From the text:
Do you interpret the whole and then the parts, or the parts and then the whole? And if the process is sequential, what determines the sequence? Where do you look first? What do you see first? How do you construct the meaning of the picture? (Actually, one might substitute "the child" for "you" here, IF you know how a child might see your picture or can get a child to answer these questions.)
Also: What are the schemes of color and/or of light and dark in your picture? How about layout: how things and people are positioned? How about arrangement of people and objects by shape and size?

This video is of a little girl reading my favorite picture book, "Madeline" by Ludwig Bemelmans out loud. She can be difficult to understand and she gets a little loud at certain points, but there are also subtitles. I don't know the little girl, but I figured this would be good. The note for it said she had it memorized, which is more noticeable at sometimes than others. I found myself remembering a lot of the lines myself.
I'd present the parts and then want it to be taken as a whole after the fact. You can't rush a child and each page has a different rich image on it so go along with the text beneath, so each page should be taken as its own. I'd say picture first, it draws the eye, though hopefully soon after the text and than maybe revisit and talk about the pictures. This is me, of course. I do have a niece and nephew, but not regular access to them. Remembering what I used to do, the pictures always drew my attention first and from past experiences with my nephew, Tyee also likes to jump to pictures first.
The thing about Madeline books is the repetition. You knew whatever was going to happen, there would be the "twelve little girls in two straight lines. The smallest one was Madeline" And we would follow this brave little girl that would say "Pooh-Pooh" to tigers and frighten poor Miss Clavel like crazy! They almost always started the same way, so you could sit back and enjoy the art as well.
As the pictures go, there are two main types. The first we see is much like the cover, outdoor scenes with Paris landmarks that show the girls in their two straight lines. The illustration style reminds me of old paintings, I can't pinpoint by whom. The second type of image is mostly with indoor scenes, times where we need to pay attention to the actions of the characters (especially Madeline) so the background is a plain yellow, much like the yellow of the dresses the little girls all wear. Probably one of the most interesting things I noticed revisiting this is how the little girls' lines only seem to go wrong when the page is about Madeline, though not always, it did happen very often.

Thanks for this--I read this as a child, so it brings up memories for me, too!
On the parts vs. whole thing, I meant individual pictures rather than books--doing this here will help if you ever serve as a children's librarian, not only sharing books with children, but in choosing and designing posters/online images that will engage small children.
Good, but I'd like more, on the interaction between pictures and text.
The artwork reminds me of early Impressionism.
Interesting on that last remark--do you mean the text or the images?