Visual Literacy

Visual Literacy through

Miniature paintings of India

by-Shrishti Bhandari 19th December 2017 Mentor: Mr. Nilanjan Das Designing a tool to make people more visually literate today

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Visual Literacy Headline Sub head

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Understanding meaning of an image / a set of visual elements.

creator.

Visual elements consist of lines, colour, text, shape, form, texture, value, etc. which come together to make a composition through emphasis, balance, harmony, movement, proportion, rhythm, unity, variety and perspective.

They can tell stories, or give information to the viewer hence making communication quicker and easier.

These images are created for various purposes today, but earlier in India they were either used for putting forth information, telling stories, spreading messages or documenting things/ people Module around.

Today literacy is text centric, and has become a prominent culture in India, which involves no other senses than eyes and has very a limited recall value, because of which students these days don’t tend to remember a lot when they are taught something.

These visual elements are made with pre-requisite context to things around us. In today’s world, we send and receive images on a daily basis, with/without understanding their meaning. They create different kinds of impact on people’s minds. Interpretation of each of these visual elements is done differently by different people, it depends on the recall value of the subject created by the

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Indian history has a lot to learn from in terms of visual literacy when it comes to paintings, and this document will help us increase the ability to read visuals through Indian minature paintings amgonst interisted masses.

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Information

Value

Text + Images = Meaning to content

Form

Ease of access

Texture

Digital media

Ease to understand

Line Shape Colour

Recall value

Impact Effect Can change mood and emotion

Impact on memory

Communication

Icons

Know

Symbols

Understand

Imaes

Visual literacy

Analyse

Reaction

Interpret

Text

Looking

Vision

Clarity

Contect

Education

Involve senses Comments / Views

Text Centric

Smell Touch

Pre concieved understanding / knowledge

Culture

Thinking

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Miniature Paintings Understanding Indian Miniature Sub head paintings

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Ornamentation was an integral part of their lifestyle, where from hair to toes, everything had some or the other kind of jewelry. The characters were usually shown wearing dresses with slippers or shoes. The environment around them was all stylized from trees, rivers to animals and also furnishings like cushions, chairs, etc. Colors used in the composition were mainly black, white, red, brown, blue, yellow, and green.

Similarly, Mughals painted a blend of Indian Persian and Islamic style, they liked keeping a visual record of their deeds like hunting, wars, marriage, etc. They made portraits of Emperors and other important people and used colors like red, blue and green the most. And Rajput’s painted stories of Mahabharata and Ramayana using a very fine brush and vibrant colors.

Small paintings with intricate brush work, usually done for manuscripts to record religious practices, daily life and any other important happenings of the era.

Indian miniatures were made in different parts of India by different groups of people like the Vaishnavas’, Jains, Mughals and Rajput’s. The colors used usually were made of natural elements like minerals, vegetables, precious stones, indigo, conch shells, pure gold, silver etc. and were done on leaves of palm trees, paper or Module cloth.

Vaishnavas’ painted mostly side figures with skin color varying from brown, fair and blue for Lord Krishna. Hairs and eyes were painted with black, women were shown with long hair and men usually with turbans.

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Visual Hirarchy Emphasis Managing flow of information

Manuscripts

Intricate line work

Stories

Vaishnav’s/Hindu’s Jains Mughal’s Rajput’s

Detailed

Less space

Multiple scenes on one page Done for manuscripts

Small paintings Visual Literacy elements

Paints

of

Indian Miniature Paintings

Record life deeds

Cloth Paper Leaves

Show lifestyle practices

Style of illustration

Minerals Vegetables Precious stones Indigo Conch shells Pure gold Silver

Teaches colour harmoney

About religion and literary topics

Shows beliefs/ values and culture

Line Form Texture Shape Colour

Visual Textures Lines Shapes

Via material Value addition

Their view of themselves/ How they wanted people to see and remember them

Clarity

Elements of visual literacy by Indian miniarures

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Aim of the project

Headline

To make people literate to read miniature paintings and develop their skill to understand how a miniature painting is broken down to tell dierent things that happened in that era. This will make them aware of the kind of lifestyle and other important things that existed at that time, in turn making people sensitive towards history and heritage.

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About the project

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Each book is handy and easy to read, with less text in larger size which is easy to understand. Lined with few fun facts in each book, it’s a package of knowledge and entertainment for young minds which in future will have a basic understanding about our heritage opening them up to history from a fresher more fun perspective.

Launching a series of small 4-page books for children which tell them stories told by dierent paintings.

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The paintings are broken down in parts and made into a book where all the parts are divided and explained separately like a continuous story.

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National Museum of India, Delhi

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Target group

Headline

Children who have started schooling for 2-3 years and can read and understand basic English.

These children are exposed to different kind of activities like drawing, reading, painting, sports, etc. Their parents are keen on giving them exposure to different things like art and music which will increase their area of knowledge and interest in future.

These children like to know new things and like to explore and are curious about everything they see.

Age: 4-9years More than the children who will be engaging with the book it’s the parents who should be interested with what the book has to offer.

The parents of these children are people who take interest in cultural and arts activities and are keen on making their child engage with the same.

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