How Pictures Work

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How Pictures Work

• A brief how-to based on the
• work of Molly Bang

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This lesson is about how visual images make
meaning. Or, how we make meaning from visual
images. However you want to put it. In it, you
will go through a series of slides, some with
pictures and some with explanations or
instruction. Some will ask you to think about
what youre looking at. Please, seriously
please, do so. Its important that you think
about how the images affect you. There isnt a
right or wrong, so go ahead and see what you
think. Often many people agree about these
things, and the common view may be mentioned,
so its important for you to get your own
thoughts figured out first.
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• First, get out your notebook.
• Then, write down these three terms
• Context
• Composition
• Compositional Elements
• Definitions are on the next slides.

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• Context
• When we talk about context in relation to a text,
  we are talking about outside influences on the
  text, things that influence our thoughts or
  feelings about the text, and that maybe help us
  analyze it, too.
• For instance, if we see Jim Carey in a movie, we
  bet its genre is comedy, even before he does
  something funny. This is because of an outside
  influence - we know that he has made other comedy
  movies, so we expect that. Other contexts that
  typically come up include
• When a text was made, e.g. songs from the 60s /
  hippie music
• When we encounter the text, e.g. on a date vs.
  with our parents
• What is going on in the world at the time, for
  instance the Gulf War
• Advertising for the text, or controversies about
  it, like protests of The Laramie Project

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Composition Composition is kind of the opposite
of context. Context looks exclusively outside
the text. Composition looks exclusively at the
text itself. What is the text like? What parts
does it have? How are they put together? What
media is the text in? How big is it? These are
all composition questions. When we talk about the
composition of a text, we arent talking about
what it means. Sure, the compositional elements
help determine the meaning, but when we talk
composition, we are just talking about the text
itself. Not our interpretations. Not our
feelings. Not what we think it is.
Nothing. This is very useful when we do analyze.
What we really want to be able to do is describe
the compositional elements and explain how they
lead us to an interpretation of the text.
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• Compositional Elements. Here are some examples
  for visual texts
• Color
• Contrast
• Size
• Shape
• Spatial Arrangement
• Symmetry
• When we talk about the composition, we are
  talking about elements like this.
• Now lets put this to work.

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Take a couple minutes to write about this
picture. First, say some things about the
composition. Look back at the list of elements
and see if you can use them. Next, try to tell
what you think is going on in this picture.
Whats the story?Go to the next slide when
youre done writing.
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The story going on there is Little Red
Ridinghood. Get it? When Molly Bang wrote this
book, she worked hard to try to figure out what
shapes and colors would tell the story best. We
want you to think about this, too. Look at the
next slide. What impressions does the shape give
you? Think for a second. Then compare it to the
slide following it.
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How do the two shapes compare? Which is
cooler? Which one is more boring? Which is more
dynamic or energetic? Which is more huggable?
Why? Why do you suppose the triangle was chosen
for Little Red Ridinghood? Now, lets think
about the mother. Consider the following several
slides.
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This could represent mother and daughter. But,
how motherly does the big triangle seem?
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How about now? The author thought the rounded
corners made the figure more gentle and mom-like.
But, think about the color.
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The author thought red was too energetic for the
mom. Plus, moms and daughters arent exactly the
same. She chose Purple because it was related to
red.
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• The author thought red was too energetic for the
  mom. Plus, moms and daughters arent exactly the
  same. She chose Purple because it was related to
  red, but not the same.
• But why red in the first place. Well, 2 kinds of
  reasons
• Literal its Little Red Ridinghood, after all.
  Just like the triangle kind of looks like a hood
  or a cape like she wears, red is red like she is.
• Figurative Red represents danger, and the girl
  is in danger. Also, it is an energetic color,
  the color of blood and life and fire. All of
  these meanings are kind of going on at the same
  time, and its up to us to sort out which ones to
  pay attention to. Context helps us do that.

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So. Weve seen that size means something - bigger
for mom. And shape means something - less point
for motherly. And color means some things. Now,
lets look at contrast and spatial
arrangement. In the previous frame, Mom gives her
the basket. The color is black to contrast with
the other colors. It stands out. Its clearly
something different that the other two
shapes. Note how the basket is tilted, also.
This implies motion, that mom is handing it off.
If it were level, it wouldnt have that feeling.
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There were 3 choices for trees. The first seemed
too simple. Compositionally, it was triangles,
too, which might have confused the issue with
Little Red. The second was more obviously tree
like, which was okay in its way. But, it also
looked like an overhead view, and there wouldnt
be much room for our heroine in the
picture. Now, look at the next 4 slides. See
how changing the size and spatial arrangement of
LRR affects your feelings about the picture.
Which one is more scary? Shes supposed to be in
danger, after all.
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There is a sort of consistency or symmetry to the
tree trunks. They all go straight up and
down. Now, look at the next slide. Not too much
has changed, but what difference does it make?
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• The author said these things
• When everything is straight up and down or
  sideways, things seem stable.
• When things are at an angle, they seem in motion.
  This is important, and we saw the same idea with
  the basket earlier.
• Note also that things seem scarier, too. This
  forest could fall on the girl.
• Plus, looking at the picture, there is a lot of
  open white space for her to move into as she
  comes forward. She looks cut off from going
  backwards, though.
• Now, look at the next 10 pictures. We meet the
  wolf. Which ones seem scarier? Why? Which not
  so scary? Why?

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• Just a few notes
• Smaller wolf might have been more creepy /
  sneaky, but probably not so dangerous.
• Purple wolf what a joke. Not scary at all.
• Wolf with round corners? Looks like a sock
  puppet.
• Did you think the purple eye was ridiculous?
• What did you think about the triangle eye? Look
  at that one again and think about your reaction.
• Next, we add some more to the wolf. See what you
  think.

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The tongue makes it look less like a silhouette.
This may be good or bad, but the author liked
it. One thing it really does, though, is make the
wolf stand out more from the background - you
cant se the tree trunk through his mouth any
more. Note also the use of red. It seems
associated with LRR by color, and the red is
literal for the tongue. Also, though, it is
demonic for the eye - thats the color of eyes
devils have, and teacher typing up PowerPoints
late at night. Now, look at this change in
background. Why? Whats up with that?
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Finally, the author decided to sue some more
contrast on the teeth. This is maybe kind of
literal, but I bet real wolf teeth are more
grungy yellow unless they get regular milkbones.
White does make us think of teeth, though, and
there is a lot of contrast. Do you like the
change?
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Okay. Now, youve had a chance to think about a
lot of compositional elements and how they work
to make meaning. We may still need the context
to figure out the story completely, but the
images get us close. Even without knowing what
the story was, you could have guessed that a wolf
was after something from the first picture you
saw. YOUR ASSIGNMENT is to make ONE frame of a
story most people will know. Use simple shapes
like were used here. You can do this on a
computer, with crayons, by cutting up
construction paper whatever. It should be in
color, though. (You could print empty shapes in
BW and then color them if you wanted.) Then,
write a 1-pager (300 words, claim and evidence)
to explain WHY you made the choices you did.
I.e., why did you chose the shapes, the colors,
the contrast, the arrangements that you did?
Your reasons shouldnt be ALL figurative or ALL
literal - go for a mix of both.