Graphic Arts Proposal: What is the Significance of the Children’s’ Picture Book?

What is the Significance of Children’s Picture Book Illustration?


I feel that the role of the children’s’ picture book is highly significant; it can be used as a method to raise a child’s awareness of the culturally diverse world we live in. I strongly believe that the picture book can be used as a vehicle to educate and enhance our understanding of the world we live in, as picture books introduce the idea that words represent things around us. Through exploring the work of various children’s’ book illustrator’s I hope to gain a deeper understanding of what makes the picture book significant, successful and aesthetically appealing. Some people assume that children’s picture books are merely a source of entertainment; however I would like to challenge this view. I believe that certain children’s’ picture books can have a profound impact on the mind, and are not merely a source of enjoyment; rather they are educational in a deceptively entertaining way. As illustrator Tony Ross states,

‘‘I don't think illustrations are important as opposed to words rather WITH words. Of course preschoolers cannot read, but are read to. At that age, they can recognize the importance of words, and have ambitions to decipher them one day, yet at the time, gain understanding from the pictures, which should relate and entertain without pomposity.’’

Furthermore, I believe that picture books are significant especially because they communicate with us on two levels, stretching our imagination verbally and visually. Picture books can act as springboards to a child’s imagination and ability to conceive new ideas and think in new ways. The picture book can encourage debate and open-up our mind to new possibilities and unexplored solutions. However, should picture books avoid stereotyping or is stereotyping essential for a child to understand his/her role in society?
I want to explore the ways that picture book illustrator’s effectively use positive and negative space to create striking compositions. I’d like to investigate the work of illustrators who successfully convey emotion through their illustrations. I particularly admire the work of Italian Illustrator Nicoletta Ceccoli, she has a great sense of three-dimensional space, and she skilfully draws the viewer in to the world of her characters. Ceccoli has a beautiful painterly approach to children’s book illustration; her work has an exquisite luminous quality. Ceccoli skilfully conveys several layers of emotion through her characters, which enable us to understand their feelings of loneliness, sadness and happiness.
I also admire the work of illustrator Alexis Deacon, his work is a great marriage between the observed and imagined. Deacon has the gift of ‘breathing life’ into his characters - his characters such as ‘Beegu’ are convincing. Deacon conveys a depth of emotion through his characters that moves the viewer and encourages us to feel empathy for his characters. Deacon employs traditional techniques during draughtsmanship, although his work has a refreshingly contemporary feel. I would like to develop the ability to use traditional methods in a contemporary way. Furthermore, picture books can help broaden a child’s understanding of emotions. As Susanne Langer states; ‘the art we live with- our picture books and stories and the music we hear- actually form our emotive experience’ (71-72)
I’d like to explore the significance of illustrations in picture books, and the relationship between word and image. I feel that the illustrations in picture books are equally significant as the words. Perhaps the most successful picture books are the kinds where the illustrations compliment the words by telling us something that the words do not, the images should work with the words to illuminate our understanding of the story. As Perry Noddleman states words and images ‘come together best and most interestingly not when writers and illustrators attempt to have them mirror and duplicate each other but when writers and illustrators use the different qualities of their different arts to communicate different information.’
I feel that the picture book has immense cultural significance, which can inform, entertain, or influence our perception of society. The still illustrations of a picture book give children the time to think about what they are looking at in greater detail than a moving image; children can fully absorb those images and messages in their memory and therefore build their visual literacy.

As Bruno Bettelheim states in ‘The Uses of Enchantment the Meanings and Importance of Fairytales’;

‘For a story truly to hold a child’s attention, it must entertain him and arouse his curiosity. But to enrich his life it must stimulate his imagination; help him to develop his intellect and clarify his emotions; be attuned to his anxieties and aspirations; give full recognition to his difficulties, while at the same time suggesting solutions to the problems that perturbed him.’

I strongly feel that successful children’s book illustration combined with words, is the perfect recipe for capturing a child’s interest; the images can ‘stimulate the imagination’ and bring another level of meaning to words, in a way that ‘enriches’ a child’s emotional development. Furthermore, young children much more so than adults, live in the present, so therefore their minds need to be kept well engaged and stimulated in order for them to actively enjoy learning and absorbing new information. As Bruno Bettelheim reinforces, ‘The acquisition of skills including the ability to read, becomes devalued when what one learns to read adds nothing of importance to one’s life.’

As William Moebius states, an illustrator has the power to ‘represent points of view other than those of the main character…by depicting their witnesses on the fringes or in the foreground or background of the picture’ (148).

Some stories in picture books could not work in isolation from their illustrations. For example, the contemporary children’s pictures book ‘The Flower’ written by John Light and illustrated by Lisa Evans; it has a very simple text accompanied by Evan’s richly detailed illustrations. As Lisa says: ‘It’s a beautiful text written by John Light. It’s about a boy on a mission to restore soul in the world. It explores personal courage, determination and hope.’ In terms of her work as Lisa says- ‘Details influence me. Journeys and processes subtle narratives and subplots. I like the merging of fact and fiction and the endless possibilities an image provides.’ The story would not be as complete and as convincing without Evan’s illustrations - they give gravity to the message of the story and that makes it memorable in the mind of the child. The limited use of colour initially gives the story a bleak mood, however as the reader progresses through the book the addition of colour in her illustrations gives the story a more optimistic tone.

