Exploring the Visual Narrative

My first session was one of my favorites of the entire day. I attended the Keynote session called "Exploring the Visual Narrative" with Shauen Tan, David Wiesner, being led by Arthur Levine. Large screens were used to display pictures of the authors' work and process when developing their wordless books.

Wiesner showed his thumbnail sketches and described them as minimal. This is where he organizes his thoughts and develops the story. They were pencil/charcoal sketches that reminded me of storyboarding when creating a movie.

Tan had a similar process. He admitted to being a perfectionist and that became evident as he spoke. He uses sketch books to record ideas and he showed the audience the development of his ideas into what became the final product in his books. He does a lot of research and uses old photographs to help him with his drawings. Tan described old photographs as visual fossils, a description I take pleasure in. His newest book, The Arrival has many pictures of families. He used old photographs to aid with the development of his drawings.

I was most amazed that both of them used models and staging when developing their drawings. Wiesner showed clay models of his animals and mentioned that his next book will be about lizards. They both mentioned the importance of these small models to help them understand lighting and shadows. For example, Weisner said he needed to know what the shadow of a pig would look like on the side of a barn. He basically built a miniature set.

Tan uses quite a bit of staging when getting ready for his drawings. He asked neighbors to come over and sit at a dinner table within his set. He used a video camera to record their conversations with each other and then took segments of the video to use as his model. He painstakingly researches the era, buys pieces of furniture and objects to place in the picture, gets the proper clothing and then takes pictures of himself or others within the set. I never imagined that this much work went into their drawings and the time and preparation that it took.

Tan expressed philosophical ideas when he had the floor. He felt that historical fiction and science fiction are close to the same thing. They are both displaced time periods. Quite an interesting idea. He discussed the format of a wordless book and his thoughts on adding text. Having no text slows the reader down and encourages the reader to look more closely at the details in the illustration. He felt that words make the reader go too fast through the book. A picture book to Tan is a map of experiences.

My favorite thought was expressed by Tan when he said that if he feels strongly about something, others will too. That idea grabbed me immediately and made me think about my job as an LMC Director. I have already seen in my second year that if I'm enthused about something, I can get students and teachers to be enthused as well. Spreading excitement over something like books, authors, something on the internet, a research project, etc. is a huge part of my job - not to mention fun!! So, if I feel strongly about something, I'm hoping my students will to.