Could someone please pass the gestalt?

Gestalt Psychology puts forth that a person's brain tends toward ordering things in a logical, organized way (this is termed "pragnanz"--seeing things in a concise way). This comes into play in illustrations because, for example, a person's brain will tend to connect lines that aren't actually drawn connected or see warmly colored things standing out and coolly colored things receding into the background. People also feel a sense of accomplishment when they are able to pick up on visual clues or puzzles (like brainteasers or optical illusions) and then solve them. Gestalt Psychology says that the whole (which is the puzzle that has been solved--the image that a person's brain picks up on) is greater than it's parts (three simple black lines can form the image and ideas in a person's brain that the lines are the Loch Ness Monster bobbing up and down in the murky Scottish waters).
Parts of Gestalt Psychology:
1. Emergence-Brain puts together dashes or dots or shapes to form them into a recognizable image (dog picture).
2. Reification- The negative space of shapes can create a whole "new" shape between them (triangle pics).
3. Multistability-Optical illusions. The eye goes back and forth between seeing 2 different things (the cube, the vase illos).
4. Invariance-The brain can recognize the same shape from many angles and POVs.
Laws:
Closure- Brain fills in breaks between lines.
Similarity-Mind groups like things together into groups or patterns.
Proximity- How close things are placed together. The mind will group closely-placed things together as a group.
Symmetry- Figure ground relation. Brain will put symmetrical objects o the same plane.
Continuity- The mind continues patterns already shown.
Common Fate- Elements going in the same direction are perceived as a group.
Summary: It is important to keep all of the above elements in mind when creating an illlustration. How the viewer sees the finished piece and how it is perceived are very very important. The illustrator must make sure that the "parts" of the piece add up to whole. If elements in the piece are not done well or correctly, it may trip up the viewer's perception, and therefore the intended meaning (and as we said before, the meaning is vital to why an illustration is even created).