A Contemporary Experience of Translating a Literary Text into a Visual Language that Influences the Accompanying Drawings in the Children’s Illustrated Book

The illustrations in children's picture books have faced exceptional challenges recently, serving as the artistic and creative interface through which the illustrator effectively and attractively communicates with the child. This creates opportunities and horizons for linking text and illustration in a state of parallel artistic creativity. The accompanying illustrations in children's books are the primary and influential factor due to their expressive nature of the text, variety in compositions, line rhythms, and the use of sizes and directions to achieve the artistic unity of the book.

The experience of translating a literary text into a visual language is also considered an innovative challenge in the manufacture of a children’s picture book, combining literature, art and design to provide a comprehensive and influential experience to form an integrated story that comes alive in the child’s mind, through a balance between the text and the accompanying drawings by finding a visual equivalent that carries visual solutions. To achieve the expressive values of the literary text, which is reflected in words, sentences, meanings, and the connection of words to each other.

In this research, the researcher discusses the characteristics of the visual language affecting the accompanying illustrations and their role in manufacture of children's picture books by presenting and analyzing artistic examples of contemporary experiments.