MODERN ART LESSONS · STUDENT WORKSHEET
Windy Duck: Give Your Character a Voice
Make a short dialogue comic featuring a duck with a runaway hat. The character wants to wear a hat outside, but a breeze lifts the hat away. One possible ending: it catches it upside down and finds a leaf inside. 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 wear a hat outside, but a breeze lifts the hat away. One possible ending: it catches it upside down and finds a leaf inside. 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 duck with a runaway hat. Read the story seed: The character wants to wear a hat outside, but a breeze lifts the hat away. One possible ending: it catches it upside down and finds a leaf inside. Invent a different kind ending if you prefer.
- Start with flat bill, broad feet, and a floppy hat. 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. Plan for an unfamiliar reader; compare alternatives and revise pacing, emphasis, or consistency using feedback.
My project: a short dialogue comic featuring a duck with a runaway hat. 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 a breeze lifts the hat away?
Before feedback, I wanted the reader to notice… The reader actually noticed…
Revision: I changed… because…
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