Illustrations: Mood, Characters, and Setting
Basics on the topic Illustrations: Mood, Characters, and Setting
Illustrations – Mood, Character, and Setting
Have you ever read a comic book? Comic books have very little text, but a lot of details in the illustrations! But how can pictures help you understand the text better? Find out by learning how illustrations contribute to a story with this text.
What is the Purpose of Illustration?
How does the illustration help the reader understand the text? Sometimes, authors use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. Can pictures help us understand the story? Authors also use them to affect the mood, or how the reader feels when they read a story and to give the reader more information about what is happening in a story.
If you’re still wondering, “how illustrations contribute to a story?”, continue onto the next section to see an example!
Using Illustrations to Understand Texts – Example
In order to analyze the illustration, first read the text. Next, look carefully and ask yourself: How does the illustration contribute, or add to the story?
What do pictures bring to a story? In order to analyze the illustration, first read the text. Here we see the text, The noise woke Zayd up.
Next, look carefully and ask yourself: How does the illustration contribute, or add, to the story?
Here, we see the setting is Zayd's bedroom. Zayd looks frightened because he is holding the pillow close and has a fearful expression on his face. Since Zayd has a terrified expression and the illustration has dark features, we can say the mood is scary.
Illustrations in Text – Summary
Sometimes, authors use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. Authors also use them to affect the mood, or how the reader feels when they read a story and to give the reader more information about what is happening in a story. This is how you use an illustration in a text to gather thoughts, information and details about a characters, setting and the meaning of that text.
| Step # | What to do |
|---|---|
| 1 | Read the text |
| 2 | Look at the illustration carefully |
| 3 | Ask yourself: How does the illustration contribute, or add to the story? |
Want to see more about how illustrations contribute to a story? On this website you will find videos, interactive exercises and printable worksheets on how illustrations contribute to a story.
Frequently Asked Questions on Illustrations
Transcript Illustrations: Mood, Characters, and Setting
Ari just opened their enchanted comic book, (...) what will it have today? How Illustrations Contribute to a Story It says,(...) 'Last night, Zayd's house was quiet. (...) Oh, it appears there is someone else in the house!(...) The noise woke Zayd up.(...) It looks like they left something for Zayd!'(...) Here, the author doesn't give us a lot detail about what is happening in the text. Sometimes, authors may use illustrations to... give the reader more information about the characters and setting. Authors also use them to affect the mood, or how the reader feels when they read a story... and to give the reader more information about what is happening in a story. Let's analyze THIS illustration from Ari's comic. First, read the text. The text says,'The noise woke Zayd up.' Next, look carefully and ask yourself: How does the illustration contribute, or add, to the story? Here, we see the setting is Zayd's bedroom. Zayd looks frightened because he is holding the pillow close and has a fearful expression on his face. Since Zayd has a terrified expression and the illustration has dark features, (...) the mood is scary. Now, let's analyze THIS illustration. First, read the text. The text says,'It looks like they left something for Zayd!' Next, look carefully and ask yourself: How does the illustration contribute to the story? The setting here is also Zayd's bedroom. Even though the text doesn't say specifically what they're giving Zayd, we see that they left roses. "Oh no, I don't like reading scary stories, (...) I'll take a new story, enchanted comic book!" Let's analyze the NEW illustrations in Ari's comic and how it changes the meaning and mood of the story. We can see that the text is the same and the illustrations are similar, (...) but the colors are more bright. Let's analyze THIS illustration from Ari's comic. What is the first step? (...) First, read the text. The text STILL says,'The noise woke Zayd up.' Next, look carefully and ask yourself: How does the illustration contribute to the story? Here, we see Zayd in his room. He looks happy and surprised because he wasn't expecting to see anyone. Zayd's expression and the illustration's bright features tell us, (...) the mood is happy and surprised. Now, let's analyze THIS illustration. First, read the text. The text STILL says,'It looks like they left something for Zayd!' Next, look carefully and ask yourself: How does the illustration contribute to the story? Even though the text doesn't tell us specifically what's happening in Zayd's room, we see that Hewie is the surprise visitor who left him roses. Did you notice how much the story changed because of the different illustrations? Illustrations contribute to the mood and our understanding of the story's events! Before we see what happens next, let's summarize. Remember, (...) authors may use illustrations to give the reader more information about the mood, characters, and setting. When analyzing illustrations in a story: First, read the text. Next, look carefully and ask yourself: How does the illustration contribute to the story? Oh look there's Hewie! It looks like Hewie wants Ari to help him deliver flowers to someone. WAIT, WHAT?!
Illustrations: Mood, Characters, and Setting exercise
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What information do the illustrations give the reader?
HintsThe second illustration has five correct answers.
Darker images usually create scary or spooky moods.
SolutionThe first image shows the inside of a bright home. It contains flowers, which create a peaceful mood.
The next image takes place outside in a graveyard. There are trees shaped like monsters, witches and flying ghosts. It has a spooky mood.
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Put the illustrations in order to tell the story.
HintsTo begin with, Pip has an idea to go surfing.
After a fun event, we can take photos and print the pictures!
SolutionFirst, Pip is in his treehouse thinking about going surfing. Next, Pip and Koko go to the beach. Then, Pip gets on his surfboard and surfs! After that, Koko takes a picture of him for their memories. Finally, they put the picture on the wall of the treehouse.
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Determine the mood, setting, and characters in an illustration.
HintsThere is only one character in this illustration.
There are three things to highlight: Zayd, the forest, and the candy trees.
There is only one correct option for each color.
SolutionThe bright, gumdrop candy trees in the right of the illustration create a fantastical, silly mood. They are highlighted green.
Zayd is the only character. He is highlighted yellow.
The setting is the forest. The trees to the left of Zayd show he's in the forest. They should be highlighted blue.
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Write your own story using illustrations.
HintsNarratives start with a setting. A setting can be a place or a time of day or night.
Captions give more information about the characters and tell who is in the story.
SolutionTo determine which piece of text fits best, ask yourself how is the illustration contributing to the story?
The story reads:
It was night and Pip was in bed...but he was scared to fall asleep! He woke up Koko...and she read him a bedtime story. -
Match illustrations with the opposite moods.
HintsThe mood above is dark and spooky. What would the opposite mood be?
What kind of mood does rain create? What is the opposite of that mood?
Solution- The two illustrations with the similar setting of the beach match. In one, rain makes the mood gloomy. In the other, the sun makes the mood fun.
- The two illustrations with the owl character match. In one, the vampire creates a scary mood because he is a dark shadow. In the other, the vampire eats pizza so the mood is light.
- The two illustrations with the ship in the ocean match. In one, the waves and dark lines create an angry mood. In the other, the ocean is calm and the lighting is bright. It is peaceful.
- The two illustrations of the park match. In one, there are no characters so there is a calm and quiet mood. In the other, there are lots of children playing so the mood is exciting.
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Analyze the illustration for mood, setting, and characters.
HintsBright colors and sparkly things usually create a positive mood. What words describe a positive mood?
Setting is where and when a narrative takes place.
SolutionHere are the correct answers:
There is text on the illustration. The text tells me that the character of the story is Bruno. The text also tells me that Bruno is looking for his owner. He is looking out the window. This means the setting of the story is inside a house. Since Bruno is howling, think that Bruno is worried. Will his Human ever come back?
Bruno's Human returned! I can tell they are happy because they are looking each other in the eyes. The Human is smiling. Bruno looks calm because his ears are down. The background is also bright, which makes a positive mood.
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