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YEAR 9 ENGLISH,
TERM 2 2019
WHAT IS VISUAL LITERACY?
• Visual literacy is the skill of interpreting visual information to understand the story or
message being given.
• Visual literacy concerns how meaning is made in still and moving image texts.
• Visual literacy involves closely examining diverse visual texts across a range of text types.
• Text types include: non-fiction, textbooks, picture books, art, advertisements, posters,
graphic novels, comic strips etc.
VISUAL LITERACY – THE GRAMMAR OF VISUAL DESIGN
• Angles • Participants
• Colour and tone • Positioning
• Composition • Quadrants
• Foreground, mid-ground, background • Rule of thirds
• Framing • Salience
• Gaze • Shapes
• Illustrator • Size and scale
• Juxtaposition • Style
• Mood • Symbolism / Motif
• Omissions • Vectors / reading paths
ANGLES
• Angle refers to the vertical placement of an imagined camera relative to the important elements in the
scene.
• High angles make the observed people or objects seem small or overpowered by the viewer. Often
used to show a dominant characters perspective.
• Low Angles make the observed people or objects seem large and important or powerful.
• Eye level is used to establish a neutral or natural view.
• Colour is used both to create convincing images and suggest particular moods or feelings.
• Can mix darker colours for negative feelings or lighter colours for happier feelings.
• Colours are symbolically associated with feelings (as already discussed in previous presentation).
• Sometimes bright colours are contrasted against darker colours to highlight the object and its significance.
• Composition within the picture determines the amount of information given to the viewer as well as
sometimes signaling a social relationship with the viewer.
• Term used to describe what you CAN SEE on the page and linked to Framing. One opposite of
composition is Omissions (what you CAN’T SEE – a term we explore later in these lessons)
• Includes Shot distance – long, mid or close
• Shot distance refers to the distance of an imagined camera from the scene. The greater the distance the
more you see but in less detail.
Questions to ask yourself
• How has the picture been composed or shot?
• What is the effect of this composition or shot?
COMPOSITION
LONG SHOT COMPOSITION
• Pictures can be split into three parts: Foreground, Mid-Ground and Background
• They are controlled by perspectives.
• What is in the foreground is often considered more important than what appears in the
background.
• Background – Back
• Mid-Ground - Middle
• Foreground - Forward
FOREGROUND, MID-GROUND, BACKGROUND
FRAMING
• Framing is how text and image may frame each other i.e. image cropping or shapes of images
• The illustrator decides what they would show the viewer in each of these frames.
• Framing also determines the position of the text and images
Questions to ask yourself
• What shape is the scene? (Square, rectangular, long, thin, tall, etc)
• What effect has this framing had?
• Has the author used borders or a framed page layout?
• How has the framing of elements across the page been used to convey meaning?
FRAMING
• Tan starts his paintings with thin layers of acrylic over white lines on a
dark background, working from dark to light and continuing with oil
for the final rendering.
• You can see the multi-media and assemblage techniques in many of his
illustrations which employ a stratified and multi-planed approach, with
areas broken into smaller images within a larger whole, unified by
textures and patterns playing across their surface.
• Tan also mixes design elements with more painterly areas, and also
works in a more straightforward painterly approach at times, creating
a fascinatingly varied array of work.
SHAUN TAN
INTERVIEW
• https://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=klM366mH5CQ&
JUXTAPOSITION
• Term used to describe what you CAN’T SEE. Opposite of Omissions is Compositions
(what you CAN SEE)
• Participants are the people or creatures who are part of the visual text.
• If a scene contains one or more characters then they are the participants
• Sometimes the participants might represent an idea or symbolise something
• Positioning refers to how participants are depicted – e.g. facing the viewer / turned away from the
viewer.
• Positioning also includes the direction in which a Participant is looking
• Positioning can also include Gaze
• Quadrants are parts of the whole scene broken into smaller parts for closer examination.
• For example you may divide one single scene into smaller sections or Quadrants so that you can
investigate all part of the scenes looking for clues about the participants, symbols, colours etc.
• Various compositions (placement of people or objects) can suggest particular reading paths. These paths guide
the eye in a certain direction around an image.
• Reading paths direct our gaze or cause our eyes to look in a particular direction
• Can be left to right or up and down. Could also be in circular motions
• The basic principle behind the rule of thirds is to imagine breaking an image down
into thirds (both horizontally and vertically) so that you have 9 parts.
• Illustrators sometimes use rule of thirds to determine where they will place important
parts of their pictures. This will either be along the lines or at the points where they meet.
Questions to ask yourself
• What do you see along the line or at the points where they meet?
• Is the image balanced? Do the lines show symmetry or and unbalanced approach?
• Do the lines break up the larger picture into smaller pictures?
SALIENCE
• Salience is the term used when a character, animal or object captures our attention, holds our eye or is
at the centre of what is happening.
• A strategy of emphasis, highlighting what is important in a text.
• In images, salience is created through strategies like placement of an item in the foreground, size and
contrast in tone or colour.
Questions to ask yourself
• What object or part of an object do you first look at?
• What object or part of an object holds your attention?
• How has salience been used to convey meaning?
SALIENCE
SHAPES
• Size and scale are used to highlight, or draw significance to a particular participants or
object of significance.
• Size and scale can be used to suggest importance or the overwhelming, or
underwhelming idea contrasted to the other objects or participants.
Questions to ask yourself
• Why has a participant or object been illustrated larger than the rest?
• Does a larger size or scale give greater importance to the object?
• How does the size and scale affect the storyline?
SIZE AND SCALE
STYLE
STYLE
STYLE
SYMBOLISM / MOTIF
• Symbols are items in an image that have a meaning on their own, or represent an item with particular
cultural meaning e.g. white dove.
• Symbols can be used to represent an object that has a different meaning to the one you first notice.
• Some symbols can be used to represent an allegorical story.
Questions to ask yourself
• Are there symbols or signs visible in the image?
• Are there items that have a meaning on their own, outside of the picture?
• How are these items used in the scene?
• What meaning do that add to the scene?
SYMBOLISM / MOTIF
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
• https://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/teachers/teachingresources/discipline/english/lite
racy/readingviewing/Pages/litfocusvisual.aspx
• https://static1.squarespace.com/static/50f36339e4b07e77c4681bee/t/5610b796e4b099e0
ea0c14ae/1443936150245/VisualLiteracyMetalanguage.pdf