While watching and listening to the reading of
The Giving Tree last class, I began reflecting on the purpose of picture books. I have found from many nights of babysitting that children at the nursery to primary reading level like to study the pictures on every page while listening to the words of a picture book. My first thought while reading to children was that the pictures helped to keep them focused on the story because it helps them to imagine the story. When there are no pictures or the pictures aren't very detailed or interesting, the children often squirm and get distracted. With the idea of keeping the child interested in the plot, how do the illustrator and author decide how to illustrate the books? The illustrations have to be someones interpretation of the book (i.e. the image that they want the children to have in their minds of what the scene looks like, what the characters look like, how they treat each other,etc...), but who gets to decide what is the right interpretation that is to be illustrated? It was quite clearly pointed out last class that books, even when illustrated, can have many different meanings. The illustrator apparently wanted the children to picture the story as the relationship between a boy and a tree and not that plot of inappropriate sexual relations or whatever Todd described for another possible interpretation. Did the illustrator illustrate the story in that way because they thought it would hold the children's attention better, or was it because they wanted to make sure the children imagined the plot in that specific way? It is often said that children have big imaginations, so why is it that the illustrators would feel the need to guide their imaginations? Even at the adolescent/young adult reading level, the cover art of books have a great affect on how the reader pictures aspects of the book in their mind. I think that this is a very important thing for Illustrators to keep in mind, because entire books can be judged incorrectly just because of the illustrations. For example, Todd 'counted' the number of books with African American main characters partially by looking at the characters depicted on the covers. This may be extremely inaccurate, and whether illustration has a large or small part of a book, it may have an extremely large impact on the reader.
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6 comments:
I guess I would have to say that illustrators draw what they feel like is going on in the story. It is up to them what they want to draw. In The Giving Tree I feel like the illustrator was just draw what the book said. The pictures show a boy going to a tree and growing up and one who keeps getting things from the tree. The pictures due in fact interpret that, there could be other meanings in the pictures but that is all how you look at them. If you look at them the way the book is written they look just fine if you read the book with a different meaning the pictures will fit that. So I feel like it is more what the reader is getting out of what the author wrote then applying that to the pictures. If you read something that you see has mean you will look at the picture like it is showing something mean, but if you think what you reading is funny you will see the picture as being funny. It is also up to the author how the picture looks based on what they are writing so it is not just the illustrator’s perspective but also the authors as well. In the end, if we look at literature critically and the artwork along with it, there is always going to be something wrong and there will be two sides to argument. We may not know what both the writer and illustrator intended to say in their work, that is up to our interpretation and how we look at it. All in all I think that illustrations are the Illustrators perspective it is how we perceive what the author is writing and applying that to the picture.
The Giving Tree was written AND illustrated by Shel Silverstein. Often, children book authors illustrate their own books which to your point means that the pictures depict exactly what the author is trying to say.
When the illustrator is someone different from the author, they read the book many times as well as speak to the author themselves to try and put as much of the author's point of view while also using their own style of art.
We have discussed in class that a book can mean many things and it all depends on the reader's interpretation. In my opinion, that also fits for pictures. Someone could read The Giving Tree and look at the pictures and see the tree (woman) being abused by the boy (man). A reader could also look at the pictures and get the other meanings (mother's unconditional love). While I like to look at the story on a more positive note and see the tree as a loving parent to their child I also cannot say that other people are wrong for reading the book AND looking at the pictures and grasp a different understanding for the story.
Your post made me think of these illustrations from a different perspective. The illustrator (or sometimes the author) is the person that gets to decide how the book is illustrated and how the audience will understand the meaning. They also put an image in the reader's mind of what the characters look like or what the setting appears as. It takes away from part of the creativity of the reader and the imagination part of reading. I know we are speaking of picture books so the illustrations are a very important part, but it takes away a bit of the magic of reading. When reading a novel for instance, I picture all of the characters with my imagination and I can see what the scenery looks like. Other readers may have a different image of the characters in their minds when reading the same novel. I find this also when a movie is made from a book. For instance when I read the first Twilight book I had a distinct image of what each character looked like. When the movie came out I had imagined all of the characters to look differently than the actors who portrayed them. When I went to finish the series of books I could only see the actors when I was reading. It took away from some of the creativity involved in reading and escaping in a novel. Illustrators and authors have the ability to do this with picture books too. They have a distinct image of what the characters look like and don't leave it up to the reader's imagination. I know this is a bit off topic from your post but it sparked that thought for me.
After listening to the podcast for this week, I feel as though I have a better understanding of where the illustrators perspective is coming from. As you could tell from viewing the podcast, illustrators go over a variety of choices, from the colors used, to the characters outfits before decided what the pictures in the book are going to look like. Debra Frasiers was able to show us how long it actually takes not only to decide what the main characters are going to look like but also what is going to be on the front cover. I feel like picture books illustrations have to be inviting towards the reader. The illustrator perspective is less based on what they like, and more geared towards the people who are going to be reading them. For the most part it is not up to the illustrator to decide how their pictures are going to be looked at, rather it is up to the reader. The main goals for the illustrator is to allow their books to be welcoming to readers, and the reader can then decide the meaning of each picture. Whatever message the illustrator of a picture book is trying to send, that message will never be seen if no one reads the book. So in the end the interpretation of a picture book to me lays in the hand of the reader. The illustrator can only hope the readers will interpret the book the way they wanted it to be interpreted.
I agree with you. I think the illustration has a very powerful influence in helping childrens to understand the author's idea. I think childrens are more easier to focus and undersatnd the picture instead of looking or listenning the text, because the visual are more easy to get processed in their brain. So illustration as for childrens, plays a directly and crucial role for small childrens when they trying to undersatand the book. Therefore use a proper way to illustrate and interperate the theme became a very controversial topic. I think it is better that the book writer and illustrator to be the same person, therefore the meaning and the vision could be union and coherent. if the illustrator was the other person, it is easy to distort the author's original meaning and idea, and when children recieve it thay may not get the most origin and proper idea from the author.
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