A Study of the Works of Illustrators of Children's Books in the 1940s in Iran Based on the Laws and Principles of Visual Perception (Case Study: Mesghali and Zarrin Kelk Illustrations)

The process of visual perception has systematic principles that can be useful in recognizing works of art. Accordingly, Gestalt laws play an essential role in assisting the human mind in analyzing the illustrative effects of children's books. In the field of graphic works and illustrations of children's books, using the principles of visual perception and Gestalt psychology, new, important and significant data can be obtained. The purpose of this study is to discover and identify properly and accurately the nuances and characteristics of children's book illustrations. A seemingly simple picture, depending on the page of the children's book, has a wide variety of structural features that can be used to properly understand the nature of the criteria in the field of visual perception. The basis of the present study is the "image" element. The presence of the image in human life from the distant past can always be traced. Contemporary man has established far more complex relationships with the image. The image narrates cultural, social, insightful, etc. variables, which are directly related to human "consciousness" and "perception". Just as human beings have undeniable reasons for communicating with each other, so seeing and confronting an image requires understanding, revealing, and comprehending it, both superficially and deeply. Visual language is the only common language of all human beings. Since the syntactic structure of this language goes back to the ability to perceive images, therefore, recognizing these abilities is essential for the artist who intends to convey his message in the form of an image to the audience. He must be able to organize his visual cues in such a way as to be received by the audience in the best possible way. Illustration, without a doubt, has always been indebted to the art of painting and the history spent on it. Although illustration should be considered as a link between painting and graphics on the one hand and children's literature on the other, but the main elements used in illustration and its visual representation are first the effects of painting and the basic elements of visual perception.
Visual perception in art can be recounted with a theory in psychology called the Gestalt theory. The principles and rules proposed by researchers in this field can be used in visual analysis of visual arts. In fact, despite such capabilities, the need to use these achievements in the new analysis, analysis and shaping of the works of children illustrating children's books can be justified. The purpose of the present study is to study the compliance of the visual principles and rules of the psychology of emotion and perception, the illustrations of the veteran artists of the forties of Iran and the visual analysis of the illustrations of these artists by modeling the theory of visual perception. In this study, two artists among the illustrators of children's books of the forties in Iran, according to their level of activity and use of Gestalt principles and laws, in an improbable situation type, and also among their works, a work by sampling method. Purposefully selected and analyzed. The present study has been done in order to answer two basic questions: 1- What principles of visual perception have been used by the leading illustrators of children's books in the forties in Iran in their works? 2. How can the works of the illustrators of Iranian children's books of the forties be analyzed with the principles and laws of Gestalt? The research method was descriptive-analytical and the method of collecting information was library and documentary.
Book illustration in Iran dates back to centuries ago, but the new illustration of children's books in this land is about seventy years old, which is mostly related to the emergence and development of education in a new style and the expansion of schools. During this period, illustration for children not only became especially important, but also became a necessity for the books of this group of society and went so far that from 1340 AH (1960s) onwards, illustration of books for children and adolescents as a specialized branch It was defined and categorized in Iran. In addition, the activities of the Children and Adolescents Intellectual Development Center, Franklin Publications, and several private sector publishers have had a significant impact on this. During this period, the efforts of children's book illustrators were so extensive and successful that they can be found in other similar fields of art. The establishment of the first exhibition of children's book illustrators in 1989 showed that many children's book illustrators with different minds and perspectives are taking steps to spread this art. Among the illustrators of the forties, we can name Farshid Mesghali, Parviz Kalantari, Noureddine Zarrinkelk, Gholam Ali Maktabi and Morteza Momayez. In this research, an attempt is made to study the works of two artists among the illustrators of Iran in the 1340s AH (1960s) with a theory in psychology called Gestalt Theory.
In this study, a work from the book of Crows and a work from the book of Little black fish were selected and analyzed based on the sampling method mentioned.
Zarrinkelk was one of the first to illustrate children's books as well as education textbooks for children and adolescents. Zarrinkelk began his first serious and professional illustration endeavors at the Franklin Institute. His Crow in 1970 was awarded the UNESCO (Tokyo) Book of the Year Award and in 1971 the Golden Apple of Bratislava (Czechoslovakia). Zarrinkelk is a different artist because of his story writing for children and his tendency to write text and illustrate for non-fiction books. Crows was the first book he illustrated.
The story of the crows is a symbolic and metaphorical story, Because in mystical and metaphorical tales. the protagonists of the story, whether they are animals, plants or inanimate objects, each of them, is undoubtedly a symbol of a particular stratum or group of human society; Therefore, in order to understand the meaning of the author, one must first understand those human instances that the author wants and replace the protagonists in the mind.
Farshid Mesghali illustrated more than 15 children's books in the 1340s and 1350s (1960s to 1970s) and received numerous awards, including The Little Black Fish, which won the Bratislava and Bologna Exhibition Awards. The story is hero-centered. The protagonist and protagonist is the little black fish, a hard-working, thoughtful, intelligent, and unyielding hero who stands in front of all his opponents on a belief he rightly believes.
Findings indicate that the laws of form and context, similarity, proximity, context, common destiny and symmetry have had the most presence in the works of these artists and artists of these principles in creating a high Pregnancy and the highest level of influence and realization of strong perception. They are used in proportion to the subject of the work in the mind of the audience. The laws of good extension and continuity, due to the presence of less or less compared to other principles, create a low level of frequency in the process of visual perception of the case studies of this research. In general, it can be said that the main reason for the effectiveness and durability of these works has been the high level of utilization of these capabilities by their creators in their works.