1ºESO
1st Term
Senses and visual perception
Senses get information from both the outside and the inside of the body, with the objective of survival and the satisfaction of its needs. The sensory organs are sensitive to the external or internal environment and send this information to the brain in the form of electrical impulses.
Perception is the complex and simultaneous elaboration of data provided by the senses.
Visual perception is the ability to interpret information about the environment provided by the effects of visible light (optical effect) that reaches the eye.
Elements of visual communication
Visual communication is the process of transmitting messages through images.
The following elements are involved in this process:
Channel: Communication medium through which messages are transmitted. It can be massive if it reaches multiple viewers simultaneously.
Sender: Person or group of people who want to communicate something. It gives the message a proper way for communication to succeed.
It can be a diffuse transmitter in the case of mass media (a newscast, for example).
Message: What you want to convey. It has a purpose or objective, what it is that it wants to achieve and a form adapted to it: content, form, colors, etc.
Receiver: People who receive that message and interpret it. The message must be adapted to the receiver to which it is addressed.
We talk about masses of receivers in the mass media.
Code: Signs and norms of the visual message. It must be shared by sender (-es) and receiver (-es). Visual codes are acquired through experience, education and culture.
Context: Time and space in which communication makes sense.
A road sign on the road or the pictogram on the restroom's door makes sense in it's place, but not if you exchanged them.
Tip: people with different subjectivities will see the same image differently.
Images functions
The language of comics
Comics is a series of drawings, which can include text, and tells a story sequentially (in time).
Its basic elements are:
Panel: Rectangular, square or variable, frame each of the successive scenes that make up a cartoon. It uses the usual types of framing in cinema and photography: detail, close-up, medium, American, general and general plans. They are usually separated with a blank called street. In the west they are read from left to right and from top to bottom.
Speech balloons: They collect the dialogues or expressions of the characters, pointing to those from which they come. According to their shape and outline, they indicate: speech, thought, dream, whisper, shout, etc.
Captions: Text box that usually works as a "voice-over" or narrator, serving to put us in action, time or place, or to link a panel with others in the narration.
Onomatopoeia: Words that mimic sounds, such as blows, screams, sirens, animals, etc. They vary depending on the language, which can be shocking to read comics in other languages whose onomatopoeia are not translated as they are drawn.
Visual metaphors: Visual resource that symbolizes an idea from a stereotyped image. For example heart = love, light bulb = idea, stars = KO, Emoticons, etc.
Kinetic lines: Strokes that indicate movement of objects and characters. Here are some examples.
There are different genres in comic, each with its tradition, formal aspects and themes.
Comic usually works with different types of characters, who usually start from the human figure, deforming it or turning it into a cartoon or with exaggerated and recognizable features. It is common to use stock characters recognizable by the public ("the bad" that makes a bad face and "the good" that makes a good face, for example).
Framing
The type of framing is the scale that occupies what is represented within the frame of the camera or film, the vignette of a comic or a drawing.
The framing has different meanings in visual communication, and its use depends on what you want to communicate. In a scene in which the emotions of the characters are important, we will prefer to see their faces and expressions. The right frame would be a close-up or even the extreme close-up. To see a general action, the advance of the troops in a battle or a sporting play, will be shown to us in a extreme long shot
This is a scheme of these uses:
2nd Term
Basic elements of the Visual Arts
Colour
3rd Term
Contents
1ª Ev.
2ª Ev.
3ª Ev.
