Picture books are most praised for their illustrations. The pictures in picture books are used to express space, the appearance of things, inner emotions, tone atmosphere, scenes of events and so on. The pictures in the picture book are not only smooth and colorful, but also elegant in layout. Creative design pays attention to children's physical and mental characteristics, so children can really feel the emotions expressed by the author from the pictures in the picture book. These pictures, designed by the author after repeated consideration, not only have distinct style characteristics, but also have exquisite and unique details. They are original works of art and play a key role in the artistic enlightenment of babies.
Another expression system of picture books is words, which can briefly explain time, sound, dialogue between characters, logical relationship and so on. Because the service objects of picture books are mostly infants, there are few words in picture books, which is because of their cognitive characteristics. But these short words are extremely concise, and often a few words can outline a vivid and interesting story. In addition, in order to meet the characteristics of infant language development, picture book creators will carefully scrutinize and temper the text content, so that the text is not only rhyming and colloquial, but also vivid and interesting, which is convenient for infants to read and remember.
The artistic value of picture books is displayed by reading them. Picture book reading is a process in which children understand children's books based on pictures by reading and speaking images, words or adult images. [2] Infants can read picture books independently, or they can listen to adults reading picture books. No matter what they do, infants can be inspired by art.
One is to look at the content of the picture. As an important artistic element of picture books, pictures have unique advantages in children's artistic enlightenment. Pictures express the author's aesthetic taste and feelings through lines, colors and structural layout, which is precisely the starting point of artistic enlightenment.
Points and lines can be said to be the most basic artistic elements. The number, size, arrangement and position of dots in a picture will affect the layout and structure of the picture. Scattered dots make the picture quiet and quiet, while dense dots make the picture lively and casual. The lines in picture books mainly play the role of outlining the shape of objects, contrasting light and shade, and expressing emotions. The curve is soft, the straight line is cold, and different lines give people different aesthetic feelings. Their characteristics are highlighted by dots and lines. The dots and lines in picture books are not symbols without feelings. They lead children into a colorful world composed of dots and lines with various expressions, enriching their artistic imagination. In addition, lines can not only be expressed in pictures, but also be used in the binding design of picture books. The paper corners of the "Little Dots and Lots" series books are all designed as curves, which not only stimulates the eyes, but also helps infants to understand the characteristics of curves through sensory cognition.
Color is also an important part of plastic arts. All the characteristics of color, including transparency or opacity, richness, monotony, depth, warm tone or cool tone, will affect the symbolic meaning. [3] Picture books use the characteristics of color to make the content expression of the picture more perfect. For infants and young children, the enlightenment of color is mainly to know color, and they prefer colors that can cause strong visual stimulation, such as red, yellow and blue. Therefore, when choosing picture books to read, a large area of solid color picture books is a good choice. In Little Blue and Yellow by Leo Leoni, a large single color is presented in an irregular circle, and the basic colors are directly superimposed, showing the law of mixed color. In addition, picture books such as Lemon is Not Red and Black and White Card also highlight the characteristics of color, which is of great benefit to the color enlightenment of infants.
There are many forms in picture books, which are composed of points, lines, faces and other elements. When children aged 0-3 are enlightened in art, they can be guided to master the outline of an object, that is, children can distinguish the external outline of similar objects and draw the external boundary of the object shape with the outline. Hungry caterpillars have many shapes. Their structure is simple and clear, and most of them are presented in the form of collage. There are no extra strokes except the main picture. Such a morphological structure can not only develop the cognitive level of infants and young children, but also make infants and young children more focused on the theme without interference from irrelevant decorations.
The second is to explore text design. Words are an important part of picture books, which can not only describe and explain, but also play a role in visual communication. Although infants aged 0-3 can't read, with the help of the picture system, infants can still appreciate the characters and feel their artistic tension.
