Isol - Body and Soul

by Istvan Schritter*

‘I work from a pictorial vision, always researching new ways to perform my job as an illustrator, trying to find a different language for each book I work on. This search is the most challenging part for me- finding the visual concept and the general structure for the book. I also like to be involved in its design.’

‘I enjoy changing techniques though I always keep a broken line, denser at times, as in engraving, and at times lighter, in pastel oil. I employ a limited palette, soft colours and few higher tones, so that the lines in the drawing sing the melody.’

‘I try not to go back to what I have done before, when I know what is going to happen I get quite bored. While working with texts by other authors, I have researched the most on new techniques; I guess this is so because I meet somebody else’s imaginary and that opens doors to unknown images, which is very enriching and surprising.’[1]

Three statements that place and define Isol as one of the most daring voices within the field of Argentinean children’s book illustration this side of millennium.

Her books help to confirm her search, that –I should not fear kitsch by saying- is insatiable.

Of course, may be she doesn’t know –it is not true, she does know, but as every humble person she does not show off about it- that she has already attained a style, her line is self-defining, it is recognizably her own.

Let’s see why.

Expressionist in artistic terms, as coming out of a blend of underground comic from the ‘90s and the Blue Horseman[2], always changing techniques –pastel oil with liquids that are rejected intentionally to create careless dotted lines in Vida de perros (Dog’s Life); ancient print-like drawing worked on and digitally coloured in Secreto de familia (Family Secret), Aroma de galletas (Cookie Smell), Mon corps et moi (My Body and Me) and Piñatas; collage in El cuento de Auggie Wren (Auggie Wren's Christmas Story); engraving effect in Cosas que pasan (Those Things Happen), Intercambio cultural (Cultural Exchange) and Regalo sorpresa (Surprise Gift)- Isol never loses track of the picturebook genre codes, she settles there and makes friends with them, creating a balanced environment for text, illustration and design.

Her books and the characters that inhabit them speak (about) Isol’s language; they tell her stories in a master way and allow some of her obsessions to transparent.

In Cosas que pasan (Those Things Happen), a girl with straight hair starts saying “If I had straight hair, I would be prettier”; as we turn over the page, the words “But that is not so” followed by the picture of the same girl with curly hair unveils the truth for us.

In Secreto de familia (Family Secret), the protagonist looks at herself in the mirror where the reflection shows her resembling her mother in the future and says in reference to the bottles on her mother’s chest of drawers: “At what age does one start buying those creams?”

The characters’ wishes, frustrations and desires are revealed subtly and resorting to the interplay of all languages, thus achieving a more powerful and direct effect than mere description. Isol does not overstate, she says the strictly necessary and employs text to discuss psychologies and add touches of humour, tension or sensations rather than explaining what images already say. This also provides the chance to generate turns in narration: the pitch and tone of voice change when the sequence progresses to a different stage.

Just as Isol saves textual language, she also does with visual language. She both says and shows as it is strictly necessary. This is a feature that can be traced in the characters’ gestures that replace any redundancy.

In Piñatas, the piñata/guide’s face, by anticipating the protagonist’s metamorphosis, saves countless explanations concerning something she herself considers understood and that we readers learn at this moment: the huge, round eyes looking ahead go beyond the reader, the smile is the kind one produces when noticing that there is something secret and private about to be shared with someone else.

In Secreto de familia (Family Secret), the astonishing disbelief at the terrible discovery made by the protagonist is manifested by her face in profile, with an enormous cloudy eye and a slight line for mouth, accompanied by a seemingly innocuous text as “I sat down and waited for my cereal”.

Nothing depends on chance for Isol, who employs all elements within her reach to communicate with her readers, actually the third great protagonist in her books alongside herself and her characters. The dialogue established reflects a belief in our intelligence, capacity for adventure and courage. With an open complicity, she establishes codes directed to us: she enters without knocking at the door of our attention so that we dive into her fictions with confidence that the challenge will be accepted.

In Piñatas, front and back of the cover are a disturbing mask: place the book in front of your eyes, look at yourself in the mirror and live the most critical moment in the story- the character’s metamorphosis.

