Developing visual literacy through

artistic study and character analysis

Laurie Stowelllstowell@csusm.edu

DREAM: June 26, 2013

Reading Illustrations

• Art and illustration is text to read rather than merely pictures to accompany the story.

• Like authors, artists make deliberate decisions related to the Elements of Art and Principles of Design to communicate particular meanings.

• Although the art in picturebooks relates to the written text, it is also created to communicate its own meaning.

• Focusing readers solely or primarily on written language limits their understandings and the meanings they construct while reading.

Cueing systems• Artists and readers use similar cueing

systems to construct meaning. The graphic cues, which correspond to letters in writing, are the elements of art (dot, line, value, shape, color, space, form, texture). The syntactic cues, which correspond to grammatical structures in writing, are the principles of design (balance, emphasis, pattern, rhythm, movement, harmony, contrast, unity)

Picture books as multimodal texts

Picturebooks are one type of multimodal text. The meaning of the whole involves the weaving together of multiple modes, including the linguistic (written text), visual (illustrations), spatial (evident in the design, layout and composition) and gestural (found in the positions and movement in the illustrations).

“Multimodal texts include various pathways to follow, parallel displays of information, extensive cross-referencing elements, evocative graphics and images that extend and often replace, the written word as the primary carrier of meaning.” Each mode – visual, linguistic, spatial, gestural–contributes to the meaning of the whole and can only be understood in the context of the other modes. (Lewis, 2001)

Visual elements of artistic design

•Line • Perspective

•Shape • Composition

•Color • Book Design

•Space

•Texture

The format of the book

• A picture book is not made up of single illustrations but conveys its message through a series of images bound together within two covers. The impact of the total format of the book is what creates the art object: the picture book

You may not consciously know it, but when you pick up a book, you are reading its layout and typeface and color palette for clues about the story.

Modern kids are even more demanding readers of these design clues than most adults. They have been raised in the visually intense world of TV, movies and video.

Book size and shape• Book size and shape are often decisions made

jointly by the illustrator and the art director of the publishing house. They might search for a size that will enhance the theme of the story.

The biggest boy is a large book and

Nancy Tafuri’s close up pictures

make the little boy seem bigger, in

keeping with his lively imagination.

Shape of the book• The shape of some books suggests their

content. Fish eyes by Lois Ehlert is long and narrow like a fish or small aquarium.

• A tree is nice by Janice Udry is tall and vertical in shape like the trees in the book

Title Page• Even the title page can be beautiful,

informative and symbolic. The title page of Shadow portrays a young boy in silhouette anxiously looking back at his long shadow which falls across a double page spread while the spirits of his ancestors shown as white mask looks on.

SpacingSpacing of the text on the page, the choice of margins and the white space within a book contribute to the making of a quality picturebook. In The little house, the arrangement of the text on the page suggests the curve of the road in the opposite picture.

Type DesignType is the name given to all printed letters, and typeface refers to the thousands of letter styles available today. The computer allows artists much more freedom. David Diaz designed the fonts for Eve Bunting’s Going Home to resemble the linear forms of the Mexican folk art in the book.

Type design sets the

tone for everything.

(Don’t you suddenly feel like you’re reading a wedding announcement?)

The Stinky Cheese Man

They chose a classic font (the one you’re reading called Bodoini) and used it in unusual ways by

expanding, shrinking,

melting,

to emphasize the fact that these were classic fairy tales told in an unconventional way.

What kinds of feelings do these fonts evoke?

Once upon a time…

Tough Boris the pirate

The highwayman came riding, riding, riding…

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

Expert and Jigsaw Groups

You will become an “expert” on one of these techniques in a group by reading and viewing books that are examples of this technique. Then you will share your expertise with others who have learned about different techniques.

Picturing Books• An excellent website by children’s

book illustrators. View the slides on “Elements of Art” and “Design Principles:

• http://www.picturingbooks.com/

• Be sure to read the proclamation on the home page and see the list of author’s and illustrators websites.

Responding to Illustrations:

Importance of characters

• Characterization in children’s lit is so important that even long after we have forgotten the names of picture books from our childhood, we often still recall the names and personalities of many characters because “they came alive in the pages of books and will live forever in our memories.”

Define and develop character

• Characters hold readers interests, unravel plots and affect lives.

