The Evolution of Children’s Book Illustration and Animation
ART IS "SEEING"
Julie Le Brun 1787 Frozen 2013
Let’s look again:
Àlvarez 2018
So what happened?
”Pay attention!” our teachers and parents would say. It was well meaning and it was intented to instruct us in the virtue of attention, to prepare us to receive knowledge. We “pay” attention, meaning that it costs us something, it is worth our time and we invest in the act of being attentive because there are sacred developmental steps in learning. What we give our attention to shapes our sense of the world, perception and relations. What shapes the minds of our kids today? What images are coding their schema? How are today‘s computer animation and digital/media art trends a reflection of a botched universal education and a complete break from reality and culture?
The language of our discontent
By canceling the Greek and Latin conduits of Culture, there became no more need for memorization, the hot iron for constructing meaning. And if meaning in stories were no longer demanded, then language became simpler, words with meager semantic range no longer inspired artful drawing as we would have seen in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Golden Age of Children’s Illustration and its mythological vernacular would be lost in translation.
(Left) Little Red Riding Hood
Charles Robinson 1911
(Right) Mother Goose
Jennie Harbour 1920
(Left) Arabian Nights, Arthur Szyk 1945
(Right) Shararezade, Edmond Leduc 1908
(Left) Picture Books in Winter
Jessie Wilcox Smith 1905
(Right) Beauty and the Beast
Walter Crane 1901
(Left) Andersen The King and the Nightingale, Arthur Syk 1945
(Right) Bluebeard, Kate Greenaway 1871
(Left) Aladin (the Wonderful Lamp)
Walter Crane 1874-84
(Right) Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf, Ivan Bilibin 1901
What follows is a low expectation of the child’s intellect and natural inclination towards heroic virtue.
(Left) Perseus Sleighs the Gorgons
Walter Crane 1892
(Right) Barnie Builds a Bird House 2015
(Left) Prince Chéri and the Dragon
Walter Crane 1845-1915
(Right) Cry babies
Elise Parsley 2015
(Left) Atlas holding up the Heavens
Bernard Picart - 1731
(Right) I am Strong, Eren Unten 2018
The images and clips that are so ubiquitous today “grab” the nascent attention away from the child as quickly as a bird takes seed from its hand and the child obediently sacrifices the virtue of attention without enjoying its reward and cognitive benefits. Animation passifies the young mind into submission, whereas spending time with something, nature, real things, the young creator and natural scientist emerges. The positive attributes of attentiveness in children require presence, a state of mind, a preoccupation greater than the child’s ego. The watching, waiting, questioning, pondering and the desire to know, discover and finally delight in the process are the acts of curiosity. When the opportunity to work the muscle of attention is taken away, the intellect atrophies and time and inquiry disappear— the mothers of invention and creativity.
Where are the inventors, philosophers and poets of our day?
Kids combined average screen time and use of computer devices: 5-7 hours a day
The hardest hit would be young children who absorb so much with their eyes, the windows of the soul. They are capable of memorizing more than we think and can handle complex literary themes spanning the human experience. The ancient tradition of story telling has been replaced by Aunt Bot: the human voice (the great teacher) substituted by speech synthesizers, pitch, resonance, articulation and emphasis all now manipulated. And if learning comes initially from hearing, we will see an unrecoverable learning deficit in our generation.
https://typecast.ai
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, the most distinguished proof of this theory became the creator of the modern Russian language in part by sitting at the feet of his Grandmother and Nanny listening to Russian Folklore, his education and training a menu of Russian, Latin, Greek, Arabic, French and the Liberal Arts. What are we transmitting to the next generation culturally? The following examples are alarming, the absence of natural settings and human characteristics through computer generated images speak for themselves. The story telling tradition and our great canon of Art and Literature, the vine of human formation has been severed by algorithms and the simulacrum.
(Left) Hans Christian Andersen
The Marsh King’s Daughter, Arthur Szyk 1945
(Right) Cartoon Network 1992-2022
French 19th century Edu. Vector 2021
Karl Witkowski 1890 James Stewart 2014
Karl Witkowski 1890 Kimazo
20th century Taro Gami 1985
(Left) Great Leaders for Revolutionary People, Arthur Szyk 1932
(Right) Little Histories for Little People
Sarah Stillman, 2020
George Ford 2010 Creazilla 2018-2022
Edwardian Era Kate Merritt 2012
Jerry Pinkney 2004 Leishman 2008-2022
1920’s Laura Watson 2000–21
M. Rumi 1970’s 2015
Nneka Bennet 2012 ( * )
(Left) Gennady Spirin 2000
(Right) Kissel Kablayda 2016
(Left) The Scholar
Jessie Wilcox Smith 1909
(Right) Sadie , The Paper Crown Princess
Mandy Newham 2012
The trends of distortion in children’s illustrations and animation are global, the dehumanization by digital templates have created a prism of stock characters eliminating the nuances of human emotion and expression that are key to childhood development.
