Syllabus: Art 93E, Sequential Art
Advanced Drawing Through Distance Education
section 0013 8/22-10/17 9 weeks
meets in room 7125 for critique
Fridays 9:30-12:30
August 22- Introduction to the class and discussion of the problem. Please bring work that you may have done prior to this meeting which would include notes and resources.
September 5- Critique on work in process
September 26- Critique on work in process
October 17- Final critique
Participation in conversations on the mailing list is mandatory. Each week, a question or questions will be given that relates to process, to point of view and to what might be incorporated into the work from the variety of sequential examples given on this site.
Discussion of media is required. It is expected that there will be a very wide range of mediums, sizes and text styles employed. The problem has a cross-modal component (left brain/right brain), and incorporates both visual language and verbal language in one artwork. The structure of the class itself mirrors the formal challenge of the drawing problem. The means will justify the ends.
Grading is based on the completion of the work assigned and participation on the mailing list. Additionally, each student will be evaluated in terms of originality and the response to the formal demands of the problem. It is a good thing to challenge the established forms of sequential art but the game must be played in the stadium- which means that the finished work must look like sequential art and tell a story.
My belief is that the sequential format is so strong that it will prompt entirely new solutions for everyone. I can lead you, I can guide you and I can leave you alone, depending on how you learn and how you work. You may wish to write to me privately (mstevens32@charter.net) or write to the list as a whole (dada@listserv.cuesta.edu) and get varied responses. The novelty is that the actual work is done in private but the computer technology makes personal contact and discussion of the work available at all times.
Again I want to advise the development of a character or characters. You may work with animate or inanimate features- landscape and props are as important as a person or animal and may be used repetitively to suggest the furthering of the plot.
Single words or scraps of poetry qualify as text as well as long passages of exposition. Text may be used as a descant to the pictures- for example, a dreamy memory may be juxtaposed with pictures of mundane life. Words and pictures may be played off one another in an ironic fashion. (see Julie Frankel's drawing "The Best Is Yet To Come"- or Ann Garrett's "Deus Ex Machina" on the same page- http://academic.cuesta.edu/mstevens/new_page_3.htm )
Questions and comments that I send out to the mailing list will prompt responses that will accelerate your solutions. But the most powerful feature of this class is the variety of insight that will come from its membership.
To this end, I will ask all of you to be involved in the telling of each story. -Nothing lengthy, just a few sentences. (Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets a dog.) We'll submit the stories on the mailing list. My intent is to have photographs and scans on the web site for reference- work in progress. If photographing work is a problem, I'll be happy to meet you at Cuesta at a convenient time and take pictures.
BACK:
DRAWINGS