Activities by Mary Erickson, Ph.D. with Arizona art teacher Jamie Watts, Ph.D. Reading Words and Pictures

Words are all around us. They are in the air above us, on the street corners and in our homes.

Look around. Where can you find words right now?

Words help us in many ways. They give us information, warn us about danger and try to get us to buy things.

Some pictures communicate all by themselves. Which message goes with each sign? Bike Path Hiking Trail Duck Crossing

Pictures and words together can communicate to us in our daily lives.

Many signs in our community have words and pictures. Each sign has to be understood quickly and easily.

This vintage neon sign tells customers that the motel has a swimming pool.

This sign uses words and pictures to tell people that the company fixes cars and boats.

What message do the pictures and words on this sign tell us?

What you think this sign is saying?

Read the word on the rest of the sign. Do the circles make more sense? Now the circles can be read as soap bubbles.

Which do you think are the strongest communicators in these signs? The words or the pictures?

Groups like schools and businesses can join pictures and/or words together to create a logo. A logo is a simplified picture that tells people who you are.

The city of Tempe logo combines the first letter of its name with a picture of the hot desert sun.

The city of Chandler’s logo combines its first letter with a picture of mountains, buildings and irrigated fields.

The city of Phoenix’s logo shows a mythical bird, called a “Phoenix.” The bird rose from the ashes of an earlier city. The city of Phoenix rose where an ancient Native American civilization once stood.

What do the words and pictures in these signs say ?

Does your school, neighborhood or city introduce itself with words and/or pictures?

North Tempe Multi-Generational Center Some businesses create logos that look like their building. Tempe Center for the Arts

Pictures can show things with lots of detail or only a few details. Which landscape is more simplified? Which shows more detail?

The tree on the left has more detail than the simple tree on the right.

How did the artist simplify the bird in the drawings? What detail did the artist leave out? What detail did he or she keep? This is a photograph of a black bird. These drawings are also black birds.

This photograph of a coyote shows many details such the different colors and textures in the animal’s fur. This cut-paper picture of a coyote is abstract because it simplifies the image. Can you identify the differences between the two coyotes?

Illustrators change and simplify images to tell a story. Now compare the cut-out of a coyote and the painting of a coyote by artist Shonto Begay. Which image is more realistic?

Artist Anne Coe starts with drawings to simplify her design. What does she do in the final painting to make it more realistic?

Artist Molly Idle worked as an animator and simplifies images with smooth lines. What does she do in the painting to make the images three-dimensional?

An illustrator’s image can tell a story alone. Look at another image by Anne Coe. What does this image tell you?

Now read the caption from this illustration in the book: Here is the Southwestern Desert. Can you find details in the painting you did not see before? “Here is the coyote that pounces on the squirrel….”

Thanks to the following authors and illustrators for the use of their images. Here is the Southwestern Desert by Madeleine Dunphy, illustrated by Anne Coe Hyperion Books for Children, Ma’ii and Cousin Horned Toad by Shonto Begay Scholastic Books, 1992 Nighty Night, Noah by Molly Scaar Idle Abingdon Press, 2008