Using a combined media approach (drawing, painting, collage, soft sculpture, digital media) and a step by step, multi-layered process, the JCC Connections Art Class provides a creative environment for the students to express themselves and interact with each other..

Tales, 2017

Marker, collage, and pastel on paper

After working with existing Disney stories, the class spent the semester writing and illustrating their own stories. They followed the who/where/what/when structure that they used to analyze Disney stories. The participants imagined these stories, answering the who/where/what/when questions. 

Character Studies, 2017

Marker and Collage on Paper

Participants took turns in picking sets of eyes and ears, noses, and mouths that best suit their character. They chose from a collection of printed facial parts. They then worked with an instructor in placing these features on the accurate space on a blank-face template. They completed the work by adding necessary elements of their own into the design.

The Mermaid Series, 2017

Marker and pastel on paper

In 2016, the students studied other authors' stories. Together, they practiced listening, understanding, recounting, interpreting and visualizing existing stories. They looked at character and plot development, storyboarding, illustration, comic-booking and other formats. The class decided to focus on Ariel from The Little Mermaid for a more in-depth study of how a narrative story unfolds. 

They organized the narrative story using still frames and then picked the most important five out of the batch. Using the still frames, they worked on their on interpretive drawing of these five moments in the film. They worked on reconstructing a visual narrative of the film in the form of their own drawings. 

They did a series of exercises with a specific focus on background, foreground, middle ground, detailing and color planning. 

Collages, 2017

Collage, marker & pastel on paper. 

Following up on a “what happens next” exercise, the participants created a more detailed version of their idea for the third frame. They asked themselves questions about their idea to develop it further. For example, “There is a deer. What is the deer doing? Where is it? What is its size, color, expression? What is around the deer?” The following week, they used construction paper and collage material to finalize their work. 

Chair Series, 2017

Marker and pastel on paper

The participants were asked to complete the missing half of a simple chair. This was in continuation and in response to the unfinished room exercise from week two in which the participants had various degrees of success in completing the lines. For the second part of the exercise, the participants worked on a three-panel storyboard. They added an environment to the chair and created a story around it.