How to write an analysis report on literary illustrations, picture books, and comics

First of all, it starts with an introduction to the concept and style of picture books, and transitions to the level of picture books and comics; then it outlines the formation and development of picture books and comics, and analyzes them in detail from two aspects: color matching and picture composition. The characteristics of picture books and comics are explained; finally, the status and important role of picture books and comics in modern art are demonstrated through examples. The three parts of the article go from shallow to deep, layer by layer, forming an organic whole, which perfectly demonstrates the art form of picture books and comics

Keywords: picture books; comics; style; color; composition

Introduction

As a creative form that spans thousands of years, modern picture books are the continuation and development of traditional reading methods and information dissemination methods. Picture books have always been considered a popular art. The revival and resurgence of this ancient and modern creative form has once again opened up people's worship of pictures and images. The creative form of picture books has gradually spread into people's daily lives

More and more people are attracted by this art form and devote themselves to it. Picture books and comics are simple and easy to understand, and are more acceptable to children than works in other art categories.

1 Overview

1 Picture book

"Picture book" literally means "drawn book". This name originally originated from Japan. The pronunciation in Japanese is "爱恩", and the English name is Picture Book. The definition of the word "picture book"

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was first proposed by the world-famous children's literature theorist and writer Perry Nodelman . He defined picture books as children's books that combine a large number of coherent pictures with relatively few words (or no words) to convey information or tell stories [1].

Since all types of books with pictures are similar in terms of information transmission and visual performance, their uniqueness is: "Picture" is the most important information element in the book, and the author needs to The "pictures" in the book are displayed through different

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arrangement styles, expression forms and creative methods. The ultimate goal is to use the visual language of "pictures" to create Integrate information and ideological expression, and build a communication bridge between authors and readers through pictures [2].

2 Picture book style

As an independent form of book publication, the style of picture books is also obvious. The style of picture books lies in its special emphasis on the inherent relationship between Chinese characters and pictures, in which pictures play an important role in telling stories

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and words serve as auxiliary expressions. Because pictures themselves not only have strong narrative and expressive capabilities, but more importantly, are intuitive and concise, some quite famous picture books can even have only pictures without any text.

Picture books come in various types, and they can incorporate the ideological content they want to express through the rich expression of pictures. The reason why it is welcomed and loved by the broad audience in modern society is that it has an extremely wide readership. Generally, picture books are classified into many types

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and their classification forms are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Picture book classification forms and basis

Classification basis

Picture book type

Audience category

Children’s picture book and adult picture books

Themes of the work

Moral education picture books, holiday picture books, growth picture books, leisure picture books, story picture books,

Biography picture books, custom picture books, etc.

Different colors

Black and white picture books, color picture books, spot color picture books

Creative techniques

Photographic picture books, hand-painted picture books, sticker picture books, concept picture books, etc.

Picture and text arrangement

Illustrated picture books, picture and text picture books, graphic picture books (wordless books)

Creation and publishing

Ancient picture books , traditional picture books, modern picture books

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It can be seen that picture books are a form of books with novel forms, unique designs, rich types, and exciting contents.

The style characteristics of picture books are summarized as follows:

(1) More pictures and fewer words

Picture books are generally short, usually one The page number of picture books is specified to be between twenty to forty pages, and each page is composed of a large number of pictures and a small amount of text. This makes readers look very relaxed, intuitive and vivid

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So it is very popular among people, especially children.

(2) The illustrations are narrative and coherent

The subtlety of picture books is to use dozens of short pictures and a very small amount of text to tell a story. Vivid and meaningful, to achieve this, we must place great emphasis on the narrative and coherence of the picture, and at the same time, we must also emphasize the close cooperation between pictures and text. Therefore, in picture books, pictures are words, because the pictures here, like the words elsewhere, must have the ability to tell stories[3].

(3) Book integrity

As an independent book form, picture books themselves need to have the same integrity characteristics as other types of books. You can see that quite a few picture books have the author's illustrations on the cover, back cover, title page, and even the lining. These illustrations do not exist in isolation. They tell the same story as the illustrations on the inside pages of the picture book, so the whole book itself is a story

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Overall, it is more vivid than other books.

2 Picture book comics

1 Picture book style comics

Comics are an art form that uses simple and exaggerated techniques to depict life or current events. Comics are generally good at using creative techniques such as transformation, comparison, symbolism, suggestion, innuendo, etc. Comics basically revolve around a story, turning the content they want to express into humorous pictures, and the plot needs to be complicated

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Use picture groups to display to achieve the effect of satire or praise[4]. This allows the reader to feel personally immersed in the scene while reading, and the reader's mood is infected by the story and changes with the protagonist's joy, anger, sorrow, and joy.

The plots described in picture books are not too complicated. It can usually be a sentence, a scene, or a story. The fundamental difference between it and ordinary comic strips and comics lies in the grasp of pictures. , application, interpretation and communication methods. Picture books can often make a big picture out of small things

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and insinuate profound philosophies from simple things. Therefore, the comics we often read are often a kind of cartoon with strong meaning. Paintings that are satirical or humorous. In this sense, it can be said that picture books are a form of expression of comics.

