A Comparative Analysis of Illustrators: Andrew Mathews and Nick Price - Term Paper Example

A Comparative Analysis of Illustrators: Andrew Mathews and Nick Price Introduction The human mind is accustomed to seeing things in order to understand and comprehend them. The cognitive impression of an image is believed to be deeper than the bunch of words because a picture can inter-relate various things simultaneously and highlight their interdependencies as well. The modern art and science of medicine has managed to evolve when it became capable of piercing through the living and breathing human body. The interventions of CT scans and other similar technologies baffled physicians for years because they came to know that when they were attempting to cure one organ in the past then, they were hurting and damaging another. The imaging technologies therefore, made the medics understand the value of protecting other organs from harm while, treating the ill one. The phrase that states that “A picture is equal to a thousand words” became a living reality (McGee & McGee 2011). The art of writing illustrated books is dying for some unknown reasons. The readers are becoming more and more interested in reading the books in text and they are also known to irritate from too much figures and images. The latest philosophy of epistemology is grounded on the fact that it is childish to add images in the books that are intended for adults and grownups. The abovementioned belief is fostered because grownups are anticipated to develop their abstractive abilities and therefore, they are identified as fully capable of linking various concepts with each other. The strong abstractive ability of seniors makes the use of images a waste of space in the books. The children’s psyche is however, different than that of the previously mentioned one primarily because their abstractive abilities are not developed and secondly, the minds of the juniors get attracted towards bright colors and out of the box presentation of the information (Hollindale 1988). Background The need to see things in a bright prospective gives an opportunity of thriving to illustrators who have the gift to portray their thinking on the canvas. The books in the junior grades are famous for providing the kids with the much needed inspiration that they carry with them for the rest of their lives (Lewis 2001). The genius scientist once said “Imagination is far more important than the knowledge”. The theory of relativity is considered and treated as a pure work of imagination whereas, the framework is so strong that the brilliant minds of the 21st century are virtually bound to use it in order to explore space. The works of great Stephen Hawking are identified as mere extrapolation of the basic works of Einstein. The historical figure of Einstein is a proof of imagination’s lead on logic because it is commonly believed that logic limits one’s options while, the creativity sets humans free. The illustrators are more like Einstein because they always look to learn from the nature and experience. They also resemble writers as they draw about what they have observed. Writers, painters, modern illustrators and even actors are people that always remain open to experience because believe it or not they learn from life and it gives them inspirations. The minds of children are relatively vacant as compared to those of grownups. The vacant space can only be filled with the help of pictures because they can give more information by covering less space. Role of Illustrations in Early Education The main purpose of early education is to help juniors in raising new questions rather than asking and answering the old and obsolete ones. The pictures help the children in the very important process of developing interest in the studies. The teachers of junior grades must ensure to incorporate fun with studies because study alone will cause withdrawal in students because they treat it something that is quite boring to say the least. The boredom can only be eliminated by increasing fun in the class. The children are also noticed to live in the present while; they also do not get bothered by the perspective of the future (Mattews 1990). The living in the present is something that grownups and even elderly can learn from the juniors. According to modern psychology, people are often found to be remembering images of the book (Bearne & Watson 2000) whereas; they remember the words for short period of time. The images are more resilient towards the notorious habit of time that erodes everything and one’s memories are no exemption in this regard as well. The images stay embedded in the mind and they are also very easy to recall because they store in the brain cells as the unified entities and they do not significantly degrade over time. The message of the picture also remains very vivid after years. Providing basis for Building of Perceptional Realities amongst Kids via Paintings and Illustrations The early childhood memories are the most prevalent ones in any human’s mind because they provide basic building blocks upon which the reality is constructed. The social constructionism theory argues that humans build their own realities based on the fundamental perceptions of the world. The elementary perceptions and believes are suspected to form in the early years of life and therefore, supposedly play a significant role in terms of helping any individual to construct the reality (Eccles 1999). The schools teach kids that they are living in the world where people will hunt them down and kill them and they better do it to others before the otherwise can take place. Importance of Early Education in building Personalities The teachers are telling students at all educational levels that the world is a battlefield and because of this reason, they have