Picture-book Illustration and Awe

To create compelling illustrations, we must understand how awe is triggered.

“Mt Corcoran” by Albert Bierstadt c. 1876-1877

Have you ever looked at a picture, or read a phrase that stopped you in your tracks?

Of course you have.

You’ve also been rendered speechless by sunsets, mountain views, the desert sky at night, a phrase of music, the presence of a famous person, a startling scientific concept or a close-up zoo encounter with an apex predator.

It’s called awe.

It’s ‘that mystery feeling’*.

We all know it, we all love it, we all crave it.

What is awe?

Awe is sometimes referred to as wonder.

It relates to the sense of the Sublime and to the idea of the Numinous of which the Romantics of the early 19th century were so fond.

Most definitions of awe suggest it is triggered by things that are vast, difficult to fully comprehend, exceed our expectations and that force us to change the way we think.

Having to radically change the way we think, often on the spot, can cause us to stop thinking altogether.

And this is when awe floods in.

Awe is a state of no thought.

Studies have sought to demonstrate that awe happens during activation of our Default Mode Network (DMN). The DMN is associated with creativity and meditation, and comes to the fore during self-referential contemplation, non-directed daydreaming, and goal-less thinking.

The studies aimed to show that the Central Executive Network (CEN) - which is all about focused exterior thought and goal-driven and linear thinking - would close down during an awe experience.

Contrary to expectation, the studies found that not only did the CEN shut down during awe experiences, but so did the DMN.

That is, there was neither goal focused nor non-goal-focused thought.

Awe creates a new kind of thought.

Awe, in short, is considered a transcendent state.

Is awe an emotion?

If emotions are bodily feelings, and if awe is an emotion, then awe must have a bodily feeling.

The most usual bodily sensations to accompany awe are goosebumps, a feeling of chill, changes to our rate of breathing and changes in our digestive systems - not always all at the same time, and not always in the same degree.

Different experiences generate different flavours of awe. For example, threat-based awe creates different bodily feelings to pleasure-based awe.

Awe is one of the few emotions that pairs naturally with other emotions.

It also pairs happily with both positive and negative emotions.

Many of the experiences that elicit a feeling of awe are threat-based at their deepest core. For example:

• The proximity of a famous person is a potential threat to our status.

• The proximity of an apex predator is a potential threat to our existence.

• The infinite night-time sky is a definite threat to our significance.

The thrill of a threat can be found in countless awe experiences, even in those that don’t logically pose a threat. Being face to face with a crocodile through security glass in a zoo is still an awe-some thrill, even though we know we’re perfectly safe. (Or are we ...?)

What about awe and illustration?

A picture-book illustrator’s task is to work out how to trigger feelings of awe in a reader.

This doesn’t mean ramping up the awe on every page. Rather, it means orchestrating and adjusting the pitch and volume of awe triggers across the narrative arc, as well as within each illustration.

But how do we trigger awe?

That is the question. And there is fortunately an answer.

To trigger awe we dig deep into ourselves as biological creatures.

As biological creatures we are the siblings of all other creatures, and along with them we have evolved and adapted and changed over millionty triennia to respond in particular ways to threats and in other ways to opportunities.

Our environment is filled with signs that trigger us one way or the other.

It is those signs, and the manipulation of them, that lie behind, beneath and within successful awe-inspiring illustration.

Want to know more about how to evoke ‘the mystery feeling’ of awe in your illustration?

Tune in next week ...

Or get yourself on the Pitch-perfect Portfolio waiting list.

*‘the mystery feeling’ – this perfect phrase has been kindly loaned to me by the mother of the child who coined it.