Archive for October, 2009

Visual Language. week 5.

{ October 27, 2009 @ 11:15 am } · { 1 }
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Week five was about “Digital Imaging”.

It’s important stuff, it’s all about the way images are portrayed on a screen (Computer, TV, Projector etc). The types of images we covered were  Bitmaps and their different image formats:

  • TIFF.(.tif)
  • BMP.(.bmp)
  • PICT.(.pct)
  • GIF.(.gif)
  • JPEG.(.jpg)

There are also other formats but these were the main ones that we looked at.

A bitmap is a graphic image, also known as a raster. It is a large grid with a lot of squares to form an image. Each of these little squares are called pixels, short for picture elements.

grid1_EMPTYgrid1_IMAGEgrid1_FILLED

Bitmaps are quite universal – almost any program can work with simple bitmap file formats, and they require little system overhead to properly display.

When you specify your monitor’s resolution, you  tell the computer how many pixels across by how many pixels high, to define the size of the grid  showing the image.

The resolution of the screen can be referred to as dots per inch (dpi). 72 dpi is the max for a computer screen. A resolution of 800×600 would be 800 pixels across by 600 pixels high, and therefore a resolution of 1024×768 is 1024 pixels across by 768 pixels high.

The next type of image format covered was the Vector.

Vectors aren’t composed of pixels, they consist of points, lines, and curves which, when combined, can form complex objects. These objects can be filled with solid colours, gradients, and even patterns. It’s point A, connected to point B by a line of some shape. The shape of that line is defined by a  mathematical description. The line that defines the vector shape is referred to as the path.

vector_linesvector_shape 2____________________________________________________________________________________________________

After learning about these graphic images, we had an overview of the Photoshop software, and were shown some online videos illustrating the programs uses. It is amazing how images and photos can be altered and enhanced with this program.  I am looking forward to having an opportunity to use it.

When the lecture was finished, our group (A) went to a class with Margaret and put together a short puppet show as part of  the creative side of the course. We had some time to put together a short theme and act it out using the puppets. I think everyone wants to be a puppeteer at some stage, so I enjoyed it although I suppose I could have done better with practice. It seemed that an element of violence seemed to be in everyone’s sketch. It may be that the Punch and Judy style of theatre is written in our psyche.

puppet

Grandad Puppet

Visual Language Week 4.

{ October 10, 2009 @ 12:19 am } · { 1 }
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IMG_0019In this weeks lecture I learned about the use of colours and how they relate to each other. I also learned about how the three Primary colours Blue Yellow and Red become Secondary colours when mixed together. Blue and Yellow becomes Green. Red and Yellow becomes Orange, and Red and Blue becomes Violet. Tertiary colours are produced when a primary colour is mixed with an adjacent secondary colour. Niamh then went on to explain about Hues and about the various types of complimentary colours.

After this she gave us a profile on the Russian painter Wasilly Kandisky. He was known as the father of “Abstract Art”. He wrote about colour in art: “Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand that plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul”. He felt that through colour he could give artistic form to ones inner nature, therefore giving a spiritual experience. He believed he could hear colour and see sounds  due to the phenomena of  Synaesthesia i.e. where the senses are not seperate fom each other, and there  is a direct transfer of reactions from one sense to another .

As a bit of a laugh, Niamh gave us a handout printed from the ehow website with the title: “How to use color and style to attract a man”. It was very funny.

When we went to the lab session, we put together our 60 image assignment. My images were of frogs. Here are some of the ones I did. I hope you like them, I really enjoyed doing this assignment and  even though I’m a fairly bad artist a great deal of encouragement was given by Margaret. So thanks  toIMG_0020 you to both Niamh and Margaret for your enthusiasm and encouragement, it’s much appreciated.

some frogs

some frogs

Visual Language. Week 3

{ October 4, 2009 @ 1:25 am } · { 1 }
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In this weeks lecture we were taught about the elements of visual language, point, line, texture, and pattern.

Here are some of the descriptions of these elements, which have been taken from the lecture notes. As I read through the notes about point, I couldn’t help saying to myself “wow! yeah that’s true”. It’s like your brain trying to solve little problems without you having any control over it. And when they say unavoidable, they mean it.

Point
Even if there is only one point or mark on a blank page the brain seeks to get meaning from it.
Our minds seek some kind of relationship or order, if only to use it as a point of orientation in relation to the outline of the page If there are two points, immediately the eye will make a
connection and “see” a line.
If there are three points, it is unavoidable to interpret them as a triangle; the mind supplies the connections. This compulsion to connect parts is known as grouping, or gestalt.

Just one of the affirmations of these principles is the way the stars have been grouped together and have been given names, such as the plough, or the great bear, or the southern cross. They are like a work of art in space. There are also other works of art made using only points, such as dot paintings and the body painting of aboriginal tribes. Another type of art known as pointillism was popular in France, in the late 1880s.

Line

A line is a mark made by a moving point, and having psychological impact according to its direction, weight, and the variations in its direction and weight.

Horizontal line suggests a feeling of rest or repose.

Vertical lines communicate a feeling of loftiness and spirituality.

Diagonal lines suggest a feeling of movement or direction.

Horizontal and vertical lines in combination communicate stability and solidity.

Jagged lines communicate anger or confusion.

These are just some of the feelings that line can communicate.

Pattern

Pattern and rhythm (also known as repetition) is showing consistency with colors or lines. Putting a red spiral at the bottom left and top right, for example, will cause the eye to move from one spiral, to the other, and everything in between. It is indicating movement by the repetition of elements.

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