ABSTRACT
The aspects of the relationship between pictures and reality which I discuss here are conventions of illustration: perspective, missing parts of characters and objects, and the direction of regard and point of view. Some of the behaviour discussed happens before age 2, so could have been included in Chapter 3. However, these behaviours are all part of a continuum of learning, so I have chosen to include them here to illuminate the processes. Actual recognition of objects and characters in illustrations is covered in Chapter 3, because this is usually accomplished well before 2. There are many other conventions of illustration that I could have explored: the lines representing noise or movement, representation of water, colour variations and the threedimensionality of buildings and containers (e.g. ‘It’s round, you know’, as Rebecca explained of the cut-away Space Ark in Barbapapa’s Ark, 4-0) or multiple pictures to show time passing – but space is limited.
