National Library News November 1997 Vol. 29, no. 11

The Art of Illustration: Cartoon Art

As a child, the celebrated children's author and illustrator Marie-Louise Gay wondered why so many of her favourite storybook characters were pictured without flaws. When she began to create her own books in the 1970s, she decided that the children she painted would be lovable and funny even though, or maybe because, they had knee socks that fell down, shirt tails that hung out and hair that refused to lie flat.

Gay's distinctive cartoon-like illustrations are grouped with those of seven other artists in one section of the National Library's current exhibition, "The Art of Illustration: A Celebration of Contemporary Canadian Children's Book Illustrators". In the exhibition, as in the field of picture book illustration in general, cartoon art embraces work by the largest number of those working as children's illustrators. These individuals tend to be visual narrators, storytellers and humorists,¹ whose ability to convey the essence of a story through a minimum of line and a maximum of imagination distinguishes them from other illustrators who may be described, for example, as magic realists, naive artists or representational artists, and whose works are featured elsewhere in the exhibition.²

Cartoon artists present a literal interpretation of the story, but also, through the use of allusion, symbolism and exaggeration, accentuate the story's imaginative aspects. Their illustrations are full of feeling and movement. There is an emotional edge to their artwork which imparts the "truth" of what is being described in both text and pictures. This emotional connection, strangely enough, reinforces the factual information depicted in the illustrations. It stimulates the reader's perception of what is real and what is imagined. The agile intelligence, creativity and humour evident in the best cartoon art examines the meaning behind the story's words, and challenges the reader to experience the story at many levels.

From Rainy Day Magic.

Marie-Louise Gay stores ideas for her books in small notebooks and in her head. She usually plans her text first, making up to 30 revisions before she is satisfied. Examples of some textual revisions for Rainy Day Magic are exhibited with the original artwork. The originals reflect the joy and unbridled spirit embodied in the text. Two children confined indoors on a foggy, rainy day are banished with their bikes to the basement, where they find excitement and adventure on the backs of a tiger, a giant snake and an enormous whale. Every object in the first three pages of Rainy Day Magic is repeated in subsequent illustrations. Sunglasses left in a drawer are worn by a starfish in an underwater fantasy where a school of fish reminds the reader of a motif seen earlier on the living room wallpaper. At the end of the story, the imaginary starfish is entangled in the little girl's hair as she "surfaces" back to the reality of upstairs and suppertime. Was the adventure real or make-believe? The colourful, fantastic images bounce off the borders and, in some instances, off the page, creating a feeling of movement and energy, and inviting the reader to read the story and savour the pictures again and again.

As she plans the illustrations for her books, Gay prepares a storyboard, a page with tiny, thumbnail sketches that help her to match ideas with the text and develop the page layout to be used when the book is published. It is a guide, but not the final word in visualizing the story before she prepares rough sketches and final paintings. A comparison of the storyboard for Lizzy's Lion (written by Dennis Lee) with one of the final paintings, in which the lion apprehends a robber, indicates that considerable revision occurs during the creation process. Gay makes as many as seven trial sketches and, in some instances, will redo the "final" painting several times before it is ready for publication.

From Moonbeam on a Cat's Ear.

After the storyboard and the pencil sketches, or "roughs", she proceeds to more elaborate pencil drawings. Examples prepared for Moonbeam on a Cat's Ear may be compared with two final paintings (completed in watercolour on gesso and India ink), one in which "the cat is dreaming", and the other in which Toby, Rosie and the cat "wander through the clouds and stars" in their magical moon-shaped boat. Even at this stage, the viewer notices changes and additions by which Gay enriches the emotional and imaginative parts of her storyline as it is developed in the illustrations.

From Rockanimals. From Soap (a Pichou book). From Winter or The Seven O'Clock Bogey-Man (a Pichou book).

In addition to the Marie-Louise Gay material, visitors to the exhibition will be enchanted by the works of two other artists whose manuscripts and original paintings are also part of the National Library's permanent collection. They will be entertained by Vlasta van Kampen's impression of Piccadilly Circus, painted for Rockanimals (written by van Kampen and Irene C. Eugen). A second van Kampen picture, which shows a zany animal audience restlessly awaiting the orchestra's performance, is particularly captivating. Ginette Anfousse's deceptively simple pictures for the books about Jojo and her toy aardvark, Pichou, reflect everyday attitudes and concerns of children, such as a fear of the dark or an aversion to cleanliness. Harmonization of the illustrations with the text is so important to Anfousse that she works on the two simultaneously. In her Pichou books, a few lines of text per page provide the basis of each story and the accompanying illustrations supply the details.

The other illustrators featured in this section lent their artwork to the Library especially for the exhibition. There are uncluttered drawings in poster colours by Ben Wicks, and small black and white sketches of penguins, children and a cow by Ken Ward. Marc Mongeau's buoyantly "busy" pictures for There Were Monkeys in My Kitchen! (by Sheree Fitch) emphasize the story's frenetic energy: there is always something new to discover in these paintings. The smooth, solid shapes and warm colours in Mireille Levert's Little Red Riding Hood are juxtaposed with a sharp, upper right to lower left diagonal presentation that jars the imagination and makes the picture of the wolf scary, but not too scary. Maryann Kovalski makes different use of a diagonal line and perspective to fool the eye into imagining hundreds of waiters, instead of the 22 depicted in Pizza for Breakfast (originally published as Frank and Zelda). In Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut (by Margaret Atwood), Kovalski uses short, spidery lines to emphasize the farcical nature of the scene and to mimic the misdirected energy of the princess.

From Little Red Riding Hood.

From Pizza for Breakfast.

Not only does fine cartoon art stimulate the imagination, it also entertains. The best books of this ilk become all-time favourites for children and, often, adults.

To see some Canadian classics illustrated by Marie-Louise Gay and the others featured in the section on cartoon art, visit "The Art of Illustration: A Celebration of Contemporary Canadian Children's Book Illustrators" from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. daily in the main exhibition room at 395 Wellington Street (until December 7, 1997) or check out the World Wide Web version of the exhibition at the following address: http//:www.nlc-bnc.ca/events/illustr/eintro.htm

For more information about children's literature and illustrations at the
National Library of Canada, contact:
Mary Collis
Canadian Children's Literature Service
Telephone: (613) 996-7774
Fax: (613) 995-1969
TTY: (613) 992-6969
Internet: mary.collis@nlc-bnc.ca

For more information about the exhibition, contact:
Andrea Paradis
Public Programs
Telephone: (613) 992-3052
Fax: (613) 947-2706
TTY: (613) 992-6969I
nternet: randall .ware@nlc.bnc.ca

Mailing address for both:
National Library of Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0N4

Notes

¹ The terms used to describe the different styles of illustration are taken from The Republic of Childhood: A Critical Guide to Canadian Children's Literature in English, by Sheila Egoff and Judith Saltman (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1990), p.175.

² See also "Eyeing Illustration: A New Exhibition at the National Library", National Library News, June 1997, pp. 15, 17; "An Illustration of Art: Exhibition Opens" and "The Art of Illustration and Concept Books", both in National Library News, July/August 1997, pp. 20-24; "The Art of Illustration: A Look at the Work of Elizabeth Cleaver, Dayal Kaur Khalsa and Others", National Library News, September 1997, pp. 17-20; and "The Art of Illustration: Realism, Magic Realism and Romanticism", National Library News, October 1997, pp. 14-16.