English Assignment on Illustrations and Visual literacy (Coursework Sample)

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“Illustrations are literature in their own right, and whether used by themselves or integrated with written texts, they sharpen the perception of children, stimulate their imagination and increase their sense of observation. The overall development of children can be aided by good illustrations” (Mabel Segun).
Introduction
Today is the world of Visual Literacy which means to analyze the power of an image and how it is implementing that meaning in a particular context. Advancement in technology has exposed the children of today to a galaxy of illustrations. Pictures even in still mode entrap a child’s attention immediately, not only children but every creature on this earth including human beings, notice the colors immediately, fondness for spring is due to every color of flower around. Children, if allowed to choose a book in the library, will almost all the time go for those ones which are colorful and have a lot of Pictures. When it is a known fact that children are attracted by pictures, then not adding pictures as instructional tools for them is not wise. Although today’s world is at the peak of technological advancement and numerous illustrative objects are allowed to children as well as adults but this does not mitigate the value of pictures in books. Picture books are the cheapest source of illustrations, they are readily available, and they do not need any source of energy to work, only an energetic instructor in class would put life to pictures.
Illustrations are defined as drawings, painting or printed works of art. They can range from simple cartoons to advanced billboards. Illustrations are mostly used in books to make things catchy and comprehensible. Books of History, Literature and Science, they all have illustrations to clarify ideas. Children’s Literature also has a variety of Illustrations in them. There are books in Literature which have only pictures as a medium of communication and some books have pictures integrated with texts. Children have a fondness for bright and colorful things. Illustrations are present in different types of books like counting, alphabet books, and picture books.
Picture books are books that depict stories through pictures, they are sometimes integrated with texts in them. They are used to make written text more comprehensible and interesting. This interestedness in learning makes learner interactive in the learning process. Pictures have various functions, they play the role of different acts in books. For instance in Literature setting is used to establish a story, in picture books, illustrations are used for this purpose to establish a setting for the stories. Illustrations also help to define the characters, at times, they help to develop the plot too. In fact, it is more comprehensible to understand the plot of a story with pictures. (Fang, 1996)
If the statement by Mabel Segun is broken into fragments to understand and comment upon its meaning. The very first part says ‘Illustrations are Literature in their own right”, which is very true as when literature is defined, it says it is any piece of written creative work, it would not be wrong to call Illustrations literature because they, like words convey an idea and are a piece of creative work. Illustrations do sharpen the perception of children, Segun describes this phenomenon, that children are immediately attracted by visuals, they recognize their parent's face and can distinguish it with others, in the same way, they start comprehending visuals first. It works as stimuli for brain and stresses the cognitive function of the brain.
Well-designed illustrations help in understanding data. In narrative fields, such as children’s stories, fairy tales or biographies, they typically enhance the reading (or listening) experience and facilitate comprehension. Levin proposed four traditional primary functions for pictures, they are “deco rational, representational, organizational and interpretational”. (Levin, 1981) As the name decoration suggests, these pictures simple adorn the texts, they add extra aesthetic value to them. On the other hand, representational are those pictures that portray or represent the text, they are usually scenes or incidents happening in the text, as in “The Tale of Peter Rabbit”, Peter is seen in the illustrations with all his mischiefs. Organizational pictures illustrate a framework for the content present in the text, it could be a map or plan, and usually such pictures can be seen in science books. Interpretational pictures are those pictures which help to make texts more comprehensible. There is another function of pictures which is more of an unconventional characteristic. They are called transformational pictures, such pictures help in enhancing the memory by helping the reader recall the text. Transformational pictures are seen to be used for learning the vocabulary of a second language. Many organizations insist on implementing picture books along with other tools so that student’s achievement in any area shall be improved. Picture books are great instructional sources for children.
Picture books are the first step in children’s exposure to learning before they get involved with the text. Pictures help children recognize colors, shapes names of people and other things around Picture books have given birth to graphic novels and hybrid novels. Picture books can be useful for any age but for young children they are very important as they enhance children’s fondness for the books. Agosto, D. (1999).
Picture books sometimes show what is written in the text but at times, they act beyond that by suggesting a lot of meaning and ideas. If “Voices in the Park” by Anthony brown is analyzed, the pictures speak way beyond the text. It is apparently a simple story, which is made more attractive and credible by visual representation. Some small sentences are present to narrate the story but it is with the pictures that the real essence of the story is narrated. Browne through pictures depicts the point of view of four characters in a park. Sentences narrate the story, but the problems faced by the characters would not have been understandable without the pictures, female’s arrogance could not have been portrayed rightly without the pictures, the text which indicates that the mother is not happy to see her child playing with another child, does not reveal the reason that why she is upset, but it is through revealed through illustrations that it is the social status of female which makes her behave like that as she does not want her child to mingle with someone from a low social background.
The writer uses Impressionistic art to reveal the theme, there are four voices in the story which depict four point of views and lives. Through pictures, writer portrays a different season while every voice is sharing his/her own point of view. Seasons depict the situation and how things change when situations change, mother is representing autumn around and when kids and dogs meet in different scenes, their happiness and feelings are depicted by spring, as soon as mother takes her son away from the other kid, winter season is shown in pictures, which shows how mother, (autumn), changes spring of kids into winter.
Theory of surrealism is also depicted through illustrations in Browne’s picture book, Surrealism means pictures are represented to depict subconscious images of characters. When Smudge’s voice is narrated, the pictures are shown according to what is in her subconscious, she sees the world in dynamic images, with fruits and colorful images, she also sees Charles’ mother with angry looks and flowers that were originally present on her hat in an awkward position. This theory is generally used as a tool for mockery in Literature. When the girl and her father are returning home, there are mixed images of happiness and sorrow around them, which depicts what they are going through and are thinking at that moment, such as Mona Liza’s picture full of sorrow depicts their plight.
Moreover, Browne has utilized the tool of illustrations very aptly because he does not portray the characters as human beings but gorillas, this is because he wants to move out any similarity of the characters with any race or class of human beings. As readers could relate them to specific class or race if they were human. Another important aspect of illustration in this picture book is the use of different shapes and lines to emphasize the point. There is an illustration where the girl’s father and the boy’s mother both are present, the writer has drawn a pole in between them to show demarcation, father’s side is cluttered with garbage and mother’s side is clean depicting their status. The writer has even given font size the characteristic of an illustration by changing size and type of font to symbolize the ...