Although there are not many words in picture books, their fonts, colors and typesetting methods are very artistic. Regular script is square, bold and dignified ... All kinds of fonts have unique artistic charm, and in order to meet the physical and mental characteristics of infants, most picture books use fonts with full fonts and rounded strokes, which are artistic, readable and ornamental. Matsuoka Camp's Jump! Described around the verb "Ben", the lines and writing of the word "Ben" of each animal in the picture book are not repeated, which is very suitable for animals, and the word "Ben" in the picture is lively and lovely, and will "jump" up with the movements of small animals. This word "elephant" complements the movements of small animals, which is helpful for infants to understand the connotation of the word "jump". Even in some pictures, the word "jump" is separated in the process of jumping, which is beneficial for infants to be familiar with the artistic structure of words.
In addition to fonts, the color of words also plays an important role in expressing artistic feelings. In Anna Iudica's Heartbreaking Ocean, words are also endowed with artistic connotation. The text describing the mood changes with the color of fish, which is more in line with the content of the picture and can also help children understand the artistic connection. In addition, infants lack reading experience and have no habit of reading words, so many picture books will consider their psychological acceptance and perception of words, and cultivate infants' perception of the reading order of words through the typesetting of words. For example, in dots and lines, some words are not arranged straight. When points and lines form different objects, characters will be arranged along the shape outline of the object. This typesetting method of words not only has a different artistic aesthetic feeling, but also allows children to understand the reading order initially.
The third is to listen to the rhythm of language. The particularity of children's physiology and psychology directly determines the particularity of their acceptance of picture books. "Listening and appreciating" is the main way for infants to accept picture books, that is, infants read picture books while listening to adults read the contents. Chinese is a rhythmic language. In order to highlight the rhythm and picture sense of picture books, many picture book creators will use overlapping words and repetition to make infants feel more intimate and interesting. This way of "listening and appreciating" can not only make illiterate infants appreciate artistic pictures, but also feel the art of language through adult reading.
The words in picture books have a sense of rhythm, one of which is manifested in punctuation and sentence breaking. Punctuation and sentence break can improve the narrative rhythm of picture books and make the rhythm of picture books smoother. Yoko Sasaki used a lot of sentence patterns of "Hello Name" in Hello. This kind of dialogue with harmonious rhythm makes infants feel the rhythm of words more intuitively through reading aloud by adults. The other is the rhythm of the words themselves. Using overlapping words or repetitive sentence patterns will make the picture book have a simple and clear sense of rhythm. For example, in the picture book "Pull, Pull, Pull Radish", sentences such as "Come on, come and help pull radish" and "Let's pull radish together" are repeated many times, with a lively rhythm and a sense of rhythm. In addition, there are many repetitive sentences in Itsumi Taro's Crocodiles Afraid of Dentists. The psychological activities of dentists and crocodiles are exactly the same, and the descriptions are completely repeated. These repeated sentences, coupled with different characters, not only form a lively rhythm, but also give people a sense of laughter. [4]
Relying on picture books, children's artistic enlightenment is mainly realized by reading picture books. In the process of reading picture books, we should not only give play to the autonomy of children, but also pay attention to the guiding role of adults.
The first is to choose picture books and pay attention to the content of artistic enlightenment. When using picture book reading for artistic enlightenment, we should choose excellent picture books in the general sense. Although there is no clear definition of "excellent" picture books, excellent picture books have texture and content. The texture of picture books is mainly reflected in three aspects. First of all, the illustrations of picture books can present the sense of reality and detail, and can help infants to perceive aesthetic line combinations, outline shapes and modeling structures. Secondly, the color expression of picture books is accurate, and picture books can choose and match colors according to the physical characteristics of infants. Finally, excellent picture books should also have a sense of touch. Doll books, bath books, vocal books and pop-up books are not only well designed, but also textured, so that infants can mobilize their vision and touch when reading.