The pictures in picture books always give people a very soft feeling. Each picture in it is a small story that you can imagine at will. Picture books do not necessarily have a storyline, they may be illustrations that are not related to each other. Of course, some picture books also tell stories, but there are fewer words, and the pictures are the main thing.

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However, comics are works with storylines and complete world views. The pictures of comics give people the feeling of looking at slides. It shows everything about the story in front of you, and then it is up to you to connect it. Compared with picture books, traditional comics are like stage plays. Readers can only see them from a certain angle with a full mid-range view, which will create a great sense of distance [6].

Picture book comics are formed by combining the artistic style of picture books with comics. Due to the fusion of picture book style, its basic feature

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is to use pictures to tell stories, which not only shows a broad vision, but also has close-ups of details. It not only has an extremely interesting storyline, but also has a hidden rhythm design of beginning, succession, transition and integration. This kind of picture book-style comics makes people not only feel immersed in the scene, but also comprehend some true meanings and gain insights in the process of reading comics.

2 The formation and development of picture book style comics

The formation of picture book comics has been around since ancient times, and the murals in ancient Egypt are specific to the picture book style

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Characteristics. These murals attach great importance to the narrative of the picture, with detailed content, subtle descriptions, and the use of both hieroglyphics and images. They can be called the ancestors of "picture books". Picture books in the true sense are believed to have been born in Europe in the 17th century. The earliest illustrated picture books abroad appeared in Germany. The World Pictures published by Jon. Amos Comedies in 1658 was the world's first children's picture book. The content is similar to an encyclopedia, with black and white illustrations, and it became the favorite textbook for children all over Europe at that time [4]. Then,

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Picture book-style comics also appeared in the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries.

The creation of modern picture books is believed to be the birth of "The Story of Peter Rabbit" by British Potter's in 1902. After the book was published, it was deeply loved by readers. Entering the 1930s, it was the heyday of picture book publishing in the world. Due to the impact of the war, the mainstream of picture books moved to the United States, and picture books ushered in a golden age. After the end of the Second World War, picture books and comics in Europe and the United States entered an era of blooming, becoming the peak of picture book creation

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and producing countless excellent works. Since then, picture book creation has developed rapidly and spread to all parts of the world, centered in Europe and the United States. In Asia, Japan is a major country in the creation of modern picture books. It absorbs the essence of European and American picture books and makes full use of national artistic elements to create a number of excellent picture books. Hong Kong and Taiwan are also areas where picture book creation is relatively active [5].

The development of picture books in my country can also find historical origins in ancient times. For example, Tang paintings in the Tang Dynasty can be considered the prototype of picture books. However, modern picture books started relatively late in China.

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It only has a development history of ten or twenty years, but it has developed relatively rapidly. The reason why modern picture books and comics have developed so rapidly in mainland China is mainly influenced by the publication of urban adult picture books by Taiwanese picture book writer Jimmy in early 2002 such as "Go Left, Go Right", "Listen to Jimmy Singing", and "123 Wooden Man". Influence.

These classic works brought the concept of "picture books" to the inland areas of our country and were gradually accepted by people, and became a symbol of urban culture.

3 Characteristics of Picture Book Style Comics

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Picture books are an art form that expresses the author’s intention and purpose through image, color, composition and other factors. It is led by a step-by-step narrative, integrates painting, design and visual expression, and uses rich visual language to bring readers into a continuous and vivid world of images [7].

Picture book style comics are loved by everyone. First of all, these comics are beautifully drawn, the pictures have the characteristics of cartoon images, and they have high artistic charm in color and form. For example, by looking at a picture book of the Japanese version of the European folk tale "The Wolf and the Lamb"

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We can appreciate this "picture language". Its text is simple: "The wolf has entered the lamb's house...". Later, a whole page was used to show that the wolf opened the door and came in. All the lambs were panicked. Some were hiding in the big clock, some were hiding under the bed, some were hiding behind the door, and some were hiding behind the sofa... This The picture greatly arouses the reader's interest.

The following article combines examples to explain the characteristics of picture book style comics from two aspects: color matching and picture composition.

(1) Color matching

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As one of the main factors in picture books, color shapes the image of the picture book and enhances the atmosphere of the scene. , the expression of emotional intentions all play a decisive role. It is an expression language that integrates science, art, and emotion. Successful color design of picture books can not only bring readers rich visual enjoyment, but also convey information that words cannot. Color can accurately and appropriately convey the author's "can only be understood but cannot be expressed" design intention, becoming one of the key factors for the success of picture book design [6].

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In the creation process of picture books and comics, color language can not only reflect the author’s message, but also have the function of conveying the theme information of the picture book. The joy and anger of the protagonist in the picture book , sadness, and joy can not only be displayed from expressions and demeanor, but also can be felt from the color-rendered atmosphere [5, 6]. The intuitive nature of color allows readers to feel the bright, gray, dark, thick and light colors used in the picture. The symbolic nature of color allows readers to feel the transformation of tones due to changes in the protagonist's mood. Functional color language can appropriately express the intention of the design while enhancing the appeal of art

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. Being good at using color language is the key to successful picture book design.