[Repost] Comparison of Leo Lionni & Eric Carle’s Illustration Styles

The shar­ing of the chil­dren’s shoes in the Red Mud Study Group is very inspir­ing!Orig­i­nal address:Com­par­i­son of Leo Lion­ni & Eric Car­le’s illus­tra­tion stylesauthor:Red Mud Study GroupIf we were to ask which author’s pic­ture books are the most rec­og­niz­able and most beloved by chil­dren, both par­ents and chil­dren would prob­a­bly say:Leo Lion­niandEric Car­le.“They are both mas­ters of art who have writ­ten and illus­trat­ed a large num­ber of pic­ture books for chil­dren and have made great achieve­ments in their respec­tive pro­fes­sion­al fields.


Lion­ni was the first author to intro­duce the art form of col­lage into pic­ture books. Col­lages can con­tain a vari­ety of mate­ri­als: news­pa­per clip­pings, rib­bons, small pieces of col­ored hand­made paper, pho­tos or oth­er mate­ri­als that can be glued to can­vas. The col­lage tech­niques he used are end­less: direct col­lage, col­lage with oil pas­tels, col­lage with oth­er mixed media, such as col­ored pen­cils or crayons. What nev­er changes in his works is that he can always use blank spaces just right to make his illus­tra­tions charm­ing. This cre­ative form of col­lage plus blank space brings a fresh and clean visu­al effect to pic­ture books. Cou­pled with con­cise and clear text descrip­tions, young chil­dren are not only deeply attract­ed to his books, but also eas­i­ly under­stand the con­tent of the books. My favorite illus­tra­tion isfish is
fishThe paint­ing in the pic­ture (see the pic­ture below) is fresh, sim­ple and peace­ful. The translu­cent col­ors close to nature give peo­ple a beau­ti­ful enjoy­ment, which makes peo­ple intox­i­cat­ed. Even I, an art stu­dent, can only3The stu­dents who scored high also bought oil pas­tels and copied his paint­ings sev­er­al times. If I could see Lionel Mes­si’s pic­ture books when I was a child, art would not be lim­it­ed to me.3Lionel Leoni’s illus­tra­tion style influ­enced many illus­tra­tors who came after him, includ­ing Eric Cary.

 

 
  

Eric is also known for his use of col­lage in his pic­ture books, which he admits was inspired by Picas­so,Mat­tisseand Lion­ni. Eric said he enjoys attach­ing mate­ri­als like blan­ket scraps, sponges, and burlap to tis­sue paper to cre­ate tex­tured images. He keeps these dried tis­sue papers in dif­fer­ent draw­ers by col­or. When he needs a spe­cif­ic col­or for his work, he cuts or tears a small piece from the pre-pre­pared tis­sue paper. This is how the famous cater­pil­lar, beloved by chil­dren, was cre­at­ed: “I cut a cir­cle from red tis­sue paper for the cater­pil­lar’s head, and cut ovals from green tis­sue paper. I then adhered them to the draw­ing board with wall­pa­per glue.” Eric also excels at using brush­es of vary­ing sizes, some thick, some thin. His lines range from straight to curved. Some­times he even splash­es paint onto the can­vas or paints direct­ly with his fin­gers. As a result, Eric’s paint­ings feel vibrant, unre­strained, and exag­ger­at­ed, as if a sup­pressed ener­gy is about to burst forth from the can­vas.

     

 

     

Com­par­ing the illus­tra­tions of the two authors men­tioned above, it’s easy to see that while both Leon­ni and Eric uti­lize col­lage, there are dis­tinct dif­fer­ences between them, pri­mar­i­ly in their use of col­or. Eric favors bright, vibrant col­ors. Many of the ani­mals in his books are not paint­ed in their nat­ur­al col­ors, such as the green fox, pur­ple cat, blue horse, and pink ele­phant. The sun in his sto­ries is often a bright yel­low with orange light. Leon­ni, on the oth­er hand, prefers col­ors clos­er to nature. In “The Inch­worm,” he depicts the robin with real­is­tic dark browns, light browns, and oranges. The branch­es are com­posed of nat­u­ral­is­tic shades of light and dark browns and dark green leaves, while the inch­worm is paint­ed in a soft green. The star char­ac­ter, the mouse, appears con­sis­tent­ly in Leon­ni’s books: vary­ing shades of gray or tan, close­ly resem­bling mice in nature. As a result, Leon­ni’s paint­ings gen­er­al­ly con­vey a fresh, nat­ur­al feel, evok­ing a sense of tran­quil­i­ty, strength, and enjoy­ment. Eric’s, on the oth­er hand, is imag­i­na­tive and unique, his exag­ger­at­ed col­ors and shift­ing lines seem­ing to con­vey a sense of rebel­lion. Per­son­al­ly, I pre­fer Lionel Mes­si’s illus­tra­tions.
If you look at the child­hood expe­ri­ences of the two authors, you will find some very inter­est­ing and intrigu­ing places. Lionel Leonie once recalled that when he was a child, his fam­i­ly allowed him to col­lect a large num­ber of var­i­ous and even smelly plants and ani­mals: var­i­ous liv­ing insects, small fish, shrimps, tad­poles, snails, mice, birds, snakes, toads, lizards, frogs. In addi­tion to these liv­ing crea­tures, he also col­lect­ed a vari­ety of shells, peb­bles, but­ter­fly and bee­tle spec­i­mens, bunch­es of leaves, pods of var­i­ous plant seeds, feath­ers and dried flow­ers. His room became a small zoo and plant lab­o­ra­to­ry. He said: “The pro­tag­o­nists in my sto­ries, frogs, mice, tur­tles, snails, but­ter­flies, etc., all come from40The lit­tle ani­mals that have lived in my room for years, they are always the same.”
Eric6Eric immi­grat­ed to Ger­many from New York at the age of 18. He was edu­cat­ed in Ger­many and grad­u­at­ed from a pres­ti­gious art school. The very strict and rigid edu­ca­tion he received in Ger­many made him long to return to his child­hood in the Unit­ed States. Eric said: “When I knew I could nev­er return to the Unit­ed States, I decid­ed to become a bridge archi­tect and build a bridge across the ocean from Ger­many to the Unit­ed States to bring my beloved grand­moth­er over.”
I don’t know if all this is just a coin­ci­dence or an eter­nal truth: a child who has gained full free­dom will show us peace and tran­quil­i­ty in his paint­ings, while a child who has received strict train­ing will be full of pub­lic­i­ty and rebel­lion in his paint­ings.
                                                 
Huang Jian­ping