Illustration

Starting a new unit, illustration, i decided to look into the history of illustration to get a better understanding.In class we spoke about different types of illustration, how it is used and where is started.

I always find doing a bit of background research helps me understand things better, and helps give me more on a ground to start on. 

Wikipedia says

"An illustration is a decoration, interpretation or visual explanation of a text, concept or process,^[designed for integration in published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, video games and films."

But i wanted to understand what actually that means...

Trenches-France-Chauvet

The earliest recorded illustrations seem to be these cave paintings in Lascaux, France. It is around 30,000 years old. This is the first sign on Humans using narrative images to tell a story...Visual representation of words, events, stories or ideas...

I then looked at the middle ages and found Illuminated manuscripts. These were mainly creations of story's from Christian beliefs... 

Monasteries were the places of cultural, educational, and intellectual activities and they had studio spaces called "scriptoria". 

The word manuscript comes from the Latin words manus (hand) and scriptus, from scribere (to write). Illuminated, from the Latin illuminare (to light up).

The colours of the illustrations, gave it a glow, also because of the real gold and silver... These Illuminations were decorated letters, borders and independent figurative scenes visualising the text. It is crazy to think that these were hand created. 

The Mechanical printing was invented ( by Johannes Gutenberg, 1452) It allowed books, art and publications to be mass produced and distributed. Prominently Woodcuts and etchings prints were made and by using the press it allowed people outside the upper class to experience art.

I stumbled across Thomas Bewick's wood carving illustrations. He created work for children's school books, Natural history plates and title- page books. He is just one example of how illustration is used in so many different things. Another example could be Leonardo da Vinci's work on the human form... 

In the early 1800s. Artists started independently earned a living as full-time illustrators selling etched or engraved prints in small print shops and city street book stalls. 

illustrations became more accessible and affordable. Books by Charles Dickens and other popular writers were illustrated. 

One Example is Hablot Knight Browne he was Well-known by the name Phiz, he illustrated books by Charles Dickens, Charles Lever, and Harrison Ainsworth.

Coavinses Phiz (Hablot K. Browne) 1853 Etching

The Little Old Lady  Phiz (Hablot K. Browne)  1853  Etching

 As i know from looking at Impressionism, the influence of Japanese Prints was very obvious in paintings and i wanted to look a little into how it influenced the arts a bit more.

I read that in 1853, Japanese ports reopened to trade with West. Along with many other goods, Japanese art was one of the main things which were imported into the western art world.

Japanese woodcuts changed how Impressionist and Post-Impressionist saw composition, three dimension, colour and more. 

They were fascinated by this completely different culture. Woodblock printing created an illusion of depth The work also had much stronger dark outlines than most European work. I wonder if this has something to do with how Japanese consider handwriting...

I stumbled across a Japanese artists called Hokusai Katsushika he created loads  of woodblock prints called ‘Manga'.

Today, the term manga refers to a type of Japanese comic books... as people in my class who like anime and Manga keep telling me... 

BUT

I found no evidence pointing to a connection between Hokusai’s manga and today’s comic book art

and my class mates tell me manga as a comic book form came from American influence which adopted into the Japanese culture....

 

 In the late 1800's publishes realised how illustration could help sell magazines and help with advertising. illustrated newspapers, books and magazines became affordable entertainment.This shows how illustration can be used for good and bad things...News magazines, family magazines, women's magazines, children's magazines, literary and arts journals, satirical and political journals, comics, propaganda poster...When i did a little research around this time i found some interesting illustrators, i thought i would make a note of to look at later. 

Jessie Willcox Smith - Known for her illustrations of children's books.

Young Girl Playing, water colour and charcoal

Little Miss Muffet - oil

Elizabeth Shippen Green

Frank E. Schoonover

N.C. Wyeth

competition between publications for the limited number illustrators charged higher fees and greater recognition for the artists! This Is when i started to find things very interesting...

Some illustrators became very well-known, like Charles Dana Gibson 

and John Held, Jr.

Illustrated Magazines covers then seemed to become very popular! I found some names i can also refer back to while in this unit as well as the ones on the breif...

• Howard Chandler Christy
• James Montgomery Flagg
• C. Coles Phillips
•  J. C. Leyendecker
• Norman Rockwell 

My research then lead me into Walt Disney ...

He made his cartoon shorts like Steamboat Willie (1928), the first sound cartoon. Leading to Animations Snow White began production in 1934 (released in 1937), and Pinocchio in 1936 (released in 1940). Which we have all probably seen. 

In the 1950's The magazine publishing industry grew and short fiction and features about family life, the arts and entertainment became very popular and illustrators were paid highly to create works for magazines. I think of the Women's magazines in the 1950's like Ladies' Home Journal, Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, ect..

More illustrators i found in this type of illustration.

•  Al Parker,
• Jon Whitcomb 
• Austin Briggs 
• Coby Whitmore
• Joe De Mers 
• Bernie D’Andrea
• Lorraine Fox

In 1944-54 Film Noir became very popular, it is a style or genre of cinematographic film marked by a mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace. The term was originally applied (by a group of French critics) to American thriller or detective films.The posters that were used for advertising these films were and still are very popular.

I Then started looking into the gaming industry, as i am a gamer and have collected some of the concept art. 

The publishers of Marvel comics entered into the film business .The relationship between the gaming industry, the comics industry and the film industry became more closely connected and illustrators play important roles in the production.

That lead me onto Comic books...

The first comic books i read were Desperate Dan, The Broons, Oor Wullie and the Beano.

 

 Then obliviously as i got older i read Marvel and DC comics. 

 

I didn't want to look to much into gaming and comics, as they didn't excite me as much....  I really liked was the film Noir Posters i think they excite me more because they look like collages.

This short post is kind of skimming over the history and giving me a slight time line, but i think it helped me find a start and feel more confident about moving forwards with this unit.

I feel pretty inspired and excited to start this unit.

I wanted to then start researching more in depth and trying out some illustrators work but decided to do this on a different blog post as we are going over some in class also.