The data table link provides suggestions of texts in the Rare Book Room that have been approved for use for illustration exercises, with call numbers and some notes for the pedagogical uses of these works. The catalogue link provides a summary of the data table, and the gallery link provides all the images of the suggested texts on a single page. Other texts are available; please consult with the librarian.
Once you have determined which text/s you would like to use for your class, you can either copy and paste the exercise template below, or you can download the exercise template here:
Click Here For the Print Version
As you look at an illustration, consider the following:
- What is the location of the illustration in the text? Is the location significant?
- What is being depicted in the illustration?
- Consider the composition of the illustration. What is your eye drawn towards first? What is in the foreground of the illustration? The background? Are the different areas of the illustration symmetrical, or not? Are the areas of the illustration equally light? Dark?
- Consider the style of the illustration. Look especially at the representation of the human body, details of clothing, the realistic (or unrealistic) representation of objects, plants, buildings, and so on.
- What purpose does this illustration serve? What is the relationship between the illustration and the text? Why include this illustration in this work?
- Consider that every illustration reflects ideas about its subject. How does the illustration interpret its subject, and/or interpret the text?
- What is the effect of this illustration on the viewer?
Based on your responses to these questions, you should be able to write a brief (one to two page essay) in which you develop a thesis about the illustration.
Please keep the following in mind:
- State your thesis at the beginning of your essay. Your thesis may focus on the style, content, or composition of the illustration–-or anything else that you find compelling about it. Remember that a thesis is a position statement and that you need to stake a position about this illustration in your essay.
- The more specific evidence you use in your essay to prove your point, the better.
- Your essay should not be a list of responses to the questions 1 through 7 above. The questions are intended to give you some strategies to begin your analysis; they do not provide the structure (or the thesis) for your essay, nor are they intended to limit your analysis.
- Each paragraph of your essay should support your thesis statement. Please make sure that there are transitions between paragraphs, so that each paragraph leads to the next, and make sure that each paragraph builds upon its predecessor.
- A seemingly simple illustration can be filled with meaning. Your job is to make sense of it.
- This assignment does not require external research—although you may choose to pursue research if you wish. This assignment does require careful viewing, thinking, and writing.