The books’ illustrations are separate art designed to accompany the main text, creating a mood and visualizing what is happening in the story. First, the pictures help the reader to better imagine what is happening in the book, follow the characters’ actions, and feel them more fully. Second, the illustrator’s drawing style can affect the story’s perception. More colorful, optimistic, bright illustrations will set the readers in a light mood, making them appreciate the story’s meaning without looking for more profound ideas. Such drawings are often made for children’s books in order to maintain an overall positive attitude. However, to bring out deeper and more instructive meanings in the same story, illustrations can be drawn in a more realistic or minimalist style, setting readers in a more philosophical perception. Thus, they will tend to look for deeper meanings and life lessons in their reading.
In class, we reviewed two famous, well-known children’s stories, “The Velveteen Rabbit” and “In Which Pooh Goes Visiting,” with original illustrations from the early 20th century. The short story “In Which Pooh Goes Visiting” by Alan Alexander Milne was illustrated by Ernest Shepard. Drawings of Winnie the Pooh performed by Shepard became famous works that gave him popularity and eclipsed other works. These illustrations are also unusual for the modern reader since people are used to cartoonish images of Winnie the Pooh and his friends. This edition uses black-and-white graphics and a realistic style; animals do not have anthropomorphic features. The illustrations contrast with the more frivolous narrative, making the moral more down to earth. This is logical since “In Which Pooh Goes Visiting” is a story about the consequences of rash actions that overtake a person. In the picture where Robin reads a book to Pooh, who is losing weight, one can see the edification and cold irony of the story. In the cartoon version, the emphasis is on Pooh’s stupidity and the comical nature of the situation. At the same time, Shepard’s illustrations set up a more realistic and serious perception of the problem that the character has created for himself and everyone around him.
“The Velveteen Rabbit” by Margery Williams is a romantic love story with a deep intellectual and emotional charge. Although this is a children’s story about toys coming to life, the illustrations by William Nicholson are highly artistic, emotional, and even depressing. The engravings use the counting of black, yellow, and red colors, which creates a unique style and is enough to manipulate the mood of the images. For example, in the “Christmas morning” illustration, yellow and red predominate, conveying the joy and festivity of the received gift. The “Anxious times” image uses a lot of black and gray to represent the build-up of atmosphere to an all-black background in “The Fairy flower,” where only the yellow flower of hope shines in the darkness. Illustrations allow you to live the story more profoundly and dramatically, feeling suffering and happiness.
Comparing the styles of illustrations in both books, it can be observed that they are similar because they do not have a childish, cartoonish, or light mood. They guide the reader to a deeper understanding of the story, either ethically or emotionally. However, the pictures in “The Velveteen Rabbit” reveal more of a sensual aspect, conveying the state of a rabbit that strives to become real and becomes because he is loved. “In Which Pooh Goes Visiting” is more of a cautionary tale with a pragmatic conclusion, so the realistic style will better set the reader on it.
Illustrations for texts can greatly affect the reader’s perception emotionally and create basis for reflection. The pictures in the stories “The Velveteen Rabbit” and “In Which Pooh Goes Visiting” are done in different styles, but they encourage people to take the stories more seriously, to look for a moral and meaning in them, or to sympathize with the characters. In this way, the illustrations reveal the original message of the storytellers more profoundly.