Author: Kyle Djemani (Page 1 of 4)

To have a good narrative illustration, you’d need to have a good concept or “The Big Idea” behind the illustration. It’s how you set the mood and get your point across before saying a word. When I saw the illustration of David from “No, David” I understood the mischievous nature of the character right away. The way he holds the frying pan and how his facial expression appears to be laughing gives you the idea that he is making a lot of noise when he isn’t supposed to. This scene of the children’s book was one of the many beats that move the story closer to its conclusion. I found it interesting when highlighting the beats of a story, especially when breaking down Star Wars and how the essential parts of both halves are basically the same. It’s just like Alice in Wonderland and how there are many different artist’s interpretations, but all have the same essential beats that you can tell it’s Alice in Wonderland. These beats can also be critical moments that are used in order to create the desired effect in the viewer.

This brings us to how an illustrator using different points of view for the critical moments in a story. An illustrator needs to visualize their scene in 360 degrees to decide which point of view would be the optimal one to “shoot” the scene from. It helps to even vary the viewpoint or eye level to make the viewer relate differently to the subject. We also have an emotional response to point of view from which we see the subject and the image is essentially pre-programmed by our human interaction. Take the images of Toothless, a dragon from the “How to Your Dragon” series, when we see him from a sort of birds-eye view he appears to be similar to a puppy dog. While if we see from a worm-eye view he appears to a ferocious beast. After deciding on which point of view to use, there is also different ways to frame the scene. Depending on the framing, it can enhance the scene further such as close up framing can create a sense of itimacy or even make things seem larger. Especially long shots where it can make a scene that feels spacious and deep or even expansive if to describe a world such as Star Wars.