Story Illustration

Pre-Columbian Art

Illustrated Books (Maya)

• Maya Illustrated Books:– Highly prized in Mesoamerica– Books were precious vehicles for recording history , rituals,

astronomy, calendar calculations, maps, and trade/tribute accounts

– Hieroglyphic columns read from left to right, top to bottom– Most books painted before and immediately after the

Spanish conquest deal with astronomy, calendars, divination, and ritual, and are still not well understood.

– Not many (only 4 Maya books) survive, because when conquistadors found them, they thought they contained evil and burned them

Illustrated Books (Mixteca-Puebla)

• Mixteca-Puebla Illustrated Books:– 14 non-Maya books survived, 11 of which are from

the Mixtec Oaxaca or from the Puebla region– Style is called “Mixteca Puebla”

• Painted on long sheets of bark paper or deerskin, first coated with fine white lime plaster and then folded into accordion-like pleats

• Wooden covers protected the books, called codices (singular: codex)

• 7 Mixtec codices that survived are primarily genealogical and historical in content

Illustrated Books (Mixteca-Puebla)

• Mixteca-Puebla Illustrated Books:– The Borgia Codex:

• From central highland Mexico (possibly Puebla)• Ritual content• Palette: mostly red, yellow, and black (outlines)• 2 gods gesturing back to back

– God of life: Quetzalcoatl» Black» Masked human instead of a feathered serpent

– God of death: Mictlantecuhtli» White

• Below the gods is an inverted skull with a double keyboard of teeth: a symbol of the Underworld (Mictlan) which was entered through the mouth of a great earth monster

Illustrated Books (Mixteca-Puebla)

• Mixteca-Puebla, Borgia Codex:– Suggests the inevitable cycle of life and death, an

important theme in Mesoamerican art– Symbols of the thirteen 20-day divisions of the

260-day Mesoamerican ritual calendar are in the margins• The origins of this calendar, used even today in remote

parts of Mexico and Central America, are unknown

Mictlantecuhtli and Quetzalcoatl, illuminated page from the Borgia Codex, from Puebla/Tlaxcala (?), Mexico, 1400-1500,

Mineral and vegetable pigments on deerskin, 10”x10”

Calendar symbols (20-day divisions Of the 260-day calendar)

God of life: Quetzalcoatl

God of death: Mictlantecuhtli

The Underworld (Mictlan) ,the mouth of a great earth monster

Assignment

• As books served an important purpose in Pre-Columbian cultures, they still serve important purposes (many of them the same purposes) today– Recording history– Recording new discoveries– Recording mythology– Teaching/informational– Sharing fiction and inspiring imagination, and more

Assignment

• Option 1: Choose a story that already exists and that you enjoy– Select YOUR favorite part of the story to illustrate on a single

page– You may not include any illustration that is not your own

(i.e., if illustrating a Dr. Seuss book, you can’t use Dr. Seuss’s original illustrations)

– Think about how interesting it would be to see books known for their illustrations illustrated in a new/different way• Dr. Seuss?• Diary of a Wimpy Kid?

Assignment

• Option 2: Write your OWN story (can be true or imagined) – Select your favorite part of the story to illustrate

on a single page– OR, actually build the book yourself and illustrate

the entire thing• Can do this accordion style like Pre-Columbian codices• Or, you can research other book-construction

techniques and use those

Assignment

• For this project, try to illustrate using only images…illustration is generally intended to accompany text, so you don’t necessarily need to include text on the illustration

• Some illustrations even stand on their own and don’t need much accompanying text to tell the story – i.e. Caldecott Winners

David Wiesner BooksFlotsam

David Wiesner BooksFlotsam

David Wiesner BooksFlotsam

David Wiesner BooksFlotsam

David Wiesner BooksTuesday

David Wiesner BooksTuesday

David Wiesner BooksTuesday

David Wiesner BooksSector 7

David Wiesner BooksSector 7

David Wiesner BooksSector 7

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin SchwartzIllustrated by Stephen Gammell

My Example In-Progress: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Red Spot

My Example Finished: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, The Red Spot

My Example: Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

My Example: Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland (The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party)

Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends

There is a place where the sidewalk endsand before the street begins,and there the grass grows soft and white,and there the sun burns crimson bright,and there the moon-bird rests from his flightto cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows blackand the dark street winds and bends.Past the pits where the asphalt flowers growwe shall walk with a walk that is measured and slowand watch where the chalk-white arrows goto the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,and we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,the place where the sidewalk ends.

My Example: Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends