Created by Jason Perlman and Brin Lukens for DreamWorksTV, "Draw My Dream" features a child telling a story ("my dream") and the hands of artist Jenny Fine using colored pencils to give the narration visual form. These drawings are animated and given sound effects. Some of the older children seem too conscious of the fact that they are being given a moment of video fame. The younger ones, however, can't help themselves from moving their bodies as part of the storytelling. These examples of natural multimodal play bursting through are beautiful to see, and highly entertaining. Here are my two favorites:

"Bull with Wings on a Kissing Spree"

 "Extreme Candy House"

I think that it is unfortunate, however, that the children are shown only in the role of storyteller. The visualization and drawing is left up to a professional adult illustrator. A consequence of this is that my own children, who thoroughly enjoyed the videos, tried telling their own stories afterward, but they did not pick up a pencil to draw them themselves. They didn't say the point out loud, but I think that they were wishing that they could have a similar team of adults working for them and also "be on TV." 

Graphic narrative play is different in that the child participates in giving form to "things that they want to tell." When the adult draws something that "is not right," the child will point this out, and either give a verbal correction or actually take the drawing tool out of the adult's hand to show a "correct" version. The conversation between child and adult that goes along with this often encourages the child to strive to communicate something that is challenging to explain or show. 

The process gives the child a feeling of being in control and listened to without granting celebrity. I would love to see DreamWorks TV, with all of its resources, show us what can happen when children are allowed access to the paper and pencils and the adult is allowed to ask questions. The result might not be as entertaining, but it would be more meaningful and inspiring.
  



  

We commonly think of reading and writing as a pair, and we understand "being literate" as having the skill to do both. At a time when our interest in "visual literacy" is going up and up, it is odd that we are not more concerned about drawing. It seems that writers of English language books were most concerned about drawing at the start of the twentieth century. Why? Because industrialization required clear visual communication for manufacturing needs. Books published around that time had titles like Machine Drawing and Design for Beginners (1908) and Modern Technical Drawing (1913). Drawing was part of understanding and managing a changing world. There is some evidence that we are renewing our appreciation for drawing as tool for learning and communication. This is a topic for another post, but for now I'd just like us to think about how writing practice affects our ability to read. Drawing practice, I believe, affects our ability to understand, interpret, and appreciate images.

Google Ngram Viewer enables searches of Google Books for specific phrases. A search for "visual literacy" shows zero hits until about 1960. From there, usage has trended steadily upward. This graph ends at 2008, but I think that we can assume that the upward trend is continuing.

How do you know that you are doing something important when what you are doing is experimental and there is no organization out there to bestow you with authority?

Moments like this:

For four mornings in a row, I facilitated "graphic narrative play" sessions for my two daughters, ages 6 and 9, and one boy, age 6. Generally, for each hour-and-a-half session, I am drawing and talking with the children for the entire time. Toward the end of the fourth session, however, a moment came when all three children seemed absorbed in their process and I decided to try something new.

I got this frog out of my "inspiration box."

I started to sketch it with the idea in mind that I would transform it in some way. I was doing it for my own enjoyment but also to see how the children would react. As expected, they showed interest and came over to see what I was doing.

"Add a tongue that is a snake and on fire!"

"He should be stinky!"

"He eats poop and drinks pee -- that's why he's stinky!"

"He should be huge! Bigger than buildings!"

I expressed my disgust at his diet, but drew as suggested anyway.

The 6-year-olds were full of giggles and delight. One added to the drawing and the other asked to take it home. My 9-year-old, on the other hand, was disgusted.

"That's gross. I don't like it."

To be honest, I felt the same. Part of me wondered if I was wrongly encouraging "bathroom humor." I didn't mention this out loud, because I needed to see where trusting children to make meaning as they pleased would lead.

Still thinking about the episode later in the day, I talked with my daughters about how it is interesting that certain images and topics can make us feel uncomfortable. I mentioned that adults especially can become uncomfortable, even though drawings are just marks on paper and in theory every image can lead conversations and learning. I explained that I thought it was my job to draw without judging what was funny or exciting. The point was to get images on paper, and find ways for everyone to think a little further or a little deeper. We compared drawing poop and pee in a toilet to drawing princesses and mermaids, an activity that was banned in one of my daughter's classrooms. I responded that I thought that all drawings should be allowed, and an adult should engage the princess and mermaid image-makers with questions. The conversation ended naturally and we moved on to another topic.

What happened a few hours later was deep. We were in the car, and in the back seat, someone used the word "stupid" and the other child said "that's a bad word." The ball was then thrown to me with the question, "Mommy, is "idiot" worse than "stupid"? My friend's mom says it is." I replied that "stupid" has a broader range of meaning; depends upon context; etc. Thinking back to the conversation about images, I talked about how the words themselves are just letters/sounds put together and are not "good" or "bad." They gain power based upon how people react to them. We talked about Voldemort in Harry Potter as an example. I asked them if they had ever felt that there were words that were powerful because they made adults feel uncomfortable.

Their reaction made me feel as if I had laid down a bridge between their world and mine. In slightly nervous voices, they began asking me about every "bad" word that they had ever heard. There was a feeling of trust in the car that every parent wants to feel with his or her children.

I am convinced that this conversation happened today because I did not censor drawing in the morning and, at the same time, I admitted and explored my discomfort out loud. I let them in, and they responded by letting me in. The feelings of acceptance and trust that I felt flowing between us are how I know that I am doing something important.






   

"Graphic play at its best is like being somewhere else--living within the bounds of a sheet of paper, in the world created there, to master or be mastered, good guy or bad, in real (if symbolic) events. Because these dialogues are free, playful, stimulating, and fun (for children and adults alike) they may be the very best way to expand the child's narrative abilities, drawing skills, and inclination toward invention and fantasy."

Marjorie Wilson and Brent Wilson, Teaching Children to Draw (2009)

"By giving external, visible form to ideas or perceptions
 that would otherwise be hidden inside the brain and body,
 drawing gives the drawer a chance to reexamine, revise and expand upon thoughts and feelings
in the light of day."
Andrea Kantrowitz, "Drawn to Discover: A Cognitive Perspective" (2012)

"The current revival of interest in freehand (analog) drawing is a predictable response to the deluge of new images available in print and on film, television, and the Internet. It echoes other moments in history: when movable type and the printing press allowed the Renaissance to be broadcast across the European world, and when photography, industrial publishing, and chromolithography energized the mid-nineteenth century."
The Visual Language of Drawing (2012)

"[A]s an artist you are both in life and commenting on life. That's your position." Anna Deavere Smith

Interrogating the need for "realism" when representing people is a big topic for me. On one hand, we should feel free to play and to emphasize what we find aesthetically appealing. On the other hand, the more we emphasize a certain look, the more we start to see through that lens. We need visual literacy and media literacy, and I don't think that this becomes very powerful unless we experience the production side. That's where Third Space Tokyo comes in.