Novels and Illustrations: How well do they mix?

Lucid Lounge
1

How much illustrations do you usually like in your books?

  • I like it when they are placed after every 1-2 pages
  • Just a few pictures here and there
  • Only for the chapter headers and the cover
  • No, I don’t want any illustrations on the pages at all

0 voters

I’m thinking of pursuing the career as an author since I like to come up with stories. I’ve read a few novels and I noticed that most of them would only have a illustration on the cover, and almost every single page in the book consists of text. No pictures, just words. From what I heard, this gives the reader the opportunity to picture the storyline, the characters, and the scenes in their minds using their imagination. But it has happen quite often that I would imagine an inaccurate mental picture of something in the book. Either I missed a description or I created a much different image of a character’s face or clothes. It could depends on the reader.

But a few months ago, I’ve read Dragon Rider and was interested in its use of illustrations at the start of every chapter and occasionally places a picture here and there. I also remember another book that I own called The Eyes of the Dragon, and it also has pictures in the chapters. There is this special feature about the illustrations that helps reinforce the descriptions of the characters and the scenes. It might ruin the imagination for some people, but they help me fix mental pictures.

It would be similar to a scenario like this: imagine walking down the hallway of a school, carrying a science project in your arms to class when you suddenly collide into someone by accident. You both fall onto the ground and your project also falls on the ground too. Pieces of it might have came off and rolled off somewhere not so far away and/or got damaged. That person picks himself up and would either walk away to his next destination, or help you search or mend the parts.

The same goes for illustrations. A book without illustrations might have you searching the book for any other details you’ve missed or have you realize how silly you were to imagine a princess with such a pitiful image. A book with illustrations can help bandage this problem by providing the details to you in one or more pictures, so you can continue reading with the right image in mind.

There has to be a set maximum amount of illustrations, though. A book with too many illustrations should might as well become a picture book. However, there is probably no such thing as too few pictures in a novel. These kinds of books are usually famous for the words from within the cover and most of them only have illustrations on cover and not within the pages.

On the side note, movie adaptations of books seems to be too excessive since it rarely allows the watcher to imagine the story, and it feels as if the director was trying to say, “No, you fools! Everything you have imagine about this book is wrong! Here’s how it should look like!” Illustrations are bandages patching up a small wound, while movie adaptations are dressings that cover up even where it is unnecessary. Right now, I’m deciding against watching The Golden Compass because of this.

So what does everyone else think of book illustrations?

2

As an illustrator I’m biased, but I believe all books should have illustrations.

As you mentioned, too many illustrations would turn it into a picture book, but if executed well I think it would add a lot more to the reader’s experience. The imagination is a powerful tool, but when I’m reading I don’t want the story to be “mine”, I want the author to tell the story to me. Without illustrations I I’m not getting the whole story, because my mind is trying to fill in the details.

I don’t know how hard it’s raining, if the ground is muddy or concrete, what the surrounding area of the the town looks like, what the uniforms of the Vietnamese Police look like, the age of the people under the umbrellas, the clothes they’re wearing (hinting to their financial status), what the umbrellas look like, how many people are watching the events take place, etc.

These are all details my mind has to fill in, but then it may not fit with what the author pictured. At any point the author’s description could shatter the image I’ve created in my head, making me feel lost in the story.

Many of the old, old books had illustrations in them. This had a fair deal to do with the fact that literacy rates weren’t where they are today, but not completely. Each page in a book was made to be visually pleasing. I really like the appearance of old books because of that, and I wish modern books would put in the extra effort.

Adding high quality illustrations substantially increases the cost however, and unless the author can do them himself/herself, chances are those costs would be coming out of their cut (mostly).

3

Personally, I’m fine with anyone’s opinions in this topic, biased or not. :content:

I should hire you to illustrate for my books. :razz:

Really, I agree with pretty much everything you’ve said, Troober. Well said!

4

It really depends on the illustration it’s self. A specific and important item being illustrated is not a bad thing, so long as the item illustration appear before it’s description. If I’ve already formed my own mental image, then see the illustration it’s hard for me to see one or the other and it ruins the moment. I’m a very visual person when reading, I don’t just visualise the person, an object or a room, I see everything and whatever isn’t described I fill in from my own experiences (modern day settings) or something similar from TVs or pictures just modified to fit the book.

Because of that an illustration AFTER we get details on something will often pull me out of that subversive reading and as a result I lose interest in the book.

