This activity is intended to build learners' awareness of how stories can be told visually and how the effective use of such elements as color, light, gesture, and composition are central to the telling.
The objectives of this activity are:
1. Read the following passage out loud. You may wish to write the bold text words on the board or chart paper as a vocabulary list either before or during the reading. Then brainstorm, with the group, a list of ways that stories are told in art. Use the accompanying photograph and question sheet as an example to work through together. Students then plan and create their own story photographs.
Stories can be spoken, written, sung, danced, acted, or portrayed in works of art. Works of art that tell stories are called narrative. Artists can present their narratives in many ways--through a group of images representing moments in a story, or by selecting one main moment to represent the whole story. Narrative works can illustrate well-known historical, religious, legendary, or mythic stories. Sometimes, however, artists invent their own stories, leaving it to the viewer to imagine what is depicted.
When you look at a narrative work of art, how can you uncover its story? Look carefully at the visual elements: color, gesture, expression, light and shadow, and composition, as well as other clues. For example, you may be able to determine who is the focus of a story by noting which figures are in front of others, larger, or more brightly lit. Which figures are gesturing and what do their gestures reveal about the action of the story? Do any figures have props and what do their facial expressions tell us? Let's look at a photograph as an example. (see next page)