William Sidney Mount 1850 Vector 2022
(Left) William Sidney Mount 1850
(Right) Vector 2022 Canstock
(Left) Maharani Jind Kaur Aulakh
George Richmond 1863
(Right) She Can You Can
Anastasia Damani 2019
Raja Ravi Varma 1890’s
19th century Varma Hatem Ali 2018
(Across)
1.Nidhi Chanani 2021 2. Gulukul 2017
3. Anoosha Sayed 2019
4. Maulshree Somani 2018
5. Anita Badhwar 2014 6. Hatem Aly 2018
Russian Children’s Books 20th century
(Left) Stepen Razin
Ivan Bilibin 1935
(Right) The Frog Princess
Gennady Spirin 1994
(Left) The Death of Ivan the Terrible
Bilibin1935
(Right) Pushkin’s The Tsar Saltan
Bilibin 1905
(Left) Gulliver’s Travels
Gennady Spirin 1993
(Right) Pushkin Tale of Tsar Saltan
Gennady Spirin 1996
Russian Children books commercial
(Left) Belosnezhka 2010
(Right) Zhigarev Vyacheslav Alekseevich 2016
Masha the Bear for U.S distribution
Animaccord 2017
Chinasprout—Xiaoning Wang
target audience: American adoptive community 1999-2022
Minnie Mouse
1928 colorized 1980’s womp! 2018
(Left) La Scapligliata Leonardo da Vinci 1500’s
(Right) Helga Andrew Wyeth 1979
(Left) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1859
(Right) Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1873
Nickelodeon 2000
(Left) Queen of Tangier
Josep Tapiró Baró 1891
(Right) Russian Beauty in Kokoshnik
Konstantin Makovsky 1880
Gülce Baycik 2021
Jean-Gérôme 1868 Soentpiet 1995
(Left) Josep Tapiró Baró 1890’s
(Right) Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller 1830’s
Across
1. Le Brun 2. Henri 1907 3. Henri 1914
4. Weistling 2011 5. Rembrandt 1645
6. Gertner 1868 7. Stan Miller (2000’s) 8. Lugones 2021 9. Henri 1922
Across
1.David Roberts 2007
2. Dave Whamond 2011
3. Valentina Ventimiglia 2014
4. Tara Calahan King 2000
5. Sarah Jennings 2017
6. Zoe Waring 2021 7.Neal Layton 2003
8. Smile and Learn 2018 9. ( )
Special attention given to preschool audiences: 95Million + views
youtube kids
and for more diversity...
The origin of the cartoon had its purpose in mocking its viewer. It’s no wonder that the original cartoon was a poster child for political satire, the kind of abrasive mocking that we see so much of in today‘s children’s literature though less skillful.
”The Scourge of Napoleon” James Gillray 1805
Puck Magazine, “Switchmen at Loggerheads” Bernhard Gillam 1883
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with cartoons, they are afterall “cartoons” distortions by nature and a genre just like anything else. Caricature and abstract art are also useful in training children in understanding the world, however there had been an unbroken tradition until the introduction of digital and media art that honored a human quality. The discipline and skill required of hand drawing and painting gave it its worth and intrigue:
La Linea
Osvaldo Cavandoli, Italy 1971-1986
Illustrators who do work in mixed media have had formal training in drawing and painting and can break through the cybergarten:
(Iran) Rashin Kheriyeh 2020-2021
(Italy) Bardeggia 2020 Gottardo 2020
(Italy) Ponzi 2000’s Goasco (Rik) 2000’s
The Snail’s Daydream, mixed media
Eric Fan 2014
U.S and International Illustrations various decades, styles, hand-drawn (France, Iran, Germany, Russia, Mexico, Nigeria)
(France) Seng Soun Ratanavanh 2016
(France) Seng Soun Ratanavanh 2019
Across
1.Blair Lent 1910 2. Dorothy Wheeler 1920
3. Jean de Brunhoff 1932
4. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943
5. John Tenniel 1832
6.Tomie DePaola 1999
Across
1. Beatrice Braun-Fock 1959
2. Boris Messerer, 1972 3. Iranian 4. John Alcorn 1970’s 5. Чуня (Choonya)
6. Soyusmultifilm, Malysh and Karlson Mikhail Druyan 1970
Across
1. Glen Mullaly 2. Maurice Sendak 1963
3. Carlos Mérida 1939 (Mexico) 4. William Edward Bloomfield 1930’s 5. Disney, Fantasia 1940 6. Ehsan 2020 (Iran)
7. Lev Tokmakov 1973 (Soviet Russia)
8. Soyusmultifilm, Fyodor Khitruk 1969 (Russian Winnie the Pooh) 9 Farshid Mesghali 1970s (Iran)
We all grew up watching Looney Tunes, the endless cat & mouse chases, and the proto clip, nevertheless they still followed a beginning, middle, end structure. The animation that is being made today is a series of effects disconnected from a story line or trunkated versions of fables and fairytales that require no reflection or comprehension. Parents and children are left to navigate through a mindfield of endless youtube videos of unwrapping toys from surprise eggs and slime dramas all the while the same videos are propogated by clicks of little hands generating algorithms and making more of the same. We championed “all access” to the internet and social media devices in the name of education without guidance or reference. Kids ruled the internet while the internet ruled them, while parents and nannies swiped their phones.
