Illustrations can be explained as visual narrative elements designed to visually support an idea or a written text, to contribute to the content of the text, and to increase its effect, in written communication tools such as books, magazines, newspapers, posters, and brochures. Islands Illustrators Society defined illustration as follows: “Illustration is a piece of visual information, either drawn or photographed, which usually illustrates an accompanying text. The purpose of illustration is to enhance the ideas presented in the text, or simply, to transmit information or concepts visually.” (Islands Illustrators Society, n.d.). According to Wigan (2012, p. 9): Illustrations provide the visual transmission of content by applying creative, different, and highly personal ways for functions such as solving problems, decorating, entertaining, embellishing, commenting, informing, inspiring, explaining, educating, encouraging, surprising, enchanting and storytelling. Illustration is now a powerful applied art form that is alive and constantly developing. This ancient medium with a rich history is also a vital, dynamic, contemporary means of expression, interpretation, and communication that can create stunning images and messages in every field.
There are many types of illustrations such as scientific, technical, political, educational, cultural, editorial, and cartoon. Illustrations can be made with various techniques such as charcoal, watercolor, acrylic paint, collage, airbrush, and digital tools.
Oldest Books with Illustration
Illustrations have a very deep-rooted history. It is known that the oldest known illustrated books are “Ramessum Papyrus” and “The Egyptian Books of the Dead”, which are thought to have been written in Egypt around 1900 BC (Dönmez, 2010, p.6.).
Book of the Dead for the Singer of Amun, Nany, ca. 1050 BCE, Papyrus, paint (photo: arce.org)
The art of illustration has not been considered an art for many years in the past, but it has been seen as a simple craft. The first of the reasons why illustration has not been considered art for many years is that it has the purpose of illustrating an idea or a book. However, the fact that the artist makes illustrations by displaying an original attitude refutes this view. The second reason is that the illustration is made for commercial purposes. However, there are also commercial concerns in fields such as painting and sculpture. For this reason, there is no such distinction today. Moreover, during the development process - especially at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century - the artists of the period pioneered their understanding of painting. Therefore, illustration is an important and well-established art field. James Montgomery Flagg has a witty approach that supports this idea. “The only difference between a fine art artist and an illustrator is that the latter of those who can draw eats three meals a day and can pay for them” (Dalley, cited in Kaçtı, 2019, p. 30). However, Flagg's statement is again a matter of generalization about the later understanding of the value of contemporary artists of the period specific to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, and they did not experience the prosperity they deserved during the period in which they lived.
Printing Techniques
One of the important developments in the art of illustration was the beginning of the printing of cheap and illustrated wood engraving books and newspapers, although a bit crude, in Germany and the Netherlands, starting from the 15th century. This technique was first used in China in the 9th century. Many color block books printed in China and Japan have survived to the present day (Wigan, 2012, p. 275).
The intaglio printing technique, which began to be used in the 15th century and used the tonality created by the indentations of lines engraved on the surfaces of copper, zinc, or stone plates, became widespread thanks to artists such as Jacques, Callot, and Rembrandt until the end of the 18th century. German painter Albrecht Dürer, who is considered the most important and influential name of the Northern European Renaissance, expanded the field of intaglio printing with his detailed graphic works in the 16th century (Wigan, 2012, p. 276).
Lithography, whose invention is attributed to the German Alois Senefelder in 1796, has changed the face of the art of illustration. This technique, which allows planographic printing on a flat surface for the first time, is based on the principle of not mixing oil and water. Delacroix, Toulouse-Lautrec, Daumier, and Bonnard used this technique in very creative ways to make their paintings on flat lithography stones using oil ink or litho pastel (Wigan, 2012, p. 277).
Wood engraving, which is made by engraving an image on the face parallel to the annual rings of a boxwood block and is much more detailed than printing with wooden molds, started a revolution in the 1790s thanks to Thomas Bewick's two-volume book “The History of British Birds”. The technique was especially popular among professional illustrators and engravers and enabled the expansion of the book and magazine market (Wigan, 2012, p. 278).
Rapid population growth and socio-economic developments in 18th and 19th century Europe enabled new inventions to affect production, steam-powered machines gave birth to industry, and the Industrial Revolution occurred. This industrial revolution, which first emerged in England and then affected the whole world, enabled privatization and the establishment of factories. The need to advertise hundreds of products produced in factories has increased the demand for all types of printed materials. Thus, illustrators responded to this need. Visual 1 shows an illustrative poster designed for a soap brand during the Industrial Revolution.
Pear's Soap Poster (photo: media-amazon.com)
The 1860s are described as the golden age of British professional illustration. It was during these years that advances in printing technology began to produce books and magazines that were cheap enough for the public to purchase. When illustrated journalism became widespread, Cruikshank, Keene, Doyle, Homer, and Tenniel became household names thanks to their work in magazines (Wigan, 2012, p. 279).
With the development of printing technologies in the 1880s, paintings began to be reproduced quickly and cheaply. After woodblock printing and engraving, lithography and the printing press suddenly made broadcast illustrations visible. The demand of a wide range of people, especially young readers, for illustrated books and magazines has increased (Dağ, 2016).
During this period, illustrators put their signature to artistic works by avoiding the concept of explaining the text. Later, orientalist tendencies began to be seen in artists who were largely influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. In addition to European folklore, the East and the Far East are also an important source of inspiration. When Iranian miniatures and Japanese prints began to reach Europe through the opened trade routes, European artists acquired a different perspective and created original works by fusing two different cultures (Dağ, 2016).
