11/10/17 Intro to Art

Today's Class- Today we started on the first individually graded project of the semester, our main 2D project.  The topic that we are addressing is narrative, or the way that art can be used to tell a story, which has often been part of visual art.  In fact, other than parts of the mid-20th century, most western art has been about telling stories.   We looked at the Bayeux Tapestry (which may be the world's first comic strip), plenty of examples from the Renaissance, Baroque, Academic, and early modernism, for which the story played an important role.  We also looked at pieces that relied on viewers' knowledge of mythology and symbolism to make their points.  Then we moved on to the project itself- an autobiographical symbolic full color comic strip.


How to make this up- One of the inspirations for this project was Art Spiegelman's 1970's/80's comic book Maus, which simultaneously told two stories about his father- one recounting his parents activities in the 1930's and 40's, victims of the Nazi concentration camps in Poland, and the other story about dealing with his often difficult elderly father, now living in New York.  As in that example, students are being asked to tell a true story from their life, using symbolic characters (see the above Maus link for more details) Below are some student examples from previous semesters- click on the images to enlarge:

The comic strip should use two 18" x 24" pages from your large pad.  Each page should include 6 panels (can be more if you want), which can be identical in size or vary if needed.  Pages can be horizontal or vertical.  I recommend working out ideas for the 12 panels before starting, and you may use pencil to sketch out the layouts first.  Pens/markers can be used to write text (such as dialog balloons, thought balloons, or caption boxes) and even to outline objects, but otherwise the art should all be in full color (things that one might expect to be white may remain so) from pastels.  All character will be symbolic, the symbolism either relating directly to the individuals, or to the subject of the story.  

The nature of the story can be significant or inconsequential, and can take place all at once, over a period of years, or any amount in between.  


Homework- Nothing new, but some students still haven't turned in a written assignment yet, so get one of those done. People who have completed the photo assignment should bring those in to share.


For next class 11/17/17- We will continue work on this comic strip project, so bring in your 18" x 24" pad, pencil and eraser, and pastels.  We will also be printing the collagraph plates made in class last week (cardboard, cloth, etc), so bring those as well.  I'll provide the ink and printing tools, the paper will come from your large pad.  We'll take care of those while students are individually working on their comic strips.  The completed comic strips will be due the week after our Thanksgiving vacation.