If time be considered so precious, how much more so for the child who passes through the necessary developmental stages at the speed of light? We are indebted to them to supply their time spending with substance or Studiosiras (Aquinas). “If we are to be intellectually temperate, we must seek to feed our minds on not just anything and in any way whatsoever, but only on what is truly important, and according to the unity that be-fits our vocation to wisdom”. Reichberg (1999)
The world of N.C Wyeth
American 1882-1945
Dream Challenge
Inspire Play
The new Cybergarten:
The average child is only being exposed to the images on the right (seen below), they have no reference to anything else. As you read, cover all the images you see on the left hand side, this is what most children see. How does this messaging affect kids? What will they imitate? How will they perceive themselves?
Walter Firle 1900 Bookclub 2020
(Left) Annie Louisa Swynnerton 1900’s
(Right) Laura Ellen Anderson 2017
Bryan Collier 2016
(Left) Jessie Wilcox Smith 1902
(Right) Fran Manushkin 2012
Stan Miller 2000’s
Spirin 2000 David Shannon 1999
(Left) Lizzie Lawson Mack 1886
(Right) Miriam Latimer 2013
(Left) Jessie Wilcox Smith 1922
(Right) Tim Mack 2019
(Left) Scott Gustafson
(Right) Nickelodeon 2017
Kadir Nelson 2005 Cartoon Connect 2018
Maurice Sendak 1963 Elise Gravel 2016
While I wouldn’t normally make a comparative study between Fine Art and Applied Art or Oil painting with Graphic Design or Animation I felt it was useful to make references by taking a longitudinal cut through history to see the change in visual output over time to give parents, teachers and guardians the reference point to make the best choices—to take Art Literacy seriously. The impressionable child also has an intuition and a sense of the good, true and beautiful but lacks the training of selection, Classicus; what is best. There is a kingdom within them that can be inspired not pillaged by way of digital pirates:
3D Total Publishing
Description: “Lavishly illustrated and with a luxurious finish, How to Be a Children’s Book Illustrator is ideal for book lovers in general as well as anyone looking to unlock the secrets of children’s book illustration”
(Left) Floyd Cooper 2015
(Right) Sweetcherry Publishing 2020
Across
1. Emily Hughes 2013
2. Linda Farrington Wilson 2018
3. Lori Joy Smith 2015
4. Ulises Ramos 2014
5. Gülce Baycik 2021
6.Vivian Mineker 2017
Cinema Paradiso co. UK 2020
PIXAR Monster University 2013
The classic fairytale was torched if that were possible, the following examples are original drawings compared with contemporary adaptations. 300 years of human progress later, we managed to removed all traces of emotional, spiritual and moral ethos.
Charles Perrault
Le Chaperon Rouge (Little Red Riding Hood)
Gustave Doré 1697
Igloo book UK 2000—2022
J.W Smith 1911 Ivoox 2019
(Left) Brothers Grimm, Hansel and Gretel
Ethel Franklyn Betts 1933
(Right) Morisa Morea 2019
(Left) Brothers Grimm Hansel and Gretel
Charles Robinson 1911
(Right) Allie Rusby 2017
(Left) Alexander Afanasyev
The Fool and the Fish
Gennady Spirin 1990
(Right) The Fool and the Fish
Zhigarev Vyacheslav Alekseevich (*)
(Left) Hans Christian Andersen
The Little Mermaid
Howard Pile 1910
(Right) The Little Mermaid
Disney 1989
(Left). Hans Christian Andersen
Beauty and the Beast Walter Crane 1874 (Right) Beauty and the Beast Disney 1991
The human hand will always make the most contact by trying to capture the dignity and mystery of the human person. It best can render the architectonics of well being and equally stir the complexeties of moral, ethical and philosophical principles. In the end, the tragedy is not in the distortion machine, it is only being true to itself and commerce but that it all went unnoticed, and we were the ones not paying attention...
(Left) Girl with a Pearl Earring
Johannes Vemeer 1665
(Right) Pete Doctor Inside Out 2015
Encanto, Disney 2021
Ne Zha , Beijing Enlight Media 2019
THE END
Bibliography/References
Reichberg, Gregory M (199) Studiditas The Virtue of Attention, in The Common Things: Essays in Thomism and Education. Washington, DC: (143–152).
Beaudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation Éditions Galilée, France, 1981.
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