Another Graphic Memoir workshop will start tomorrow, January 24th. This time, it’s a series of six weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing what the students will produce this time.
A Graphic Memoir workshop by Danièle Archambault
In a graphic memoir, an author narrates a period of her or his life, using sequential art to illustrate the story. In November, I held a workshop over the course of two afternoons during which students were introduced to this new and exciting way of preserving a significant moment of their life. Although the students did not have prior experience in that field or special background in art or literature, they produced beautiful and meaningful one-page stories. They developed their own particular story in their personal style. They chose different lay-outs to illustrate their unique stories.
I’m starting another series of Graphic-Memoir workshops on January 24. Come and learn this new way of expressing yourself in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.
Here are pages from three of the students in the fall Graphic-Memoir workshop.
For her project, Evelyne chose a special and dramatic memory from her childhood in Vietnam, at the time called “Cochinchine“. La guerre arrive en Cochinchine (1942) “The war arrives in Cochinchina“ is in French, which is the language Evelyne studied in school in Vietnam, and in color pencils. In this story, she recalls the day Japanese destroyers arrived on the beach where she was playing with family and friends, marking the beginning of the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during WW II. Evelyne starts her story with a beautiful establishing scene, capturing the playful mood at the beach on a beautiful sunny day. Quickly, we see black menacing dots on the horizon and the joyful mood changes to an atmosphere of panic. The story ends with a wide panel capturing the chaos on the beach and the family’s anguish as they see their father, a family officer, pedaling towards the bunkers from which he will keep an eye on the Japanese invaders.
A beautifully developed page, in terms of art and story. Evelyne had no prior experience in drawing. She is now planning to do more pages, keeping alive her family stories for the younger generations.
Evelyne Cole's page from the Graphic-Memoir Workshop
In December, Leslie’s whole family was taking a special trip to London to celebrate her husband’s 70th birthday. Leslie decided that her page would commemorate this special event. This is a very interesting page layout that captures the spirit of the event. At the center, we can see the computer screen with a message from the dad announcing the trip to his children. Around that central image, different members of the family are shown already dreaming about what they will be doing in London. The last panel (bottom right) show the whole family celebrating the dad’s birthday. Leslie did the original art in black ink, scanned it and then printed multiple copies. She then colored each of the pages (color pencils). She surprised her husband with the first page on his birthday in London. The others will go to the children.
A beautiful page with a clever layout capturing a special moment in a family’s life. Leslie was very hesitant and unsure of herself n the beginning. Her precious framed page will now hang in her living room.
Pas loves scuba diving. During one of those trips, Pat and her husband Mike got to swim with humpback whales in a Tongan lagoon. They chose that remote South Seas spot to see the humpbacks in the lagoon where they come each year for their calving and mating. Pat wanted to preserve this amazing experience by telling the story in a humorous way: Both whales and humans are amazed at this first encounter. Pat chose to tell her story in black and white. The simple layout is very effective at capturing the grandiosity of the event. Pat started her page with an establishing scene panel, showcasing the enormous size of the humpback whales. In the middle panels, Pat uses her own experience in scuba diving to illustrate how divers get into the water. Finally, she ends her story with another wide and simple panel, emphasizing the parallelism between the experience of both humans and whales.
A beautiful page, with a great lay-out, preserving, as Pat puts it “the encounter that was certainly the highlight of my diving years!” Pat is now working on the other stories she shared with us in the Graphic-Memoir workshop.
Pat's page from the Graphic-Memoir Workshop.
Je prépare des ateliers de BD pour janvier 2012. Je vais annoncer l’horaire bientôt. En attendant, si vous avez des questions ou des suggestions, n’hésitez-pas à me contacter. Voici l’annonce qui paraîtra à la mi-janvier dans l’annuaire de San Francisco Bay Accueil.
Ateliers de Bd
A few weeks ago, I was invited to give a one-hour comic book workshop to a group of about 20 Junior Girl Scouts in Palo Alto. I helped the girls create a one-page comic book describing the service project they chose and the steps they needed to take to realize it. All about leadership and working as a group! You can click here to find out more about the workshop and to see some of the work in progress from the girls. Now, you get to see the final page of three of these Girl Scouts. Thank you to the leader who brought over their work. Congratulations to the girls for producing such amazing comic-pages!
Il y a quelques semaines, j’étais invitée à donner un atelier d’une heure à un groupe d’une vingtaine de Guides (Girl Scouts aux USA), niveau Junior, à Palo Alto. J’ai aidé les jeunes à produire une page de BD décrivant leur projet de service communautaire et les étapes nécessaires à la réalisation de ce projet. Leadership et travail d’équipe! Vous pouvez cliquer ici pour en savoir plus sur l’atelier et pour avoir un aperçu des premières étapes de leur travail. Mais aujourd’hui, vous pouvez voir le travail final de trois de ces jeunes filles. Merci à leur cheftaine d’avoir apporté leurs dessins. Félicitations aux jeunes filles pour ces merveilleuses pages de BD!
