Visual Elements of Art seen in Children's Books

The visual elements of art are:

- Line
- Shape
- Color
- Texture
- Composition

The visual elements of art come together to create not only illustrations but often times to create a piece of literature. Such statement is especially noted in children’s picture books. The visual elements of art work together to attain the reader’s attention as well as keeping it. It also obviously portrays what is going on in the story but also sets the tone for how the story will be.

 

 

Line

The book “Mirror, Mirror” by Marilyn Singer is the perfect example of the visual element of line. The book has small poems which are divided by a line. The small poems are divided with one poem on one side and the same poem written from end to the beginning of the previous, changing the outcome of the second poem. The pictures are also divided by lines to describe the opposing sides of the poems.

 

Shape

 

 

In the story “My Teacher is a Monster”  by Peter Brown we can see the visual element of shape with the type of illustrations that can be respectively described as construction paper cutouts with added features in what looks like perhaps colored pencils. The illustrator puts together the “cutouts” to illustrate simple things in basic shapes such as the rectangular students’ desks and park benches as well as the actual characters and their attires.

Color

 

Although the book “Olivia” by Ian Falconer consists mostly of black and white drawings, it uses the color red to bring attention to the main character of the story. Olivia’s clothes and personal things stand out in the color red all through out the story to convey how much she is the center of attention in the book.