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Creating emotion

Students consider how creative choices made by illustrators help to convey emotions.

Student activities

Task no. 1

Exploring the power of illustrations to evoke an emotional response

Dog is a picture book that portrays the relationship between humans and dogs over thousands of years. It is an emotional story, and for Shaun Tan it was extremely important to convey those feelings to the audience through the illustrations.

Watch the video of Shaun Tan speaking about the importance of conveying a feeling through his illustrations.

Shaun Tan - Creating emotion

Shaun Tan - Testing colour

View the two illustrations and complete the table below. 

WW2, Series 1: Original artworks for the book Dog / by Shaun Tan, 2017
View collection item detail
Diagonal road with a dog sitting on the side

Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy Shaun Tan

 

 

What does this image remind you of?

How does this image make you feel?

What aspects of the image conjure up that emotion for you?

Image 1:

 

 

 

 

Image 2:

 

 

 

 

 

Complete a ‘think pair share’ activity in which you consider the following question:

  • After viewing the two images, which is the most powerful and why?