MODERN ART LESSONS · STUDENT WORKSHEET
Backpack Penguin: Give Your Character a Voice
Make a short dialogue comic featuring a penguin with an oversized backpack. The character wants to carry one library book, but packs so much that the bag tips backward. One possible ending: it uses the empty bag as a book sled. Invent a different kind ending if you prefer.
Character reference shared across ten skill lessons—not a picture of the completed assignment. Study the example for possibilities, then close or cover it. Your work should make different choices.
Story starter and example
The character wants to carry one library book, but packs so much that the bag tips backward. One possible ending: it uses the empty bag as a book sled. Invent a different kind ending if you prefer. One speaker states the problem briefly; the other offers a surprising suggestion. The final picture shows the result rather than explaining it twice.
What to do
- Your finished project is a short dialogue comic featuring a penguin with an oversized backpack. Read the story seed: The character wants to carry one library book, but packs so much that the bag tips backward. One possible ending: it uses the empty bag as a book sled. Invent a different kind ending if you prefer.
- Start with oval body, short flippers, and a large rectangular bag. These are helpful shapes, not a tracing template.
- Write a short exchange between the character and a helpful friend. Choose words that add something the picture cannot show alone.
- Plan speech-bubble space before drawing faces and props. Place the first speaker’s bubble first in reading order.
- Draw the scene and point each bubble tail toward its speaker. Read aloud and trim repeated words.
- Ask a partner to read the bubbles in order and identify the speakers. Move one bubble or shorten a line if needed. Use large, clear shapes and show one understandable change.
My project: a short dialogue comic featuring a penguin with an oversized backpack. My chosen ending is…
Speaker A says… Speaker B says…
Plan bubble order before drawing.
Words I can remove because the picture shows them…
Story clue: How will I show that the character packs so much that the bag tips backward?
Before feedback, I wanted the reader to notice… The reader actually noticed…
Revision: I changed… because…
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