Lesson Plan | Ray Yoshida: Digital Comic Collages – MMoCA
Artwork
AAIEEE!, 1996, collage on paper
Subjects
Visual Art, Language Arts
Author
Andrea Maxworthy O’Brien, Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin–Whitewater
Essential Questions
How are words used in art? How does knowing the contexts, histories, and traditions of art forms help us create works of art and design? Why do artists follow or break from established traditions? How do artists determine what resources and criteria are needed to formulate artistic investigations? How do images influence our view of the world?
Grade Level
6th–12th grades
Objectives
- Students will consider examples of onomatopoeia and the use of onomatopoeia in comic strips. Students will create a digital comic using onomatopoeia with digital software.
Activity
After viewing and discussing AAIEEE! students will consider examples of onomatopoeia and comic strips with onomatopoeia. Students will collect two to five comic strip examples of onomatopoeia to assist in planning their comic strip using a storyboard. Following a tutorial of digital comic software, students will create their own comic using onomatopoeia with digital software.
Enduring Understanding
Artists and designers shape artistic investigations, following or breaking with traditions in pursuit of creative artmaking goals.
Discussion Questions
- What similarities does AAIEEE! share with a comic book or comic strips? How is Ray Yoshida’s art different from a comic?
- What qualities of the comics attract people’s interest?
- How do the words in this image contribute to the meaning of Yoshida’s work?
- If you look closely, what words or phrases do you recognize? (Examples: urp, whee, yaah, KAA-Blam, Grr!, Gurk?)
- What difference might the particular style or appearance of words make to the meaning of an artwork?
- How do the words and images work together to create meaning in the work of art?
Instructions
Introduce AAIEEE! by Ray Yoshida, and onomatopoeia. Ray Yoshida was a collector, a pack rat, who collected objects from junk shops, second hand stores, and flea markets. These ordinary objects influenced his art. (See YouTube video of Ray Yoshida’s Museum of Extraordinary Values https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6CdEG0Tr9A).
Define onomatopoeia (a word that imitates the sound it describes like “buzz” or “tick-tock”) by sharing examples.
Show students examples of comic strips containing onomatopoeia (note: search online using the key words “onomatopoeia comics.” Good examples are Garfield, Batman). Teacher and students brainstorm additional list of onomatopoeia words (see http://examples.yourdictionary.com/5-examples-of-onomatopoeia.html).
Suggestions for Digital Software
Teacher chooses software depending on availability and budget
Pixton quick look overview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULgrjjj4VzA
Pixton tutorial how to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULgrjjj4VzA
Appropriate for grades 6-8
Storyboard That http://www.storyboardthat.com/
Storyboard That, Tell Your Story in Style http://www.storyboardthat.com/
Appropriate for grades 6-8
Comic Life https://plasq.com/education/take-comic-life-to-school/
Comic Life Tutorials http://www.dickinson.edu/download/downloads/id/2517/comic_life_tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7htJK4WTeI
Appropriate for grades 9-12
Resources
An Artist’s Strangely Compelling 1960’s Scrapbook of Comic Book Art
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2015/08/21/art_of_ray_yoshida_comic_book_scrapbooks_from_the_archives_of_american_art.html
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution: Newspaper Comic Clippings, Ray Yoshida’s Scrapbook of Comic Book Clippings, Ray Yoshida Scrapbook of Advertisement Clippings
https://www.si.edu/spotlight/source-material/ray-yoshida
You Tube video Ray Yoshida’s Museum of Extraordinary Values
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6CdEG0Tr9A
Examples of onomatopoeia
http://examples.yourdictionary.com/5-examples-of-onomatopoeia.html
Buzz! Thwack! How sounds become words activity
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/03/buzz-thwack-how-sounds-become-words
Top 10 best comic book making software
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T7RhFGjfnI
Comic Life 2 free download, Final Draft 8, Pixton, Motion Artist, Poser Pro 10, Comic creator, Adobe Photoshop, Manga Studio 5
Concluding Discussion
How do the words and images in their comic work together to create meaning?
Vocabulary
onomatopoeia, frame, storyboard, collage
Extensions
Language Arts, Social Studies
Standards
National Core Arts Standards
VA:Cr1.2.la
Common Core State Standards
English and Language Arts: CCSS.ELA.W.8.3 / CCSS.ELA.W.11-12.3 / CCSS.ELA.L.8.4
Wisconsin State Standards
Art and Design: B.8.5, B.12.5 / C.8.3, C.12.3, C.8.7, C.12.8 / G.8.4, G.12.4 / J.8.10, J.12.10; Language Arts: A.8.3, A.12.3 / B.8.1, B.12.1 / C.8.3, C.12.3 / D.8.1, D.12.1