We’re delighted to present 2014’s First Years’ final Summer projects. Nathan Fox and Edward Hemingway led the students on a tough mission to break down their assumptions about stories, and their roles in telling them.
An author is broadly defined as “one who originates or gives existence to anything; a creator.” More narrowly defined, it’s someone who practices writing as a profession. Skilled writers use language to successfully portray individual ideas and unique images, and skilled visual artists can take those ideas and images and push them far beyond the written word. Combine the two and great things can happen. Exploring the “artist as author” was the goal of Hemingway’s and Fox’s workshop. Personal artistic voice were explored through on-location and in-class writing exercises, often done in tandem with images created in Black, White and One Color. Universal themes present in literary genres and popular culture were analyzed and debated. Students were required to keep a written journal to help them promote, practice and refine a relationship between visual and narrative storytelling. An extensive reading list was scrutinized and discussed, and lectures by guest authors were enjoyed by all.
But the premise of our ebook is to examine all of this through the prism of strict limitations. Lighting, temperature, character, mood, setting, continuity and rhythm: These are but a few of the basic, yet fundamental, building blocks of visual storytelling. Favoring content and narrative over finished product, the course helped students examine their assumptions of these visual fundamentals in their own work through a limited and focused palette. Using only black and white, mixed with spot colors, students were given a series of exercises intended to disrupt and challenge current working methods. The goal was to gain a better understanding of storytelling as both artists and as authors
Enjoy the Words & Pictures ebook!