This term in English we have been looking at picture books and exploring the visual techniques that authors and illustrators use to deepen the meaning in their stories.

Our learning intention for this was: We are learning to "read" an image using Visual literacy techniques and give evidence for opinions.

Shaun Tan The Rabbits by Angus Falconer

Shaun Tan is one of those people who can turn a historical fictional book into a real life fantasy just by drawing a picture. One of his many masterpieces is the one and only rabbits.

The first thing my eyes were drawn to was the colour it was so gloomy and I looked further through the book and most of the pictures had bright vibrant colours in them but not this one so that was one of the reasons that this picture stood out like a sore thumb to me and I started to wonder why the colours were so dull.

Another thing that stood out was the gestures of the characters. From my perspective the rabbits looked like they were going to invade because I’ve seen movies where people invade with weapons, and a gun is a weapon right. So it looks like the rabbits were going to hurt or kill the numbats and take their land from them and turn it into farming land and grazing land like the page before this one where the sheep and cattle grazed so I think that the rabbits were fighting for the land.

In the final paragraph I think the picture is like a movie because the rabbit's guns point to the next strip of ripped paper were the numbats are destroying the rabbits war machine with their spears and the spears point to another couple of functional war machines which point to the burning coop sort of thing which points vertically to a leaky water pipe which points to a numbat who is looking at a rabbit and that rabbit has a spear stab through him which points to three more numbats which and one has a very unusually shaped tails which points to a rabbit which is holding a sword and is kind of pointing to all of the numbats on a hill

In conclusion, Shaun Tan should be an inspiration to any young illustrator by the way he uses his literary devices. We have just named three in the last forty minutes. So you can see why our teachers are obsessed with the brilliant author Shaun Tan.

Shaun Tan The Rabbits by Alice Meyer

The book I am talking about today is called The Rabbits by Shaun Tan and John Marsden but the specific page is above in the top left hand corner (zoom in for a closer look). This book is based on a true story about the Europeans coming to Australia on the First Fleet. This page is about the devastating fights that happened between the Europeans and the Natives. I will also be talking about salience, symbolism, colour schemes and vectors.

These are the facts behind the fights.

The rabbits were winning these savage fights, but of course there must be a loser; sadly that loser was the Natives. Do you know why the rabbits won and the Natives lost? It's because the rabbits had big fancy cannons, guns and weapons, but when we look over here… all the Natives had was spears they made themselves. The rabbits started these treacherous fights because they wanted to take over the beautiful land of Australia.

The visual elements that I can see on this page are:

Salience: my eyes are first drawn to the huge, peculiar line of cannons because they are the biggest and darkest thing on the page.
Symbolism: the rabbits white fur represents the Europeans white skin, and the numbat - like creature’s brown fur with white stripes on their backs represents the Natives brown skin and white body art.
Colour: the colour scheme in this page is dark, sad and gloomy because of the fighting and blood splotches where stabs have come and cannon fires on bomb sites.
Vectors: the main vectors that I can see are the handles of the weapons that everyone is using and the ends of the big, peculiar guns.

This page is reconstructing the time when the Europeans and the Natives were fighting over the land. The rabbits so badly wanted to take this land that they would cause a fight with any Native they saw. It was a terrible time for the Natives especially because they were losing by a long way. I chose this page because I wanted to tell you all about the terrible time both the rabbits that died and the Natives that died in this time of fighting.

Shaun Tan The Rabbits by Sam Pope

We have been focusing on the book named The Rabbits. It was illustrated by Shaun Tan, the type of book it is is a picture book. The focus of the book is the invasion of Australia caused by the Europeans. He provides hundreds of hidden details that you may or may not see on the first time you see the page. There are lots of pages that don't look like they have lots of details.

John Marsden’s writing is as good as Shaun Tan’s images with all the sentences not having a lot of words but have really deep meanings. The pictures that Tan draws may look goofy at first but then you will see the deeper meaning of the visual elements for example the vectors. A vector is a visual element that points towards the main focus of the page.

The page I am doing is a picture that showcases the pollution of the land with oil spewing onto the ground killing native animals. This page may look bland at first but there is much more than meets the eye. The evidence for this is that if you look close enough you can see the native animal lying on the ground. It is unknown if it is alive or dead but I personally think that the animal is dead because most animals can’t survive in oil ridden landscapes like this.

Shaun Tan has some of the most impressive drawing skills that I have seen. His skills are exquisite.

The Rabbits - Big Write by Harriett van der Waal

The Rabbits is a beautiful book that displays the times of the Stolen Generation. The page that I studied expresses Aboriginal children being stolen. This page hides many secrets ready to be discovered. As you can see Shaun Tan uses visual literacy to convey his message.

When you first look at my page you can see many animals, posters and machines. The red numbat creatures are the Aboriginal locals watching their children get taken away. Shaun Tan has displayed this by illustrating little machines blowing the creatures. This can make you feel suspense, such as anticipation. What will happen next?

The picture's background is a blue void which makes the rabbits the first thing you see. The angle Shawn Tan has chosen makes the rabbits the main focal part; the salience. But if he were to flip the angle around. The numbat creatures would be the first thing you see. In this case it's making it look like the Europeans (The Rabbits) look like the Heroes.

As you can see the text is incorporated through the illustration making it look formal as in making it look like the rabbits were deliberately holding posters. The words ``They stole our children'' is from the Aboriginals point of view. If explained at that time the Europeans were known as a terrible group, for taking their children, language and overall culture.

The Rabbits is a book that shows many secrets throughout, the page that I have chosen shows a depressing time; morphed into a children's story book page. Shaun Tan has done a great job displaying the Stolen Generation in a way children can really understand.

By Harriet from St Josephs School

MaST Project