Line and shape Chapter 1 Flashcards
What has no dimension or scale?
A point
What are lines used for?
To portray the edges and contours of objects in visual space.
What is a line?
one dimensional element having a continuous extent of length but no breadth or thickness.
What is the most common form of pictorial representation?
Edges and contours
What are the most noticeable contours?
The ones that separate one thing from another
What is the purpose of contour drawing?
to develop visual acuity and sensitivity to qualities of surface and form
What is blind contour drawing?
Drawing of contours while looking only at the subject, not the surface upon which we are drawing or evolving the image.
Does blind contour drawing create results that look exactly like the subject? Explain.
No. BCD is used yo document the careful perception of the lines, shapes, and volumes of the subject.
What is modified contour drawing?
MCD starts out as BCD, but when there are breaks in planes, folds, or edges that disappear behind other edges, we can look at the paper, realign the pencil and start drawing again using the bcd technique
What is cross- contour drawing?
drawing lines as they would appear if drawn over the surfaces of an object. Where the surface is indented, the c.c. line indents. Where the surface is rises, the c.c. line rises.
What is a shape?
refers specifically to a 2-d area enclosed by its own boundaries and cut off from a larger field.
How do we organize and identify what we see?
By shape
Can a shape ever exist by itself? explain
No. It can only be seen in relation to other shapes or the space surrounding it.
Any line that defines a shape on one side of its contour……
carves out space on the other side of its path
What does’ “Figure ground” mean?
It is an essential concept in the ordering of our visual world. Without this differentiation of figure from ground, we would see as if through a fog.
A figure that we can see relatively clearly against a background is what?
A positive shape
A figure’s shapeless background is said to have what?
A negative shape
What do both Negative and Positive shapes share?
The same contour line
What is shape constancy?
Shape Constancy is the tendency to perceive an object as having the same shape regardless of its orientation or the angle from which we view it.
When we look head-on at a rectangular picture frame hanging on the wall, it appears as a rectangle. If we walk off of to the side and look at the frame from an angle, we still recognize that it’s in the shape of a rectangle, but really, from that angle, the image processed by our retina is that of a trapezoid. This is an example of?
Shape constancy
Focusing on negative shapes helps to prevent and allow what?
it helps to prevent thinking about what the positive shapes represent, but allow us to draw positive shapes as purely 2-d figures.
What is sighting?
a means of measuring by eye with the aid of several devices (eg. pencil, pen, 3” by 4” grid).
This man used a transparent grid to view his subjects to enhance acuity of his work. Who was he?
Albrecht Durer
How to find the midpoint of a shape or shapes using a pencil?
held out at arm’s length, the tip of the pencil should be touching the top edge of the shape, and the thumb should then be positioned at the estimated midpoint of the object.
How to make a linear measurement using a pencil?
Align the pencil’s tip with one end of the line we see and use the thumb to mark the other end. This is usually done on a short line so that longer lines are seen as multiples of that shorter line.
How to gauge angles using a pencil?
Align one end of an angled line with the vertical or horizontal reference line and visually gauge the angle between the two.
What type of figure ground relationship is easy to see?
when a figure floats isolated in a empty space. It stands out as a positive shape against an empty background
What type of figure ground relationship is more interactive?
when a figure crowds its background field or overlaps other figures in its field it begins to organize the surrounding space into recognizable shapes.
What type of figure ground relationship is more ambiguous and should it accidentally be done?
When figures and back grounds both have positive shape qualities, or when we render overlapping shapes transparently. This should only be done in INTENTIONALLY in certain situations. NOT accidentally.
What is Gestalt theory?
We tend to simplify what we see, organizing complex stimuli into simpler, more holistic patterns.
What are three types of groupings and their meanings?
Similarity- grouping things that share visual characteristics such as shape, size, color, alignment, or orientation.
Proximity- grouping things that are relatively close to each other and excluding those farther away.
Continuity- Grouping elements that continue along the same line or in the same direction
What is closure?
the tendency for an open or discontinuous figure to be seen as if it were a complete and stable shape. eg. Connecting the dots using virtual lines. Those lines are similar to the ones that complete a shape when part of the shape is hidden.
What principle can we use to prompt a viewer to mentally complete interrupted lines ? Can this principle be used to suggest shapes without drawing them? Would it lead to a more or less economical use of lines?
The principle is closure. It can be used to suggest shapes without drawing them which would lead to a MORE economical use of lines.
When the mind’s eye imagines and projects familiar images onto seemingly shapeless patterns until it finds a match, what is it doing?
Trying to find meaning. It attempts to complete an incomplete pattern or find a meaningful pattern embedded in a larger one, in accordance with what it already knows.
