Illustration Quotes

• An illustration is a visual editorial - its just as nuanced. Everything that goes into it is a call you make: every color, every line weight, every angle.

  Charles M. Blow

  Color, Weight, Lines

  "Charles Blow on Masculinity, Trayvon Martin, and Reliving Childhood Trauma". Interview with Julia Lurie, www.motherjones.com. September/October 2014.

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• At first, I see pictures of a story in my mind. Then creating the story comes from asking questions of myself. I guess you might call it the 'what if - what then' approach to writing and illustration.

  Chris Van Allsburg

  Writing, Asking Questions, Creating

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• Some persons have contended that mathematics ought to be taught by making the illustrations obvious to the senses. Nothing can be more absurd or injurious: it ought to be our never-ceasing effort to make people think, not feel.

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  Science, Thinking, People

  Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1856). “Seven Lectures on Shakespeare and Milton: A List of All the Ms. Emendations in Mr. Collier's Folio, 1632”, p.23

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• In preparing the present volume, it has been the aim of the author to do full justice to the ample material at his command, and, where possible, to make the illustrations tell the main story to anatomists. The text of such a memoir may soon lose its interest, and belong to the past, but good figures are of permanent value. [Justifying elaborate illustrations in his monographs.]

  Othniel Charles Marsh

  Science, Past, Justice

  Othniel Charles Marsh (1886). “Dinocerata: A Monograph of an Extinct Order of Gigantic Mammals”

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• But, in truth, the existing premises, wholly altered by geologic science, are no longer those of Hume. The footprint on the sand — to refer to his happy illustration — does not now stand alone. Instead of one, we see many footprints, each in turn in advance of the print behind it, and on a higher level.

  Hugh Miller

  Science, Feet, Levels

  "The Testimony of the Rocks: Or, Geology in Its Bearings on the Two Theologies, Natural and Revealed".

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• The floating vapour is just as true an illustration of the law of gravity as the falling avalanche.

  John Burroughs

  Fall, Science, Law

  John Burroughs (1895). “Fresh Fields”

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• The aim of art is to create space.

  Frank Stella

  Art, Space, Aim

  Frank Stella (1986). “Working Space”, p.5, Harvard University Press

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• My purpose is to create a mirror for the reader to see themselves, to create a light for people to see themselves in the characters, pictures, and stories. So they resonate.

  Kadir Nelson

  Book, Character, Reflection

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• Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.

  Marsha Norman

  Inspirational, Life, Dream

  "Success Comes in Cans: Learning Lessons for Life". Book by Kriss Akabusi and Tricia Hartley, 2006.

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• I got my diploma from Ealing College of Art, in graphics and illustration.

  Freddie Mercury

  Art, College, Diploma

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• No man with a conscience can just bat out illustrations. He's got to put all his talent and feeling into them!

  Norman Rockwell

  Men, Feelings, Bats

  "Fusion Book 1, Enhanced Edition: Integrated Reading and Writing, Book 1". Book by Dave Kemper, Verne Meyer, John Van Rys, Patrick Sebranek (p. 202), January 2014.

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• There have been many different artists that have been inspirational. I suppose the question is directed to what was the reason why I went into fantasy illustration.

  Boris Vallejo

  Artist, Different, Reason Why

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• I write the poems first, with only a few exceptions for odd reasons, where I'm given the illustration first.

  Jack Prelutsky

  Writing, Firsts, Odd

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• The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail.

  John Wesley Powell

  Art, Speech, Language

  John Wesley Powell (2008). “Canyons of the Colorado”, p.394, Cosimo, Inc.

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• On one level the sixties revolt was an impressive illustration of Lenin's remark that the capitalist will sell you the rope to hang him with.

  Ellen Willis

  Rope, Levels, Impressive

  Ellen Willis (2011). “Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music”, p.221, U of Minnesota Press

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• Beslan, where the Russian authorities stopped live coverage of the school being stormed, was an illustration of the progress we still have to make.

  Kate Adie

  School, Progress, Authority

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• Today's tax cuts provide yet another illustration of the Republicans' fiscally irresponsible economic policies that ignore the needs of America's middle class, students, and working families.

  Ellen Tauscher

  Cutting, America, Class

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• I was doing illustration work, and the cartooning slowly took over.

  Max Cannon

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• We may smile at these matters, but they are melancholy illustrations.

  Joseph Howe

  Smile, May, Matter

  Joseph Howe (1858). “Speeches and Public Letters”, p.39

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• Passing into practical life, illustrations of this fact are found everywhere; the distant, or the unseen, steadies and strengthens us against the rapid whirl of things around us.

  Matthew Simpson

  Unseen, Facts, Passing

  Matthew Simpson (1885). “Sermons”

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• What is character but the determination of incident? What is incident but the illustration of character?

  Henry James

  Inspirational, Determination, Character

  "The Art of Fiction" (1884)

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• I've done illustration on the side. But other than that, comics have been my main things.

  Jaime Hernandez

  Done, Sides, Has Beens

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• Be able to draw an illustration as least well enough to get your point across to another person.

  Marilyn vos Savant

  Literature, Able, Enough

  Light Posters, Utah University, mrscienceut.net.

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• The generic Canadian style of illustration is different from the generic American style.

  John Kricfalusi

  Style, Different, Generic

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• But, after all, the aim of art is to create space - space that is not compromised by decoration or illustration, space within which the subjects of painting can live.

  Frank Stella

  Art, Space, Painting

  Frank Stella (1986). “Working Space”, p.5, Harvard University Press

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