Satrapi is an Iranian born graphic novelist, illustrator, film director and children's book author most famous for her graphic novels names persepolis. The books follow a child who was born to a family of radical marxists creating a creative blend of childhood and history the book is known for being a truly unique coming of age story.
Satrapi takes inspiration from her own eventful childhood as she faced many horrific events such as being whiteness to many family and friends being persecuted , arrested or even murdered. This shows within her art as you can feel the raw emotion of the past. She speaks multiple language and writes book for each these languages include French, Persian, English, Swedish, German and Italian.
Satrapi learnt most of her art from her French comic artist David Beauchard who became her mentor. From here she became a famous worldwide leading to many award nominations and wins. she has also contributed to the well known op ed section of The new york times.
An example of work - An extract from her most popular book Persepolis
This short extract taken from the first of the two book sees the family is struggle after they are told that if the protest against the political election they could be arrested. The decision will harm their family more then most because they are part of the political system. The colour choices made by that artist for the whole novel consist of the basic Black and white apart from the colour on the front cover which is typically a block colour of red or blue . I think these colours are appropriate for the art not only do they highlight the seriousness of the issues the comic faces but they also suit the style in which the novel is presented. Another connection that could be made is that it follows the statement " in black and white" typically used when your saying something is honest and truthful just like this book is as an auto biography from the artist. Overall this use of a limited colour palette is highly successful.
The text in this artwork shown through speech bubbles appears child like. This may have been done to exsentuate the fact that it is a childs narrative throughout the book although there are so many adult image. This childish approach appears not only due to the speech bubbles which most children think of first when thinking about making a cartoon speak but also by the small text which appears in a basic almost handwritten font that looks likes its tried to be perfected like they are in the stage before they learn joined up writing often taught at the end of primary school. This text works well with the artwork in the manor that it fits with the basic cartoons. All together the art fits appropriately to the story and the perspective used.
The imagery used in Persepolis has the same qualities as the text as its vivid but also childlike. The pictures appear basic but also have qualities the are complex as they show features on the people that are not typically highlighted. The cartoons are not realistic in the way that features of he people are pulled to extremes shown in the work above as hairlines are pulled back and cheekbones are severe if seen as all in the image. The face structure is basic reminding you again that this could be the kids drawings. I think the use of imagery has been successful it carried the theme same as the text that its a childs narrative that is in this harsh reality.
The hierarchy of information is hard to figure out on this piece but I think firstly it is pulled to the vivid chacters that stand away from the seeming blank background. I think this is because they are so obvious to our eye where the text is a lot smaller and basic where the images need to have the readers evaluation first. I think the hierarchy of this piece is in the correct order as we see the situation first and read into further later this is what happens when in a real life circumstance which the novel is trying to recreate.
I think this art was created firstly by being handrawn but I do think that it has been adjusted further to create the graphic look. I think this could have been done in multitude of programmes such as photo shop or illustrator. Overall the piece is successful as it carries out the job of being series and telling a story whilst still reminding us that it is a child facing these terrible issues. If i was to alter anything about this piece of art myself I think I would change the text or typeface maybe to match the font shown on the cover.
A few examples of her other work
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