Visual Structure Title: Picture This: How Pictures Work Illustrator: Molly Bang Publisher: Seastar, 1991 Story: Little Red Riding Hood Scene: Meeting the wolf in the woods

Create the forest

How can we make it scarier?

Too full – no room for Red Too many triangles Change it to:

We can’t see the tops of the trees – they appear to be huge Note: the vertical trees will contrast well with Red

How do we feel? Close to Red? Are we worried about her? How can we make it scarier?

Where will we put the wolf? Behind Red? Or move Red back?

How do we feel when we move her back? Do you feel as close to her as before? Why or why not?

We don’t feel as close to her. She’s farther away. How can we make the forest more threatening? What if we modify the position of the trees? 我們不覺得有像之前一樣靠近她 她離得更遠 我們要如何讓森林更險惡？ 如果我們改變樹的位置呢？

Now she feels trapped – as if she is in a prison. 現在她覺得陷入困境了－好像她被 關在監獄裡一樣

Now we need to introduce the wolf? Where shall we put him? What shapes should he be? 現在我們需要介紹大野狼 我們該把他放在哪裡？ 他該是什麼形狀呢？

He’s made of three triangles. Big triangles. What happens if we make the triangles smaller?

The wolf feels less threatening. What if we soften his corners?

Not as scary. What about if we change the color?

This color is related to her mother (in a previous slide that was not shown). Or else it looks like a ghost wolf.

Another problem is that the three colors (plus white as a fourth color) mean that the picture doesn’t feel unified.

The shapes and characters (Red, the trees, the wolf) do not feel like they are connected together. Let’s change him back to black.

What would make the wolf even scarier?

Teeth.

What about an eye? What color should the eye be?

Limiting herself to three colors – purple is the third color. So she tries a purple eye.

Still, it doesn’t seem scary enough. They eye isn’t focused on Red.

How can we make it scarier?

What about a red eye?

The red eye is now associated with Red.

How can we make it scarier?

The tongue in this picture draws Red down to the bottom of our visual field. It looks like she will be drawn to the wolf’s mouth.

How can we make it scarier? Suppose it is night-time. How can we make it appear as night-time?

We’ve lost the white contrast now. What in the picture would make the picture even scarier if it was white?

Red, the trees, the wolf, the eye, the teeth, or the tongue?

Now Red looks she is being pursued through a dark forest by a vicious wolf.

Exercise Think of an emotion you want to express (hope, joy, hate, love, sadness, worry, fear, etc.) Don’t tell anyone what the emotion is Think of a scene to represent this emotion

Pick three additional colors to white to represent this emotion Use scissors to cut simple shapes to portray the scene (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval) No pencils, pens or drawings allowed

What emotion have you portrayed? Hold up your picture so your classmates can guess! 你描繪了什麼情緒？ 拿著你的圖片這樣同 學才可以猜！

How a story is structured Narrative Structure –Characterization (Levi-Strauss, Barthes) –Plot (Propp, Barthes) Visual Structure –Color –Shape –Position

Words and pictures –Complementation? –Contradiction?

Close cooperation between words and text Symmetrical interaction – words and texts repeat each other Enhancing: enlarge the semantic range of meaning Complementation: Words and pictures make independent contributions to the same story line (Nikolajeva and Scott, 2000)

When words and text contradict each other Counterpointing – words and pictures contradict one another

Your picturebook Examine the picture book you brought today Who is the main character? What does s/he symbolize? What is the time frame? Where does the story begin and end? What is the story’s structure? Whose point of view is the story being told from?

Examine the colors in the book. How do they make you feel? What emotions do they represent? What shapes are used? What feeling does that give you? How is the space used? Who is standing in the front of the scene? Who is in the back? Why were those choices made?

Now contrast the narrative and the visual images. How detailed are the visual images? More or less detailed than the choice of words? Are the pictures and words complementary or contradictory? What effect does that have on you as the reader?

The Study of Narrative Structure Narratology: The study of story structure Fundamental idea: stories provide the initial and continuing means for shaping our experience