A Day in SF with the CCA Story Class [Feb 2018]
On Saturday, Feb 17th, I led my CCA Story class in a day-long story-capture session. What a special day!
But the specialness really started the day before…
On Friday, the class had the amazing opportunity to learn from Wendy MacNaughton, visual storyteller extraordinaire. You might know her from her wonderful book, Meanwhile in San Francisco: The City in it’s Own Words. (Don’t have it? Go buy it now. Seriously. It’s magic.)
Wendy inspired the class with her perspectives on visual journalism, shared her path to finding her voice and her craft, and embraced us all with her generous warmth. She led the class in a series of activities to practice telling compelling stories in line and color. It was transformative to see the stories emerge on the page.
I admit to being a total fangirl, so being able to learn from Wendy in person was pure awesomeness.
The next morning the class gathered at 9am, had a bit ‘o warm-up sketching, and then headed off in pairs to observe, sketch, gather and engage.
I also did the activities. It was a long list and it took all day. (I might revise it next time based on feedback from the students.) But I can’t imagine a better way to spend the day…wonderful people, sketching like crazy, capturing stories.
Sketch story to-do list:
- 7 Ways of Seeing (warm-up and documented observation); Q=5
- People stories; Q=2
- Maps; Q=2
- Collection (at least 6 of something); Q=1
Here’s my work from the day…
Warm-ups:
3 Times a Charm
4 Directions
7 Ways of Seeing
• Read the Medium post about the process
• Download the 7 Ways of Seeing handout [pdf]
People Stories…in their own words.
Maps & observations in space.
Collection
And a bit more…
The day was absolutely fabulous.
