Illustration and Narrative
Contents
Extract from ‘The Coming Illustration’ by Joseph Pennell, selected by Jim Walker
Illustration is perhaps often associated with books as a weak supporting element for the authors text, whether it is a story or an editorial piece of writing. The foundations of this association has a long history and in part lies in the development of early forms of book production. In part the image was deemed to support the imparting of knowledge. By defining the image as a mode through which to communicate knowledge the illustrated image had to function as a neutral mediator it could not be seen to contaminate the text. This would imply that the illustrated image has no communicative value, that it lacks a language and is firmly removed from any form of deep expressive potential. Yet this assertion places illustration in a negative context that denies the complex history of illustration, particularly in considering it as a narrative form of communication that has a distinctive language and grammar of its own.
Pennell, J. (1913) ‘The Coming Illustration’ In: The Imprint 1 (1) pp.24-32
Introduction
3
Illustration and Narrative
4
Chapter 1: Graduates 2014
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Graduate Contacts Chapter 2: Exhibitions and Excursions
An example of the complex multi-layered narrative language of the illustrated image can be found in the illustrations for Laurence Sterne’s novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759). What is notable for the reader/viewer is that these images seem not to represent or show a clear subject, they do not illustrate a narrative scene frozen in time. Rather Sterne constructed the book to be enriched and liberated from its physical form by including illustrations such as, a solid block of black and another with marbled paper. What these illustrated forms highlight is that illustration demands more from the viewer/reader than they perhaps expect. In part they are required to revisit, refresh, rethink and reflect on the visual in a constant search for meaning. While we can instantly recognize and enjoy the illustrated narrative action evoked by Maurice Sendak, John Tennial, Oliver Jeffers, Laura Carlin and Quentin Blake. They also draw us into the matrix of the illustrations construction, we notice the differences in material, texture, brush strokes, pencil marks, the thickness and fluidness of line. These form part of the heart of the narrative language of illustration that all illustrators seek to explore and play with the hearts and minds of the reader/viewer. It is this richness of diversity that drove Joseph Pennell to comment that: “The illustrator – the real illustrator - is an artist who can show what the author meant to say and couldn’t - an artist who can make something out of his author.”
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Student and Staff News
62
Origins
64
Paris Trip
65
Slow Commute 2
66
Comica
68
Chapter 3: Maidstone Archive
69
Chapter 4: Illustration at UCA
73
BA Illustration at Farnham
74
MA Illustration
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Lion & Lamb Press
78
Bookmaking and Printmaking
79
Colophon
82