Shaun Tan

    Reading Shaun Tan’s “The Arrival” is an experience that made me learned a lot about how to tell a story using only images, without any aid of words or languages. I would even say that the images themselves that Shaun Tan created are al very compelling storytelling elements. I found that Shaun Tan used a lot of techniques to make his story not only understandable but also engaging to the audience.

    For example, Shaun Tan illustrated as many key poses as he could for the characters in the story. By using this method, he created an illusion of continuous actions that are performed by the characters. He achieved the effect similar to watching a motion picture on paper.  The poses and actions are key elements that propel the story. Shaun Tan had drawn the movements in a way that are easy for the reader to understand. Those drawings and poses are also very appealing to watch. Shan Tan had also put emotions and expressions into the actions, making the characters very approachable to the readers.

    Another notable technique that Shaun Tan used in this piece is his use of cinematography. He incorporated the compositions of shots, the different ways to light a scene that would add to the story, and also “camera movements” in his work.

    His compositions for each picture panels are dynamic. Sometimes he would choose extreme long shots to illustrate this fantasy cityscape that is being portrayed in the story. Sometimes he would choose close ups to show different emotions of the characters. In this particular piece, Shaun Tan drew a lot a close ups of hands. The hands engaging in different task also engages the reader into the story.

    Shaun Tan delicately and elaborately pencil-rendered his picture panels so as to achieve a sense of realistic lighting effect that is similar to motion pictures. Shaun Tan also has his own drawing style that makes the whole piece emit a soft and warm quality.

    Achieving “camera movements” with still images is what stands out for me the most. Shaun Tan would elaborately illustrate panels after panels that mimic the sense of the moving camera. There are a lot of extreme zoom-outs in this piece. At first, the readers empathize with what the characters are feeling, and then the camera would gradually zoom out, making the scene into an extreme long shot. This method achieves a sense loneliness of the characters in a vast environment.