The Narrative Image - using visual art to help tell a story

My featured wall at "The Narrative Image," a month-long art exhibit at the City Arts Factory (Photo by Linda Brant)

I was invited to mentor students via a short series of workshops on using visual art to tell stories. These works were then displayed in a fine arts gallery for the following month. This was a unique experience that made me realize a couple of things: 1) The kids are alright. 2) The fine art world doesn’t totally understand what illustrative/narrative works are.

Illustrative or narrative artwork is created with the intent of providing a visual reference to an external context, be it prose or a set of instructions. It is often created with a specific story or scene in mind and is used to enhance what is read. Works such as these, in a series, can tell a story of their own - which is how we get sequential art.

This panel will dive into the thought process of creating story images and the brain-mapping for popular mediums such as comics and storyboards. While it is not a “how to draw” panel, it is meant to get people started on an artistic story of their own.

Panel Requirements:

• Paper and pencils

• 1 hour