In Secreto de familia (Family Secret), the girl peeping through the hole reveals herself as the perfect image to illustrate this cover, but it is also a friendly wink to the reader, who is invited to act likewise: to peep into the book. Display the cover and actually feel inside that room, hopelessly allied to the girl and the next one on the line to discover the secret behind the door.

Book covers not only resignify the material inside but also appeal to us directly as readers, making us players from the start. In Isol’s books there is no implied innocence: we are directly involved and share sides with the main character from the transgressive side.

And that is Isol’s major contribution to universal children’s books illustration: a close and intimate communication with readers, a confidence in their knowledge and intelligence, an ongoing challenge to adventure. A fascination with complexity narrated by such clear and transparent codes that nothing except one’s knowledges are needed to understand everything, whether one is in kindergarten or in a retirement home.

‘I am right-handed but sometimes draw with my left hand just to be surprised by results, looking for resources that force me to discover new things. I do so because… because… because my mind is more conservative than I am!’[3]

Isol enjoys growing up and her books invite readers to grow up with her, from each one’s knowledges, with confidence in one’s own capacity to dive into fiction.

The one Isol knows how to live in.

Intensely.

Selected Bibliography

  • Vida de perros (Dog’s Life),text by artist, Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1997.
  • Cosas que pasan (Those Things Happen), text by artist, Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1998.
  • Regalo sorpresa (Surprise Gift), text by artist, Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1998.
  • Aroma de galletas (Cookie Smell), text by Antonio Fernández Molina, Valencia (Spain), Media Vaca, 1999.
  • Intercambio cultural (Cultural Exchange), text by artist, Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2000.
  • Mon corps et moi (My Body and Me), text by Jorge Luján, Éditions du Rouergue, (France), 2003.
  • El cuento de Auggie Wren (Auggie Wren's Christmas Story), text by Paul Auster, Madrid (Spain), Lumen and Buenos Aires, Sudamericana, 2003.
  • Secreto de familia (Family Secret), text by artist, Mexico, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2003.
  • Piñatas, text by artist, Buenos Aires, Ediciones del Eclipse, 2004.

*Istvan Schritter

(b. Madrid, 1968)

Illustrator, designer and writer. His books have been published in many countries and he has obtained several awards, such as the first honorary mention of the Utopía Latinoamericana Award (27th IBBY Congress, Cartagena, Colombia) and the 2004 CIELJ-RICHOCHET Honourable Award (France) for his work as director of the Libros-Album del Eclipse Series. He was nominated to the Hans Christian Andersen Award by the Argentinean Section of IBBY in 2002 and 2004.

He has taught at all educational levels; as a visiting lecturer and course coordinator he has worked in Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Portugal and Italy. In 2001 he recorded Ilustración de libros para niños. El mar inexplorado (Children’s Book Illustration. The Unexplored Sea), a series of shows broadcasted by TV TelePuerto (Santa Fe, Argentina). He is a professor of children’s book illustration at the Ernesto de la Cárcova National Board in Visual Arts Postgraduate Studies, and a founding member and active contributor to the Argentinean Illustrators Forum. His reflections on illustration are compiled in the book La otra lectura. Las ilustraciones en los libros para niños (The Other Reading. Illustrations in Children’s Books). He lives in Buenos Aires.

1

[1] Catalogue for the Magic Pencil Exhibition, Buenos Aires / Rosario, British Council, p. 22.

[2] Group of Expressionist artists formed among others by Kandinsky, Marc, von Jawlensky, Münter and von Werefkin. “Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Horseman) was the title of a publication released by Reinhard Piper in 1912; it was intended to be an almanac edited and directed by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. Twice –in 1911 and 1912- this editing group organized exhibitions in order to put their theoretical concepts to the test by means of factual examples”. Elger, Dietmar, Expressionism. A German Artistic Revolution, Köln, Taschen, 1991, p. 133.

[3] Schritter, Istvan, La otra lectura. Las ilustraciones en los libros para niños (The Other Reading. Illustrations in Children’s Books), Buenos Aires, Lugar Editorial / Universidad Nacional del Litoral, 2005, p. 31.