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    Elements of Picture Books

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    Anny Vladut
    This document discusses the key elements and characteristics of picture books. It defines a picture book as a work where both illustrations and text are equally important and work together to tell the story. It notes that pictures are not a universal language and must be culturally learned. The document outlines various elements that comprise picture books, including format, use of color, shape, line, artistic style, visual symbols, and literary elements. It emphasizes that picture books effectively communicate through the relationship between text, context, and subtext.

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    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Elements of Picture Books

    Uploaded by

    Anny Vladut
    597 views27 pages
    This document discusses the key elements and characteristics of picture books. It defines a picture book as a work where both illustrations and text are equally important and work together to tell the story. It notes that pictures are not a universal language and must be culturally learned. The document outlines various elements that comprise picture books, including format, use of color, shape, line, artistic style, visual symbols, and literary elements. It emphasizes that picture books effectively communicate through the relationship between text, context, and subtext.

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    This document discusses the key elements and characteristics of picture books. It defines a picture book as a work where both illustrations and text are equally important and work together to tell the story. It notes that pictures are not a universal language and must be culturally learned. The document outlines various elements that comprise picture books, including format, use of color, shape, line, artistic style, visual symbols, and literary elements. It emphasizes that picture books effectively communicate through the relationship between text, context, and subtext.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    597 views27 pages

    Elements of Picture Books

    Uploaded by

    Anny Vladut
    This document discusses the key elements and characteristics of picture books. It defines a picture book as a work where both illustrations and text are equally important and work together to tell the story. It notes that pictures are not a universal language and must be culturally learned. The document outlines various elements that comprise picture books, including format, use of color, shape, line, artistic style, visual symbols, and literary elements. It emphasizes that picture books effectively communicate through the relationship between text, context, and subtext.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as ppt, pdf, or txt
    of 27
    At a glance
    Powered by AI
    Some of the key takeaways are that picture books combine both illustrations and text equally to tell a story, and that pictures are not a universal language but are culturally interpreted. Pictures and text work together to create a 'third story'.

    Some of the different elements that make up a picture book discussed include format/design, space/layout, color, shape/lines, artistic medium/style, visual objects/symbols, size of figures, and focus.

    Elements like color, shape, and size can strongly contribute to the mood and tone of a picture book. For example, certain colors are associated with different feelings, rounded shapes convey softness while straight lines convey rigidity, and size of figures in relation to each other or their background provides meaning.

    The Language of

    Picture Books
    English 305
    Dr. Roggenkamp

    What is a picture book?


    Different from an illustrated text or novel
    with pictures
    Book in which illustrations and text are
    equally balanced, equally important
    Words depend on the pictures to tell part
    of the story, and vice versa
    Neither element can stand alone
    Together, they complete the story
    create a third story between them

    Pictures not a universal language


    Different cultures read or interpret
    pictures differently
    Children learn to read pictures based
    on the culture in which they live
    Perry Nodelman, Words About Pictures
    Maria Nikolajeva & Carole Scott, How
    Picturebooks Work

    Reading pictures a learned process


    Pictures wont mean anything to a child
    until child is old enough to develop an
    understanding of its own environment
    Children seem to teach themselves
    picture reading skills at very early age
    Contemporary culture FILLED with visual
    imageschildren learn visual literacy
    long before they learn verbal literacy

    Do adults lose ability to read


    pictures?
    We tend to read just the words
    Children (especially pre-literate children)
    both hear the words and read the
    illustrations at the same timeget a
    much fuller sense of the picture book

    Picture Book Milestones


    1658, Orbis Sensualium
    Pictus (Johannes Amos
    Comenius) argued by
    some to be first picture
    book
    1744, Little Pretty Pocket
    Book (John Newbery)
    Other didactic books like
    Struwwelpeter (1845)

    Victorian Illustrated Texts


    Genre really takes off late 19th
    centurypublishing/printing
    changes make extensive
    illustration more feasible
    Kate Greenaway, Randolph
    Caldecott, et al.
    Illustration becomes associated
    with books for children
    Childhood as joyous &
    pleasurable; illustrations as
    joyous & pleasurable
    Image: Illustration by Kate Greenaway

    Format and First Impressions


    Books physical format directs our
    response to that book before we even
    open it
    Cover, shape, size, feel in our hands,
    kind of paper used, etc.

    Format and First Impressions

    Elements in the BookSpace


    Way type is laid out, spaced on page
    Borderswhite border or not, shifting
    borders (e.g. Where the Wild Things Are)

    Elements in the BookColor


    Different hues associated with different
    moods/feelings
    Green=peacefulness, blue=serenity or sadness,
    red=anger, yellow=happiness, etc.
    Shadesdegrees of brightness or darkness.
    Light usually=happier mood; dark usually=more
    intense mood
    Saturationrelative intensity of colors. More
    saturated colors seem more vibrant, less seem
    more gentle

    Color . . .

    Elements in the BookShape and


    Line
    Rounded shapes associated with
    softness
    Straight, angular lines associated with
    rigidity, tension, energy
    Can strongly affect mood of story

    Elements in the BookShape and


    Line

    Elements in the BookArtistic


    Medium and Style
    Collage, oils, pastel watercolors, black and white
    line drawing, woodcuts, etc.
    Realistic, abstract, surreal, impressionistic, etc.
    Style=the effect of all the aspects of a work
    considered together, the way an illustration or a
    text seems distinct or even unique (Nodelman
    283).
    Examplestyle of Beatrix Potter: gentle,
    unsaturated watercolors, tiny size, small animals
    in human situations

    Style affects storyHymans Red Riding


    Hood vs. Marshalls Red Riding Hood

    Elements in the BookVisual


    Objects
    Symbolsuse of cross, flag, tree, etc.
    Cultural codese.g. dark=evil and
    light=good; slumped head=sadness and
    uplifted head=happiness; wolf=predator
    and bunny=gentle, happiness
    Picture books both depend on and teach
    such conventional assumptions
    (Nodelman 288).

    Cultural Codes

    Other elementslight and shadow

    Other elementssize of figures


    Figures in relation to each other
    Size of characters in relation to
    background

    Other elementsfocus (close up


    shot vs. long shot)

    Other elementsway movement is


    suggested

    Literary Elements of Picture Book


    Plottension, action, conflict; closed
    ending vs. open
    Characterizationfull, round characters
    vs. flat characters; dynamic vs. static
    Setting
    Point of viewthrough whose eyes is
    story told? Is narrator a character, or
    outside the action?

    Literary Elements of Picture Book


    Themeeven simplest picture book can
    offer more complex theme or significant
    meaning
    Importance of friendship & family, role of
    imagination, life coming out of death, etc.
    Toneserious and somber, light and
    joyful, etc.
    What mood provoked in reader?

    TextContextSubtext
    Text
    The words themselves
    But also the conventions that readers
    observesymbolism, characterizations,
    genre, narrative style, open vs. closed
    ending, etc.

    TextContextSubtext
    Context
    Historical context in which work was
    created
    How is the text in community with the
    era in which it was written/illustrated?

    TextContextSubtext
    Subtext
    Ways textual elements and context work
    together to create meanings that are not
    always obvious
    What is the books possible ideology?
    Example: The Story of Babar

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