Using graphic narratives for self-study into the educational and creative implications of a personal sketching process
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Date
2013
Authors
Kaulbach, Kathy
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Mount Saint Vincent University
Abstract
This design research examines my personal process
of sketching and image-making as an aid to learning.
The goal is to show—both within the process and the
narrative that is created— how I used image-making as a
learning tool during graduate school.
The professional and academic world is demanding more
of us all and topping that list of demands is innovation
and creativity. At the same time, the educational system
is being criticized for actually doing the opposite—killing
creativity. Having been a recipient of killed creativity, the
question “how does one find one’s creative self?”is of
great importance to me, particularly since I am a creative
professional. My entering graduate school was initiated by
my search for the answer to this question.
Upon entering graduate school, I came to believe that my
training and experience as a graphic designer and illustrator
positively influenced my approach to learning. I believed
that my sketching process was the root of this influence.
I began this thesis with the question “How does one find
their creative self?” During my initial research I found
that the dialectic process of sketching was playing an integral role in finding my creative voice and had become
an important learning tool for me during graduate school.
This realization therefore shifted my research towards a
self-study of my personal use of sketching, looking at the
questions: why do I sketch? what does it provide me?
and how does it assist my creative thinking and problem
solving?
My background as a designer influenced my decision to
use a design methodology which is an interdisciplinary
paradigm that reflects elements of arts-informed,
heuristic, phenomenology, and action research.
The graphic narrative provides a medium that combines
the power of both verbal and visual. The word/picture
interdependent combination “where words and pictures
go hand in hand ... convey an idea that neither could
convey alone” (McCloud, 1993, p.155). My method
for self-inquiry and dialogue was to create five graphic
narratives, each about the creation of an image that
I did during my time in graduate school or influenced
my thinking during graduate school. Following each of
these five stories is a “back story” which documents the
process of creating the graphic narrative.
I found that the process of sketching offered a number of
benefits
an expansion of my problem space, a place to think,
expand my thoughts and find new ideas;
a place to put my ideas and consider them as
communication, to evaluate the message and
contemplate the audience and their reactions to the
message;
a place to self-reflect where I could re-vision and reevaluate
past memories;
an aid for memory but more importantly a place to
create memories;
a place to create that provided intrinsic motivation and
ultimately made me happy;
a place where I could dress ideas in different clothes
and look again with different eyes.
Sketching was my tool for thinking and understanding but
also enabled a place for me to be creative. I am not an
anomaly, therefore the question that then follows is “how
can others learn about and use this tool?”
Description
Keywords
arts-informed research , graphic narratives , Graphic Narratives , Sketching