We’ve talked a lot about how we remember the illustrations in our childhood books sometimes more than we do the story. Here, you’ll learn a bit about the history of children’s illustrations and how we go about ‘reading’ them.
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?’
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
Picture books tell a story through a visual medium. Often with text, but sometimes with only images. When we read a picture book we are reading those images just as we are reading the text. Please watch this short history of children’s illustrations.
You may have seen some images that you recognized in this video. Awards for children’s books include the John Caldecott Medal and the Kate Greenway Medal named for those illustrators.
Fairy Tale Illustration (and response)
As in the video, a lot of the early history of children’s illustrations was tied into fairy tales. Please look through this slide show of illustrations of famous fairy tale illustrators.
Choose two images that stand out to you and in the comments below explain which images you chose and why you chose them.
What two images were you drawn to and why? (comment below)
8 thoughts on “Starting to think about illustration”
The images I was drawn too was “Little Red Cap” by Gustave Dore ” by fjdsavdf and “The Valiant Little Tailor” by Authur Rackham. The Valiant Little Tailor image was something different it looked a little weird so thats what my eyes picked up on, Little Red Cap the image was the only one in color and the image is nicely done
I was drawn to the images of the tale of Jemima Puddle-duck(a little read riding hood) by Beatrix Potter and Snow White and Rose Red by Adrienne Segur because they are different from the stories Ive red. In little red riding hood its usually a girl, there are different versions on the story lines but I’ve never thought of an animal version. With Snow White and Rose Red, its interesting that there is a bother character. Its always Snow White and the 7 dwarfs, but its interesting having another character that can probably change the storyline.
One of the pictures that I was drawn to was Kay Neilson’s image of “Rapunzel” (1886-1957). The reason why is that Mother Gothel in this photo has caught my attention. The features that it portrays such as its large pointy nose, the size of the scissors, and most importantly, how she looked like a creature. When we watched the Disney version as a kid, we remember her being human and not as scary as one may find her in the image. As for Rapunzel, she seems as if she may be in serious danger and even potentially be killed.
The second image would be by Wanda Gág, “Cinderella”. The reason why I had chosen this particular photo is because it seemed humorous. An image of two of the stepsisters and the way they are posed gives away hints of it being part of Cinderella. I also liked the facial expression that Wanda had added, as it replicates the way they had been seen in the movie. In the image above, I overall loved the way she had dressed them, it has so much detail!
I was most interested/ drawn to the image of Bluebeard and William Steig’s art of Shrek. What made me drawn to the art of Bluebeard was the fact that I have never seen a portrayal of that tale before, so seeing that striking image of him resonated in my mind. As for the drawing of Shrek, I was most interested in that image due to how it was the Shrek story I read as a kid.
Two images that stick out to me are “Beauty and the Beast” by Eleanor Vere Boyle and “Rumplestiltskin” by Warwick Golbe. The Beauty and the Beast image stuck out to me because my first impression is that the beast resembles more of a walrus then a beastly animal. My eyes were drawn to its teeth, which are identical to those of a walrus. The Rumplestiltskin image stuck out to me as well bevause of the depiction of that character. I imagined him to be short in stature, and in the image he appears to be tall and more creature like than human. The outfit he is wearing as well appears to be more jester-like than what I would imagine him to wear, along with the long beard he has.
The image I was drawn to was the frog prince by Anne Andersen and the princess and the frog by Warwick Goble. I was drawn to the frog prince because I remember a story similar to that picture which was a very powerful but meaningful story. As for the princess and the frog it’s a picture that just stood out to me. the fact that a fog is there and she looks confused or scared it seems like there could be a lot going on from the picture.
Little Red Cap and Snow Drop were the two images that I was drawn to. The girl in “Little Red Cap” has this realism to her that just captivated me. She looks like she is in such deep fear and it’s almost a little creepy how intensely I can feel her fear. Her rosy cheeks and the way she’s looking at the wolf just seem so on point as to what I imagined in my head when reading “Little Red Riding Hood”. As for snow drop, I found this image both disturbing and fascinating. I’m so used to the Disney version of how the dwarfs look like, this version shocked me a bit. I never imagined the dwarfs as older men which also kind of frightens me. And Snow White In this version does not look as fragile but more woman like.
I was interested and drawn to the Scherazade, The Thousand and One Nights (1901) the picture of the girl who I believe is Jasmine from Aladdin what drawn me towards this picture is that the girl looks Middle eastern and the attire of clothing seems much more accurate than the jasmine in present day stories. Gustave Dore’s “Little Red Hat” was also drawn to me, but this is because only the “Red Hat” is in color and the painting is good.