For a special UnConvention edition of Drawing Together, we were so excited to welcome Gem Li as our guest host.
Gem began by discussing her path to graphic medicine, and then led into our warmup exercise. Directions for exercises are below the videos.
Warm up: Close your eyes and draw a chameleon from memory. You have two minutes.
Then Gem introduced the theme of our session, SHIFT. What comes to mind when you think of shifts? Gem discusses a few resonances in the world and her life before introducing the first part of our exercise.
Make a list of five memories or images that come to mind when considering SHIFTS in your world.
Now choose one of the items from your list above to explore in this exercise.
Then we’ll create a “vision board” for our comic. Fold a new piece of paper into six sections. We’ll spend two minutes per box making notes and sketches in response to the following prompts: (You can pause the video between instructions for each box, the quiet parts have been edited out.)
Box 1: Write words in response to these questions: What are you doing in this memory? Why are you doing it? Are there others there? What are they doing? You might also write some words about how you are feeling. Where is the light coming from in this memory? Is there a mood or atmosphere?
Box 2: Draw some poses to represent the action in this scene, yourself and/or other characters. Draw for two minutes.
Box 3: Write more about who is with you. Write what is directly in front of you, what is to your left, and what is to your right. Write what is behind you.
Box 4: Draw where you are – draw something that gives your story a sense of place – scenery, objects in the area, etc Also consider drawing indications of the time of day and the season.
Box 5: Write or draw what else you see around you? Below your feet? Around your head? What do you smell? What do you hear? What is the weather like?
Box 6: Use lines, shapes, colors, whatever you want to add. Whatever you want do draw. You can doodle or be intentional. Feel free to add color.
Now that we have all these fragmented ideas on our vision board, spend three minutes creating a speech bubble or thought bubble that would fit into the comic.
Finally, create a four-panel comic based on the vision board of this memory, as documented in your six panels above.
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