The text of excellent picture books is also rich in content. Infants are "looking at pictures in picture books" and adults are "looking at words in picture books". When infants read in the company of adults, they receive visual and auditory stimuli. Therefore, the words and pictures of excellent picture books should complement each other and blend together. Words should also conform to the age characteristics of infants and young children. The appearance, typesetting and expression of words should be childlike, which can help infants appreciate the rhythmic beauty and formal beauty of words.
The second is to accompany reading and give artistic enlightenment support. When reading picture books, children can read pictures independently with the help of adults and enjoy the beauty of reading. Adults can also give effective guidance when infants read independently. Adults can effectively adopt the strategy of "prompt and prompt", choose the right time, and start questions or conversations around the pictures, words and story lines in picture books. But adults should also pay attention, don't rush to preach, and don't keep asking questions and explaining the contents of picture books. They should leave room for children to look at pictures and think, so that children can have enough time to watch the pictures and contents of picture books, discover the artistic elements contained in picture books, and transform the contents of picture books into their own experiences through their own discovery and thinking.
Picture books are expressed with beautiful words and pictures, and adults can also participate in the reading of picture books appropriately. When adults tell picture book stories with expressive voices, their emotions and beauty will be fully displayed. Therefore, in the process of reading or telling picture books, adults can not only use their own pronunciation, intonation, facial expressions and movements, but also choose music accompaniment to display the contents of picture books intuitively and vividly, so that infants can deeply perceive the art of picture books through the artistic processing of adults. For example, Yoko Sasaki's Scratching series of picture books depicts the problems children encounter in brushing their teeth, taking a bath, playing and eating snacks. When reading this part, adults can demonstrate and guide with voice-changing, exaggerated movements and expressions to enhance the artistic feelings of infants and young children.
The third is to expand games and enrich the forms of artistic enlightenment. In the impression of most people, a picture book is just a book, which is used for reading. In fact, picture books can not only be used for reading, but also provide many channels for infants to play games, making artistic enlightenment more diversified. When enlightening children, we should be good at discovering "games" in picture books, so as to make artistic enlightenment more diversified.
When reading picture books, adults can lead children to play games according to picture books. The games of 0-3-year-old infants are mainly sensory sports games, and infants can get a pleasant experience through direct experience and perception. In the picture book "Hug", the author Jez Apollo outlined a warm story of finding a mother with three repeated words: baby, hug and mother. When reading picture books, adults can play role games with their children. When the picture of "hug" appears in the picture book, infants and adults can imitate different roles, say "hug" and do hug actions at the same time. This can not only enhance the emotional communication between parents and children, but also retell words, so that children can understand the rhythmic beauty of picture books and deepen their understanding of words. In addition, you can explore various games. Not only should we choose picture books with strong gameplay while reading, but we should also dig deep into picture books with less gameplay to make the process of artistic enlightenment more interesting. In the picture book "Little Blue and Little Yellow", the author let children know the primary colors and intermediate colors through the superposition of colors. When reading this picture book, adults can provide watercolor pigments or colored plasticine according to the contents of the picture book, so that infants can mix and color independently. Through practice, children can feel the charm of color more intuitively and deeply.
In a word, the artistic creation of picture books follows the law of beauty. The text system and picture system in picture books not only bring readers beautiful enjoyment in their unique forms, but also carry a variety of artistic enlightenment functions, which are conveyed in the process of reading picture books. But whether we can skillfully use picture books and give full play to the function of artistic enlightenment needs the exploration and study of adults.
Text/Wang Yujie (Author: Hubei Kindergarten Teachers College)
refer to
[1] Song Juzhi. In my picture book [M]. Shanghai: Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House, 2009:2 16.
[2] Zhang Huili. A summary of the research on children's early reading in Chinese and American libraries [J]. Books and materials, 20 1 1(2):2-6+25.
[3] Jane Du Nan. Look at the picture in the picture book [M]. Urumqi: Xinjiang Youth Publishing House, 20 18:8.
[4] Chen Yingjie. Research on the form of children's picture books from the perspective of art psychology [D]. Sichuan Normal University, 20 19.