Children's Book Illustration--Notes
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"Children live in a highly visual world.
They are often unable to symbolize from what they hear because
even simple words are still abstract to the very young. Children
use objects or their visual representations to explore the physical
environment and make sense of the world. One of the best ways
to extend a young child's visual experience beyond her immediate
environment and the flickering images of the small screen is to
provide a variety of picture story books for her enjoyment. Such
books not only offer multiple perspectives on the world but they
also give the child advantages of exercising some selectivity
among them and of holding the image still long enough to absorb,
enjoy, or just wonder over it."
. . .
"As a child engages herself with a book
and moves through and with it at her own pace, she can recognize
something of herself in those pages, be in a position of power
over this activity in her world and, at the same time, reach out
to consider another's interpretation or world view. In these ways,
she moves toward identity, control, and connection in her world
and with the world of others."
. . .
"Picture books are those in which illustrations
stand alone, without words, or are at least the primary means
of conveying content in the work. William Anderson and Patrick
Groff refer to such works as 'nonliterary' extensions of television
that act to limit a child's interest in linguistic forms. [William Anderson and Patrick Groff. A New Look at
Children's Literature. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1972, p.153.)] It is equally possible, however, that these books
may introduce a child to the world of print and the idea of sequential
ordering of images and ideas within the context of the printed
page. Through picture books, also, a child may learn to value
the intimacy of the personal experience with books that allows
her to return at any time she chooses and enjoy them at her own
pace. [Patricia Jean Cianciola. "Use
Wordless Picture Books to Teach Reading, Visual Literacy and to
Study Literature. Top of the News. 29, 3 (April 1973):
226-34.]"
. . .
"Picture story books may be thought of
as 'twice-told tales' in that the stories they contain are communicated
through both words and pictures and can be comprehended in either
their visual or their verbal forms. The young child can 'read'
the illustrations and understand the story either on her own or
as an adult reads the words aloud. The illustrations in a picture
story books are an integral part of the action of the story, a
form of pictorial literature that complements, but is not totally
limited by, the narrative elements of the language of story. In
these books, illustrations are intended not to stand alone as
single works of art but to contribute to the sequence and mood
that pushes the story ahead and keeps the reader moving with it.
There are, however, some picture story books in which the story
is not told separately in language and in picture but in the interaction
between the two on the page. Nothing Ever Happens on My Block
makes sense as story only in the contrast between the words and
the illustrations. Conrad's Castle might be understood
pictorially, but the words, almost nonsensical on their own, add
to the understanding and the interpretation of the pictorial narrative."
from
Kay E. Vandergrift. Child and Story:
The Literary Connection. New York: Neal-Schuman, 1980, pp.
64, 65, 68.
"If painting is the looking-glass of
nations and periods, pictured-books may be called the hand-glass
which still more intimately reflects the life of different centuries
and peoples, in all their minute and homely detail and quaint
domesticity, as well as their playful fancies, their dreams, and
aspirations."
from
Walter Crane. Of the Decorative Illustration of Books Old and
New. London: Bell & Hyman, 1979, pp. 14, 16.[originally
published in 1896]
"When word and picture come together
to produce a common work--the illustrated book--it is actually
two languages that join forces. The verbal one progresses in linear
fashion, with every word, every line, every page coming before
or after every other one: this sequential order of the text guarantees
comprehension. The picture, on the other hand, is an area, a surface
usually representing space, with all its parts and details appearing
in front of our eyes simultaneously. There we are at liberty to
pick our way, perceive contents and meanings at our discretion,
with no prescribed direction. These two different languages are,
to some extent, learned spontaneously by experience. "
. . .
"An illustration--whether it be simply
decorative, or descriptive in the sense that it repeats what the
text tells, or narrative in the sense that it interprets--reaches
beyond the text and may even contradict it. Any illustration either
interacts with the text or interferes with it. The impact of an
illustrated story differs from that of the same story without
illustration. Different illustrations for one and the same text
result in changed moods and appeals. Also, illustrations of various
types mix in the same book; there are very few books that contain
only decorative, or descriptive, or narrative illustrations. Besides,
illustrations are bound to be perceived in different fashions
by different viewers. The illustration is a complex and exciting
art form."
"To understand the appeal of that form,
it is essential to realize that the illustrations in children's
books are a serial art form. We have to relate to the whole
sequence of pictures found in the particular book we are contemplating
in order to characterize and evaluate their contribution to the
story."
from:
Joseph H. Schwarcz and Chava Schwarcz. The Picture Book Comes
of Age: Looking at Childhood Through the Art of Illustration.
Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1991, pp. 4, 5.
"Picture book critics must learn to think
differently about narrative art and appreciate the skills of the
narrative artist. Clear exposition of the story should be as important
as composition in judging the quality of picture book art. Likewise,
judgment of the story must take into account what is shown in
the pictures as much as what is described in the text. It is important
to stop thinking of narrative elements as 'literary elements'
and start separating the writing from the story. The text can
be judged separately for its literary merit, but the narrative
is shared with the pictures."
from:
Amy E. Spaulding. The Page As a Stage Set: Storyboard Picture
Books. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1005, p. 4.
"The concept of the ideal in pictorial
representation and design changes as much with the evolution of
the society which inspires it as with the technical developments
which mold its style."
. . .
"The tradition of the modern illustrated
book had been established, through the combined elements of inspiration,
craftsmanship, and technology. It was towards this achievement
that author, illustrator, engraver, and publisher moved slowly
but persistently, gaining status for the art of children's books
as an essential factor in enlarging understanding and quickening
the imagination of succeeding generations."
from: Margaret
Crawford Maloney. English Illustrated Books for Children: A
Descriptive Companion to a Selection from The Osborne Collection.
