Miroslav Sasek - This Is London

I BOUGHT A NEW BOOK

T H I S   I S   L O N D O N
I originally saw Sasek's illustrations on some stationery products at Kew Gardens, but bought the book 'This is London' when I saw it in the National Portrait Gallery shop. It's such a lovely, honest ode to London. Despite having been made in the 50s, it resonates even within the current London culture and lifestyle and communicates on a universal level. Sasek's use of shape and line creates identifiable images, characterised by angle and  humour. His character's seem to foster exaggerated features, elongated limbs and angular faces, contributing to their comical aesthetic and universality. 

A key characteristic of the book is the tone of voice. Sasek employs a rather matter of fact, informative narrative, almost assuming that his audience know nothing about London, in turn, enabling Sasek to illustrate every corner of London. From reading the book from start to finish, the narrative and corresponding images seem to almost create an encyclopaedia of London. The context of the book then seems questionable as the language initially appears to be aimed at children, but in it's more factual side, it seems universal and functional in a multitude of contexts. 

Composition is so strong in Sasek's illustrations. Even in this simple vignette, I can identify use of colour and value, picture area, viewpoint and line of sight. Particularly within this illustration, line of sight is used not only to direct the eye throughout the image, but also to accentuate the subject of the image. Line of sight and depth here work to enhance the extent of the stereotypical London queues and Sasek has been able to employ line of sight to ensure the viewer takes in every character to enhance the comical element of this scene. Similarly, darker tones and values are employed in the foreground components for prominence, which fade to more muted, pastel tones in the back ground, again enhancing the journey of the eye. While the bus stop and main characters operate the right third of the image, Sasek maximises picture area through the diagonal queue that lead interest across the frame.