Today's Class- Today the important concept was the idea of narrative, along with a look at symbolism. We saw some slides of art that tells stories, going from cave painting to the 20th century, stories both true and fictitious. Then we began on our first individually graded project of the semester (everything to this point is part of the semester portfolio), our major two dimensional project. Appropriate to the topic of the day, the piece is an autobiographical comic strip, inspired by Art Spiegelman's graphic novel MAUS.
How to make this up- You will be creating a comic strip that tells a true story from your life. Can be happy or sad, significant or unimportant, whatever you decide. As in the MAUS example, the characters will be symbols, either with relevance to the story itself, or relevance to you and the people portrayed in the story. Below are some student examples from previous semesters: (click on them to enlarge)
The strip will fill two full pages from your 18" x 24" pad and be done in full color- anything that isn't normally white (such as milk) should be in color. Dialog/thought balloons can also remain white. Text can be done with pens, markers, and other things capable of lettering. Such things can also be used for outlining and fine detail work. The bulk of the color should be done with pastels, either chalk or oil based- inexpensive ones are fine. There should be at least 12 panels between the two pages, though more is permitted. Panels can be identical in size or vary within a page as you find necessary. Pages can be either vertical or horizontal.
Homework- Work on this project will continue in class next week, and you'll be given time on your own beyond that to complete it before they are due for collection. That date will be determined based on what is completed next week.
For next class 4/7/17- We will continue on this comic strip 2D project. While that is going on, I will assist each student individually with the printing project. Bring your 18" x 24" pad, the completed progress on the comic strip, pencil and eraser, pastels, and the collograph printing plates you made last week.
