Dani Schechner

Drawings and doodles from a storytelling activity. 

Welcome to our art lab. Take a seat and close your eyes. Breath in through your mouth. Let the air go through your throat, chest, and stomach. Expand your stomach with air so it becomes as big as it can get. Now, reverse the steps, pushing air out of your stomach, chest, and throat. Join us as we gather together to learn, understand, and create.

Today, we will discover what it feels like to be mindful in and through drawing class. We’ll participate in a series of activities that incorporate physical manipulation of materials, visual thinking and storytelling, mark-making on paper, sculpture, creative movement, acting, and body-breath work.

Charcoal Gesture Drawings
First, I invite you to work in small groups to create gesture drawings. Each group receives a deck of cards containing words that describe feelings. Each person takes a turn miming the feeling printed on the card. The other members of the group observe and use charcoal to draw the activity as quick lines and shapes.

As a class, we observe and draw two people miming an interaction. You can evaluate, analyze, and note possible meanings next to your drawings. If time permits, you can create figure drawings of people in the hallways. While we draw, we collect these stories as an archive of moments from the fleeting world around us.

Next, we expand these moments into narratives. Choose a sketch from your archive and imagine the figure with a complete story arc and context. Construct the figure out of wire, newspaper, or other materials, and bring it to life with paint, then create a setting with mixed-media materials. Finish by writing the figure’s story in paragraph form.

Storytelling
For our next project, we engage in mark-making as a way to be present for each other. First, select a partner and narrate a three-minute first-person story, either imagined or real. The story should have a beginning, middle, and end. Your partner must document this story in visual form; for example, in a comic panel, illustration, or doodle. The goal is to represent the story accurately and completely. Switch roles and repeat the steps.

Share your drawings and reflect together on whether the signs and symbols demonstrate listening and understanding.

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