19/10/17 narrative: workshop

We had a narrative workshop with Ann today which involved group work. We first had to cooperate as a group to draw an 8-panel comic. Another group then paraphrases the comic into short summaries. The summaries are then reiterated and illustrated again into 8 panels. It is fun, challenging and engaging process to see how others interpret the same images and words differently. 

For example, our group drew the story of an old nun and a young priest meeting up secretly at night, who later only realized they are meeting in a cemetery. The latter group described it to be more dramatic and the couple's actions more bold and provocative. For example, the couple only touched hands in the first version, but in the final version they kissed and are on to "the second base"! It's funny to see how much the story has changed.

The panel I drew: the nun and the priest having a picnic near the woods at night.

For our group, we translated the comic of a lost cat into words. It was originally quite confusing because there seemed to be a hidden force driving the plot of the story, which later, as we found out, seemed to be a mischievous alien. Having each person draw a different frame also made me realize that a sequence should be consistent (e.g. point of view, drawing style) for it to be easily read and understood.

I really like Guy's panel because he uses simple and refined lines to clearly set the scene for their sequence, while having everything slightly off-proportion (or that it doesn't have to resemble reality entirely).

This is what the other group drew in response to our piece of writing. We think it is a pretty accurate attempt that illustrates what we wrote. The main difference is the appearance of the alien in the latter comic; perhaps we emphasized the alien more than it did appear in the original one.

Our group interpreted and illustrated the writings describing the comic of baby Trump's birthday party.

My drawing of baby Trump.