Lecture notes - History and development of illustration.

• “Pictures are the most intelligible form of learning a child can look upon.”

-       John Amos

The visible world – 1659 first recorded recognition about how children learn with images. He created ‘ The Tales Of Mother Goose’ and ‘Little Red Riding Hood’.

• John Newbury – Produced the first published children’s picture book.

His style was quite basic and linier as this was due to the print press technique. This further developed and the use of a hard surfaced wood allowed more depth into the image. More runs were also an advantage as the quality of wood was more hard warring.

• A ‘Golden era’ approached with illustrators such as Walter Crane and William Nicholson. They produced more intricate, detailed and coloured images. This is when authors, publishers and illustrators came together to work on a project.

• In the mid 50’s and 60’s the industrial revolution and higher incomes enabled better quality books to be produced and the awareness of children’s learning patterns became clearer making the picture book and children’s publishing more popular.

• Baby books also developed as research showed babies responded to images using simple shapes and colours.

• Lauren Child – created ‘Charlie and Lola’.  The modern era boasts a bolder, interesting dimension with a clearer layout. Text and images work together to aid children with the story, also, more playful attributes that interact the reader and child with the story.

• For older children and picture books, fiction came into play. These included heavier text and smaller images to support the story, allowing for imaginations to take over.

• Reference and information books – Strong visuals help inform children on topic’s, letting the images explain the main bulk of the subject.

• Graphic novels are used to tell a story with minimal text. Images are in a more mature nature but still in a visually stimulating way.