Intro to Art- 2D Final- Narrative/Symbolism Comic Strip

Today in Class The topic was Narrative/Symbolism in art and we started the major 2D Final project, which will be the first individually graded project of the the semester. We looked at slides of art through history that stressed narrative (story telling) and symbolism, including Bronzino, Lorenzetti, and Hogarth. I also discussed the long form black and white sequential artwork Maus by Art Spiegelman, two pages of which are shown above. It is a story told in 2 parallel times- part in the present (late 70's) as the author/artist deals with his sometimes difficult elderly father, and part in the past (mid 1930's-mid 1940's) as his father relates the story of growing up Jewish in Poland before being imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, and how he survived the camp. Spiegelman chooses to depict all his characters as animals symbolic of the situation. All the Jewish characters are mice, Germans and Nazi soldiers are cats (which pursue and kill mice), American soldiers are dogs (which pursue cats), with other animals used as for other groups. (Click on the images above to enlarge them)

The assignment is to produce a comic strip about some bit of your own personal history. It can be a major event or something inconsequential. Your comic must be a minimum of 12 panels over two pages, and done in full color using pastels. You and all the characters must be symbols that either relate to the story (such as Spiegelman's animal conflicts) or be personal symbols relating to the people. In the student example shown above, the symbols are beach related items (beach ball, shovel, pail, beach umbrella) because the student and her friends love the beach, while the story itself was about an injury sustained during a roller hockey game. You may draw in pencil first, then color with the pastels. (if you aren't used to using them, practice coloring in shapes on scrap paper first) Pastels can be thick or blended smooth. Text for dialogue/thought balloons can be done with pen, markers, or even a word processor.