Comic-page by I...A Junior Girl Scout in Palo Alto.
Comic-Page by M...A Junior Girl Scout in Palo Alto.
Comic-page by A...Junior Girl Scout in Palo Alto.
A Graphic Memoir Workshop by Daniele Archambault
Do you want to preserve the memory of the significant moments in your life, in a special and exciting new way? This inspiring workshop is for you!
In a graphic memoir, an author narrates a period of her or his life, using sequential art to illustrate the story. Over the course of two afternoons, you will have the opportunity to develop your own one-page graphic memoir about a chosen moment of your life, in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.
We will first look at the work of graphic memoir authors like Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis) and Art Spiegelman (Maus). Then you will work on developing your own unique story.
You really don’t need to have a background or special talent in art or in literature! Just come with your stories (funny or sad), your special memories or your personal reflections on life.
And maybe you will want to share this one-page graphic memoir with your family and friends in your holiday letter!
When: Tuesdays, Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, from 2:00 to 4:00 PM.
Where: The class will meet in the cosy atmosphere of a private house in Palo Alto, California.
Price: $35 (Special holiday price)
Website: www.DanieleBD.com
Reservations and information: Daniele@DanieleBD.com
Please note: For adults 18 and over.
A comic workshop for Girl Scouts.
Last week, I was invited to give a one-hour comic book workshop to a group of about 20 Junior Girl Scouts in Palo Alto. It was part of a whole day of activities organized by their leaders and parent volunteers. The activities focused on leadership: the leadership qualities of some great women and those of the girls. I got to watch how a group of 20 young girls chose a service project…by consensus. Quite a process! The service project they chose had to do with finding money to help an animal shelter. Once they decided on their project, the girls had to design a one-page comic book explaining the steps they were going to take in order to achieve this service project. I was invited to guide them in the process. Each of the girls first produced a thumbnail of the comic-page they wanted to do. Each panel represented one of the steps of the service project. They designed the drawings and wrote their script. Then they did their final comic page on an 8.5 by 11 smooth Bristol paper. They first did the pencilling and then they inked their page. Those girls were amazing! They managed to achieve this in one hour! They worked seriously but with a lot of laughs. I wish I could show you the pictures of these girls working on their pages. Unfortunately, for reasons of privacy, I cannot put up pictures of Girl Scouts on a website. However, I can show you some of their work in progress. I also told the girls that once they are done with their pages (they can color them at home), they can lend them to me. I’ll scan them and feature each of them on this website.
Meanwhile, here are two of my sketches of the girls and some of the comic pages they did.
Un atelier de BD pour les Guides (Girl Scouts).
La semaine dernière, j’ai été invitée à donner un atelier d’une heure à un groupe d’une vingtaine de Guides, niveau Junior (4ème, 5ème et 6ème année du primaire), à Palo Alto. L’atelier faisait partie de toute une journée d’activités sur le leadership: les qualités de leadership de femmes connues et celles des Guides elles-mêmes. J’ai pu observer comment un groupe de 20 petites filles arrivent à décider d’un projet de service communautaire…par consensus. Toute une affaire! Elles ont choisi un projet dans lequel elle devaient ramasser de l’argent pour aider un refuge pour animaux. Une fois le projet décidé, les Guides devaient faire une BD d’une page, dans laquelle elles expliquaient les étapes nécessaires à la réalisation de leur projet. Mon rôle était de les guider dans l’élaboration de leur BD. Chacune des filles a d’abord produit les vignettes (thumbnails). Chaque case devait décrire une étape. Elles ont planifié les dessins et les textes. Ensuite, elles ont dessiné leur travail final sur une feuille de papier Bristol 8.5 X 11. Elles ont fait le dessin à la mine puis elles ont encré leur page. C’était extraordinaire de le voir travailler! Elles travaillaient sérieusement mais gaiement. J’aimerais pourvoir vous montrer des photos des filles en plein travail mais en raison des règlements sur la confidentialité, je ne peux pas. Je peux vous montrer cependant des photos de leur travail . J’ai aussi proposer aux Guides de scanner leurs pages, une fois les couleurs terminées à la maison, et de mettre le travail de chacune d’elles sur mon blog.
En attendant, voici deux de mes croquis de cet atelier et des photos du travail des Guides.
A Junior Girl Scout
Junior Girl Scouts
