Thursday, June 26, 2003

Direction When we look at an image our eye travels around the image frame. The amount of motion and type of motion, created by shapes and lines, will covey different emotional states and direction can create intensity. For example: Strong motion in all directions can create a sense of chaos. A shape's direction can be vertical, diagonal, or curved. A viewer looks along the vertical and then the horizontal axis. This is how we read the basic information of an image. Diagonal direction, therefore, usually makes an image less stable. It conveys a feeling of excitement, change, movement. diagonals are the most dynamic of directions -- creating a feeling of imbalance and motion. Culturally, we can read diagonals as graphs -- left to right -- with the right high being superior and the left low being inferior. A diagonal that runs left to right will convey a "downhill" motion. Curved direction can be unstable, but is more reassuring and safe. The amount of curve can relate to the emotions it conveys. Circles trap the eye in a continuous pattern and we read whatever is inside the circle as more important than what is outside the circle. Curves have a definate beginning and end, leading the eye in each direction. They add a feeling of "softness" to a composition. Triangles trap the eye as well within a sub-frame. This shape creates three different points to the image. A hierarchy is created by the highest point and relationships can be defined by the objects and the angles. Depth can convey direction as well. 10:51:46 PM

Shape Shapes are fundamental. We learn to dechiper them early and they guide much of our visual interpretation. We learn to recognize shapes as a kind of pictorial code. We read shapes in our environment constantly (signs, maps, pictures). Shapes can be outlines of objects, of composed of different parts of adjacent objects. They can be created in the gaps between objects and negative spaces. Negative spaces Circle, square, triangle, oval and rhombus. These are the elementary vocabulary of shapes. Shapes have become tied to emotional responses. 10:38:32 PM

Line The line is a simple and powerful visual tool. It is a visual record of a dot's travel through a visual plane. It creates motion. It creates direction with a purpose. Horizontal Lines create balance and orientation. (think of the visual horizon out your window). Diagonal Lines attract the eye by creating visual stress. This can create intrest and imply movement. Lines can create emotion by their shape, color, sharpness, boldness, visual movement. 10:31:55 PM

Dot Mathematics uses the concept of a "point" -- the dot is the physical representation of a point in space. Digital technologies bring the "dot" to the fore. Analog technologies are continuous, whereas digital technologies work by creating dots as the building blocks for graphic images and text. Our eyes create patterns through visual fusion When place together in patterns, dots create half tones which suggest continuous and solid values and hues. A dot in a composition can direct our eye to a specific place. It therefore can create stress or harmony, depending on where on a frame's natural access it is placed. Leveling: Placing a dot on a defined axis. Draws the eye to the axis and creates harmony. Sharpening: Place a dot far off a strong axis, creates visual stress. 10:26:33 PM

See the illuminated manuscripts Web Gallery of Art Medieval Manuscripts 2:14:02 AM

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