On the other hand, if the object if shown before the description (such as with the chapter header), I am more likely to either incorporate it or be able to ignore it for my own view of it. That said, more often than not, the illustrations with a novel is not what the author is imagining anyway but what the illustrator saw when they read the passage. So even the illustrations could be inaccurate anyway.

IMO a good author will be able to put enough detail into something so that the reader will see very close to what the author wanted and not need illustrations to “help”.

5

Yeah, I agree: the location of the illustrations are important as well. Thanks for pointing that out, Mohegan. :smile:

Well, I think the author and the illustrator talk to each other about the pictures, so perhaps this is something that could happen through lack of organization between the two, or if the author has long passed away and his/her old book is still being distributed today.

6

I really prefer books with illustrations, like troober said, I like to see the story the author is telling, not completely my own. Also, at least when I’m reading, I will often forget details about a character that were quickly stated early in the book.

Anyway, I prefer it to be more like a movie, the details mostly given to me, than a play that I have to decide most of them. Hell, If I want to mess around with the details that’s what Lucid Dreaming is for.

7

I prefer no illustrations or if they must be used at least at the beginning of the chapter before the scene happens. An author should be able to put you into the scene if he/she doesn’t reveal things at the right moment (ie you imagine something and then a chapter later he pops your mental picture by stating something new) it just means he isn’t good at his work and needs the pictures as a prop.

8

I remembered that when I had learned to read, that when I was little I liked to read books with many pictures in it, for example Bilbo as a comic or the Narnia books the had black and white pictures in them, but now when I’m older I prefer books that don’t have pictures in them.
So in summary when I was little I wanted many pictures and now that I’m older I want no pictures.
So the picture-wanting faded away somehow.

Well, I don’t mind pictures at the beginning of the chapter so much but that’s the most pictures I want in books these days unless it’s a comic of course

/Magnus

9

I don’t mind pictures, but some illustrators seem to overdo it. Like Moogle, I will judge a book that needs its illustrations to make me see. If I don’t empathise with a narrative as I start reading it, there’s no elucidating illustration that will get me to keep reading it.

I’m also not that much into those realistic, almost photographic illustrations they do in high fantasy or SF books. I prefer them to be sketchy, evocative, in which case they might indeed make the book better than it would be without them: like Burton’s Death of Oysterboy. Alright, perhaps not that sketchy for all books, but something like Valentin Schönbeck’s precise trace: not photographic, but real and characteristic nonetheless, the kind of illustration that will stick in your head because you know it is better than how you had visualised the character yourself.

Troober, where can we see some of your work? :smile:

10

A place for everything and everything in it’s place. I enjoy comics and graphic novels greatly, and obviously I read this as much to appreciate the art as to enjoy the story (if not more). However, when reading a novel I feel that the skill of the writer should be enough to paint an image in your mind’s eye and I do frown upon the use of illustration in a medium which I consider to be there for the celebration of words.

In the case of The Melancholy Death Of Oyster Boy as mentioned by Bruno, I would say that the illustrations there are part of the fabric of the book, Burton’s visual style is his main form of art, and as such it would be strange if his poems were not accompanied by some showing of this.

I find it interesting that the books cited as having illustrations in were both about dragons, now I’m not saying anything negative about the creativity of books about dragons, well, actually, yes I am, but that’s neither here nor there.

With regards to The Golden Compass, the reason you shouldn’t see it is because not only does it totally miss the point of the book but it also loses any humanity that the book had, providing us with a plethora of flat characters who were simply incredibly difficult to care about.

11

It depends on the story…however, being an artist and a writer…I aimed to find a combination of both :smile:

12

How about a style close to concept art? While not realistic, it’s usually not like a cartoon (unless conceptualizing with the intention of it looking cartoony).

It’s the style I like the best because it paints a scene but still allows the reader to fill in details with their imagination. It reminds me of the images leftover from a dream when I wake up.

I can’t think of any books (except for concept art books) that use the style, though I’m sure they’re out there.

Some examples:
andreasrocha.com/gallery/con … ateway.jpg
alpaltiner.com/image.php?q=289-2580-254
thunig.com/content_01/images … _005_a.jpg
petrocchi.com/portfolio/orig … /butch.jpg

I’ve been thinking of putting some of my Dream Journal into pictures, either put directly in my journal, or in the Fruits of Lucidity forum. Not sure though… I tend to hoard my work, hehe.