What is Illustration?
Illustration means to illustrate or highlight a particular point. If you have a look at some of the earlier books in the Middle Ages such as gospels and Bible you will find thousands of illustrations. An illustration is quite different from art forms like paintings, sketches, drawings, or other fine arts.
An illustration is a visualization or a depiction of a subject made by an artist, such as a drawing, sketch, painting, photograph, or other kind of image of things seen, remembered or imagined, using a graphical representation.
Illustrative materials of Book:
According to AACR-2 a book contains a number of Illustrative materials. AACR2 clearly define nine (9) types illustrative materials of books.
- Coat of Arms,
- Facsimiles,
- Portraits,
- Forms,
- Genealogical Tables,
- Maps,
- Music,
- Plans, and
- Portrait.
Those illustrative materials are used in a book to represent something graphically for the reader.
1. Coat of Arms:
A coat of arms is a unique design painted on a shield. These designs may be inherited, meaning that they pass from a father to his children. In the Middle Ages, these designs were shown on real shields, but today they are usually only drawn or painted on the paper that makes them legal which is called a grant of arms. The grant of arms is usually allowed only when issued by the government of a country or it’s agent.Coats of arms are normally issued for real people but nowadays lots of countries and businesses also have coats of arms. Each symbol on the coat of arms will represent something that has an important meaning to that person, country or company.
2. Facsimiles:
A Facsimiles is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print, or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible. It differs from other forms of reproduction by attempting to replicate the source as accurately as possible in scale, color, condition, and other material qualities. For books and manuscripts, this also entails a complete copy of all pages; hence, an incomplete copy is a “partial facsimile”. Facsimiles are sometimes used by scholars to research a source that they do not have access to otherwise, and by museums and archives for media preservation and conservation.
3. Portraits:
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a snapshot, but a composed image of a person in a still position. A portrait often shows a person looking directly at the painter or photographer, in order to most successfully engage the subject with the viewer.
4. Forms:
A Form is made up of one or more fields that allow the user to enter information, like there Name, address, contact information, institution, department etc. A form may be many types, e.g. personal information form, registration form, contact form etc.Forms are used in a book to represent many information about a person or his contact information.5. Genealogical Table:
A representation of the lineage of a person or persons in tabular or diagrammatical form.
6. Maps:
A plane representation of the earth’s surface, or a part of same, indicating physical features, political boundaries, etc. Also a similar representation of the heavens, showing the position of the stars, planets, etc.
8. Music:
An art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.
9. Plans:
A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with timing and resources, used to achieve an objective.A plan is used as a blueprint of some work.