Cohortitude

This could have just as easily been posted on Epicurus, but since it involves my "art" it goes here.

I am leaving Cascadia College after having taught at the school since 2004 and entering the tenure track in 2007. As I was cleaning out my office, I ran across this doodle I made at some meeting or other of my tenure cohort  - the faculty who all began the process at the same time and shared the review process.

I was a kilt-wearin' man then - it was sort of a trademark - and that's me on the left. Reading to the right are Natalie, Erin, Robyn, Yuko, and Danielle. For some reason, I did not include Lisa - perhaps I was interrupted by, y'know, actual work or something.

For comparison, here's an actual photo of the cohort at the tenure ceremony - the leis were courtesy of Coco, the Wonder Wife.

From the left, that's Lisa, Robyn, Erin, President Bill, Natalie, me, Danielle, and Yuko.

Best cohort ever.

Commencement

Today was graduation day at the college and I had plenty of time to doodle during the ceremony...

 

Hmmm... I am sensing a theme...

 

Doodley-do

I was cleaning out my stuff and getting ready to recycle some papers when Coco saw some doodles I had made during a recent meeting and refused to let me throw them away. Here are the substantive pieces.

 

I guess I do like the crude energy in these, but I am not quite sure why Coco was so captivated with them.

Those who cannot

 

I spent Monday at a teaching conference talking about teaching with teachers.

A palpable touch

Coco and I had dinner tonight with some friends and the conversation turned (as it often does) to tabletop roleplaying games. I doodled this on the paper tablecloth during the conversation.

Sketches made on backs of receipts during a faculty meeting

A happy monk...

...with small feet.

A giraffe.

Mardi Gras boa and hula hoop featured upon specific request.

'Tooning up

So, that's a sketch I did today while I was on campus waiting for a professional development session called Using Comics in the Classroom to start. (As usual, we were waiting for latecomers so they wouldn't miss anything.) The session was presented by Greg Stump, a local artist & writer (pretty indie/alt) who also happens to be adjunct college faculty (elsewhere). We were supposed to learn how to shape ideas into simple-to-comprehend pictures using visual representation of everyday objects and emotions and to encourage students to do the same and integrate these skills and practices into assignments.

Well, I think we succeeded more on the former and less on the latter, but it was still an enjoyable and useful session. I have attended several art classes and workshops directed specifically at cartooning or drawing comics/comix/graphic novels, and Greg did a fine job compared to any of them, especially considering he only had us for 90 minutes (well, more like 85 minutes). I think the more art-shy in the class really appreciated his accessible and supportive instruction, and he seemed to move people toward a better consideration of their own efforts. I particularly liked that he emphasized that cartooning was story-telling and not just illustration, and made some nods to McCloud and others in that area.

As enjoyable as it was, there really wasn't much there I hadn't heard (or practiced) before. The bit I was really after - some classroom practices or activities - wasn't as developed as I had hoped. We had a bit of a discussion toward the end of the session, and Greg's handout has some good stuff in it, but mostly we were learning to cartoon. Which is always fun!

First we tried some model sheets to practice character consistency, and the ol' eyebrows+ mouth exercise. I made a bison-guy.

Then Greg modeled a six-panel story for us - set-up, complication, resolution - and set us to producing one of our own. I sent my bison-guy to an amusement park.

 #2 pencil on copy paper; 20 minutes

So, while it wasn't exactly what I wanted (and what ever is?), I think it was valuable for the campus community and I had a great time. Thanks, Greg!