to do everything in order to survive. The perceptional basis of global terrorism and civil unrest stems from the material that is taught at school. The Muslims are told that, infidels are their worst enemies and they should not rest until each and every nonbeliever is either converted or dead. The Islamic religious book Koran was used by Mohammad and his companions to create a model society from which, the modern and scientifically developed nations are taking help regarding setting social rules and laws in the local communities. The Islam like every other way of life gives the message of peace (Midlarsky 1998). Under Islamic philosophy, the political power can only be accumulated with the help of providing services to the people and that is what Mohammad did. The elementary school education is the most important one of all because in early years kids develop their personalities and then, keep on strengthening it for the rest of their lives. The teachers should and must work in the direction of fostering hate against the hatred in children for war and terrorism. The kids should also be guided to consider the world as a beautiful place. In addition, the students are also motivated to build a habit of serving the humanity as Harry Potter and the character of Spiderman do in the movies. The arts have the unexplained power to motivate people to benefit the society in their own personal and private ways. The illustrators who will be compared and contrasted in this paper are known with the names of Andrew Matthews and Nick Price. Andrew Matthews The book of Andrew Matthews entitled “Being Happy” is one of the bestsellers in the international market. The book is famous because of its universal application regardless of cultural and age differences. The illustrator successfully communicated the message that happiness is a journey and it must not be taken and treated as a destination. The book continued to argue that if an individual is willing to be happy then, the present is the best time to do so. The argument was reinforced by an illustration of a grave with a description of a man who wanted to be happy tomorrow. Andrew as an artist has attempted to teach people that they have to incorporate pleasure and enjoyment with sense of serenity in life. The author also effectively theorize that if one can focus on present then, he or she may find out that there is no feasible problem that bothers him or her. The argument is duly supported by an image that has two ghosts with posters in their hands one states “guilt” and the other speaks of “what if”. The need to live in the present is emphasized with words and images at the same time. The book is no doubt written in simple English that is pretty much comprehendible for children and grownups as well. The problems of guilt, worrying for the past and present and negative thinking are issues that are faced by the entire humanity and therefore, the book can be used in the multicultural classroom in order to lead students towards living a fulfilling life. Another metaphysical notion that states that humans tend to attract what they think in life (Mattews 1990). The notion was very difficult to understand for even the most intelligent people on the face of the Earth. The concept however, communicated by the author via illustration that portrayed human’s head as a magnet and therefore, the message is there for the taking, if somebody is really willing to do that. The author and chief illustrator of the book worked as a cartoonist for the world leading newspapers and magazines. The featured artist made his living by painting during the better part of his life and he surely mastered the field as well. Ultimately, he decided to deploy his mastery in terms of giving people an undying message that they can use for living a better life. The featured book is the result of the effort that the author made for giving a divine and important message to all. Nick Price The second illustrator named Nick Price belonged to a different breed of artists and that is for sure because his focus is very different than that of the other one. Nick as an artist focused and somewhat preyed on the idea of promoting happiness in children. The objective was fulfilled with the help of drawing pictures of kids with their favorite cartoon characters. The children are popular for fantasizing about spending their time with characters that they view as friends. The cognitive need was satisfied by the drawings of Price. The works of the abovementioned artist are only reserved for providing enjoyment to the kids but they lack depth and serenity. The lack of in-depth purpose is not at all a bad thing because fun and enjoyment are also the necessary elements of education especially in the course of early education. The need to have good time and to foster a positive self image in the kids can adequately be achieved by showing Price’s work to the junior students. The provision of happiness is also believed to be the fundamental purpose of education and the imagination that is the elementary attribute of greatness can only be strengthened with the help of exposing the children to the works of Price and others like him. The contributions of Price are ideal for multicultural class as well because kids in all cultures require enjoyment at school. The works of Price are simplistic in nature and they can also be assigned many different ranges of meanings. The practice of engaging students in giving meanings to the paintings can guide them towards constructing their own reality of the world. The social constructionism theory can be helped in the process of implementation by showing the kids the artworks of Price and they should be asked to relate meanings to the works all by themselves. Still, it is very important to note that Price’s works are very generic in