MODERN ART LESSONS · STUDENT WORKSHEET
Umbrella Squirrel: Give Your Character a Voice
Make a short dialogue comic featuring a squirrel with an acorn umbrella. The character wants to keep an acorn dry, but the umbrella is smaller than the acorn. One possible ending: it shelters under the acorn instead. 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 keep an acorn dry, but the umbrella is smaller than the acorn. One possible ending: it shelters under the acorn instead. 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 squirrel with an acorn umbrella. Read the story seed: The character wants to keep an acorn dry, but the umbrella is smaller than the acorn. One possible ending: it shelters under the acorn instead. Invent a different kind ending if you prefer.
- Start with curled tail, small paws, and a cap-shaped umbrella. 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 squirrel with an acorn umbrella. 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 the umbrella is smaller than the acorn?
Before feedback, I wanted the reader to notice… The reader actually noticed…
Revision: I changed… because…
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