From: Berol2B at aol.com <Berol2B>
Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 15:23:51 EDT

In a message dated 4/21/04 7:00:34 AM, hmrudiger at education.wisc.edu writes:



I think we assess art in graphic novels the way we do in picture books. Does the style enhance the story or detract? Are we too aware of the art, does it draw too much attention to itself? Pacing is also important to storytelling. Did the artist pace well, sometimes lingering/sometimes quickening, sometimes wordy/sometimes wordless? Apart from drawing the story, frame-by-frame, being something of a movie director is also part of the artist's job.
     The choice to tell the story in full color or not is also critical. For me, human-scale stories like Maus and Persepolis are more emotional in their simple black-and-white drawings than vivid full color could be. They're also rich in words. Perhaps the simplicity of the drawings allows the words to take center stage gracefully (and when the words drop away and pictures alone carry the story -- those places can have the most emotional wallop of all).
     So "judging the art" might be a matter of thinking about the artist and how well the artist told the story. If in the end, we think more about the story than the artist, the artist did well.

Jean

Jean Gralley berol2b at aol.com picture book writer/illustrator
Received on Thu 22 Apr 2004 02:23:51 PM CDT