March 4, 2024 08:30 AM to 10:30 AM
Learn how to use creative design and illustration to engage audiences and illuminate your data findings in this 2-hr, hands-on instructional workshop taught by graphic designer and comic book artist Keith Grachow.
The class will begin with a few practice exercises (“data doodles”), which will allow students to get comfortable drawing and learn some basic skills. Then we will move onto the main activity, which will involve re-designing a traditional chart (e.g. bar chart or line graph) using illustration techniques.
The Data Illustration workshop is part of the Faculty of Humanities HUM2DH3: Introduction to Digital Scholarship class. The class has been exploring creative approaches to modelling data findings through visuals, sound, and physical crafted objects. Some of the critical questions we’ve been engaging with include: what can data illustration teach us about the value of creativity and self-expression in how we communicate data findings? How can we design data models that challenges our preconceptions and biases, invite us to ask important questions, and even inspire social change?
*There are 10 spots available to students, staff, and faculty who are interested in auditing the workshop. Sign-up early to secure your spot!
No drawing or graphic design experience necessary. Just bring your enthusiasm!
Pencils, sketch paper, and erasers will be provided. You are welcome to bring additional supplies (e.g. coloured pencils, markers, etc.) if you wish.
Artist Bio: Keith Grachow is a comic book author-illustrator, graphic designer, and instructor who teaches workshops on illustration. Keith has written for SCI by AH Comics, co-written a story in Cauldron, authored his own comics (Yost the Golem, Bounty Hunter Kai) and co-created many comic books and anthology stories (Strange Case with Mark Bertolini for Scout Comics, Checkmate Blues with Robert Iveniuk and Toronto Comix Anthology 3-Snow Blind with Howard Wong ) and children’s books with his mother Amy (Up-In-The-Sky series). He has also worked in animation, as a digital ink-and-paint artist for the Disney movies Winnie the Pooh and Princess and the Frog, and designed toy packages for products like Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon and the Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
Currently, Keith is co-authoring and illustrating the graphic novel, ”Summer on The Swing", with his mother Amy Grachow; the semi-autobiographical comic tells the story of her upbringing in a bungalow colony in upstate New York in the 1960s.
