NARRATIVE ILLUSTRATION; What is it?

Narrative illustration briefs present illustrators with the challenge of interpreting text and presenting it in a way that almost tells the story itself - it is more than just decoration, it is there to aid both the understanding and the appreciation of whom so ever is reading the text. The narrative illustrator often puts a great deal of time and effort into planning out the images, thoroughly developing the characters to open up a whole new world to readers.

Concepts and ideas are wholly important to any artist - it is imperative that the narrative illustrator retain strong concepts behind their pieces that keep their illustrations top quality. It is important to remember that the illustrator is providing an experience, not just a selling point, and that their images must reinforce whichever text passage it is that they are attempting to illustrate.

Each story has moments which are begging to be illustrated and moments in which it would be a poor choice - often, action scenes are an ideal place to illustrate, but at what point in time will the image have frozen to create the illustration? What is everything in the image doing at the time when the illustration was made - each detail must be considered and reasoned.

Not only that, but atmosphere is extremely important in images - with this, you need to consider the context of your passage and also the market at which it is aimed. It would be no good, for example, creating grotesque and macabre themed images for a childrens' book.

Angles, lighting, and scenes are also something to take into consideration - narrative illustrators often depict scenes, and a stationary, bland scene is not about to boost the experience of any reader regardless of how strong your concept is. Each part of the illustration must be thought out carefully, and it must be understood how each image links up to be part of the story.

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