Contemporary Illustrations Portfolio

An exploration of contemporary picturebook illustrations for CHL 403 - Picturebook at Simmons University

Created Fall 2020

About the CIP

This portfolio consists of mini-essays on 20 illustrations in contemporary picturebooks. The portfolio consists of three sections: Medium, Design, and Critical Engagement. Each essay engages with a single illustration from a picturebook and works to consider the "principles governing picture structure, book design, narrative pacing, elements of visual art, picturebook codes, and other principles discussed by the scholars and artists on the syllabus [of the course this project was created for]."

Exploration of the artistic tools and mediums used to create picturebooks and the effects those mediums have on illustrations.

Considerations of compelling design in picturebooks including composition, size, scale, space, and materiality both in the books and in their paratexts.

Engagement with critical sources to discuss presentations of race, ideologies, time, and gender among other critical considerations.


More From Macy

If you want more information about the work I'm doing as a graduate student in children's literature and library and information sciences at Simmons University you can find me online in the following places: