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
Spatial zone
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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