SHORT STORY....Inspiration & Illustration

Using a page from a discarded book my students write a short story, learn about illustration and create a work of art. This activity incorporates visual arts, language arts and recycling. I have done this project with all ages, beginner readers can produce pleasing results as long as they can identify one word. More proficient readers and artists can elaborate and create several pages.

Supplies

The supplies are simply an old discarded book, I like a book printed on a non glossy paper, few drawings or existing illustrations, with fairly large type. a variety of art materials that one can draw or paint with (collage also works ) I have found that cray-pas are not a good medium for this project because they are so soft and difficult to control. A larger base paper and a glue stick.

Begin by scanning the page for words of interest or something one might enjoy drawing. When a word or two are discovered try to find other words to create an expression or short story. Using a pencil, lightly circle the word giving plenty of space around the chosen phrase.

All words should be identified with plenty of space around them

I cannot express how important it is to allow for as much space as possible around your words of choice. When the illustration begins and paint or crayon or marker or whatever is applied that space around the words shrinks and one must give as much space as possible to begin with. I always explain to my students what they should NOT do, as in the next photo.

Now that your short story is selected. use a glue stick to glue the book page to a larger sheet of paper. Do not use a wet glue for this purpose it soaks the paper and will wrinkle the book page. I like to use watercolor paper for my base page, however, any multi purpose paper works well.

Begin your illustration. Explain to the students that an illustration is a visual explanation of the words that they have discovered for their short story. It can be an image presented as a drawing, painting, collage or other work of art that is created as a visual representation. I suggest that cray pas or pastels are not used for this activity because they are so soft and difficult to control.

Now that the illustration for the short story has ben outlined begin to add color and detail.

Watercolors are great for filling in areas, tempera, crayon resist, color pencil, assorted markers , collage, actually anything your students have used and are familiar with (except cray-pas or pastels) can be used to create the illustration. Get creative.