Interactive Media: 10 Images

 

Illustration: What is Illustration? Prehistoric vs. Modern Uses

Image Comparisons

The first illustration above is from a cave painting depicting the hunt of  a wild horse, known as the Chinese Horse. The image is believed to either celebrate the accomplishment of a hunt or be part of a ritual so the hunters may be able to have a successful hunt. The second illustrations is from the Philadelphia Bulletin in an article discussing the Jersey Devil. At the time in 1909, there had been many sightings in New Jersey of the mysterious monster and this illustration was most likely used to give the readers a realistic image of what the victims had seen. Though the purpose of these two illustrations are not exactly the same, I find a similarity that both depict a dangerous beast in which the viewer would like to defeat. The illustrations also heavily focus on the animal and not much on a background of any kind.

The two images do differ aesthetically, which I would reason to being a thing of the time. During prehistoric art, the idea was to make art to share a story. They were creating art for a function. However, in 1909 when the second image was made, the use of illustrated image had more of a distinct style and aesthetic look other than being just functional.

Image Collaboration

In an effort to combine these two illustrations, I created a looser shape and less detailed approach to the Jersey Devil. I did however add some hatching for shading and “coloring” that I saw in the second illustration and take the place of the coloring from the first.