shall have but 9 steps and the middle

one of these will be 5 - what is referred to as Middle Value.

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Colour Harmonies

Harmony can be defined as a pleasing arrangement of parts, whether it be music, poetry or colour.

In visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It engages the viewer and it creates an inner

sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it's either boring or chaotic.

Colour harmony delivers visual interest and a sense of order.

Basic techniques for creating colour schemes

Analogous colour scheme

Analogous colour schemes use colours that are next to each other on the

colour wheel. They usually match well and create serene and comfortable

designs.

Analogous colour schemes are often found in nature and are harmonious and

pleasing to the eye.

“Harmonias y colores” Lola Tajahuerce

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Triadic colour scheme

A triadic colour scheme uses colours that are evenly spaced around the colour

wheel.

Triadic colour schemes tend to be quite vibrant, even if you use pale or

unsaturated versions of your hues.

To use a triadic harmony successfully, the colours

should be carefully balanced - let one colour dominate and use the two others for accent.

Colour Context

How colour behaves in relation to other colours and shapes is a complex area of colour theory. Compare

the contrast effects of different colour backgrounds for the same blue square.

Observing the effects colours have on each other is the starting point for understanding the relativity of

colour. The relationship of values, saturations and the warmth or coolness of respective hues can cause

noticeable differences in our perception of colour.

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Warm and cool colours

The colour circle can be divided into warm and cool colours.

Warm colours are vivid and energetic, and tend to advance

in space.

Cool colours give an impression of calm, and create a

soothing impression.

White, black and grey are considered to be neutral.

Joaquim Mir.-primavera.-Montserrat

Colours: Importance in Visual Communication

Colour is one of the most fascinating things in the world. It attracts attention, evokes emotion and can trigger the

memory. Colour is one of the most important elements of a composition, be it painting, photography, film or 3D

rendering. Colour plays a critical role in our everyday life. Colour can sway thinking, change actions, and cause

reactions. Colour can attract any individual’s attention or change their mood. It can cause irritation or soothe your

eyes.

Colour in direction, signage, and signal

Colour is closely related to the behaviour patterns of society, such as

giving instructions to a department and warnings. Traffic light stop signal

instructed in red. Caution signs in yellow, and go with the colour green.

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Of some colours that have been implemented, we can review those aspects of the nature of colour

appearance. Red, orange, and yellow are hot, look more prominent and stimulating. The meanings of these

colours are a danger warning and caution. While the colours green, blue and violet are cool-looking shade

that is passive and silent. The significance of these warnings is a safe state.

Colour symbolism

Colour association is a very important factor in visual communication. The correct use of colour requires careful

analysis of the experience and expectations of the viewer. You should be careful about colour connotations and

should respect existing cultural and professional usage. We learn colour associations from the culture in which we

live.

Colour symbolism can vary dramatically between cultures. If your audience includes people of cultures other than

your own, make an effort to understand what meanings those cultures associate with colour.

For example: In certain eastern cultures "red" may be considered as a positive colour and on the other hand

in Western cultures the same colour may suggest danger (stop signal in traffic lights).

Traditional weddings: China Spain

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The meaning of colours

The meaning of colours can

vary depending on culture and

circumstances. Understanding

the meaning of colours as well

as the cultural use of colour

and how colours interact is

important in print and design

(and other fields) in order to

convey the right tone, message,

and evoke the desired

response. Colours are non-

verbal communication. They

create a physical and emotional

reaction.

Synesthesia is a condition in which one sense (for example, hearing) is simultaneously perceived as if by one or more

additional senses such as sight. Another form of synesthesia joins objects such as letters, shapes, numbers or

people's names with a sensory perception such as smell, colour or flavour. The most common form, coloured letters

and numbers, occurs when someone always sees a certain colour in response to a certain letter of the alphabet or

number.

Aura is a concept album by Miles Davis,1989, The main theme consists of 10 notes, yielded by the letters

"M-I-L-E-S-D-A-V-I-S" The following 9 movements of the suite represent the colours Mikkelborg sees in

Miles's aura.

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Resources index

LACMA Evenings for Educators: GEOMETRY AND ART SYMMETRY, BALANCE, SCALE, Rachel Bernstein and

Eunice Lee

http://formulate.com.au/ Perception and the design of forms – Part 1: Shape

Steven Bradley, The Meaning Of Shapes: Developing Visual Grammar,2010

http://www.colortheoryresearchmunsell.blogspot.com.es/

http://www.workwithcolor.com/color-properties-definitions-0101.htm

http://www.maacindia.com/blog/index.php/colors-importance-in-visual-communication/

http://vcampus.uom.ac.mu/vciltproject/IT_proficiency/Site/htmlfiles/viscom/colour1.htm

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