Abstract:

The collage technique, which involves cutting and combining materials from various contexts, had a central position in movements such as Cubism, Dadaism and Surrealism at the beginning of the 20th century, when it became a part of modern art. Collage is the combination of various techniques and materials such as newspaper and magazine pages, photographs, labels, fabrics and paints in a single composition with an artistic approach. The usage area of the technique is not limited to today's contemporary art fields. Children's picture books, in which illustration stands out as a fundamental element, are also an area where the visual and semantic possibilities of the collage technique are utilized. In illustrated children's books, which are important for children's reading desire and development; story, illustration, texture, material and graphic design are integrated and turn into verbal, visual and tactile narratives. It is seen that all kinds of collage techniques are used in children's picture books, such as cut paper collage, texture collage, photomontage and assemblage. The aim of this research is to examine the contribution of illustration to the formation of meaning in children's picture books in which the collage technique is used, and to determine the methods that can provide children with a rich reading experience with the possibilities provided by the technique. In the examples analysed, it was observed that the use of collage types in children's picture books contributed to the reading experience in three different ways. These can be listed as enriching the visual language of the book, providing visual or tactile information about the object or character illustrated, and helping children gain abstract thinking skills with symbolic representations.

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