• Characters have been described as the driving force of stories.

• Character states such as their desires, feelings, thoughts and beliefs are the glue that ties the story together.

• Character understanding is probably crucial to readers’ literary meaning making, especially in light of the interconnections that exist among character intentions, conflicts and thematic understanding.

• Lehr (1991) found that children who discussed character motivation were better able to talk about the central theme of the stories they read.

• Understanding character may be a pathway to deeper levels of meaning.

•Sara once said, “For me to commit to a story, three things have to happen. The first is I have to come up with a character that I ask myself, ‘Would you take a bullet for this character if s/he were real?’”

ELA Common Core Standards

Anchor Standard for Reading: Key Ideas and Details:

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.3 Analyze how and why individuals, events, or ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

• Grade 5: Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

• Grade 4: Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

• Grade 3: Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations, or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events

• Grade 2: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

• Grade 1: Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.

• Grade K: With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

Theater and Visual Arts Standards:

• Theater:

• 2nd: Demonstrate the emotional traits of a character through gesture and action.

• 4th grade: Identify character’s objectives and motivations to explain that character’s behavior.

Visual Arts:

3rd grade: Look at images in figurative works of art and predict what might happen next, telling what clues in the work support their ideas.

Clementine

About the author

• Sarah talks about writing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feAgiMfM5Uo

Clementine• Look at the cover of Clementine. Why is this the cover

illustration?

• Write as many sensory words as you can that come to mind that describe Clementine.

• Discuss: What aspects of elements of design help us gain insight into the character of Clementine? Shape, color, line, perspective, texture and composition.

Clementine and clementines

•You could bring clementine oranges into the classroom and brainstorm descriptive words.

•Were there any words you used to describe your clementine that you also used to describe Clementine on the cover?

•How Sara chose the name.

Clementine• Opening: What is the first picture we see of

Clementine? This picture appears before any text.

• What do we learn about Clementine?

• Why is this the first illustration?

• What do we learn about her here?

• How is this different from the cover?

Considering character:• What do you notice about how and why the artist

made particular decisions about a particular character?

• Why do you think the artist selected [color, line, shape] for [character.]?

• How did the artist help you understand how [character] feels?

• What did the artist do to show that [character] moved?

• What information in the art is not available in the written text (and vice versa?) Why is that the case here?

• What details are in the illustrations that we wouldn’t know from the text?

• What do the positions of the characters convey about their relationship? Does the writer/illustrator want us to identify with a particular character?

• What do the expressions on their faces convey?

• Where are the characters looking? At the action? At each other? What? Why?

• What is the perspective of the illustration? Do we see the scene from the point of view of someone in the text? Which character? You the reader?

•

Group Discussions:• What do we learn about Clementine in your picture?

• What do we know about other characters in the picture?

• What do we know about the character’s feelings?

• Notice facial expression, gestures, body stance, position of character on the page and character actions.

• Also notice elements of art: line, perspective, shape, size.

• Consider the earlier questions about character.

Revealing character with details

• John Gardner wrote in The art of fiction: Notes on craft for young writers, “The reader is regularly presented with proofs–in the form of closely observed details– that what is said to be happening is really happening.” (1983, p.26)

Try this with students:

• Imagine a page in a book about someone you know well: mother, father, grandparent, brother, or sister. Imagine this person sitting in your living room. How are they sitting? What is his/her expression? What show is on TV? Where is the person sitting. What is on the table beside/in front of him/her? What is on the walls of this room? What details tell you about the person?

What is Clementine thinking?

If time today :

Develop a lesson with guiding questions for your students about illustrations in a story in your reading text.

References:• Martens, P, R. Martens, M. H. Doyle, J. Loomis

& S. Aghalarov. Learning from picturebooks: Reading and writing multimodally in first grade. The Reading Teacher. Dec. 12/Jan. 13. pgs. 285-294.

• Prior, L.A., A. Willson & M. Martinez. Picture this: Visual literacy as a pathway to character understanding. The Reading Teacher. Nov. 2012. pgs. 195-205.

Resources:• Sarah Pennypacker’s website: http://

www.sarapennypacker.com

• Marla Frazee’s website: http://www.marlafrazee.com

• Author study toolkit: http://www.readingrockets.org/content/pdfs/authortoolkit_rr.pdf

Climb on and take the ride with your kids