The purpose of this course is to realize, in the words of Lynda Barry, “the power of comics as a way of seeing and being in the world and transmitting our experience of it.” This will involve re-encountering your ability to draw and quieting the critical voice in your head that says you can’t, shouldn’t, or aren’t drawing “properly.” By focussing on process over product and cultivating a non-intentional approach to making art, you will discover your capacity for generating meaning through the interplay of image and text. While we will draw on examples from graphic novels, as indicated by the course title, in practice you will experiment across a range of genres, including visual art, storytelling, poetry, memoir, and creative nonfiction.
Throughout the course, you will hone your artistic abilities by applying the vocabulary of poetics and narratology to making art. Poetics devices like tone and form will be applied to non-textual visual communication like colour choices and shape, while familiar narratological devices like point of view, plot, character, and setting will be applied to elements like layout and typography. The course will show how poetics and narratology are emergent features of the interplay between image and text. Through assignments and in-class exercises, you will refine these features in your work.
As you learn to trust your artistic impulses and develop a body of work, you will also learn how to reproduce and circulate the work being made. This includes the use of both digital and analog reproduction techniques, as well as understanding how the materiality of art objects affects their meaning. The course concludes with the creation of a reproduceable portfolio of creative work.
Throughout the course, you will hone your artistic abilities by applying the vocabulary of poetics and narratology to making art. Poetics devices like tone and form will be applied to non-textual visual communication like colour choices and shape, while familiar narratological devices like point of view, plot, character, and setting will be applied to elements like layout and typography. The course will show how poetics and narratology are emergent features of the interplay between image and text. Through assignments and in-class exercises, you will refine these features in your work.
As you learn to trust your artistic impulses and develop a body of work, you will also learn how to reproduce and circulate the work being made. This includes the use of both digital and analog reproduction techniques, as well as understanding how the materiality of art objects affects their meaning. The course concludes with the creation of a reproduceable portfolio of creative work.
- Teacher: Jay Ritchie