Lucia Masciullo Visual Techniques

The picture book ‘The Boy and the Toy’ (2010) by Lucia Masciullo tells the story of a father who leaves his son to go to the sea, and presents him with a robot toy to keep him entertained. However, as the story progresses, the boy realises the robot has a limited place as a friend, contacts his father, who replaces the robot with a true friend, a dog. The illustrator uses a variety of visual techniques, including salient point, use of foreground, middle ground and background, facial expressions, colour, body language and perspective to highlight the contrasting themes of isolation, as seen in the first scene, and the theme of love and friendship in the second scene.
Visual techniques are used in the scene where the father is about to leave

The image is painted in a deep and cool blue, warm yellow and white colour. The use of the deep blue colour is used to capture the mood of the deep ocean, and also matches the colour of the father’s jacket. The use of similar cool colours of the father’s jacket and the ocean suggests that the father will disappear into the deep ocean. The use of cool colours gives a sense of isolation and loneliness. This contrasts with the warm yellow colour seen on the path of the jetty, leading out into the sea. The colour used in this image recalls the leaving of the father from the warm yellow-coloured jetty into more isolated, cooler-coloured

The illustrator has provided perspective to convey the fact that the father leaving into the sea by placing the boat and the ocean far back, which emphasises the father slowly moving back and eventually into the ocean. This highlights a mood of isolation and loss because the perspective has made everything appear smaller. The robot in the picture is the closest object in the picture, because it shows that when the father is gone to the ocean, the robot will be the closest thing the son has to him, which gives us a belonging mood.
The illustrator uses symbols to show meaning in the image and represents ideas. In this image, the illustrator has provided us with a picture of a seagull. This is used to represent a guardian. The idea that the seagull will keep everyone safe, creating a safe atmosphere and mood. Another symbol in this image is the eye on the boat, which the father is leaving in. It conveys the idea that the father is watching the son and the boy shouldn’t feel lonely. This eye is a symbol that also represents the mood of