William Morris, the pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement and the founder of the Kelmscott Printing House, gave a new direction to illustration with his designs and influenced his era.
Thanks to William Morris's understanding of editing in book designs, Kelmscott Printing House has provided a great service by contributing to graphic design and especially book design. The beauty that Morris provided in the design of letter characters, and his handling of even the smallest detail that forms the whole within a one-to-one design unity, inspired subsequent generations in book design (Bektaş, 1992, p. 8). Visual 2 shows the seal of the Kelmscott Publishing House, which was founded by William Morris in 1891.
Kelmscott Press printer's mark, Epistola de Contemptu Mundi, 1894. (photo: exhibitions.lib.umd.edu)
During this period, Walter Crane (1845-1915) became the first opponent of William Morris. Stylistically, Morris was influenced by Pre-Raphaelites and Japanese prints. Edmund Dulac (1882-1953) specialized in fairy tale paintings. During this period, fairy tales and fantastic subjects attracted the attention of illustrators. British writer and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866-1943), who was also a botanist, focused on children's books (Dağ, 2016).
The Art Nouveau movement, which continued between 1890 and 1910, is an international decorative style.
Graphic designers and illustrators of Art Nouveau developed art forms that primarily considered aesthetic concerns, but also enthusiastically adopted applied art techniques that emerged with the advancement of commercial printing methods. As a result, they have greatly increased the visual quality of mass communication (Bektaş, 1992, p. 18).
Children’s Books
Children's books are the field of application in which illustrations find the widest space. Illustrations can find a place in educational books or fairy tales published for children. The first picture book produced for children was Orbis Pictus (Orbis Sensualium Pictus), prepared by the German educator Johann Amos Comenius in 1658. Visual 3 shows one of the inner pages of the book Orbis Sensualium Pictus.
Introduction to ''Orbis Sensualium Pictus'' Comenius (photo: myartprints.com)
The period that started in 1905 and lasted until the 1930s is known as the golden age of children's book illustrations. George Cruikshank, Sir John Tenniel, Randolph Caldecott, and Kate Greenaway are among the best-known illustrators of this period. During this period, beautiful illustrations influenced by Romanticism, fables, and folk tales also emerged from a reaction against industrialization (Wigan, 2012, p. 281).
Big Idea
During the Second World War, illustration began to be used for the purpose of influencing and convincing people collectively. The parties used national stereotypes, symbols such as hammer with sickle, swastika, heroic soldiers and workers, national flags in systematic political advertising campaigns. They tried to prove the rightness of their case by using illustration and photography. The posters designed by Norman Rockwell, Ben Shahn, Abraham Games, and Jean Carlu were extremely impressive (Wigan, 2012, p. 283).
Since the mid-1950s, art directors and graphic designers began working with illustrators during this period, when the design was treated as a “big idea”. Magazines began to cover social and cultural issues in more depth, and illustrators moved away from realistic representations and approached conceptual thinking, humor, metaphor, and the imaginary. Conceptual illustrators such as Saul Steinberg and Paul Davis began to use techniques, and they adapted from movements such as expressionism and surrealism in their works (Wigan, 2012, p. 284).
In the 1960s, a youth movement against conformism, war, and consumer culture emerged. This movement was identified with sexuality, pleasurable substances, and Rock 'n' Roll music. Illustration, on the other hand, was a form of expression that complemented this opposing culture.
Iconic works from this period include Milton Glaser's Bob Dylan poster, Oz magazine, Robert Crumb's cartoons, Peter Blake's work for the Beatles, and psych Deco posters by Wes Wilson and Victor Moscoso (Wigan, 2012, p. 284). In visual 4, the iconic Bob Dylan poster designed by Milton Glaser in 1966 is seen.
Bob Dylan poster (photo: miltonglaser.com)
By the 1980s, with the release of the Apple Macintosh, a whole new era began for designers and illustrators. Diverse and eclectic designs have left their mark on the 80s, and designers and illustrators such as Ralph Steadman, Steve Bell, Brian Grimwood have contributed to this period. The development of technology and the invention of the Internet radically changed the practice of illustration in the 2000s, and illustrators were able to create a personal and original language. Their attitudes can be seen today from children's books to graphic novels and from brand identities to music graphics. Additionally, digital techniques have provided flexibility and convenience to artists and shortened the design process.
Works-Cited
Island Illustrators Society. (Incorporated, n.d.).
Access: 25.11.2020. https://www.islandillustrators.org/about
Bektaş, D. (1992). Çağdaş Grafik Tasarımın Gelişimi. İstanbul: YKY.
Dağ, E. S. (2006). İllüstrasyonun Altın Çağı.
Access: 10.01.2021. http://kirmizisapka.blogspot.com/2006/12/illstrasyonun-altn.html
Dönmez, A. (2010). Türkiye’deki İllüstrasyon Sanatının Gelişimi ve Önemli Temsilcilerinin Bu Alana Katkılarının Değerlendirilmesi. Master Thesis. Dumlupınar University, Social Sciences Institute, Kütahya.
Kaçtı, S. (2019). İllüstrasyon Sanatçısının Toplumsal Kimliği ve Topluma Etkileri. Master Thesis. Anadolu University, Fine Arts Institute, Eskişehir.
Wigan, M. (2012). Görsel İllüstrasyon Sözlüğü (Translator: Mehmet Emir Uslu) (First edition). İstanbul: Literatür Publishing. (The original work was published in 2009).
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