Today's Class- Today the main topic was narrative, the idea that artworks may have story telling as a focus. I showed slides of about a dozen historical art examples from the past 1000 years, all of which told stories to the viewers, related to mythology, symbolism, and current events that would have been known to them. In those eras when books and literacy were rare, images in art were a very important source of knowledge. It was only the examples from the last century where today's students had guesses as to the narrative.
Today we start our first individually graded project of the semester, the idea for which came from the comic strip/graphic novel MAUS. In that 1980's publication, cartoonist Art Spiegelman tells the story of his father, moving back and forth between two periods of his life- reaching adulthood and having some success in his native Poland before being sent to a concentration camp by the Nazis, and as a sometimes cantankerous old man in America in the 1970's. What made it unusual was that all people were portrayed as animals- Jewish people (of all nationalities) as mice, German soldiers who imprisoned them as cats, American soldiers who liberated the camp as dogs- standard cartoon hierarchy of conflict.
How to make this up- Today's assignment is to create your own autobiographical symbolic comic strip. Use two sheets of your 18"x24" paper (if you have smaller paper I will have to let you know how many sheets to use), and have a minimum of 12 panels. It should be based on a true story from the student's life, but should be told with symbolic characters. The symbols can relate to the story in some way, or just be personal symbols that have meaning to the artist, subjects, etc. Below are some student examples from past semesters:
The comics should be in full color, except for objects that can/should be depicted as white, making use of your pastels. Lettering may be done with pencils, pens, markers, or other things suitable for fine lines, and even for outlining if you like. General comic book rules apply, so you may make use of dialogue balloons, thought balloons, caption boxes, sound effect words, but it can also be done without any words if you prefer. Characters can be depicted as just objects, or be personified (arms, legs, facial expressions) if desired. The focus in grading will be on telling the story, not on skill in drawing things and scenes.
Homework- This is our first graded art project, and you will be given time to get it done. We worked on it today in class, and will work on it in class next week. We are off from school on April 19th for Good Friday, so these will be due at the beginning of class on April 26, 2019.
The next phase of the collagraph project (cardboard printing) will be done during class next week (4/12/19), so your plate should be completed by then. If you need to add to it to get to the required 8 textures, do it early enough to allow the glue to dry before Friday.
Those who have not yet turned in their rough draft of the museum assignment should do so as soon as possible. It is a graded assignment, so time is of the essence, and I can't advise you on how to revise it for the final draft until I have seen it, and the semester ends in 5 weeks.
For next class 4/12/19- Two major things. Students will continue on this comic strip project and can start as soon as they arrive, so bring the 18"x24" pad, pencil and eraser, and pastels. During the class each student will be asked to take a few moments off to come get their collagraph plate printed. I'll have a station set up for that and provide the ink and tools to print with. We will print on paper from your large pad, so the only other thing you need is the cardboard printing plate itself.