Tokyo. Japan: Holp Shuppan, Publishers, 1981, pp. 16, 22.
"Visual forms--lines, colors, proportions,
etc.--are just as capable of articulation, i.e. of complex
combination, as words. But the laws that govern this sort of articulation
all altogether different from the laws of syntax that govern language.
The most radical difference is that visual forms are not discursive.
They do not present their constituents successively, but simultaneously,
so the relations determining a visual structure are grasped in
one act of vision. Their complexity, consequently, is not limited,
as the complexity of discourse is limited, by what the mind can
retain from the beginning of an apperceptive act to the end of
it."
. . .
"Since we have no words, there can be
no dictionary of meanings for lines, shadings, or other elements
of pictorial technique. We may well pick out some line, say a
certain curve, in a picture, which serves to represent one nameable
item; but in another place the same curve would have an entirely
different meaning. It has no fixed meaning apart from its context.
"
from:
Suzanne Langer. Philosophy in a New Key. Cambridge, MA;
Harvard University Press, 1942, p. 93, 95.
"The familiar words literacy and
numeracy have more recently been joined by the word oracy,
but when it comes to describing the skill of seeing ( as opposed
to looking) we seem to be stuck with the phrase 'visual literacy,'
which suggests rather the skill of reading a pictorial
image. One can, of course, see reasons for the coupling of these
two words, but the absence of such words as 'visuacy' or 'picturacy,'
or some similar verbal idiocy, still seems significant. The phrase
visual literacy attests to the dominance of visual culture
by the verbal. (In the beginning was . . . )
"While books of words allow one to conjure
up often exotic pictures in one's mind, books of pictures do not
necessarily conjure up correspondingly rich verbal accompaniments.
Initially this seems to confirm the supremacy of the verbal; however,
paradoxically it might be said to attest to the power of the visual,
in view of the comparative redundancy of the verbal. Perhaps it
is also related to one's ability to apprehend a picture in an
instant, rather than to the necessity of having to allow the passing
of time in order to apprehend a text of similar complexity.
"Although visual literacy may seem an
inadequate term to describe the ability to see a picture, it seems
not altogether inappropriate when applied to the ability to see/read
visual or verbi-visual books. One might also employ the phrase
visual language, in this connection, to suggest the possibility
of sequential development of static visual images (thereby excluding
animation, film, television, etc.)."
from:
Clive Phillpot. "Visual Language, Visual Literature, Visual
Literacy," in Visual Literature Criticism: A New Collection.
Ed. by Richard Kostelanetz. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois
University Press, 1979, p. 179.
"Unless we perceive and accept the fact
that everything is related in a greater or lesser degree, nothing
makes much sense and we are impoverishing our own resources. When
I start a new book, I try to see the images contained in the words
of the story and to 'listen' to the different pictorial elements
and their impact, their orchestration, and whether they are expressing
what I want them to. Although my natural way of thinking is through
images, at some point there is a fusion of the different modes
of expression. One 'listens' with one's eyes, and 'sees' through
one's ears and fingers. For me, it is the small chaos proceeding
creation.
"Ideas and thoughts make up our inner
landscape and extend to what surrounds us. Life-affirming thoughts
emanate energy than can stimulate the child to grow, expand, and
even perform wonders. A picture book, like any other art form,
has a life energy of its own. Take that away, and all you have
left is an empty shell. Therefore, why not treat a picture book
with care in order to make it grow--like a plant or an animal?
One has to heed and nurture the something-that-is-there. Force
it and it will die. For the process of artistic creation is an
extension of the life process itself, and life itself is the supreme
master."
from:
Uri Shulevitz. "Within the Margins of a Picture Book"
in The Illustrator's Notebook. Ed. by Lee Kingman. Boston,
MA: Horn Book, 1978, p. 135.
"Decoration, then, is the first function
of illustration. A second function that it often performs is that
of elucidating or interpreting the text. A distinction must be
made between mere pictorial representation for instruction and
interpretation. Furthermore, while decoration does nothing more
than decorate, elucidation must decorate as well as elucidate.
These two principles apply as much to today's machine-produced
books as they did to the Egyptian papyri and the manuscripts of
the medieval world."
. . .
"The first duty of a good illustrator
is to know his [sic] manuscript cold. No illustrator worth his
salt makes factual mistakes, substitutes blond hair for brown
or shirts for jackets.
"Another problem confronting an illustrator
is the distribution of the pictures throughout the book. These
must be more or less evenly placed, no bunched together in groups
with great stretches of unillustrated pages in between. They should
flow through the book in a rhythm that is interesting to the eye,
neither anticipating the action nor coming too long after it.
A half-page drawing here, a full-page one there, here a spot,
there a spot, and so on. The illustrator tries to vary his pictures
somewhat as a movie director tries to vary his shots, to avoid
monotony."
from: Barbara
Cooney. "An Illustrator's Viewpoint" in The Illustrator's
Notebook. Ed. by Lee Kingman. Boston, MA: Horn Book, 1978,
p. 12, 13.
"Richness of color, authenticity down
to the last detail, a strong sense of place, and the creation
of atmosphere are some of the characteristics of Barbara Cooney's
work--whether she is using a limited or a full palette. No detail
is too small to be correct, and a child may discover a wealth
of information about the time and place of a story through her
illustrations.
. . .
"Barbara Cooney brings much more than
technical mastery to her books. Her obvious involvement in and
enjoyment of her work can be felt in the pages of her books. This
feeling is catchy and reaches out to children, drawing them into
her books."
from:
Nancy S. Hands. Illustrating Children's Books: A Guide to Drawing,
Printing, and Publishing. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1986,
p. 59.
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Created August 5, 1997,
Reviewed and Last Updated July 26, 1998