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?
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Put the illustrations in order to tell the story.
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Determine the mood, setting, and characters in an illustration.
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Write your own story using illustrations.
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Match illustrations with the opposite moods.
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Analyze the illustration for mood, setting, and characters.
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