As Perry Noddleman states;

‘All kinds of pictures can convey visual information and create moods; all illustrations can amplify the meaning of text. But it is the unique rhythm of pictures and words working together that distinguishes picture books from all other forms of both visual and verbal art.’

For me it is both the aesthetic quality and the meticulous sequencing of illustrations in picture books, which make this kind of art captivating.

Some people would argue that children’s’ picture book illustrations is ‘insignificant, as it is not educational’, however I feel that there is a vast amount of evidence to challenge this view. Moreover, some people would say that the images are merely a ‘distraction’ from a child actually getting to grips with learning the words. In contrast, as Perry Noddleman states; ‘This does not mean, however, that the interpretation of pictures should not play a part in the reading process, only that it should not replace the process altogether. In fact the pictures are counterproductive only for those who have not been made conscious of how to use them.’
Therefore, the ‘distraction’ of illustrations in a picture book isn’t necessarily a negative thing, as the detailed visual symbols are intended to provide clues and therefore aid the child in their understanding of the words.

Illustrators such as Lisbeth Zwerger and Nicoletta Ceccoli have illustrated traditional fairy tales; both have illustrated versions of ‘Red Riding hood’. As Joseph Schwarcz states ‘it is in the illustrator’s power to shift accents and express opinions by what they draw, how they draw it (and) by what they omit to draw’ (Ways of The Illustrator 100). People may argue that fairy tale illustrations are unnecessary as these stories were originally spoken aloud, as Brian Alderson remarks in Looking at Picture Books, ‘traditional tales are essentially an oral art-form. They were told before ever they were printed and they carry within themselves all the illustration that they need’’ (37).
I strongly disagree with that statement, as I feel that certain llustrator’s in particularly have the skill of bringing something unique to the traditional tales; they look for the gaps in the original story. Their unique interpretations and pacing’s of illustrations, give the original story a different feel. Ceccoli’s version brings the traditional tale to the contemporary audience. Furthermore, with regard to whether or not traditional stories should be illustrated as Walter J.Ong remarks, ‘In terms of conventional ideas about, literature, in fact, fairy tales are not good fiction: they lack the detailed visual description, the richly textured ‘reality’ we tend to demand as a quality of good written narrative. Paradoxically, however, the very deficiencies of oral tales as literature make the written texts of fairy tales surprisingly similar to the texts written especially for picture books. Consequently, the addition of pictures is a logical move; it transforms a successful oral text into a successful written one without actually changing the text itself.’

From childhood, if we learn what words mean through symbolic representation, then we can successfully communicate with other human beings.

As Herbert Read says, ‘What we call art, and too curiously treat as an ornament of civilisation, is really a vital activity, an energy of senses that must continually convert the dead rain of matter into the radiant images of life’ ( Icon and Idea). Would we rationally choose a colourless world over a ‘radiant’ one? I very much doubt that.

‘If the reader is stimulated to go beyond the surface in his own way, he will extract ever more varied personal meaning from these stories, which will then become more meaningful to the children he may tell them to.’- Bruno Bettelheim

Perhaps as Bettelheim states ‘fairy tales enrich the child’s life and give it an enchanted quality just because he does not quite know how the stories have worked their wonder on him.’
‘Good picture books, then, offer us what all good art offers us: greater consciousness- the opportunity, in other words, to be more human. That means to be less innocent, wiser.’ Perry Noddleman.

‘Put in another way, a work of art corresponds to our expectations, but goes a little beyond into what is forbidden and unexpected’ (227).

‘Visual images cannot directly assert attitudes; they can only imply them by creating images that evoke contexts that suggest the attitudes to those who view them in terms of different contexts.’ - Perry Noddleman

Shaun Tan has painterly approach to children’s book illustration his work could be viewed as fine art. The layer and layers of paint give his work a rich depth of texture. I would really like to see his original artwork up close to appreciate it on a large scale, with its almost three-dimensional paint effect. As Tan says his picture books ‘…are best described as ‘picture books for older readers’ rather than young children, as they deal with relatively complex visual styles and themes, including colonial imperialism, social apathy, the nature of memory and depression.’
I particularly felt moved by Tan’s picture book ‘The Red Tree’- it is terrifying and brilliant. There is a beautiful twist to the tale, the sequencing of larger illustrations in the middle spreads, increase the suspense as the reader turns the page; I regard this picture book as significant because I see how it could help the older reader to deal with his/her anxieties- Tan gives acknowledgment to the anxieties that all human beings inevitably face and restores the reader with hope. Clearly, Tan has a deep understanding of the human condition; perhaps this enabled him to produce a picture book that people could strongly identify with. The square frames on the first and last page of ‘The Red Tree’, are employed to open and close the plot, whereas the full-page middle spreads involve the reader in the story. I feel that picture books should enrich a child an add something meaningful to their understanding of the world.