definitions
Ways of the Illustrator
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Schwarcz, Joseph. H. Ways of the Illustrator: Visual Communication in Children’s Literature. Chicago: American Library Association, 1982. Print.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: picture theory, visual language, definitions, image/text, illustrated books, visual storytelling, genre
Annotation:
Schwarcz does a deep dive into the visual language found in picture books and more broadly children’s literature. This early exploration of the relationship between text and illustration takes color, representation, shape, and emotional experience into consideration. Maurice Sendak, Ezra Jack Keats, and Virginia Burton are areas of inquiry for the author as the picture books they created are of particular interest. Each one represents a mastery of interplay between the two commanding elements. Schwarcz looks at the mood and psychological impact of words and pictures as well.
Words About Pictures
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Nodelman, Perry. Words About Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 1988. Print.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: picture theory, visual language, definitions, image/text, illustrated books, visual storytelling, genre
Annotation:
This text is the seminal work regarding the relationship between pictures and text in picture books. The examination that is done by Nodelman stretches in the intricacy and specialty associated with the aesthetic and literary primary source material found in the corpus of children’s picture books. Nodelman explores a range of text that spans well-known story’s like Where the Wild Things Are to more generic alphabet books. The picture book’s use of visual illustration is explored in depth. The significance of the pictorial elements of the text is brought into the limelight for one of the first times in children’s literary study. Of particular interest are the chapters regarding the relationships between multiple visual objects (Chapter 5) as well as visual objects in relation to the text (Chapter 7).
The Dynamics of Picturebook Communication.
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Nikolajeva, Maria, and Carole Scott. “The Dynamics of Picturebook Communication.” Children’s Literature in Education 31.4. (2000): 225–39.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picture theory, visual language, definitions, image/text, illustrated books, narrative
Annotation:
Nikolajeva and Carole Scott discuss the groundwork for the larger book How Picturebooks Work in this article. The interplay and interaction between text and images is presented and distilled down. For Nikolajeva and Scott, the relationship between words and images is ambiguous and subjective. It is acknowledged that in an effort to categorize these kinds of relationships, some are more easily identifiable than others. The relationship is often complex and reliant on a range of factors that are different for each text. The distinction between illustrated books and picture books is also essential for these researchers. Picture books imply narrative work being accomplished by the illustrated elements of the text. Illustrated books use illustrations as decoration to complement rather than work alongside the text.
Picture Theory
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Mitchell, W. J. T. Picture Theory. Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Print.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picture theory, visual language, definitions, iconology
Annotation:
This longer work discusses picture theory in depth. The picture and it’s meaning are expounded upon to a great degree in this important endeavor. Concepts like visual language, iconology, visual narrative, are all given their footing in Mitchell’s text. Mitchell is attempting to give credence to pictures and their representational nature. Mitchell points out that there is a “pictorial” turn happening that forces us to ask what work pictures are involved in. He does this in relation to film as well as the use of visual images to influence sociopolitical and cultural moments. His main goal is to establish “picture theory” as a way to understand the function of the medium. In order to marry art, photography, and other visual cultures, we need to create a singular unifying theory.
Understanding comics
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
McCloud, S. Understanding comics: The invisible art. New York: Harper Collins (1994).
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: picturebook, visual storytelling, comics, illustration, iconology, genre, definitions
Annotation:
McCloud created a comic book that acts as a guide to reading comic books. In depth descriptions regarding visual iconography, the definitions associated with the genre, as well as the way that text and illustration are interdependent and related is the main focus of the text. The book acts as a reference point for reading both comics and other illustrated forms of literature. The dynamics between psychology and color are given fair attention. McCloud’s text is an overall analysis of the medium of comic books. By building a reference guide to illustrated literature as a piece of illustrated literature, McCloud achieves a referential work that defines and explains the importance of the multimodal narrative.
