.gif)
A Day In The Life.
Visual Arts Class Magazine
Summer 2023
The Graphic Novel Assignment
The final assignment for our Grade 11 Visual Arts major class was to create a single-page graphic novel, using any medium, based on the prompt “A day in the life…”. This project explored how storytelling and artistic expression can work hand in hand. For many people—myself included—it marked a turning point in the visual arts program, where our hands were no longer being held and we were given full creative freedom. When the project concluded, each student had produced an extremely successful graphic novel that was instantly recognizable as their own. Our teacher had often mentioned how much she loved this assignment each year and shared her wish that the projects could somehow be printed in a magazine format, allowing everyone’s work to be read together. Knowing this, my close friend Yukki and I decided to curate all the graphic novels from our year into a single magazine.
Curating The Projects
We began by creating a Google Form and asking our classmates to submit artist statements for their projects, allowing us to present each piece as it was originally intended. I’d like to give a special thanks to our art class for their enthusiasm and cooperation—especially during the summer, when everyone was busy with their own commitments. When designing the cover, we put a lot of thought into how we could represent everyone’s drastically different styles and stories on a single page. In the end, we chose a minimalist approach, offering five colour options so each person could select one that best suited their project.
A Day In The Life
When our class finally received the printed magazines, it was an incredible experience to see everyone share their graphic novels in a physical format. This project remains one of my favourite memories from my high school visual arts major, knowing that everyone now has a permanent keepsake of our class’s collective work.