nature and therefore, they can be given multiple meanings whereas, the works of Andrew are strategically developed and because of this reason, they cannot be attached to multiple meanings at one time. Additionally, Price worked in the capacity of artist all of his life and he painted pictures only. The art in its basic form does not have any meaning. The only meaning it will have is going to be given to it by the audience. The works of Price are truly an exemplary example of artwork whereas; the works of Matthews are more strategic in nature. The deep meaning of Price can be more lively and generic because the artist did not assign any of them any specific meaning. Comparison of Andrew Matthews and Nick Price Nick Price as an artist worked on various books and he specifically specializes in children books. He is an author of several books but he focused on giving kids enjoyment rather than any deeper meaning in his works. The books by the featured authors include the names of The Wombles, The Wombles at Work, The Wombles go Around the World and The invisible Womble More, More and More. The work of Matthews is carrying a specific meaning and therefore, it is pretty much applicable in education both juniors and adults but it is ideally suitable for adults as it requires a pure sense of logic and experience that the aforementioned group lacks. The works of Price are specially designed and conceptualized in order to satisfy the needs of children. Furthermore, both of the artists worked without any cultural bias and due to this cause, they can be used in order to educate student in a multicultural classroom. Promoting Visual Education in Grownups: An Inspiring Case of Trekkies The perception that states that grownups do not learn with the help of visuals because they consider the practice as childish and wastage of space in books, this perception is found to be out of logical alignment as the next generation is noticed to imitate the personalities of film characters. The previously mentioned trend makes this paper realize that movies and other form of visual arts have a significant impact on people’s personalities and attitudes (McGettigan 2013). The extreme cases of these kinds include the group known as Trekkies who want to implement the rules and regulations of Starfleet that is an organization of planets in the 24th century. The rules that the group is working to implement are provided by a series of 1970s that is famous as Star Trek. The Trekkies are surely the scintillating instance of people who are indulged in the visual to a degree that they are looking to replicate the system in the real world. The group named as Trekkies has members of all over the world while, there is no restriction of gender and age (McGettigan 2013). In the light of above discussion, it can be safely argued that people of all ages and gender can learn from visual arts and they can also extract meanings from the works as well. The only thing that does not allow them to do so is their own unwillingness. The works of Matthews and Price more or less talk about one thing that is love but these kids have to face a brutal world that circumvents their believe in a presence of utopian world that is supposedly present in the world of books and science fiction movies. In reality, it is not the case but one cannot deny the presence of evil. What Matthews and Nick are trying to communicate is simple yet it is very difficult to apply in the real world. The people are living over a cycle of time. This cycle rotates and those who were at the top of it will come under it and those who were under will emerge at the top. The humanistic value of compassion dictates that ones who are at the top should support those at the bottom in going through the rough time. Both of the artists are working to make people realize the importance of practicing love in order to spend a fulfilling life. The similar messages are conveyed by the works of Vincent Peale and Scott Peck. The Matthew’s work is silently communicating a message to every one of us to trust ourselves. The notion of internal locus of control is subliminally conveyed by the abovementioned contribution. The works of Nick tried to sow a seed of out of box thinking and the habit of socialization. No doubt both of the artists labored in order to give a message of humanistic concern within the developing personalities of the kids. Findings Following are the key findings of the study The imagination is far superior than the knowledge because it can guide one to the new and innovative ways The abilities to create and think are going to become the most important competencies in the near future The kids in the early age can be developed into creative individuals by teaching them arts The visual can have the worth of a thousand words while, the kids and adults can learn from them on an equal basis The Trekkies are the people who are so impressed with the ideology and philosophy of Star Trek that they want to implement them in the real world The message that Matthews and Price wanted to give is simple and it emphasizes on promotion of humanistic values in the society The school is the significant contributor in terms of determining the personality of any child and therefore, habits of thinking and creating should be strengthened at this stage Conclusion This paper reviewed and analyzed the works of two legendary illustrators and found out that both of them are the bringers of the same message but they conveyed it in a different format and with a divergent perspective as well. The work of Matthews preyed on the idea of individual’s inner strength and the contributions of Price were developed for the sole objective of providing entertainment and enjoyment to children with the special emphasis on social activities and relations. Works Cited Read More